It has been twenty years since September 11th, 2011. Two whole decades have passed after tragedy had struck in New York. While we mourn over what occurred every year by recognizing 9/11, American society has yet to properly talk about the severe effects this tragic attack had (and continues to have) on Muslim Americans all over the United States. In The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Moshan Hamid writes about the conflict he had with staying in the United States or remaining in Pakistan; he was a split person trying to live in a split world. Due to this conflict, he wrote The Reluctant Fundamentalist in order to have readers gain an insight into what America looks like through the eyes of an immigrant. Post 9/11, Hamid writes about how his friends faced constant discrimination, questioning, and harassment in the United States. Travelling became an inconvenience for him due to his Pakistani background and he began to realize that he would never be able to escape the effects of 9/11.
Farah Pandith from the Council of Foreign Relations writes that Americans began to develop such a strong voice of hatred for Muslim Americans that the overall message was that Muslims were to never be trusted. This universal message created heavy tension and unease among societies that changed the life many Muslim Americans. Despite 9/11 occurring two decades ago, Anti-Muslim hate crimes continue to be on the rise, with them spiking specifically in May and June 2021. While American nationalism is on the rise, it continues to “other” Muslim Americans (as well as other minority groups in America) and it causes them to question their true belonging in the United States and within their communities in society. This constant questioning leaves a long term impact and affects their sense of belonging and inclusion within the United States; their two identities (their American identity and their Muslim identity) are ‘split’.
American society continues to point out Muslims and make them feel as though they’re the enemy, which makes them feel like they constantly have to test their loyalty to the United States in order to avoid being targeted in a country that is meant to be a place for better opportunities. Because of the constant Islamophobia, many Muslim Americans are now more open to receiving hate and are raising their children to prepare them for the hate they could receive from those around them in school and in society in general.
Mineo, Liz. “Muslim Americans Reflect on the Impact of 9/11.” Harvard Gazette, Harvard Gazette, 11 Sept. 2021, https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/09/muslim-americans-reflect-on-the-impact-of-9-11/.
Reyes, Yacob. “Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes on the Rise, Advocacy Group Finds.” Axios, 25 July 2021, https://www.axios.com/anti-muslim-hate-crimes-bias-rises-d263bf3e-c556-4675-9a65-5098ca14b6b2.html.
“The U.S., Muslims, and a Turbulent Post-9/11 World.” Council on Foreign Relations, Council on Foreign Relations, https://www.cfr.org/article/us-muslims-and-turbulent-post-911-world.
Great in-depth presentation which offered insight into the book as well as provided background information in regards to the reading. This presentation offered me insight before reading the story in order to understand the author’s perspective. Due to the author experiencing racism as well as systemic injustices based on his ethnicity, the color of his skin, and ways of life such as clothing, he begins to model himself under these impressions changing his view of America. This ties into the concept of the “Other” as he is seen as a foreigner or outsider in the United States. This presentation offers insight into the post 9/11 framework as well as the prejudices the Muslims had to face. Additionally, I liked how you included the details about Muslims having to undertake a “split” identity furthermore affecting their sense of belonging and human connection towards others.
I think it is really interesting how you bring up the way that this affects Muslim-American children. It is awful that parents have to prepare their children for the racism that they face when they start going to school. Great presentation!
Hi!
I think you did a very good job on your context presentation! It is very in depth and gave me a great understanding of the background behind this weeks material. It makes me sick to my stomach how these children are treated, no one should ever have to go through that! Overall, great job!
I really enjoyed your context presentation as racism towards minorities is still an issue and specifically in this case against Muslim Americans. It is very true that after 9/11 this had a huge spike, and I think that the US government being in fear made decisions that were not right. I had a professor last year who worked for the CIA at that time and she had many stories to tell us about how this was true so I enjoyed relating that to your context presentation.
Thanks for the great information, especially on Farah Pandith, your presentation will help me better understand The Reluctant Fundamentalist.
Hi, this presentation is one that I think still is very personal to many Americans. One that our parents, grandparents, and older siblings can remember exactly where they were and what was happening at that moment. Rightfully so, this was an attack on the country that was very personal and made many realize how close these attacks could be. Unfortunately, with these attacks it seems as there has been a stereotype that has overcome some people that single out all of those who may look similar, but in reality have no ties to any one that was involved in the attack.
Hello!
