Attitudes Towards Arab Americans

After 9-11, things deteriorated drastically for Middle Easterners. They were labeled as terrorists, their houses and their places of worship were burned down, they were physically abused when out in public, Some were scrutinized heavily when traveling, or not even allowed to travel at all, they were detained illegally, deported, and some even had secret trials, (Hassan S. 2002) These are citizens of the United States, protected under our Constitution.

Studies found that some Muslim American women reacted negatively and some positive. An example of a negative reaction on how 9/11 changed women’s lives as a Muslim Americans is with Shauna Ainslie. Ainslie was a newly converted Muslim. This one act of terrorism evolved her relationship with and to Islam for thirteen years. She talks about how she stopped looking up because there were FBI agents everywhere. Ainslie was afraid to go outside because she was scared of breaking any law and getting into more trouble just because she was Muslim. She changed the way she dressed and hid her headscarf in her purse. A friend would always walk with her during the day because she was scared of violence on her campus. Basically Ainslie changed her everyday routine because she was scared of what would happen if people found out she was Muslim. Paranoia was always with her. It got so bad that she hid all evidence that she was Arab or Muslim, even in her own home. One thing that she said that really got to me was that she, “learned how to be invisible” (Ainslie, 2015). What started out as proud practice of a religion turned to a scared and shamed Muslim American

1. Between September 11th and November 9th the American Arab Anti Discrimination Committee confirmed 520 violent incidents directed toward Arab Americans, and 27 incidents in which Arab Americans have been expelled from a flight. Complaints from Arab Americans to the ADC also include employment discrimination, law enforcement profiling, and tensions in schools. (ADC, 1)

In addition, the post 9/11 stigma has disturbed the American-Muslim mentally. In a brief report conducted by an American Psychologist,"Post 9/11: The Impact of Stigma for Muslim Americans," Saera Khan examines the communities experience. Khan conducted 12 studies on different populations and collected the data through her personal contacts outside the mosques, community centers and organizations. The survey involved 11 questions regarding how Americans view Muslims and Arabs. The data was collected between 2003 and 2006 after the two years of 9/11 incident. At that time there was a high wave of hatred towards Muslims in the American society. The type of questions which were asked were about how people were looking them after 9/11? Many of

During the years of post-9/11, Americans have started to become wary of non-Americans in their home land of the fear of another terrorist attacks. The 9/11 attacks have changed American views on the muslims and on the Middle East. It also had made security regulation more strict and discriminatory. Since post-9/11, Americans the wrong impression of the Middle East and have negative views of it and also have stereotype of it as well.

The attacking of 9/11 impacted big groups of people, causes of this event has changed life in America would be ongoing wars, big surveillance, California impact. American citizens were not as scared as people are now. Since this attacking ISIS was created and half of people getting deported today were deported after the attack.

Just like the Red Scare, people were protective over themselves avoiding any Muslim. They thought, “any muslim could be a terrorist spy.” People grew suspicious of muslims. The attack changed many people’s minds about how they saw Muslims. The were no longer the peaceful human beings. Most non-Muslim Americans saw them as a threat. Many innocent Muslims faced discrimination along with harassment and physical injuries. Angry Americans, who’ve probably lost someone in the attack of September 11th,2001, took out their frustration on the unimpeachable Muslims. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), 481 hate crimes committed in 2001 were found to be anti-Islamic. Later years, that number increased. The first anti-Islamic hate crime was committed to Balbir Singh Sodhi only four days after the September 11th attack. The sad part of it is that Sodhi is not Muslim, he is a Sikh. He was mistaken to be a Muslim. Laila Alawa shared her experience as a Muslim aftermath of the September 11th attack, saying that “ ...being a Muslim kid in upstate New York meant being alienated and isolated without understanding why.” The discrimination is still going on today but very slowly, it is

On September 11, 2001 America was in shock because of the events that occurred that morning to their beloved world trade center twin buildings. The deaths and injuries caused the people to automatically hate those that were responsible, Al Qaida members. This group is notorious for their dislike of American lifestyles. From then on Americans would go on to keep a close eye on these individuals and people that looked like them. That same year in the United States “58 percent favored Arabs to undergo more lengthy security measures. “From Samuel R. Gross, “Racial Profiling Under Attack”, (June 2002): 1413.

