Mohamad Salman Hamdani. Abdul Salam Mallahi. People may read these names and assume these are the names of terrorists involved in the 9/11 attacks. They are actually names of Muslim heroes that lost their lives saving others in the attacks, along with dozens of other Muslims that lost their lives that day and were disregarded because they did not fit the stereotypes of terrorists. The events that took place on September 11, 2001 would always be remembered as a heartbreaking tragedy. That day will live on with those who experienced it, with those who lost loved ones as a result, and with those who watched it on their television. It lives on with Muslim-Americans who are subjected to hate and bigotry for crimes they did not commit. After the tragic events of 9/11 the American public immediately targeted Muslim-Americans, as they were subjected to interrogations from public officers, lost their jobs, faced widespread discrimination and harassment, and were dehumanized by the American people.
That date would be soon embedded vividly in the memory of many American people. Many people acknowledge the atrocities the American government and people committed overseas in Middle eastern countries, but have failed to acknowledge the horror Muslim Americans lived in as a result. Many have experienced hateful comments and attacks that have left many injured and dead. The American public has instilled an idea of Muslims being violent and terrorists when this is just not the case.
To determine the effects of the 9/11 attack on Muslim Americans this essay will investigate the treatment of Muslim Americans post 9/11. My research question is: how did the 9/11 attack of the World Trade center impact Muslim-Americans? Before 9/11, they were generally left alone and were content with living in America but, 9/11 soon changed everything. In this essay, I provided evidence of discrimination, economic effects, and the overall dehumanization of Muslim Americans. I read and used studies that examined the detrimental economic effects. I read government documents that were released to see how Muslim Americans were often targeted and I read accounts and news stories about violence and discrimination against them. In analyzing these sources, I was about to determine the negative impact of 9/11, I also analyzed many different types of sources because it allowed me to see all the varying effects of 9/11 on Muslim Americans and not just one aspect. It was important for me to do so because I was able to see how everything changed and it was a major shift instead of minor inconveniences. The American public developed an even stronger prejudice after 9/11 and subjected Muslim Americans to physical and verbal attacks. Muslim Americans began to feel unsafe and as if everyone around them hated them. This is how a minority group was treated and still is treated to this day in America.
After 9/11 Muslim Americans were widely targeted by the United States government. They were subjected to interrogations, raids, arrests, deportation, searches, fingerprinted, and photographed. The United States government issued many laws that specifically targeted Muslim Americans such as NSEERs and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The US Attorney General issued a directive limiting the FOIA in October of 2001 to limit the information about the government investigation of Muslim Americans to the public (Ashcroft). This helped to ensure that the government could cover up its wrongdoings and withhold the information from the public. An estimated 1,200 people were detained in 2001 alone (“United States: Abuses Plague Sept. 11 Investigation”). It was even found that detainees were held for extended periods without any charges against them and had their right to counsel taken away (“United States: Abuses Plague Sept. 11 Investigation”). The United States government took away the rights of these people because of their ethnicity and religion. Many detainees were a result of neighbors raising suspicions against them. These people were physically and verbally abused just because someone that took one look at them and saw that they were either visibly a different ethnicity and religion and automatically believed they were terrorists. The American public and government fed into their prejudice of Muslims to violate the rights of hundreds of innocent people.
In fact, many of the people detained were held on immigration law violations (“United States: Abuses Plague Sept. 11 Investigation”). More than 13,000 people were placed in deportation proceedings with the program of NSEERS, which was created to target immigrants from 25 predominately Arab and Muslim countries (Wadhia). The NSEERS program was used to single out Muslims living in America and if people came forward to register they were often detained and interrogated. Even when a Muslim American did everything that was asked of them they still faced discriminatory and unjust treatment. Interrogators lied to detainees and told them they had evidence against them when they had nothing (Bah). Interrogators treated detainees like they were horrible human beings that had committed a mass crime and fabricated lies about what they knew and tried to make an innocent person look guilty. Their goal was to weed out as many Muslim Americans that they possibly could and they showed no mercy. Many local police officers also violated the rights of Muslim Americans. In the 2007 Medina v. County of San Bernardino, Jameelah Medina, a Muslim woman, alleged that the arresting officer accused her of being a terrorist, yelled at her that Muslims are evil and forced her to take her Hijab off (“Discrimination Against Muslim Women”). Police officers are supposed to protect people and people are supposed to feel safe around them. This was not the case for the Muslim Women and countless Muslim Americans.
