, Columnist
The American Optimism of a Kansas Muslim
The killing of an immigrant in Olathe, Kansas, last year caused global outrage -- and a local outpouring.
Beyond the horizon.
Photographer: Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty ImagesAustin's Bar and Grill on 151st Street in Olathe, Kansas, would look familiar to many suburbanites. The walls are cluttered with television sets featuring basketball, baseball, tennis -- even football out of season. The two-dimensional athletes loom over the weekend-warrior variety -- an almost entirely white, mostly male crowd congregating after work.
I met Moussa Elbayoumy there for dinner recently because I thought the place might be haunted. It’s the bar where a bigot with a gun last year murdered Srinivas Kuchibhotla, a 32-year-old Hindu immigrant from India who had worked as an engineer at Garmin International, which is located little more than a mile down the road.