Hi, it's Michael. This week, the Daily is revisiting favorite episodes of the year,

listening back and then hearing what's happened in the time since the story's first ran.

Today, we're going back to the story of Abraham, a young man whose act of bigotry

led to something entirely unexpected.

From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbar. This is the Daily.

Today, as a poor white teenager in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Abraham Davis never fit in.

As a hidden minority there, the town's Muslims were trying to make a home.

Then, their lives collided.

It's Wednesday, August 3rd.

Say it in Arabic slowly, the Hadeeth.

That means that you may hate something that happened to you, but it's good for you.

That you may love to have something, but you don't get it. That's good for you. You don't get it.

My colleague Sabrina Tabernese has been reporting on a recent incident in Fort Smith, Arkansas,

a mostly white, predominantly Christian town, where abject poverty lives alongside visible wealth.

There's a small, little, lively population of Muslims in Fort Smith, but for the most part,

nobody knew that there were Muslims in Fort Smith. They were there, but most people didn't know

that they were there. Nothing like this had ever happened before.

On the morning of October 20th, the Imam at the Al Salam mosque on South 28th Street drove up

to prepare for morning prayers and saw that the mosque had been vandalized. There were swastikos on

its sign, on its windows and its doors, curses against Islam, curses against Allah. There were

words ugly, ugly writing, Muslims go home. We don't want you here.

He then begins calling everybody in the Muslim community, telling them a terrible thing has

...