Boston : While it may have been predictable that 9/11 played as a backdrop at the convention, matching America’s Iraq imbroglio or terrorism, the fact that Haleema Salie was the featured voice of victims’ families at the Boston Democratic Convention was certainly unusual.

A Muslim woman of Bangladeshi origin, Salie is among the thousands who lost friends, neighbors, and families on 9/11. Her daughter, son-in-law and other family members lost their lives when one of the planes blasted into the World Trade Center.

In choosing Salie to speak, the Democrats continued to

reach out to minorities who, they believe, could play a critical role in a hard-fought toe-to-toe race between President

George Bush and Sen. John Kerry in the run to the White House.

“We thought we would have them longer. We thought we had more time,” Salie said in a measured and controlled sorrowful voice about families lost on that fateful day. After her speech, the crowded Fleet Center hall audience stood up as one holding up little lights in a darkened environment, signifying a memorial to those lost, as 16-year old Gabriel Lefkowitz of the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra played the mournful rendition of ‘mazing Grace.’

“The whole country grieved with us and we lean on their support... we truly understood that as Americans everything had changed,” Salie said, appealing to the country to pull together as it did on 9/11.

In a country that has seen hate crimes rise since that fateful day against South Asians mistaken as of Arab descent, particularly Sikhs, Salie’s appeal gains special importance for these communities.

“Remember Sept. 11 as the day we were one. The day we acted as if we valued each other... It was and must remain the defining moment that reminds us that what unites us is stronger than what divides us,” she said.