Islam 9/11

The 9/11 attacks rocked the entire planet to the point of making everyone take a closer look at life and everyone living it. For some this meant appreciating our neighbors more. For others this meant seeing your fellow neighbor with eyes of hatred. The group of people who were caught in the eyesight of that hatred was the Islamic community.

The 9/11 attacks were carried out by the radical Islamic terror organization known as Al-qaeda, headed up by Osama Bin Laden. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks world news media began shining a big light on the underworld of radical Islam. Unfortunately many people didn’t make a distinction between radical Islam and regular Islam.

After 9/11 emotions were running high and understandably so. Many Americans were angry and trying to figure out to who they needed to direct their anger. When the Islamic background of the perpetrators came to light many people started seeing Muslims as the problem and that they needed to be eradicated from our society. Many Muslims across the country faced persecution and harassment following the attacks.

If anyone were to ask me who took the biggest loss after 9/11, without hesitation I would say it was Islam. That might sound baffling to many, but think about it for a second. Because the terrorist who perpetrated these attacks were Muslim, many people saw Muslims as the enemy and treated them like such. In the immediate days after 9/11 many attacks on Muslim civilians were made. A lot of Muslim mosques in New York were recieving phone calls with prejudicial remarks being made as well as death threats. Muslim men, women and children were also being physically assaulted at school, on their jobs and even just leaving out of their homes on a regular basis. Even people who weren’t Muslim but resembled them based on being brown skinned were also attacked

As the attacks and harassment grew many Muslims, as well as many Indians who wore clothing and hijabs that resembled Islamic garments stopped wearing their traditional attires out of fear of being harassed and assaulted. Like I said before, this behavior is why I feel that Muslims lost the biggest sense of security after 9/11. They didn’t deserve to be treated like the enemy just because they claimed the same religion as the terrorist who were behind the attacks. The average Muslim walking down the street doesn’t believe in the radicalized views that these terrorist harbor and as they saw the attacks unfold on television they watched in horror just like everyone else did.

The other reason why I feel Islam lost the most on 9/11 is because 60 of the 9/11 victims were also Muslims. Imagine how painful that had to be for the family members of the Muslim victims. You were at school, work or even at home watching the attacks unfold on television in fear for your loved one who was trapped in the towers and when the towers came down you were hoping and praying that loved one made it out alive, only to find out they didn’t. So now you’re grieving for your lost loved one and you’re in fear for your life because everyone sees you as a suspect because you share a religious connection with the people who committed this heinous act.

Something that also rings bells of heartache is the fact that there were Muslim heroes of 9/11. One of them was Mohammed Salman Hamdani. Hamdani was a Pakistani-American police cadet and an EMT who witnessed the unfolding crashes at the Twin Towers on his way to work that morning and used his law enforcement and medical credentials to head down to the towers and lend aid. At first Hamdani was suspected of being involved in the attacks until a lengthy investigation was carried out and Hamdani’s human remains and medical bag were found under the rubble of the north tower in October of 2001, 45 days after the attack. He was eventually hailed a hero by the New York Police Department, as well as congress and was mentioned in the Patriot Act by president George W. Bush.

Even before 9/11 you had Muslim military leaders who were allies with the United States military in their fight against radical Islam and even tried to warn the United States of the coming attacks before they happened. One such person was Ahmed Shah Massoud, the leading Commander of the Northern Alliance of Afghanistan. Al-qaeda even had Massoud assasinated two days before the attack in anticipation that the US military would link up with the Northern Alliance in their efforts to pursue Bin Laden and the Taliban. After the attack the United States military immediately connected with the Northern Alliance in a joint effort to take down Al-qaeda and the Taliban.

To this day the Islamic community is still dealing with the aftermath of 9/11. They have forever dealt with the stigmas of terrorism being tied to their identity. It’s not easy for them to walk into a large building or an airport and not get nasty looks. My heart breaks for them and I pray for a day when the rest of the world will realize that 9/11 was just as much their tragedy as it was ours.

~Dedicated to every Muslim who was effected by 9/11/01.