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Discrimination towards Muslim after 9/11 in the United States

Bibi Rabeha

English 101

Professor Yasmin Dalisay

December 7, 2015

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Ahmed Mohamed, a Muslim teenager, has a dream of becoming an engineer. Ahmed

made a digital clock at home and brought it to his school in Irving, Texas. He was excited to

show it to his teacher. However, instead of being praised, the school called the police and he was

arrested. “I built a clock to impress my teacher but when I showed it to her, she thought it was a

threat to her,” Ahmed told reporters. “It was really sad that she took the wrong impression of it.”

A picture of Ahmed shows him talking to the media and he was wearing the same NASA T-shirt

he had on in a picture taken as he was being arrested. In the picture, “he looks confused and

upset as he's being led out of school in handcuffs. ‘They arrested me and they told me that I

committed the crime of a hoax bomb, a fake bomb,’” Ahmed later explained to the television

station WFAA after authorities released him (Fantz, Almasy, & Stapleton, 2015).

Ahmed’s experience shows how Muslim students are treated differently than others. In

the article Teen Ahmed Mohamed brings clock to school, gets arrested there was a tweet

included that said, “When a white kid builds nuclear fusion reactor it's cool but when a Muslim

builds a clock it's not” (Fantz, Almasy, & Stapleton, 2015). It is sad that because Ahmed is a

Muslim teenager, his teacher took the wrong impression of his homemade clock. Why did his

teacher even think the clock was a bomb? The teacher has a reason to think that it is a bomb

because Islam remains misunderstood in Western countries, especially after the 9/11 event in

New York. There were also, "the murder of British military drummer Lee Rigby, the Boston

Marathon bombings in 2013, the shootings at Parliament Hill in Canada in 2014, the attacks at

the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and at a Jewish supermarket in Paris this past January,

and most recently the terrorist attack in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on a military recruiting center

and naval compound" (Ali, 2015). After these attacks, many Americans believe in the stereotype,

“Muslims are terrorists” because many terrorist groups identify as Muslims. How do these

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terrorist groups and the stereotype that “Muslims are terrorist” change the lives of Muslims in

America after 9/11? Muslim’s lives have become harder after attacks done by terrorists groups

that identify with Islam and Muslims have started to face discrimination almost everywhere in

the United States.

Since I already knew my research question, but didn’t know how to start my research, I

got help from a librarian. She recommended some books to me and taught me how to research

online. I found the book Fueling our Fears: Stereotyping, media coverage, and public opinion of

Muslim Americans at the John Jay library, two online sources from the online John Jay library, a

newspaper named Inquisitor, and other blogs and news articles. I wanted to research about how

Muslims lives have changed after the 9/11 event and how Muslim terrorist groups and the

stereotype “Muslims are Terrorists” affect Muslims. In order to find the answer, I want to

explain what Islam is and what Muslims believe in. I want to address the definition of jihad and

how it’s misunderstood in the Western world. What is Al-Qaeda, what is ISIS, and who are the

Taliban? How are they using Islam as their identity but not following what their religion says?

How do ISIS and other terrorist groups affect the religion of Islam itself too? How are Muslims

facing discrimination in America? Before I did research on the lives of Muslims in America, I

thought discrimination in America would not be so bad because America is a developed country

where everyone has the freedom of religion guaranteed in 1st Amendment.

Islam is a religion of peace. People who follow Islam are Muslims. Islam does not teach

violence to Muslims. Muslims believe in one Allah and Prophet Muhammad, the messenger of

Allah. They believe in angels and the last Day of Judgment. There are five pillars that Muslims

are required to practice. The first pillar of Islam is shahada which means you believe that, “There

is none worthy of worship except God (Allah) and Muhammad (pbuh) is the messenger of God”

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(“Five Pillars of Islam”, n.d.). The second pillar is Salah which means prayer. Muslims perform

their Salah 5 times a day, at a specific time. Zakat is the third pillar which means “almsgiving is

a certain percentage given once a year” (n.d.). The fourth pillar is Swam which means fasting.

“Every year in the month of Ramadan, all Muslims fast from dawn until sundown–abstaining

from food, drink, and sexual relations with their spouses” (n.d.). The last pillar of Islam is Hajj

which is “The pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj) is an obligation only for those who are physically and

financially able to do so” (n.d.). None of these pillars have any connection to violence. Instead of

violence these pillars focus on connecting the individual closer to Allah. In addition, when a

Muslim sees another Muslim they greet each other saying “Assalamu’alaikum” which means

peace be upon with you. It is not Islam that leads people to violence. It is the people who

misinterpret the meaning of the Quran and start the problems.

