that sect, I did not have any personal contact with a follower of the sect. However, I was acquainted with a Muslim student who was born in Pomona, Calif., and grew up there, and whose family worshipped at a mosque there. This (male) friend is a Shia Muslim who attended Cal Poly for one year in 1994, had quit school for several years, then reenrolled at Cal State Los Angeles to major in engineering. That family had originally emigrated from Iraq in 1973.
This was not, by the way, a close friend but more of an acquaintance. We would have coffee and from time to time with friends of friends. We spoke of our respective backgrounds only in regard to the fact that both our families were relatively recent immigrants. However, when I told him about my proje
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