At 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 11, Saif Iqbal Shah Mohammed ’02, the new president of the Harvard Islamic Society (HIS), was hunched over his computer, working on an economics project.

Just a half hour later, economics seemed at best a distant concern.

“I just decided to check the BBC website,” Shah Mohammed said. “My first thought was, ‘God, that must be a horrible pilot. Then the second plane crashed and that’s when I got really scared.”

Soft spoken and slight, with earnest dark eyes and short, carefully combed black hair, Shah Mohammed knew, as president of HIS, that he would be called on to lead the Muslim community at Harvard through this tragedy.

“I thought about the people in the plane first. I felt absolutely, absolutely horrified.” he said. “How could I tell people that whoever did this...it was not an act of my faith?”

Shah Mohammed immediately organized discussion groups and gatherings to help people come to terms with their grief. He also went to the Islamic Society of Boston to condemn the terrorism, express the sadness within the Muslim community and receive advice.

“We didn’t consider public relations or publicity. We did what was natural for people in America and people anywhere who felt terrified by this event,” Shah Mohammed said.

Shah Mohammed’s quiet, forthright manner helped him sooth the tension and grief unleashed by the terrorism, other prominent Muslims at Harvard said.