Great context presentation! I always think it’s great to be able to get background about the topi which surrounds our reading for the week. This was great insight into how many Muslim Americans are viewed because of the events on September 11th, and really shows the long standing effects of this event. Great post!
Hello! I really enjoyed reading your presentation! The background information you provided was really great. I think that even after all of the years that have past there is still the hate crime happening because of what happened and that there most likely will always be that hate crime.
Hi, nice job on your presentation! I think your presentation was a great balance of facts and emotions. I will definitely put myself in a Muslim American’s shoes when reading the text this week. This perspective was very eye-opening to me and made me feel awful that Muslim Americans are still dealing with this discrimination today. The 9/11 tragedy was a turning point in American history that brought the country closer together. However, this Othering against Muslim Americans needs to stop because we are an equal and diverse country.
This is such a well-written post and includes a lot of interesting information. This story is one that really makes you think. Thank you for sharing your insight and helping me to better understand the reading.
I enjoyed your post! It was very insightful and had a nice explanation as to why The Reluctant Fundamentalist was written. It also had a good balance between explaining the tragedy of 9/11 while also explaining why Muslim Americans are being treated unfairly by the aftermath of this event.
Hello,
Great job! You provided a thoughtful post, which helps me better understand week 13 content. As you said in your post, “Americans began to develop such a strong voice of hatred for Muslim Americans that the overall message was that Muslims were to never be trusted”. I feel sympathetic about these innocent Muslim Americans. The experience of the Muslim Americans reminds me of the experience of Asian Americans during pandemic. The outbreak of Covid-19 virus caused the rise of anti-Asian racism all over the world. There are even some people think that Asians do not pay attention to hygiene, which eventually led to the outbreak of virus. Many Asian Americans were attacked both physically and verbally. I think these Asian Americans and Muslim Americans are all innocent and government should pay attention to these unequal treatments.
Thank you for posting this blog. It truly is amazing that we can keep learning so many different lessons and stories from 9/11.
I enjoyed reading your presentation. It is sad that even two decades later muslims and muslim immigrants are still being treated this way. They should not have to be preparing their kids for the hate they will receive.
Hello, really great post. It is really crazy to think that 20 years later, these ideas are still so relevant. Many people are very quick to draw conclusions just based on a single story. I hope this changes eventually in America. It is really great that we are recognizing this hate and hopefully this will make a difference in our generation.
Great context presentation! It helped provide extra background for this week’s reading. It will be interesting to read about the outside perspective of America from an immigrant’s perspective and how Americans continue to “other” Muslim Americans.
Hello! Great presentation. I really enjoyed reading and learning about something we can all do everyday to try to end stereotypes around Muslim-Americans. I am from New Jersey, and so a lot of my family and friends were deeply effected by 9/11. I know many friends who lost a parent, and family. My heart always hurts for them. When often discussing this tragedy, these victims do not express racism towards Muslim-Americans. I think this is crucial information because it shows the danger of stereotypes and racism and how deeply it can stretch.
Your presentation was very interesting to read, and I enjoyed it a lot. It makes me angry to think of the way that Americans still treat Muslims. They defend their poor treatment by lumping all Muslims into the group of people who played a role in 9/11. It’s sad to think about how much hatred and judgement people have. Your post offered a lot of background knowledge that is helpful for this week, great job!
Thank you for this post. It was very well written, and gives an important preface to this week’s reading. I was not aware that anti-muslim hate crimes were on the rise, and even more surprised that they had peaked this year. I thought quite the opposite. I will definitely be more on the look out for this going forward. I think I was a little blinded by the BLM movement and the anti-asian hate crimes that have also been happening recently.
Hello, I really enjoyed reading your contacts presentation. I gained a lot of knowledge from this. Racism towards Muslims increased tremendously after 9/11. No race should be discriminated based on a select few peoples actions. 9/11 was a traumatic experience for the United States but that does not give anyone the right to be racist. Again great presentation!
This was an excellent and eye-opening post. We do not talk about how this affected Muslim people living in America. They lived here and experienced the tragedy of it happening, yet there are still hate crimes committed against them. These hate crimes are unjust and people should not have to live this way because of their culture; the hate crimes now are against people that weren’t involved. We must make strides to stop these crimes.
Hello, I found your context presentation on the Reluctant Fundamentalist to be very interesting and insightful. While we discuss the events of 9/11 every year, nobody ever really seems to bring up that issues that Muslim Americans face because of this event. It is completely unfair that Muslim Americans have to face this discrimination and harassments due to events that occurred because of some bad people.
