The True American

The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas (2014) a non-fiction book by American author Anand Giridharadas, tells the story of Rais Bhuiyan, an American of Bengali descent who survived a shooting spree in Texas targeting "Arabs" in the wake of 9/11. It tells the harrowing story of the hate crime committed against Bhuiyan but also the inspiring story of how the victim forgave the perpetrator and fought to keep him off death row.

In 2001, ten days after 9/11, forty-six-year-old white supremacist Mark Stroman went on a shooting spree, supposedly to avenge the terrorist attacks. Though he targeted "Arabs," all three of his victims were of South Asian descent. Two of the victims, Vasudev Patel and Waqar Hasan, died at the hands of Stroman. At the time, Bhuiyan was working behind the counter at a convenience store in Dallas. Stroman asked Bhuiyan where he was from, then shot him in the face before he could answer. Bhuiyan pretended to be dead and then made his way to a nearby barbershop where someone called 911. Bhuiyan survived the shooting but lost sight in one of his eyes.

Stroman was easily convicted of murder. Nevertheless, despite Stroman's admission of guilt and insistence that he was an "American terrorist," the prosecution struggled to get the state to view his crimes as capital offenses worthy of the death penalty; hate crimes, no matter how horrendous, cannot be considered eligible for the death penalty in the state of Texas. In fact, the only way for the prosecution to convince a judge to sentence Stroman to death was by framing one of the shootings as an attempted robbery. While hate crimes cannot be considered capital offenses in Texas, murders committed during the course of a second crime can.



Over the next ten years, Stroman sat on death row awaiting his execution. Meanwhile, Bhuiyan slowly recovered and rebuilt his life. After a long stint as a waiter at the Olive Garden restaurant, he began making serious money as an IT professional after teaching himself many of the tools of the trade. Having established some semblance of normalcy and stability, Bhuiyan sought to better himself as a man and as a Muslim. He would visit Mecca and he would learn to live his life in a way that honored God and his mother.

While on his pilgrimage, Bhuiyan recalls a story about how the prophet Muhammad visited the city of Ta'if to spread his gospel, only to be met with insults and violence. Instead of accepting an angel's proposal to rain vengeance down on the deniers, the prophet sought to forgive. This story had a profound effect on Bhuiyan who, from that day forward, resolved to spread forgiveness wherever he went – even to the man who shot him out of pure hate.

The book chronicles Bhuiyan's ultimately futile attempts to save Stroman from death row and Stroman's past and, eventual, redemption. Unlike Bhuiyan, Stroman never had a loving family or mother. While that doesn't excuse his actions, it helps to differentiate between the very different paths taken by each man. Bhuiyan also discusses the difference between being a poor immigrant and being a poor native-born American. The narrative suggests that, in some ways, immigrants are better suited to take advantage of America's opportunities because they are never taught that they are owed anything. He also discusses how the lack of a social safety net in America makes Americans work harder than Europeans.



While imprisoned on death row, Stroman began to educate himself. He invited an Israeli scholar to the prison who explains to him what the swastika tattoos on Stroman's arms mean. Stroman, inspired by Bhuiyan’s help with his legal defense and forgiveness wrote in the New York Times, “The Hate, has to stop, we are all in this world together.”

The True American, painting a harrowing economic and social portrait of post-9/11 America, is a story of hate and forgiveness.