Octopus on ice

Do you know what ecstasy it is for a 15-year-old boy to realize that he sold the very octopus that was thrown onto the ice during a Stanley Cup playoff game?

For young Basel Zakly Faris, who would grow up to be the absolute last Muslim that Fatima bin Laden's Uncle Osama would want her to meet, it was a defining moment. That was the day he truly embraced being an American. The day he felt part of something bigger than himself. The day he gave his heart over to the Red Wings, and to the larger uniting force of American sport.

His parents immigrated to Detroit from Egypt when his mother was pregnant with him, so Baz grew up an American citizen. But his family was part of the large Muslim community in Detroit and he grew up in two worlds. They were devout Muslims, followed the call to prayer five times a day, but they were also modern, pragmatic Muslims. His father worked at a butcher shop where lambs, goats and chickens were reduced to meat only after the proper ceremonial prayers had been spoken. He also drove a cab, and parlayed that into a taxi company serving the Muslim community.

At home and at the mosque, Baz learned Arabic, the official language of the Koran and Allah, bless his name, but his parents also insisted that he study hard at his public school, and in particular that his spoken English be impeccable.

Baz was just becoming aware of the broader world as the "Bad Boys" Pistons were winning NBA titles. Though he loved the way Barry Sanders ran with a football, hoops was Baz's game, and his initiation into America.

It was through a friend of his father that he got a job in a fishmonger's shop, and thus it was that one day he sold a 5-pound octopus to a man dressed in a Red Wing's jersey.

"Goin' to the game tonight?" he said conspiratorially.

Baz wasn't.

"Watch it on TV then. This baby's goin' on the ice."

Sure enough, when Stevie Y scored midway through the second period, the TV showed Baz's customer winding up and chucking Baz's octopus onto the rink, tentacles splaying as it slid across the ice and settled in a faceoff circle. Thousands of Detroiters stood and roared with approval. And Baz was part of it! He was a contributor to a tradition! He liked belonging.

From there it wasn't much of a jump to enlisting in the Marines. He got looks when guys learned he was Muslim, but they also soon learned there wasn't a better Marine in the Corps. Baz was part of something big, something important. He was a Marine, combat-tested in Afghanistan.

This was the Marine lieutenant whom Fatima bin Laden would try to lead into committing treason against his country.

A dead octopus on ice had a better chance.