In addition, not only did Muslim Americans face discrimination from the government, they also suffered economically as a result of discrimination from employers and coworkers. Many studies were conducted to show evidence that Muslim Americans were losing their jobs and were receiving pay cuts for no clear sensible reasons. One study done by Dávila and Mora (2005) found that after 2002 compared to non-Latino whites, Muslims experienced a remarkable decline in their earnings (Rabby, Faisal, and William m Rodgers III). This study shows evidence that employers were prejudiced and caused economic distress for many Muslim Americans. Furthermore, in a study done by Kaestner, Kaushal, and Reimers (2007), researchers found that after 9/11 wages of Muslim and Arab men declined “14-16 percent” (Rabby, Faisal, and William m Rodgers III). Muslim Americans were paid less solely due to their religion and ethnicity. This is a clear violation of their rights and they should not have had to endure these hardships.
Not only did they experience wage cuts but they also experienced discrimination in their work places. Cases of workplace discrimination after 9/11 by Muslim Americans increased drastically. According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), by the end of 2002 there was a 64% increase in discrimination complaints by Muslim Americans in the workplace (Rabby, Faisal, and William m Rodgers III). This is a significant increase in just a year and conveys just how much discrimination escalated after the attack. With each new year the discrimination complaints continued to increase with increasing Islamophobia among Americans. In September of 2009, eight years after the attack, the discrimination claims being filed increased by 20% from 2008 and by 60% from 2005 (Greenhouse). Muslim Americans continued to live in fear years after the attacks even in their workplace where everyone should behave professionally. This easily could have led to increased feelings of hopelessness when they had to walk into their job every day and spend a majority of their day working with people who degrade and berate them. Many Americans could not imagine the extent of the discrimination and the harmful effects it could have given that America was 77% Christian in 2008 (Gallup, Inc.). This overwhelming majority of Americans that were Christian gave them an advantage and made it less likely that they would face any type of repercussions for their actions. Furthermore, Muslim women are more likely to be discriminated against in the workplace due to their more obvious presentation of being Muslim. Some Muslim women choose to wear the Hijab, the head covering that Muslim women wear when they are outside the home. According to CAIR, “Civil rights complaints… rose from 366 in 2000 to 2,467 in 2006, an increase of 674%” (“Discrimination Against Muslim Women”). Likewise, “in 2006, there were 154 cases of discrimination or harassment in which a Muslim woman's Hijab was identified as the factor that triggered the incident” (“Discrimination Against Muslim Women”). Many women were being prohibited from wearing the head covering (“Discrimination Against Muslim Women”). Muslim women quite literally had the choice of having a job so they can live and provide for themselves and/or their families or going against their beliefs. It is unheard of that an American Christian be subject to losing their job because they are wearing a cross. It was also found in 2008 that “69% of Muslim women who wore a hijab reported at least one incident of discrimination compared to 29% of Muslim women who did not wear a hijab” (“Discrimination Against Muslim Women”). Unfortunately, Hijabs were not present in the media and were not mainstream or seen as normal. Many Americans saw them as a red flag and openly discriminated against Muslim women since they were an obvious and easy target. Muslim men were not as susceptible since there are not many physical attributes of their appearance to reveal that they are Muslim.