Jihad is a misunderstood concept from Islam and raises strong negative reactions. “Jihad

is an Arabic word and it is a misunderstood concept because it is often translated as ‘holy war’.

However, in a purely linguistic sense, the word jihad means struggling or striving” (Kabbani &

Hendricks, p. 10). Since the word is mistranslated, people think that Islam is a religion of

violence. Jihad has many meanings.

It can refer to internal as well as external efforts to be a good Muslims or believer, as well

as working to inform people about the faith of Islam. If military jihad is required to

protect the faith against others, it can be performed using any legal, diplomatic and

economic to political means. If there is no peaceful alternative, Islam also allows the use

of force, but there are strict rules. Innocents - such as women, children, or invalids - must

never be harmed, and any peaceful overtures from the enemy must be accepted. (Kabbani

& Hendricks, p.10).

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Jihad has some connection with violence but it has strict laws of not hurting innocents. So, the

mistranslation of jihad is one of the big reasons why people think the religion is evil. There are

some terrorist groups who use violence to get their work done and give a bad image to Islam.

Bassiouni, the author of Misunderstanding Islam on the use of violence (2015) wrote, “Violent

conduct towards Muslim and non-Muslim civilians is contrary to Islam, whether it is committed

by groups such as IS, the Shabaab in Somalia, the Boko Haram in Nigeria, the Ansar Dine in

Mali, the Taliban in Afghanistan, or suicide bombings by Palestinian freedom fighters” (p.648).

The quotes shows that Islam is against violence. Terrorist groups may identify themselves as

Muslim, but their action are the complete opposite of Islam.

ISIS is a group of terrorists that have killed many people including Muslims. This

terrorist group has attacked mostly Western countries. ISIS stands for “the Islamic State of Iraq

and Syria (al-Sham)” (Kohlman, 2015). It is also known as “the Islamic State of Iraq and the

Levant” (ISIL), but ISIS has demanded to be referred as ‘The Islamic State’” (2015). Because

they demanded to be known as “The Islamic State” (IS) it seems like they represent Islam. In

reality, IS is the opposite of Islam. IS was the subsequent of Al-Qaeda. According to Kohlman,

The roots of ISIS can be traced in part to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the

subsequent emergence of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), founded by Jordanian national Abu

Musab al-Zarqawi. Zarqawi was distant from the leadership in al-Qaeda and initially

attempted to create his own organization to remove the foreign occupation of Iraq,

overthrow the nascent democratic government, and replace it with a radical Sunni

Islamist regime run by al-Qaeda. (2015)

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The quote shows that IS focuses on violent acts to obtain power and control. By killing people,

IS tries to change the government system in Iraq. IS is misusing Islam and causing people to

view Islam and it’s true follower in a negative perspective.

Taliban is another group of terrorists that has attacked Afghanistan and some parts of

Pakistan. This is an Islamic group that has a strong fighting force in Afghanistan and is a serious

threat to its government.

This group also controls north-west Pakistan and has been blamed for a wave of suicide

bombings and other attacks. It is commonly believed that they first appeared in religious

seminaries - mostly paid for by money from Saudi Arabia - which preached a hard line

form of Sunni Islam. Taliban wanted to restore peace and security and enforce their own

austere version of sharia or Islamic law. They required men to grow beards and women to

wear all-covering burka. (“Who are the Taliban?”, 2015).

According to who are the Taliban, Taliban's goal is to make peace and pass their own sharia, but

no human can make peace using violence. A true follower of Islam would not use violence to

create peace. These groups identify themselves as Muslims, however, their actions do not

express their religion. Islam lets people make their own choices. Islam does not force anyone to

do anything. Allah has given humans free will to make their own choices, human have the ability

to believe in the religion they want to, they have the choices to be good or bad, but they will be

punished or reward for their deeds (Yazdani, n.d.). Therefore, whatever this terrorist group is

doing, is creating a bad image of Islam and making other Muslim’s lives harder.

Many Americans are afraid of Muslims, especially after the 9/11 event. A group of

terrorist that call themselves Muslim, attacked the twin towers in New York City. On September

11, 2001, there was an attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. Nearly 3,000 people

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were killed on that day. A group of nineteen terrorists who were members of Al Qaeda attacked

the United States. In the article What Happened on 9/11, Natalie Smith said, “AL Qaeda

practices an extreme version of the religion of Islam. The group is intensely opposed to the

United States and other Western, democratic nations." The reason Americans are afraid of

Muslims is because of these terrorist groups and the attacks the groups have made. Most people

think that the religion, Islam, is bad which is just a stereotype. 2,977 innocent people were killed

on September 11, 2001 and 32 victims were Muslims (Salem, 2013). No one ever points out that

Muslims were also killed by these Muslim groups of terrorist. Media only discusses that lives of

American civilians were lost because of a Muslim group. The media is bias towards the news

they decide to give the public.

