How 9/11 Changed America

716 Words3 Pages

/11 changed the way of American life. Many lives were lost due to the awful attack, but unfortunately many Arab and Muslim Americans had to pay for the cost. Post 9/11 is a continuous struggle for many Muslim Americans. Due to 9/11 many Muslims face discrimination, racial prejudice, and hate crimes. All throughout our history, hate crimes were targeted towards minority groups, such as: African Americans, Latinos, Italians, Irish, Germans, and Asians; today, hate crimes are targeted towards Muslims. Prior to 9/11 Muslim Americans faced little to zero discrimination in the US because of their race or religion. Muslim Americans are targeted and stereotyped against. In the years 2001-2003 the number of hate crimes throughout the Muslim community …show more content…

Even a decade after 9/11 Muslims still received hate threats, such as, burning the holy Koran on the anniversary of 9/11 and vandalizing Mosques. According to “Gendered Islamophobia: Hate Crime Against Muslim Women” “In Ann Arbor, Michigan, on August 7, 2011, a motorist pulled up to a 21-year-old Palestinian woman while she was stopped at a red light and screamed racial epithets, yelling, ‘You’re a terrorist,’ and, ‘Your people need to be killed,’ before pointing a handgun at her” (Perry 84). These types of scenarios are happening all throughout the US today. Disha et al., states, while racially and ethically motivated hate crimes declined after 9/11, the number of Arab/Muslim hate crimes dramatically increased (40). Even though the percentage of hate crimes decreased after 9/11 for other racial groups it continued to grow for Arab/Muslim Americans. “In Race and Arab Americans Before and After 9/11: From Invisible Citizens to Visible Subjects” Amira Jarmakani states, “situating the events of September 11, 2001, as a "turning point" rather than a starting point of Arab and Muslim American …show more content…

In Behind the Backlash: Muslim Americans After 9/11 the author states, “Arabs are caught between Census categories (where they appear as "white") and reality, between ‘us’ and ‘them.’ (Suhay136). Because of 9/11 many Arab/Muslim Americans are placed into another category, resulting in many Arab/Muslims feeling unwanted in their own lands even though they hold US passports. Often times the 9/11 attacks is said to have united the Americans, but many Muslim/Arab Americans who lived in the US for many years were not allowed to share the same grief many Americans did, but instead, many Muslim Americans were looked upon as terrorists