Furthermore, these incidents do not just occur in one type of job, they are scattered across various occupations and contexts. In Webb v. City of Philadelphia, a Muslim woman was denied the right to wear her Hijab while working as a police officer in 2008 (“Discrimination Against Muslim Women”). The city of Philadelphia was willing to sacrifice a police officer because they were against their beliefs and someone lost out on a job they were qualified for.
Not only does discrimination against Muslim Americans in the workplace occur, it is also increasingly prevalent in school settings after the 9/11 attacks. Continuing with the discussion of Muslim women and girls, research and evidence shows they face discrimination while they are simply trying to pursue their right to an education. In 2004, the case of a Muslim High school student in Nevada, Ana Elhifny, “who wore her hijab to school and was harassed by peers at school with school officials' knowledge and participation” came to light (“Discrimination Against Muslim Women”). She was dehumanized called many horrendous things such as a terrorist and unfortunately school officials disregarded her entreaties for help (“Discrimination Against Muslim Women”). The role of a school official is to give everyone a safe environment to learn in but these let their blatant islamophobia and bigotry prevented this for her. Older students are not the only victims of this ostracization and degradation, there have been cases with students as young as elementary school facing discrimination. A 2007 CAIR Report, revealed that in 2006 “a 10-year-old female Muslim student in Jacksonville, Florida, elementary school was discriminated against by her teacher for wearing a headscarf” (“Discrimination Against Muslim Women”). According to the report, her cello instructor ridiculed her in front of her peers and even went as far as not allowing her to play in a concert (“Discrimination Against Muslim Women”). A grown adult taunted a child for no reason other than her beliefs and the way she looked. Many do not understand the detrimental effects this could have on a child and how this instance will be marked in this little girl’s memory for the rest of her life. There have been multiple cases where Muslim adolescents were barred from participating in an activity or suspended from school altogether because they wanted to keep their hijab. For example, “in 2003 a sixth-grade girl in Muskogee, Oklahoma was suspended from the Benjamin Franklin Science Academy for refusing to take off her” Hijab (“Discrimination Against Muslim Women”). The school claimed it was against their dress code policies, but the issue lies deeper than that. They hindered her academic performance because they did not like what was on her head or what she believed in. Many Muslim athletes, especially women, are told they cannot participate because of their clothing (“Discrimination Against Muslim Women”).
Consequently, Muslim Americans faced widespread discrimination and harassment. They were widely targeted and became outlet for aggression of bigots and narrow-minded individuals. In fact, “Anti-Muslim hate crimes used to be the second-least reported, but in 2001, they became the second-highest reported among religious-bias incidents” according to reports from the FBI (Ser). This is not accounting for hundreds of crimes that take place and are not reported or the hate crimes that are not regarded as hate crimes to the local agencies. The FBI depends on local law enforcement agencies to identify and report crimes motivated by bias, but many agencies fail to do so. Many Americans disagree on what should be regarded as a hate crime and what should not be and this lets many victims go unheard. Furthermore, other research such as a study done by the Pew Research Center found that “Americans’ favorable rating of Islam dropped from 40% in 2001 to 30% in 2001” (Selod). Not only that but, Council of American Islamic Relations found that in 2005, “one fourth of Americans held anti-Muslim attitudes and believed negative stereotypes about Muslims” (Selod). The American public was so tenacious on their biases and prejudiced they believed that 1.6 billion people across the world practice a religion that teaches people to hate others and inflict violence. This is illogical thinking because if this was the