Media plays an important role in spreading the stereotype. Most people get their

information through the media and sometimes the media can misinterpret things. Whenever,

there is attack done by an Islamic terrorist group, the media brings up the whole religion right

away. The media portrays every Muslim as the same, making it seem like every Muslim is part

of a terrorist group. Media defined Muslims as “Terrorists” and this is why Americans started to

believe that “Muslims are Terrorists.” According to the book Fueling our fears: Stereotyping,

media coverage, and public opinion of Muslim Americans, “American who watched television

news more frequently reported higher levels of fear and anxiety after 9/11” (Nacos & Reyna,

2007, p.56). Media is manipulative and people often believe what they see on the news. This can

lead people to make assumptions about Islam and to think that Muslims are dangerous. Most

Americans who often watched television news are likely to be more afraid of Muslims compared

to people who didn’t watch TV often. Islam did not get attention in the media unless some

terrorist incidents occurred. This is when the media brought up Islam and felt that it was

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important to respond to those events. Nacos and Reyna explained the result when the pollsters

asked respondents in the United States about how Americans feel about Muslims.

Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of the public thought that Americans were more fearful of

Muslims rather than felt sympathy for them; only 12 percent said they were more likely

to feel sympathy; 8 percent answered “both,” 7 percent said neither and 10 percent were

not sure. (p.56)

These were the reactions of Americans after 9/11. The statistics show that many Americans did

not feel sympathy towards Muslims and that majority of American were scared of Muslims. The

way most news media talk about the attacks by Muslim terrorist groups, makes it seem like all

Muslims are violent. Because Islam is misunderstood, people connect Islam and true follower of

Islam with violence and evil.

Muslim’s lives have changed in America after the 9/11 event. Discrimination toward

Muslims got worse and many of their rights were denied. Many Americans mistreated Muslims

directly and indirectly after 9/11. Tarek Hamdi has lived in America for more than thirty years

with the status of someone with permanent residency. He is a Muslim and the father of four

children. He has followed society’s rules, paid all of his taxes, yet he was denied citizenship

because he is Muslim. He said, “This has been incredibly frustrating and truly demoralizing. No

person of faith, no honest man should have to face the discrimination I have, especially when

striving to take an oath of allegiance to the United States.”(“Civil Rights Groups File FOIA to

Uncover Racial and Religious Profiling”, 2010). This is a violation of 1st amendment right

because everyone has the freedom to practice their own religion. No person should be denied

citizenship because of their race, religion, or gender. Hamdi was not connected to the tragedies

that happened in the United States, yet he was viewed in a negative way. He was denied because

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of a small group of people who gave a wrong impression of Islam. Muslims face discrimination

in their workplace as well. It is becoming harder for Muslim students to find jobs after

graduation compared to other graduates. “The minister for employment, Margaret Hodge,

revealed that 76% of Muslim graduates of a working age are in jobs compared with 87% among

all graduates. In interviews, Muslims face discrimination which doesn’t let them get the job they

are worthy of” (“Finding jobs 'not easy' for Muslim graduates”, 2005). Because of the attacks

done by terrorist groups, Muslims are constantly discriminated against. They are not given the

same opportunities as others. Muslim people have nothing to do with any events that happened,

but they are facing difficulties because they follow the same religion as those terrorist groups.

The discrimination towards Muslim women is far worse than the discrimination that

Muslim men face. Muslim women are easy to recognize because they wear a headscarf or hijab.

Many Muslim women cover themselves according to their religious beliefs. These women may

wear a headscarf / hijab, loose clothing called abaya in public space and in front of men who are

not part of their family. Some women prefer to cover their face which is known as niqab.

However, in some situation Muslim women were denied to wear their head-coverings. Because

of their hijab, women have been fired from jobs and have been refused access to public places.

Muslim women often face discrimination and are targets for harassment, especially after the 9/11

event. It is difficult to get the exact statistics about discriminatory events, but the number of

discriminatory incidents are rising according to the ACLU.

Civil rights complaints filed with one Muslim advocacy group rose from 366 in 2000 to

2,467 in 2006, an increase of 674%. The same group reported that, in 2006, there were

154 cases of discrimination or harassment in which a Muslim woman's head covering

was identified as the factor that triggered the incident. The most common complaint in

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these cases was being prohibited from wearing a head covering, which accounted for 44

incidents. (“Discrimination against Muslim women- fact sheet”, 2008)

Americans fear Muslims and discriminate against them whenever they get a chance. People

should understand that discriminating against innocent Muslims will not prevent terrorist groups

from attacking other countries.

