9/11 Effects On Muslims

According to the report of FBI(2000), the number of anti-islamic hate crime incidents prior the terrorist attacks were 28. In the immediate year after 9/11, 481 incidents were reported against the Muslims and Arabs(FBI 2002). The hate crime statistics of FBI conforms a staggering increase of 1617 percent in such a short period of time. The Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) reported that over 700 violent incidents were ruthlessly targeted against Arab Americans within the first 9 weeks after the 9/11(Ibish 2003). These incidents included physical violence, death threats, harassment, mockery ,hate mails and many others. Suddenly, an unknown society was brought into the negative spotlight due to the actions of a handful of people.

Second I will look at Ilir Disha, James C. Cavendish, and Ryan D. King paper “Historical Events and Spaces of Hate: Hate Crimes against Arabs and Muslims in Post-9/11 America” .This research investigates variation in hate crimes offending against Arabs and Muslims across U.S. counties in the months before and after September 11, 2001. They tried answering these four questions. First, what were the determinants of anti-Arab and Muslim hate crimes prior to 9/11? Second, in what social contexts were Arabs and Muslims at greatest risk of victimization? Third, to what extent did hate crimes against these groups increase after the terrorist attacks? And last, did the predictors of hate crimes against Arabs and Muslims change appreciably after 9/11?

America’s viewpoint on the Muslim group of people was significantly prejudiced by post 9/11. The entire Muslim community was vision negatively as of the events that was taken by Al Qaeda an international terrorist group formed by Osama Bin Laden. Soon, subsequent to the bombing of the twin towers, primary awareness of Muslims habitually originated from labels relating to the Middle East as a whole. According to “Affective Politics after 9/11” Todd Hall proposed that 9/11 was a sensitively prominent event that created an emotional shock wave. He believed the original place of influence were the countless effective reaction of people in the United States who has watched the series of terrorist attacks unfold and causes Americans to view Muslims

Following the tragic events of 9/11 by Islamic extremist group named Al-Qaeda, produced widespread fear through terrorism and ever since border security in North America has been on high alert (Schwartz 2010). Muslims face the most problems when it comes to immigration because of the ‘war on terror.' Even though many of these individuals are innocent, society labels them as terrorists, based on the assumptions of their practiced religion, that being Islam. The religious profiling of Muslims at North American borders has become prominent since the tragic events of 9/11. The

Also, racial profiling has become worse since the attack. Hagler says, “The Islam religion became a dirty word after 9/11.” There are anti-Muslim opinions and hate crimes that grew in the U.S. Places such as public events, and television have made it known what they now think of the Muslim Community. In America muslims began to be treated differently. They were watched more carefully, and arrested under suspicion only because of their race. In December 2002, up to 700 muslim men had been arrested. Costs of war website says that “Not a single one of these individuals were ever publicly charged with terrorism.” President Bush even said in January 2001, 8 months before the devastating attack, about racial profiling, “it’s wrong, and we will end it in America.”

The world after the 2001 September 11th terrorist attacks the had shifted the world towards completely shifted the attitude towards one religious group, Islam. Islam is a religion of either known from the media as religion of “peace” or a religion of “danger. The attacks in the world trade center left a devastating effect in american lives as it created a sense of vulnerability. hatred toward the Islamic religion grew as to the result of the attacks which led to changes in the world. Political reforms had been constructed to prevent any future terrorist attack from, occurring in the future. Attitudes towards Muslims had also significantly changed after 9-11 as racial profiling occurs in US borders as well a rise in hate crimes. Media organizations misrepresents the religion as a dangerous and radicalism religion. As has been noted all these changes toward the Islamic group are coming in a short amount of time, it had encouraged many to question their faiths.

9/11 also resulted in racial stereotyping, which is the use of race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed an offense. Racial stereotypes are automatic and exaggerated mental pictures that we hold about all members of a particular racial group. The post 9/11 feeling of fear and paranoia greatly contributed to an increase in anti-Muslim sentiments through the generalizations that one extremist religious group can be applied to an entire widespread culture of people. These conclusions left the people of America in fear of an event similar to 9/11 happening again, and anger and constant paranoia transgressed into the lives of Americans and their interactions with other people. A dramatic increase in hate crimes towards Muslim people and in TSA racial profiling show how real fear, anger, and paranoia are in our society. People live in complete fear of an entire race, when only a very small part of the Muslim race believed in the

September 11th holds many hard and upset feelings around the world today. The harsh actions of Muslim extremists unfortunately completely changed the way Muslims are treated, especially in the United States. These events, exacerbated islamophobia. Unfortunately, “the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, connect Muslims and Islam to terrorism within the geographical borders of the United States.” (Byng) Although it has been over a decade since the attack, many still feel racist and discriminatory attitudes towards Muslims. Muslims are the targeted minority in the United States, “the 9/11 terrorist attacks shifted the social and political context for Muslims in the United States. Terrorism within the geographical borders of the United States carried out by Muslims places an identity at the center of national and global politics.” (Byng) The blame of the horrible terrorist attacks, rather than be placed on terrorists or religious extremist, has been placed on Islam in America. After September 11th, hate crimes towards Muslims skyrocketed, “the most dramatic change noted by the report was a more than 1,600 percent increase in reported hate crimes against Muslims -- a jump from 28 hate incidents in 2000 to 481 last year.”

