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Washington DC – On the morning of the 9/11 attacks, Hassan Sheikh was in a high school world studies class in Detroit, Michigan.
Instead of taking the scheduled exam, he witnessed the second plane crash at the World Trade Center in New York City because his teacher hurriedly pushed the television into the classroom.
“We all watched in shock,” recalled the 34-year-old Sheikh. “At the time we could not grasp the severity of the situation.”
The next day, Sheikh, the son of Muslims and Pakistani immigrants, said that he knew very well that the events of September 11, 2001 would completely change his experience as a Muslim in the United States.
He said he had lost friends, faced bullying, and became the target of publicly racist comments. Sheikh told Al Jazeera that a player from the opposing team called him an “Arab terrorist” during a basketball game. He said that the referee heard the comments but did nothing.
Then, a year after the attack, on a family trip to Washington, DC, his mother wearing a headscarf was accosted by a man who called her a terrorist and asked her why she was wearing that on her head.
Sheikh said that he and his family have had a long list of such incidents – and more than that. “Since 9/11, a lot has been lost,” he said. “Many wars have continued and have produced many negative effects.”
After the plane crashed into the World Trade Center building, people in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York looked down on Fifth Avenue in horror [File: Marty Lederhandler/AP Photo]Strengthen supervision
According to the direct consequences of the 9/11 incident, hate crimes against Muslims in the United States have surged, from 28 such incidents nationwide in 2000 to 481 in 2001. FBI StatisticsSince then, anti-Muslim hate crimes have remained high and the FBI recorded 219 incidents in 2019.
“After 9/11 hatred and discrimination were magnified,” said Sumaya Wahid, a policy adviser working with Muslim Advocates for a civil rights organization based in Washington, DC.
“Suddenly, the daily lives of American Muslims became the subject of widespread public consumption, their beliefs became radical, and all communities faced unprecedented scrutiny in American society.”
After the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon in New York City killed nearly 3,000 people, the US government quickly strengthened the security of airports and government buildings.
Then, just 45 days later, Congress passed Patriot ActThis law makes it easier for U.S. law enforcement agencies to track activities and monitor online and telephone communications of Americans suspected of terrorism.
Although the key elements of the legislation expire in March 2020, civil rights organizations have stated that it has had a lasting impact on American Muslims who have become disproportionate targets. These groups argued in court that the law violated the civil and constitutional rights of Americans.
Muslim Americans say that government espionage and censorship make them feel distrustful of members of their communities [Jessie Wardarski/AP Photo]In 2003, the administration of then President George W. Bush created the so-called “watch list”, also known as the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB). In 2016, there were approximately 1 million people on the list, including the names of approximately 5,000 U.S. citizens and permanent residents. FBI.
The Muslim American Civil Rights Organization sued the US government, calling it unconstitutional. However, the Court of Appeal ruled against them in March, allowing the TSDB system to continue to operate in the same way.
Robert McCaw, Director of Government Affairs of the Committee on Islamic Relations (CAIR), said: “After 9/11, all Muslims living in the United States were immediately placed under the prism of threats to national security.”
“Places of worship, civil society, student groups, and even companies are under surveillance by the federal government,” McCaw told Al Jazeera. McCaw said the FBI has also deployed thousands of informants, which has weakened people’s trust in each other and the government.
“Until today, American Muslims are wondering whether they are being monitored by the government,” he said.
Mental health charges
28-year-old Faris Ibrahim is the author and host of the podcast The Faris of Them All. He often features American Muslim guests as the protagonist. He said that after 9/11, he remembered how his school friends treated him differently. The teacher asked him about his parents. The issue of “inappropriate” religious beliefs and political beliefs.
Faris Ibrahim is the author of “Pearl Diver’s Breath” and the host of the podcast The Faris of Them All [Courtesy of Faris Ibrahim]“Some people think that Muslims have this hidden agenda and suspect that Muslims are different from others,” Ibrahim told Al Jazeera. “What we said outside, but what we said in our mosque was different. We had to be monitored.”
Wahid, a Muslim advocate, said the increase in anti-Muslim sentiment after the attack has fueled nativist and white nationalist groups in the country.
She said that this also paved the way for the 2016 election of former President Donald Trump. Trump promised to prevent all Muslims from entering the United States during his campaign. During his tenure, the office passed three regulations targeting several Muslim majority. The country’s travel ban is iterated.
Trump also notoriously stated that he saw Muslim Americans in New Jersey celebrating the 9/11 attacks, a claim that has been widely debunked.
Wahid pointed out that there has been an increase in violence against Muslims recorded in 2015 and 2016, even exceeding the rate after the 9/11 attacks. “It’s not accidental,” she said, explaining that the spike coincided with Trump’s presidential campaign. “His anti-Muslim politics led to real violence and hatred against Muslims.”
Experts say that in the past 20 years, living under the weight of law enforcement review and daily discriminatory behavior has had a serious impact on the mental health of Muslim Americans.
According to a study published in July Jama PsychiatryNearly 8% of Muslim respondents stated that they had attempted suicide in their lifetime, compared with 6% for Catholics, 5% for Protestants, and 3.6% for Jews.
Rania Awaad, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at Stanford University and a researcher on the study, said: “When we compare the performance of the Muslim community with other communities, including other marginalized communities, the level of mental health Got hit.”
“The literature shows that racial and religious discrimination and Islamophobia are definitely a factor,” Awad told Al Jazeera.
‘Just like everyone else’
The U.S. Census does not collect information about religion, but in a 2018 study by the Pew Research Center, it was found that approximately 3.45 million Muslims live in the United States, accounting for a little over 1% of the total population.
At the same time, another Pew survey in 2019 showed that 82% of Americans believe that Muslims face at least some discrimination in the United States, while 56% said that Muslims face “a lot” of discrimination.
Asad Butt is the host of the podcast “King of the World”, a seven-part series that tells the story of an American Muslim teenager who grew up in the United States after 9/11 [Courtesy of Asad Butt]Assad Bart, 41, is the founder and podcast host of a media company in the Boston area. He said that his career has been dedicated to solving Muslim-American issues and trying to “build a bridge” with mainstream American society.
He recalled that after the 9/11 attacks, his father emigrated from Pakistan in the 1970s and hung an American flag outside their house, hoping that this would protect them from possible attacks.
Bart told Al Jazeera: “At that time, all of our Muslims in the country had a target, and we were slandered. For the past 20 years, the government has engaged in espionage.
“There is an idea that we are not as American as the next person. We must constantly prove that we are as American as our neighbors,” Bart said. “When the truth is, we are just like everyone else.”
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