One example of how bad the discrimination towards Muslims is the case in the Bronx of

two Muslim sisters named Wilson and Lamis who were playing in a park near their home at

around 9:30. Two police officers went up to them and asked them to leave. Both sisters were

leaving the park following the cops, but suddenly one cop grabbed Wilson from behind, putting

her in a chokehold and wrestling her to the ground. The police had asked her for her ID but she

didn’t hear that. So that was how the police responded (Hafiz, 2013). In this case, what happened

to these two sisters is because of their religion. Many hijabi women are victims of verbal abuse

and also physical abuse. Muslim women’s right to wear a headscarf has been taken away while

working as police officers and in other occupations. They have also been fired from their job for

refusing to remove their headscarves. It is a common right to wear whatever individuals wants

which shows that Muslim women are being subjects to discriminate.

Another example of abuse because of religion is when one of my friends was traveling to

Florida. She had the attention of the entire airport because she and her family were wearing

headscarves and abaya- Islamic religious clothes. They had missed their flight because they were

taken to a “special” room with three security guards. Every inch of their body was searched and

their bags were searched. This process took about two hours. This is a common situation for

Muslim women who enter on airport. Muslim women are pointed out and treated differently to

others because of what they wear and what they believe in. They are discriminated against and

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viewed as dangerous. "Muslim women have been denied the right to wear a headscarf while in

jail, in courthouse detention, in correctional institutions, while accompanying family members to

court, and even while working in correctional institutions" (“Discrimination against Muslim

women- fact sheet”, 2008). Muslim women are facing problems all the time because of groups of

terrorist that identify as Muslim. As I have said, those Muslim groups of terrorist are just abusing

Islam and giving a bad image of Muslim in the society.

All these discrimination towards Muslim is because of the stereotype that “Muslims are

terrorists.” People are used to believing in stereotypes that they forget not everyone is the same

even if they follow the same religion. Just because a group of terrorist are Muslim, does not

mean that every single Muslim is also violent. I was surprised seeing that how bad is the

discrimination toward Muslims and how only a small number of people have favorable opinions

about Muslims. Also, I was surprised knowing how Saudi Arabia fund Taliban to have their own

sharia. Because the relation between Saudi Arabia and America is pretty good, but still Saudi

Arabia was funding those terrorist groups.

In this paper, the reason I defined Islam first and what a Muslim does is because I wanted

the reader to know about Islam. How Islam is not the one taught Muslims to become violent.

ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Taliban, Boko Haram all these groups identify as Muslim but they are not

following the religion. If all the Muslims in the world were terrorists then all the non-Muslims

would have been dead by now. But in reality, Muslims are dying because of those Muslim

terrorist groups. This is unfair to judge the religion only by the action of some groups of terrorist.

If ISIS represents Islam, then Hitler represent Germany, if all the Muslims are terrorist because

of the action ISIS then all the Christians are Ku Klux Klan. I wonder, why the media bring up the

whole religion Islam when they are talking about certain groups of terrorists. Hitler has killed

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near 6 million of Jews, but the media never said that he was a Christian terrorist, George Bush

has killed 1.3 million people in Iraq, but the media never said he was a Christian terrorist. When

people do kill others they call it crime, but when it is a group of Muslim that have commit the

crime, they call it Islamic militancy. Going back to the history, people who killed 100 million

more native Indians to discover America were non-Muslims, and near 100 million African

people died when Americans were bringing them to America as their slaves, those Americans

were non-Muslims. In the history, non-Muslims killed more people than those Muslim groups.

But the fact is that, when any Christian or American kills other people, the whole race or religion

is not getting blame for that. Then why whole religion Islam is getting blame for what ISIS,

Taliban, and Boko Haram are doing and why Muslim who are not involved to those groups are

suffering?

Media impacts the perception of a lot of people. There will always be news if any

Muslim terrorist group did something. But there is nothing on the media that something good has

done by people in the same religion, instead they suspect on those Muslim just like they

suspected Ahmed Mohamed, inventor of digital clock. Sometimes it’s the media that wants

people to misunderstand the religion. In my opinion, terrorism has no religion. They just abuse

the religion to get their work done. It’s the people who do evil things, not the religion. ISIS,

Taliban, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda identifies as Muslims, but they are opposing what the religion

told them to do. Because of these groups, other Muslims are facing discrimination which is

worse than dying. People die once when a bomb is dropped on them but people who are

scapegoats, die a thousand times when others act out of ignorance and judge them based on the

actions of a few psychopaths who claims to be Muslims.

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