This was a really good presentation! It is so interesting to hear about how Muslim-Americans are still dealing with the aftermath of 9/11, but I wish they didn’t have to go through that. It’s not fair that they are hated for their culture, and it should be stopped. Overall great job!
Hi! Very interesting presentation! It is sad that Muslim-Americans are still facing discrimination after two decades. Muslim- Americans came to the US to live a better life with more opportunity yet they are still feeling targeted. Americans need to work on their Islamophobia. The US is meant to be a welcome county, not the opposite and we need to take steps in achieving that.
Hello, I enjoyed your presentation! It is crazy how innocent people of Muslim decent living in America are punished for the crimes from two decades ago. Even though they are the same race and ethnicity, does not mean the ones living in America today should be punished continuously for the crimes of the few that committed the tragedy years ago.
Hello, you did a great job on your presentation and it was well written out. You did a good job explaining the affects that 9/11 has on Muslim Americans. It is very unfortunate that Americans have made this presumption and have “othered” Muslim Americans. You should be able to feel safe and judgement free no matter where you are.
Hi! I enjoyed your presentation and thought it was well thought out. I liked how you tied in othering. It’s so sad to think that Muslims have to raise their kids to prepare for hate and question their belonging in America. While 9/11 was traumatic for Americans, that is no reason for the hatred that Muslims receive.
Great presentation. I feel it is good that security measures at airports were upgraded. Though it is horrible this comes with prejudice and hate towards the Muslim community. Hopefully in the future this can be turned around.
Great presentation I enjoyed reading it. Yes I agree with you that many Muslim Americans are being discriminated against due to what others have done many years ago. There are many of Muslims who kids are born American but people still treatment them wrong and unpleasant. When the world decides to grow up and except everyone for the person they are and not the person they think they are because of history things will be better in the long run for everyone.
Hello! Really tough to read about a subject as tough as 9/11 even if it were so long ago, the impact still remains. What of course stands out though is the lasting impact on the muslim community as of course it is completely ignorant to judge an entire religion based on the actions of a few bad apples. I really liked your use of the concept of the other in relation to how some muslims have been treated since the occurrence of 9/11, really fits the subject topic well, great post!
Hi, thank you for the insight on the The Reluctant Fundamentalist, It is sad that a group of people forced a single story on a whole group of people. It is interesting that Muslim discrimination is still rising today. I wish there was a way to figure out what the motivations were behind it.
This is very good background information for this weeks readings. It is very insightful to look at 9/11 and the impact it had on a lot of the things we do today. This was a very good presentation and I think you connected it well for the information we needed this week
Excellent context presentation. It is really upsetting that a single story really was forced on an entire group of people, and I can connect this to the ted talk about single stories we watched earlier in the semester. Its upsetting that Muslim discrimination is still present to this day and we need to come together rather than going against eachother.
Great context presentation. It really brought up some great points, and discussed the hard truth about how we have created a single story for a whole group. It is alarming to see how even 20 years after September 11, we are experiencing so many lasting effects of it.
Good job! Your article contains a lot of knowledge. Firstly, the first paragraph introduces the content of the novel, and secondly, the second paragraph quotes the sentences of the government spokesman. I think all these contents help me better understand the contents of this novel.Of course, I think it would be better if you could add some of your own ideas and suggestions to the article.
Hi this was a well written post! The fact that Muslim families have to just be open and prepare their families to the hate is unbelievable. This is young children and generations of humans we are talking about where their lives and feelings of identity are disrupted at a young age and is continued throughout their whole life with no hope for change. You made great comments about how this is eye opening to how America is and how America treats and sees others, as if they are “others.”
Hi. excellent job on your post! I liked how you explained the affects the bombing on 9/11 had on american muslims and how american´s are still pointing fingers and making muslims feel bad for something they didn´t partake in.
This was a wonderful presentation! It was well thought out and informative. It makes me so sad that American’s are so judgmental of Muslims from a single incident that ended up impacting an entire population as a whole when they had absolutely nothing to do with it. It’s unfair and not right, and I pray that this changes someday soon.
Excellent background introduction! As I expected, after 9 / 11, the Muslim community in the United States suffered a grave racist injustice, which has not been alleviated until today. I think this is a critical issue because the gap between different ethnic groups is widening, and one day this contradiction will lead to greater disaster.