case there would be widespread deaths and attacks of this so-called religion of ‘hatred and violence’. This type of illogical thinking is what subjects Muslim Americans experience physical and verbal abuse on a daily basis. According to a survey done in May of 2002, about 75% of “Muslim Americans either know someone who has or have themselves experienced an act of anti-Muslim discrimination, harassment, verbal abuse or physical attack since September 11” 2001 (Mujahid). As early as September 11, 2001, innocent Muslims in America were suffering the consequences of something they had no role in. A mosque in Denton, Texas had a firebomb hurled at it, fortunately there were no injuries and damages were about $2,500 (Henderson). It was the third assault on a North Texas mosque since the attack, this is not even looking at Texas as a whole or the United states as a whole. The same day following the 9/11 attacks, “shots were fired at the Islamic Center of Irving, shattering six windows, and a single slingshot device was fired at the Islamic Center of Carrollton” (Henderson). This was just the beginning of hate and violence that Muslim Americans would experience after this tragedy. On the same day, in Ronkonkoma, NY, 29-year-old Brian Harris “was charged with a hate crime after he allegedly held an Arab American at gunpoint while making anti-Arab threats” (“Anti-Muslim Incidents”). The next day in South Huntington, NY, 76-year-old Adam Lang “was charged with first-degree reckless endangerment and a hate crime after he…tried to run down a Pakistani woman with his car”. (Singh) Faiza Ejaz was standing outside a mall waiting for her husband to pick her up from work when Lang started driving towards her. “Ejaz was able to avoid the car by jumping out of the way and running into the mall. Lang then jumped out of his car and screamed that he was "doing this for my country" and was "going to kill her." (Singh). On Sept. 13, 2001 in Somerset, California, “18 year old Craig Jennings, 17 year old Jeffrey Lizotte, and a 16-year-old were charged with a hate crime after throwing a bomb onto the roof of a convenience store owned by Arab Americans (“Anti-Muslim Incidents”).Sept. 15, 2001 in Mesa Arizona Balbir Singh Sodhi, a 49-year-old Sikh was fatally shot outside his gas station by Frank Silva Roque, who mistakenly believed Sodhi was Muslim.” (“Anti-Muslim Incidents”). Roque then fired shots at a man of Lebanese descent working at another gas station, and then made his way to an Afghan family’s residence and began firing shots (“Anti-Muslim Incidents”). These attacks became a daily thing after the 9/11 attacks and had many Muslims living in fear. They were targeted while simply walking down a street, in their own homes, and even their places of work. They were not able to lead normal lives without feeling that it could be their last day alive on any given day due to the widespread of these hate-filled and heinous crimes. No one could be ruled out as a possible aggressor after children as young as middle school made threats to their fellow classmates (). Muslim American parents could not even send their children off to school without expecting their child to be bullied and harassed by children whose parents incited hate in them. Furthermore, Muslim women became an easy and visible target to these attacks due to their headscarf. April 6, 2004, two women and a man attacked a Muslim woman and ripped her headscarf off her head saying Muslims were violent (“Anti-Muslim Incidents”). These horrendous individuals attacked an innocent woman and ripped off something sacred to her and her religion because they claimed the religion she followed was violent. This is a clear example of cognitive dissonance and irony. To combat ‘violence’ of an innocent woman, these individuals attacked her, their biases did not match up with her behavior and their beliefs on being peaceful did not match up with their actions. Unfortunately, this is not the first woman who was attacked following the 9/11 tragedy nor was she the last. There are so many stories about so many Muslim Americans across the United States suffering from these vile crimes and abuses. Many are not given the media attention they deserve and this further adds to the feelings that they are not important and their lives do not matter to the American public.