With the American people showing ever increasing interest in Muslims since the attacks on America, it was inevitable that this would change the way Muslims would be viewed in the United States. The 9/11 attacks - carried out by nineteen Islamic extremists - have no doubt changed how Muslim-Americans are perceived in this country, and those feelings have simmered for 15 years now. Even though a stigma against the Muslim American community had been growing in the US because of wars and conflicts, the attacks on the world trade centers in New york marked an era that ushered in mass stereotypes and disenfranchisement for Muslim Americans (Bakalian, Anny, and Mehdi Bozorgmehr). According to Mehdi Bozorgmehr and Anny Bakalian, an Associate Director and Mehdi Bozorgmehr is Co-Director of the Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center at the Graduate Center, immigrants from the Middle East are familiar with stereotypes and discrimination in the United States. In backlash 9 ⁄ 11, they examined the harassment, discrimination, and hate crimes committed by individuals against members of the targeted communities or people who look ‘‘Middle Eastern.’’Islam has established a niche in America. Estimates vary, but there are about 4 million Muslims in the United States and Canada. Although a major portion of this community is made up of immigrants, there has been a steady increase in the number of Americans accepting Islam (History of Islam). According to Karine Walther, an Assistant

According to Steven Salaita, the author of Anit-Arab Racism in the USA, “Anti-Arab racism has existed in the United States since the arrival of the first Arab in North America, but since 9/11 anti-Arab racism is, to use a cliché, America’s elephant in the living room—an enormous elephant, at that” (Salaita 7). Therefore, it is more accurate to think of 9/11 not so much as the beginning of anti-Arab racism, but rather the turning point of Arab and Muslim American engagements with race and racialization. With this said, we will focus briefly on outlining the events the led to and anti-Arab American perception before 9/11 and primarily on the American perception of people from Middle Eastern decent after 9/11.

9/11 had affected both Americans as well as Muslims due to the Americans becoming “Islamophobic which causes fear, discriminating, and wanting to have more military troops.” Mogahed had been afraid to go out after 9/11 fearing that she'd be attacked so “sitting on the passenger's seat crouched down afraid of being a Muslim.” Not all Muslims are bad since the Americans want to get rid of the Muslims “there’s a problem in this country and it’s

Throughout the course of history, many societal conflicts, both internal and external, have been attributed to prejudice. Within the 21st century, one of the most prevalent forms of such prejudice within the United States include Islamophobia— the prejudice against Muslims. Fueled by fear from the September 11 attacks, many Americans have developed an negative attitude toward practitioners of Islam due to mass media, causing an unjustified discrimination in actions including but not limited to hate crimes, controversy and bullying within the educational sector, and unfair legislation against Muslims. Islamophobia needs to be combated through the educating of Americans that hold this anti-Muslim mindset, in order to foster a positive environment

Ever since the 9/11 attacks, racism and islamophobia has increased. According to the Huffington Post, “Prior to 9/11, the FBI recorded 28 hate crimes against Muslims. The following year, it increased to 481.” Because of 9/11, Muslims all around the world are being looked upon with caution. Whenever a new act of terrorism happens, Muslims are always the first to be blamed. They get beaten up and threatened by people trying to make them feel like lesser beings. It’s not always been this way. Even though they have always been regarded with suspicion, it had not come to everybody's attention until 9/11. Due to terrorism, airport security has become more secure, with the occasional interest and discrimination towards Muslims.

The issue I am focusing on in America is Islamophobia, “intense dislike or fear of Islam, esp. as a political force; hostility or prejudice towards Muslims” (Oxford English Dictionary, 2017). In my lifetime, this fear took root on the morning of September 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center Towers fell due to a plane, hijacked by Islamist extremists, crashed into each (National Commission, 2004). In the

Islamophobia happen before 9/11, But it increased more because of 9/11. Anti-Muslim hate crimes used to be the second-least reported, but in 2001, they became the second-highest reported among religious-bias incidents, after anti-Jewish hate crimes. But while Jews are consistently targeted for their faith, the number of incidents has dropped significantly since 2008. Research shows that the U.S. identified more than 160 Muslim-American terrorism suspects and perpetrators in the decade since 9/11, just a percentage of the thousands of acts of violence that occur in the United States each year. “Globally, many Muslims report not feeling respected by those in the West. Significant percentages of several Western countries share this sentiment, saying that the West does not