The Houston Chronicle ran this op-ed by Fatina Abdrabboh, a Muslim student at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Abdrabboh writes about her recent experiences at a gym,

the Muslim headscarf, or hijab, that I wear makes me feel as if I am under a microscope....

Because I work out with my scarf on, people stare — just as they do on the streets of Cambridge.... The stares just intensified my alienation as an Arab Muslim in what is supposed to be my country....

Suddenly a man, out of breath, but still smiling and friendly, tapped me on my shoulder and said, "Ma'am, here are your keys." It was Al Gore, former vice president of the United States. Mr. Gore had gotten off his machine behind me, picked up my keys, handed them to me and then resumed his workout. It was nothing more than a kind gesture, but at that moment Mr. Gore's act represented all that I yearned for — acceptance and acknowledgment. There in front of me, he stood for a part of America that has not made itself well known to 10 million Arab- and Muslim-Americans, many of whom are becoming increasingly withdrawn and reclusive because of the everyday hostility they feel. It is up to us as Americans to change how the rest of the world views us by changing how we view some of our own citizens.