"Who are you?"(Eggers 206) were the first words that Abdulrahman Zeitoun heard from the police officers that had surrounded him and his friends with their guns drawn as he walked out of 5010 Claiborne that he owned. He had been stopping by the house to use the telephone once a day to call his wife Kathy, who was in Arizona with their four children to escape Hurricane Katrina, a catagory 5 hurricane that had hit New Orleans, the city they lived in. Abdulrahman Zeitoun had stayed home to protect his many properties that he and his family had required in the sixteen years since he had moved to the city. He was a general contractor and owner of Zeitoun Painting Contractors, LLC. He also owned several rental houses around the city and had …show more content…
Ahmaad, a fellow Muslim man, had someone in mind, but he had already earmarked her for introduction to another friend. He assured Zeitoun that if things didn't work out between them, that he would introduce them to each other. After many months of fruitless introductions to other woman from around the country, Ahmaad kept his word and introduced him to Kathy Delphine, the woman who Ahmaad had already introduced to another friend. Her relationship had come to an end and agreed to meet as well. At first Zeitoun was apprehensive. He was a Muslim man that was looking for a woman of the Islamic faith to raise children with. Ahmaad quickly told him that she was an American that had converted to Islam. After observing her from afar, including a funny incident that resulted in a nervous Zeitoun hiding from Kathy in his car so as to not get caught watching her at work, Zeitoun and Kathy met at a friendly bar-b-Que with Ahmaad and his wife Yuko, who just happened to be Kathy's best friend. While Kathy decided that she was not ready for another serious relationship just yet, 2 years later she had a change of heart and began dating Zeitoun. They were married soon after and had three children to add to the one Kathy had from her first marriage. They had very few experiences with discrimination, but they did experience some. People would call their company
The late 1990’s into the early 2000’s was a time of great economic success that took a turn for the worst as the war against terrorism began. In America, the economy was at its peak especially on Wall Street until September 11th 2001. The attacks that occurred on September 11th deeply affected America. The attacks caused the Dow to drop tremendously along with causing the recession to deepen. America was led into of the biggest government spending periods in a long time. The cost to fund the war along with to rebuild the economy held a toll on all Americans. America had to dig itself out of a hole. Unlike the economy, technology was on the rise. Many new inventions such as wireless internet, mobile devices, and new forms of social media were created.
September 11, 2011, started like every normal day in New York City. People rushing to work, children going to school, and people taking a morning walk or jog. But no one knew that this day would turn into a horror film. A terrorist organization call al-Qaeda hijacked airplanes and hammered them into the World Trade Centers North and South Tower along with the Pentagon in Washington D.C. The September 11, 2001, attacks changed America forever (9/11 Attacks - 102 minutes That Changed America).
On September 11, 2001 the World Trade Center buildings one and two were attacked. However, who we were attacked by and even if we were attacked is a hard decision to make. There have been many different claims about how everything on that fateful day happened. There are facts that we know are true, though; Flight 11 flew into the North Tower at eight forty- six in the morning. Soon after, Flight 175 attacked the South Tower. By the end of the day, both towers had collapsed and other hijacked flights had caused damage. The amount of lives lost on September 11 was substantial; 2,749 people from eighty-three different countries died from the attacks (Facts about the attacks…, n.d.). All in all, America was changed forever.
Islam, a religion of people submitting to one God, seeking peace and a way of life without sin, is always misunderstood throughout the world. What some consider act of bigotry, others believe it to be the lack of education and wrong portrayal of events in media; however, one cannot not justify the so little knowledge that America and Americans have about Islam and Muslims. Historically there are have been myths, many attacks on Islam and much confusion between Islam as a religion and Middle Easter culture that is always associated with it. This paper is meant to dispel, or rather educate about the big issues that plague people’s minds with false ideas and this will only be touching the surface.
America has experienced some events that has made an impact on all of our lives. Take the attack on 9/11 for example; terrorists attacked the United States using planes. They hijacked four airplanes in mid-flight. The terrorists flew two of the planes into two skyscrapers at the World Trade Center in New York City. The impact caused the buildings to catch fire and collapse. Another plane destroyed part of the Pentagon (the U.S. military headquarters) in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Officials believe that the terrorists on that plane intended to destroy either the White House or the U.S. Capitol. Passengers was the plane fought the terrorists and prevented them from reaching their goal. In all, nearly 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks. This attack reminded many people of the attack of Pearl Harbor. Both were very catastrophic events that changed U.S. History and America in a way that makes us realize that we need to be strong.