Likewise, the American public developed and started conveying a very strong prejudice against Muslim Americans. In a study conducted by the Council of American Islamic Relations in 2005 found that one-fourth of Americans believed Islam preached hate and violence and 60% claimed they were not knowledgeable about Islam (Selod). In fact, only 2% of the respondents claimed to be knowledgeable about Islam (Selod). Even though only 2% claimed they were knowledgeable about Islam they still believed it preached violence and hate and disliked it. This conveys how deeply rooted the prejudice and hate towards Muslims are, people know very little religion and what it preaches yet believe its followers are hateful and work to vilify them in any way possible. This study also revealed that about one in five Americans agreed with the idea that civil liberties of Muslims should be restricted for security reasons (CAIR). Not only that, but the study also uncovered that 17% of these respondents agreed with the statement ‘It’s okay to lock up Muslims, just in case they are planning terrorist acts’ (CAIR). The America that believes heavily in the constitution and natural rights is the same one claiming that part of its population does not deserve these rights because of prejudice and bigotry. The same America that was started when people were fleeing for religious tolerance and slaughtered and enslaved innocent people is the one that now believed that another religion is hateful and inflicts violence. These attitudes were not present towards Christianity even though this is the religion that was used to justify enslaving helpless groups of people and inflicting terror on those native to the land. Many Americans seem to ignore these details and classify them as irrelevant and focus on the attack of a minority group. It was also found that one in four Americans agree with several extremely negative comments such as, Muslims teach their children to hate and “value life less than other people” (CAIR). This study provided evidence that after 9/11 there was an increasing intolerance and negative attitudes toward Islam and Muslims. Although most of the respondents were neutral towards Muslims, only six percent had positive first impressions of them (CAIR). The prevalence of anti-Islamic prejudice left many Muslims feeling under attack and as if they could not or should not claim their American identity.
Consequently, American Muslims began feeling helpless and had to live in fear for their lives and the lives of every other Muslim American in the country. Muslims all across the country found it extremely difficult to live in the United States and for many it affected their mental health. A study down by PEW research in 2007 uncovered that 53% of Muslim adults agreed that since 9/11 it had become increasingly difficult to be an American Muslim (Rabby et al.). Young Muslims in the age range of 18-29 frequently reported being objects of suspicion (Rabby et al.). Feeling targeted and hated by peers and evidently a large part of the country could have detrimental effects on mental health and in some cases, it did. A study done by a psychologist in 2006 unearthed anxiety, depression, ad post-traumatic stress disorder of American Muslims that were traumatized by both the attacks and the “finger-pointing that followed” (Clay). One study that surveyed more than 600 Arab-adults in 35 states found that 50% of the participants had serious depression that warranted further assessments, these rates were much higher than the “general public and other minority groups” (Clay). This could be the result of stressors and prejudice unique to Arabs and Muslims. The psychologist also suggested that the media could be a cause due to the fact that the media portrayed and said things about Muslims that would never be “tolerated” or stated, “about any other group” (Clay). American Muslims were subject to recurring messages about how their community is ‘oppressive’, and filled with ‘terrorists and ignorant people’ (Clay). Hearing these messages over and over again was disheartening to American Muslims all across the country dispirited them. American Muslims live every day believing that the people around them vilify them and view them as monsters rather than human beings. A study conducted in 2008 revealed Arab New Yorkers, majority being Muslim, found that the participants held strong fears of hate crimes and possible threats to their safety, anxiety about the future and what it could hold for them, and isolation and stigmatization (Clay). As seen with countless evidence of hate crimes and discrimination against Muslims after 9/11 these fears and feelings were justified. In that same study, more than 82 percent of the participants “felt unsafe to extremely unsafe” to be living in the United States (clay). It was unimaginable for many American Muslims to be in a country that them or their parents came to in order to pursue the infamous ‘American Dream” that soon became a nightmare.
As one can see, the ‘land of the free’ soon became the land of terror for an innumerable amount of people. The events that took place September 11, 2001 had lasting effects on the whole country and left some traumatized and others double-traumatized. Not only did American Muslims have to watch the country they call home terrorized, they also had to endure hate and discrimination from their neighbors, coworkers, classmates, teachers, and their country as a whole. Many tend to overlook them and turn the blind eye while American Muslims are suffering and terrified not knowing what the future holds or if they are ever truly safe. They endure suffering in their workplace, in their schools, and just being out in public already puts them in a position to be attack verbally or physically. They have to watch as the media and politicians vilify them and as the government targets them with little they can do to stop it. After 9/11, American Muslims were interrogated and targeted by public officers, lost their jobs, faced widespread discrimination and harassment, and were dehumanized by the American people and suffered as a result. People tend to be quick to adopt a mob mentality and isolate minorities of their own communities based off feeble claims and biases.