Trigger warning: this article includes mentions of sexual abuse and violence.
9/11 was a tragic event that wreaked havoc, cost people their lives, and involved a series of terrorist attacks. While the United States remembers the lives lost, Americans also never fail to remind the world about their significant loss, and a lot of these memorials often have Islamophobic undertones. For instance, on 9/11, every year, many Muslims like myself feel like we owe Americans an apology or to feel sorry to be associated with those terrorists – even though 100% of us do not condone these attacks and are against terrorism. This isn’t the message of Islam and never has been. Thus, while 9/11 is a tragic event, the outcomes of 9/11 are also very tragic (if not more).
The most significant outcome that resulted after 9/11 was the Islamophobic sentiment. Islamophobia is defined as:
“An exaggerated fear, hatred, and hostility toward Islam and Muslims that is perpetuated by negative stereotypes resulting in bias, discrimination, and the marginalization and exclusion of Muslims from social, political, and civic life.”
Grocery store owners who were Sikh (not even Muslim men) were robbed and murdered. Many bigots initiating these attacks against Muslims were very patriotic, misinformed, and eager to seek revenge for the 9/11 attacks. A project documented 763 separate incidents from 2012-2018, which resulted in anti-Muslim activity and laws enacted in the United States. Whenever a terrorist event initiated by Muslims or in Islam’s name occurred, more anti-Muslim sentiment was experienced, as evidenced by the graphic. Overall, you can see the trend of hate crimes increasing as time goes on.
Other data collected on this topic of Islamophobia post-9/11 also suggests that many Americans (52%) and Canadians (48%) think that the West does not respect Muslim societies. This statistic is lower in European countries, which indicates that this is predominantly a Western problem.
Muslims have paid for 9/11 extensively through hate crimes against us and due to war that the United States has waged against Iran and Iraq. The data that I just mentioned was collected from 2008-2011 and is alarming (although not surprising). It would be interesting to know how this Islamophobic sentiment changed after Trump’s fascist regime.
Muslims also reported having experienced more religious discrimination in the “land of the free” and the “home of the brave” than any other religious groups (Mormons, Atheists, Jews, Catholic Christians, and Protestant Christians) during the data collection period in 2010. Not surprisingly, those with the least educational achievement held the strongest hatred and prejudice towards Islam and Muslims, suggesting that social influences, socioeconomic status, and other factors are intertwined with complex belief systems.
Additionally, after 9/11, the United States and the Bush Administration waged war against Iraq (2003-2011), an event that claimed over 109,032–650,726 lives (many more people died here than in 9/11). Innocent women and children were raped and killed by the “brave” American troops, and thousands of other civilians died. The U.S. also carried out bombings, airstrikes, and massive killings in Afghanistan (2001-present), drone strikes in Pakistan (2004-2017), other interventions in Iraq (2014-present), in Syria (2014-present), Yemen (2015-present), Libya (2015-2020), and recently the Biden Administration announced another Syria strike.
Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi, a 14-year old Iraqi girl, was raped by American soldiers after the murder of her family. The brave American troops did not just stop at murdering her family and breaking her mother’s arms (to lie and pretend like there had been a struggle) but decided to gang-rape the girl afterwards to traumatize her further. Then they burned off Abeer’s lower body and shot her in the head.
This probably isn’t the first of the war crimes committed by American troops. There are probably countless other girls like Abeer who were murdered and raped (except with zero Western media coverage).
Aside from this, other massacres conducted by the brave troops involved other civilians being murdered and shot multiple times (check out the Haditha massacre. These incidents show that many war veterans need to be checked (to ensure they’re not war criminals) and serve for the right reasons, ones that aren’t fuelled by bigotry and hatred.
The most significant takeaway from these intrusions and the murdering of innocent civilians is that all of this was fuelled and stimulated by 9/11. Not only did the United States tighten border security, make TSA screen out Hijabi Muslim women and anyone with the name “Muhammad,” but they took it a step further and decided to invade the Middle East.
I would also like to add that this isn’t just an “American” problem. Many Canadians also hold similar sentiments about 9/11 and “those Muslims.” If you need proof of this, just look at TikTok. Many TikTok creators have recently been asked if they “support Muslim lives.” Many of the creators responded by either blocking the person asking this, said they supported “all lives” (which contradicts their argument entirely), or think that Muslim lives don’t matter.
The biggest takeaway from this article for my Muslim peeps is that you must NOT feel sorry for being Muslim or for 9/11 (we cannot be blamed for those horrible acts and neither can our religion). For anyone who isn’t Muslim, please learn to speak up for Muslims, and always feel free to ask about our culture and beliefs. We promise that Muslims are some of the kindest people and none of us have been taught to hate anyone – you just need to get to know us.
References:
Wajahat Ali, Eli Clifton, Matthew Duss, Lee Fang, Scott Keyes, and Faiz Shakir, “Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America” (Washington, D.C.: Center for American Progress, 2011), available at http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/08/pdf/islamophobia.pdf