This story can be seen from two points of view. There is the well-deserved, pessimistic point of view, after all, Tamim is mistreated by the American public following the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in September of 2001. But, there is also the optimistic point of view. What does it say about the public that Tamim was treated so regularly with open hostility and aggression? It says that some people were scared of Muslims. But what does it say that he shared his opinion and was heard? It means that actually, Tamim is in community, because his feedback was accepted by many people, both Christians and Muslims.
Ultimately, that optimism is the answer to Tamim's abuse, too. Because people were not curious enough to understand Islam correctly, their perception of Islam was only shaped by Muslim terrorists, so when they saw Tamim, they were pessimistic about him. How pessimistic were they? Well, Tamim himself describes it to be a kind of contempt or hatred; they were so fearful of anything even remotely "Muslim" that they forgot that terrorists are extremists, and their views don't represent the Muslim community.
That doesn't mean that America is horrific and demonizing. After all, Tamim's email went viral. That speaks volumes about his community's response—his own American community felt so strongly in support of Tamim's email that they helped take his opinion to the mainstream of American culture. That support is a blend of Muslims and Christians, all of whom agree with him, that religion should never keep our communities divided against one another.
That is certainly something to be proud of and to be optimistic about. Here's another reason why perhaps the reader might consider the upward, optimistic nature of Tamim's story. In the beginning of the story, his dysfunction was simply that he felt weird or awkward, like people were judging him. When terrorists hurt the American culture, it was way more clear that his suspicions were correct. In light of that problem, he set about to fix it, and one could say that he was successful to a great extent, so it is a hero's journey.
