Dr. Taufik Kassis

VICTIMS & HEROES
	Mohammad Salman Hamdani, Pakistan
	Sankara S. Velamuri, India
	Rose Riso, Italy
	Eli Chalouh, Syria
	Godwin Ajala, Nigeria
	Robert Martinez, Peru/Ireland
	Henry Li, China
	Dr. Taufik Kassis, Syria
	Wilfred Amanfu, Ghana
	Jan Demczur, Poland

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Many now consider Dr. Kassis a hero — a fact he finds flattering, but not necessarily appropriate. "I feel happy, of course, about hearing that. But I feel that it's my duty, it's my pleasure," Dr. Kassis says. "First, being a doctor, I think that's our duty. Second, just thinking about how inhuman that what happened, and I thought that I could have been in that tower at that moment. I've never visited the towers, I was planning to visit it one day, probably it would have happened on a day that I was there visiting with my family. Just seeing the visitors, honest people which had nothing to do with politics or anything, got killed and affected, that was very very horrible. Whoever did that was very unhuman and stupid. If they wanted to make a point, God gave us brain and tongue so we can communicate and prove our point if you have it, but not in criminal act. So it was very shocking to me."

Dr. Kassis also credits his Middle Eastern upbringing for instilling the values that made him want to help on that day. "If you go to visit any of the Middle Eastern countries as American, you'll be surprised how much people will try to help you in the street," Dr. Kassis says. "You'll be shocked, actually, if you walk there and you have a question or you are lost or anything, people will just guide you, help for you." He goes on to note that he "was raised up in a culture to respect humanity in common. To respect especially the country you are living in, regardless if you are citizen or not. We were raised up in a way to care about others." On September 11, caring about another individual he didn't know was exactly what Dr. Kassis did.

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