9/11 Human Rights Violations

Islamophobia, the term that was not very well-known before September 11, 2001, is now known to almost any individual of any age. After September 11th, islamophobia became a part of many Muslims’ daily lives (O’Connor “How 9/11 Changed These Muslim Americans’ Lives Forever.”) Not only did Muslims have trouble going through customs and security at the airports, but they also encountered islamophobia in their daily routine. Since September 11th, terrorist jokes became popular among many non-Muslim Americans who oftentimes did not understand the seriousness and the offensiveness of those jokes. Some found the “Muslim terrorist” stereotype to be somewhat justified and did not consider it to be as insulting as, for example, the representation of Black and Asian Americans in 1920s and 30s cartoons. However, the two are equally abusive and it is horrible to realize that in some ways, the American

After the attack, hate crimes in the United States towards Muslim communities have increased by 1,600 percent from 28 hate crimes in 2000 to 481 in 2001 (Disha, Cavendish, King, 21-22). From the research done by Disha, Cavendish and King, with the data acquired from FBI, it is

Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Muslims everywhere began to be wrongfully persecuted and attacked. They have also since been denied equality in the workplace as “Americans with Muslim names have a harder time finding a job” and “American Muslims have experienced increased job discrimination since 2001” (Epstein 53). Without the ability to find a job, not only are Muslims effected in their daily lives, they are also unable to find a source of income, hindering them from supporting their families. Muslim religion can also cause further disturbances because there are several “law-abiding Muslims who are unfairly targeted and punished simply because they are Muslim” (qtd. in Epstein 52). This exemplifies the idea

The horrific terrorist attack on the United States that took place on September 11, 2001 significantly changed the definition of freedom in America. This event resulted in an immediate call to action by the US government to protect and defend its citizens and country. The Department of Homeland Security was created to “coordinate efforts to improve security at home, and it imposed sever limits on the civil liberties of those suspected of a connection with terrorism and, more generally, on immigrants from the Middle East.” The country was left feeling vulnerable and suspicious of things they previously took for granted. Heightened security measures around travel were put in place. Americans were asked to report suspicious activity. Muslim people were and still are subject to prejudice because of their religion being linked to the terrorist group.

You are a single mom with one kid who is out drinking at a bar for the night. You get a call on the phone. Your son is in the hospital with gruesome wounds and broken bones….from the police.. USA police alone have killed over 5,000 citizens since the 9/11 incident with most of them being black males. Most recently, Freddie Gray was terribly injured by the Baltimore police who arrested him for weapon violations. Freddie gray later died in police custody from a severed spinal cord that he received from the police’s horrible treatment toward him. Riots broke out in Baltimore against Freddie’s terrible treatment. The riots cost the city of Baltimore $9,000,000 in repairs for all of the damage. Research also says that the knife that Freddie Gray

The history of terrorism is as old as humans’ willingness to use violence to affect politics. Terrorism can affect everyone, whether directly or indirectly. However, a group that is largely affected is immigrants, mainly due to the U.S. policies on Counter-Terrorism. These policies might protect our country, but they also indirectly lead to discrimination against immigrants. The U.S. policy on Counter-Terrorism causes unfair immigration laws, encourages social media to demonize foreigners, and creates an unfair society for immigrants to live in.

This paper will discuss religious terrorism in particular. Religious terrorism can be defined as “the terrorism [is] carried out based on motivations and goals that have a predominantly religious character or influences.” (“Religious Terrorism”) An example of this will be the 9/11 attacks. It was “a series of four coordinated terrorist attack launched by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda upon the United States in New York City and the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.”(“September 11 attacks”) This attack had led to a serious causality, “almost 3000 people dies in the attacks.” (“September 11 attacks”) Osama Bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, declared a “holy war against the United States” (“September 11 attacks”) In his “letter to America”, he stated the motives as follows: In opposition to western support for attacking Muslims in Somalia; supporting the Indian oppression against Muslims in Kashmir; the Jewish aggression against Muslims in Lebanon; the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia; U.S support of Israel and the sanction against Iraq. (“September 11 attacks”) The disastrous attack leads to a serious attention of re-constructing the old version of counter terrorism strategy, which had failed to protect the citizens against terrorism. However, ‘terrorism is far to complex for one solution to be effective in dealing with all the possible threats.” (Lygutas 146) Therefore, some of the measures have difficulties in balancing the rights of

