In 2001, after the September 11 attacks and the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, Syed joined anti-war protests. Syed attended a conference of the Islamic Society of North America, where Anwar Ibrahim (Malaysia's deputy prime minister, 1993–8) roundly condemned the recently uncovered Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse by American soldiers (April 2004), which received loud applause from the audience. However, Anwar Ibrahim went on to say that prisons like Abu Ghraib or worse existed throughout the Muslim world, asked the audience how often they had spoken out against human rights violations against prisoners and others by Muslims in Muslim-majority countries, and accused them of hypocrisy (Anwar Ibrahim himself had been imprisoned in solitary confinement from April 1999 to September 2004). Syed saw this as a rare of self-criticism and self-reflection from within the Muslim community, which he says had a profound impact on his way of thinking.