Even though Sikh Americans have experienced a heightened amount of animosity, it is quite a warm feeling when communities and groups gather to support victims of hate crimes as stated in this excerpt, "It has happened before in New Jersey. But this time, an act of hateful vandalism has drawn an avalanche of support for a victimized Hindu family, highlighting the growth of networks aiming to assist South Asian-American victims of bias crimes. The family of five arrived home in Wayne last Saturday to discover their house and walkways spray-painted with anti-Indian and anti-Hindu epithets. Police disclosed the incident on Wednesday, and said the family also had been targeted with hate mail and graffiti in January."(Crouse) The community
When the Hurricane was coming his family left for a safer area, but Zeitoun wanted to stay with his house because he worked hard to get where he was. Zeitoun wanted to try to protect his house in anyway possible. After all the damage was done and New Orleans was submerged in water and nearly completely destroyed, Abdulrahman Zeitoun was asked by his wife to leave the area and go to a safer place. But Zeitoun being the person he is, decided to stay and to help out anyway possible. He canoed around helping those who needed it.
Fear in itself is something to be feared. Fear is the primary source of insanity and chaos. Fear alone sent the Puritan society of Salem, Massachusetts into a state of utter hysteria in the year 1692, when one of the world's most infamous witch hunts occurred. Arthur Millers play, The Crucible, is a historical fiction depicting the events of the Salem Witch Trials. A witch hunt is a political campaign launched on the pretext of investigating activities subversive to the state. Every witch hunt is identifiable by the five key elements; the use of a scapegoat, a struggle to maintain moral order, a subversive character or group, an outbreak of hysteria and panic, and ulterior motives that provide
For a second, the U.S. stood still. Looking up at the towers, one can only imagine the calm before the storm in the moment when thousands of pounds of steel went hurdling into its once smooth, glassy frame. People ran around screaming and rubble fell as the massive metal structure folded in on itself like an accordion. Wounded and limping from the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, America carried on, not without anger and fear against a group of innocent Americans, Muslim Americans. Nietzsche’s error of imaginary cause is present in the treatment of Muslim Americans since 9/11 through prejudice in the media, disregard of Muslim civil liberties, racial profiling, violence, disrespect, and the lack of truthful public information about
On the morning of September 11, 2001, an Islamic terrorist group known as al-Qaeda carried out a series of four attacks on the United States. The most well-known attack is when two commercial airline planes crashed into the Twin Towers in New York City. Many innocent lives were lost and families were torn apart. While many Americans were determined to show their resilience towards the attacks, this is a day many Americans will never forget. Although the attacks happened sixteen years ago, Americans are still dealing with the impacts these attacks have had on life in America. The 9/11 attacks have had several long-lasting effects on everyday life in America, some of which include an increase in airport security, a change in national security, and an increase the fear of terrorism.
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
September 11th, 2001 is now a date discussed in history lessons. While the post-9/11 generations may not have witnessed the changes of this tragic event, which rapidly filled every crevice of US society, they have an entire generation ready to narrate what they witnessed on and after that day. The expeditious reaction made a permanent mark on American culture.
According to research obtained by Cornell University scientists, 92% of Americans watch TV, 87% read newspapers, and 81% specifically watch local or national televised news stations…
the government and media. I believe that people running this country are Anti Islamic due to there view on things. Also this is a Zionist country, which is another reason that makes the media discriminate against the Muslim’s, due to the conflict with Palestine and other Muslim countries. The media has always portrayed Islam in a negative way. The reason the media is biased when it comes to Islam because they hate the Islamic structure and the beliefs. The majority of media conglomerate ownership is of people who
In the wake of September 11, leading Muslims in America and other Western countries rushed to condemn the killings. Yet they were slower to condemn the likely killers. "They, of course, condemn the destruction that happened on September 11," says Daniel Pipes, the director of the Middle East Forum, a think tank in Philadelphia. "The leading organizations have never, however, condemned the Taliban, Osama bin Laden, militant Islam."