Abdul Razavizadeh immigrated to the United States in 1977, two years before the Iranian revolution. Once in the States, Razavizadeh pursued his education and received an engineering degree from Midwestern State University; he became a citizen in 1990. Six years later, he opened the Gyros & Kebobs sandwich shop.
He told the San Angelo Standard-Times that he has always maintained a great relationship with his customers.
But Razavizadeh recalled an incident following the 9/11 attacks when his shop was vandalized with anti-Muslim and anti-Iranian threats.
A few days after the 9/11 attacks, he went to open his shop for business when he found a side door window broken and shards of glass covering the floor. Lying among the shards was a hammer with a note attached: “Go back home Iranian Muslims or you will die. We know where you live.”
But the threats didn’t end there. A month later, in the middle of the night, a rock was thrown through the same door window.
The anti-Islamic threats occurred despite the fact that Razavizadeh considers himself “half-Christian, half-Muslim.” The Iranian-American businessman explained, “I believe in what is right. Be good to people and treat them with respect,” he said. “But in every religion, they are going to have a few idiots or radicals that make the rest of the believers look bad.”
The threats initially made him nervous, but Razavizadeh said he knew the overwhelming majority of people in the area knew not only did he have no ties to radical Muslims, but that he also despised everything they stood for.
“I didn’t come 10,000 miles to be afraid,” he told the Standard-Times. “I knew it was just someone that was angry. He took it out on the wrong person. He just didn’t understand who I was.”
After the incident was reported in then media, Razavizadeh said he was comforted by many people-both customers and non-customers-who stopped by to let him know that not all Americans shared the blind hatred of the vandals. “Most people here are very nice and understanding. That’s why I love Wichita Falls.”
Despite the threats and his initial anxiety, Razavizadeh said he never held a grudge against the vandal. “I wish he would have come in and talked to me before he did that. He would have seen that I am a nice guy. And afterwards, if he still didn’t like me, I would have given him a hammer myself to throw through the window.”
The culture Razavizadeh embraces is similar to his half-and-half religious beliefs; he says he is just as proud of his Persian culture as he is of his American culture. This is evident by the fact that his shop is lined with posters of the Persian Empire and passages from the Cylinder of Cyrus the Great, while his menu consists of burgers, chili cheese fries and BLTs, along with Persian dishes.
“I love Persian culture, and I love America culture, too,” he said. “But American people have something Iran citizens don’t. In Iran, if someone doesn’t like what you believe, they don’t like you as a person. Here, if someone doesn’t agree with what you believe, for the most part, they still can get along with you as a person. I love that.”