After the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2002, the government of America felt threatened. Society as a whole went straight to thinking that all Middle- Eastern people were terrorists and were going to plot more attacks. Many people who look of Middle- Eastern descent were beaten out of the anger from the attacks. It was common belief that people who are Middle-Eastern are terrorists.

The 11th of September, 2001 was a momentous day in American history. 19 members of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 & United Airlines Flight 175, and crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. Hijackers crashed the third plane into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth jet, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives on 9/11 due to the terrorist attacks on that day. After 9/11, the power of the government increased, allowing police, the FIB and other government agencies the ability to search telephone, e-mail communications, medical, financial, and other records; in addition to easing the restrictions on foreign intelligence gathering within the United States. Along with the war in the Middle East as a result of 9/11, Islamophobia in the United States has reached new growth. Racial profiling and discrimination of Muslims, Arabs, and those with stereotypical Islamic names or appearances have not only increased in the past 14 years since 9/11, but the results of such actions are devastating to not only the Muslim community but also the rest of America. 42% of Americans support the use of profiling by law enforcement against Arab Americans and American Muslims. Hostilities towards Muslims and Arabs have only increased as a result of 9/11.

This experience has definitely affected my understanding of the world. Based on this experience, I believe that most people have been overreacting too much after the 9/11 attacks and have been putting too much blame on the Middle East communities. It is not their fault that the 9/11 attacks have happened and they did not help plan the 9/11 attacks at all. These individuals are not terrorists and should not be discriminated based on their culture. I also believe that it is not fair that some families are being torn apart due to the immigration policies and deportation laws like Yves Gomes and his

In religion class the day after the attack, the question, "What should we do with the Arab-American citizens?" was asked. I felt nauseated. What did that question mean, and why was it asked? My grandfather, "Shid-thie," is from Lebanon, an Arabic country. In fact, he fought for America in World War II. How could anyone question him? Then it hit me - I am Arabic also. Any Arabic person I have met has welcomed me as if I were family, a custom Arabs live by. Now people are making it seem everyone should watch their backs whenever Arabic or Middle Eastern people are around because they may be accomplices.

Past acts of terrorism done by foreigners have provoked fear throughout the American people. 9/11 is one example that brought upon a negative change. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks Americans were scared of foreigners, especially any person that was Islamic, coming into the country. The 9/11 attack caused Americans to associate any Islamic person with being a terrorist. This provoked a change in airport security. According to the article “To Combat ISIS, Welcome Syrians”, Anne Speckhard explains how the negative connotation with the Islamic religion has made it very hard for the innocent Syrians fleeing their country to seek asylum in the U.S. “We have failed to enact efficient practices and sufficient resources to allay our fears that within

Mogahed, a Muslim woman living in America at the time of the terrorist attack on 9/11, speaks about her experience with white America after the attack. She talked about what made her attracted to the Islam religion and how her friends reacted when she started wearing the Hijab. Her young friends asked her why she would willingly subject herself to the oppression that Americans see in Islam, she told them that wearing the Hijab is actually a feminist act. After 9/11 she faced strange looks, profanity shouted at her on the street, and the fear of what might happen if she didn't listen to the news. Muslims were told to stay indoors and not

Muslims faced tremendous amounts of prejudice after the September 11th attacks. The September 11th attacks were four coordinated attacks perpetrated by the terrorist group known as Al Qaeda. These attacks killed 2,996 people and injured more than 6,000 innocent people. These terrorist attacks also contributed to the fear that we now know as Islamophobia.