September 11, 2001 live on in America’s history because of the depth of the tragedy and many victims. Nineteen militant individuals associated with the radical extremist group of Al-Qaeda, radicals of the Islamic faith, hijacked four American airlines. Two planes separately entered the buildings of the Twin Towers located in New York City; the third plane collided into the Pentagon located outside of Washington, D.C: while the fourth landed in an open field in Pennsylvania. In total over 3,000 innocent Americans became victims of the radicals, slaying over 400 civil servant workers (CNN, 2013). September 11, 2001, (9-11) is the landmark that sparked radical terrorism, hate crimes for followers of the Muslin faith and how the media views terrorism.

Since September 11, 2001 the Muslim religion has been assaulted verbally and physically. People of the religion had to fear from physical threats, their religious gathering places vandalized, and hate speech is readily heard. 16 years later, this behavior is still in existence but has gone further by demonizing their beliefs through the media. Hate groups such as ISIS and the Taliban support the demonize being made and causing the non-extremist to feel the wrath of intolerance. Social intolerance of this religion has caused conflict for women wearing Hijab. They are being subject to having to remove such item to participate in events of daily

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.”

The agonizing terrorist attacks of September 9th, 2001 left the country in emotional distress. The United States of America decided to prepare for tragic attacks like this and reevaluated its immigration and foreign policies, the citizens of the US also became united and stronger from these attacks. This ideology that the US has become more united after an attack that killed nearly 3,000 people has become mainstream and may be true in some cases, but many people overlook the impact it had on the millions of Muslim Americans. The Muslim generation before us had its own problems dealing with racial discrimination and hate crimes, many people believed it stop their but this contempt was passed on to my generation. The discrimination I have received has caused me to change my aspirations in order to ensure that no one else receives the treatment I had gotten.

In 1949, the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War was created to prohibit immoral, cruel and degrading punishment toward prisoners during wartime. The United States ratified this covenant and became a member of the Geneva Conventions. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, a series of human abuses occurred from October through December of 2003 where American military personnel have conducted acts of brutality and immoral behavior toward Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison. The inhumane “interrogation method” of the American military have clearly violated Article 2 and 4 of the Geneva Conventions. Article 2.2 states “No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state

Have you ever had a fear for your family, your town, your country, or your world. How about the fear to have everything taken from you, destroyed, and not caring if it has hurt you or not? What about your fear and pain is, and can be someone else’s happiness? The fear of you being terrorized? That is terrorism. Someone else bringing fear and terrorizing you. That is a terrorist’s goal. Terrorism is common and is very difficult to stop. The government promises protection for the people, and their home, but they can not give that protection if they can not stop terrorism. Terrorism needs to stop to protect the live of the people, and their country.

The connection between Islam and terrorism was not intensified until the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center that pushed the Islamic faith into the national and international spotlight (Smith, 2013). As Smith (2013) articulated, “Many Americans who had never given Islam a second thought before 9/11 now had to figure out how to make sense of these events and relate to the faith tradition that ostensibly inspired them” (p. 1). One way in which people made sense of these events was through the media channels that influenced their overall opinions by shaping a framework of censored ideas (Yusof, Hassan, Hassan & Osman, 2013). In a survey conducted by Pew Forum (2012), 32% of people reported that their opinions of Muslims were greatly influenced by the media’s portrayal of Islam that depicted violent pictorials and fundamentalist Muslims. Such constant negative depiction is likely to lead to the inevitable—prejudice and hate crime. For instance, in 2002 alone there were approximately 481 hate crimes that were carried out against Muslims (Smith, 2013). Ever since the 9/11 attacks Muslim people have been the target of “suspicion, harassment and discrimination” (Talal, n.d., p. 9).

War Against Terror and Human Rights The Human Rights Act 1998 took full legal effect across the English and Welsh legal systems on October 2nd 1998. The Act, allows people to claim a number of the rights and freedoms that are set out in the European Convention on Human Rights. The Government had high hopes that when the act was passed it would create a 'Culture of Human Rights within the United Kingdom.'