By Hannah Carley
Today is the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. One of the many unfortunate consequences of that day is that Islamophobia persists through Western mainstream media and current geopolitical events today.
A professor at the University of Colorado Boulder helped deconstruct what plays into aged and modern Islamophobic attitudes, analyzing what has gone into shaping a modernized American view of Muslims.
Professor Aun Hasan Ali said that, compared to the era when the Persian Gulf War was coming to a close, the general population is much more accommodating to Muslims today. Though progress has been made, the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks has shifted the American sociopolitical landscape through years of influential legislation and questionable media practices.
Legislation affecting privacy and travel intimidated a generation of American Muslims, while leaving a lasting impact on the next generations. Pop culture depictions of Muslims as terrorists have left a lasting impact on mainstream American perceptions of Muslim families and individuals.
Ali said the public often misunderstands the relationship between Sept. 11 and the American Islamophobia problem. Ali said attitudes toward Muslims did not begin in 2001, but negative perceptions grew over decades.
“I'm not sure that Sept. 11 was unique, in that way,” Ali said. “I think that it was, you know, it was an episode in a series of episodes, and after each of those episodes there was, you know, there was discrimination against us.”
Ali said impactful historical events, such as the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the 1991 Persian Gulf War, influenced American opinions. The First Persian Gulf War had occurred just a decade before the 9/11 attacks.
Ali said events like this have become almost cyclical, almost certain to continue. Ali said this can explain some of the Islamophobia displayed after the attacks, as the public had been primed to fall into negative, Islamophobic attitudes.
There was a large spike in anti-Muslim hate crimes during the same month as the 9/11 attacks, according to FBI Crime Data. In the month after the attacks, October 2001, hate crimes targeting Muslims declined, but were still higher than before the 9/11 attacks. Since the attacks, however, the hate crime numbers have remained higher than before the attacks.
Ali also said perceptions of Muslims can be heavily influenced by the types of Western media representation available. He said Western media portrayed Muslims as terrorists before the 9/11 attacks, such as in “True Lies” (1994) and “Executive Decision” (1996).
“They're already part of the culture, right? Like, how many times have you seen a movie in Hollywood where a Muslim or an Arab character is speaking, but actually, they're not saying anything; it's just jibberish,” Ali said. “The lumping together of Muslims into like one mass, where distinctions aren't. That's very old.”
Ali said increased surveillance of Muslims after the 9/11 attacks created fear within Muslim communities, as the government strengthened security measures through the USA Patriot Act of 2001. Ali said during the decade after the attacks, federal surveillance was unprecedented. American Muslims faced growing concerns of government entrapment and investigation.
“There was a kind of fear, and again, I was older, so maybe people who were my age after the Iranian Revolution had the same fear, but at least for me and for the people that I knew it was a greater fear or like, getting caught up in something.”
Ali said many Muslims have ties with the countries they or their family have immigrated from. The federal government continues to examine these ties closely, using powers granted by the Patriot Act, among others, to conduct investigations.
“I think a lot of people became very concerned about sending money to, you know, disaster zones, or something like that,” Ali said. “I think that became challenging.”
The federal government passed additional legislation, creating the Department of Homeland Security and tightening regulations around international students and immigration.
The National Security Entry-Exit Regulation System required non-citizen men from “countries of interest” to register with the government. These countries included Arab and majority-Muslim nations, and North Korea. The Obama Administration ended NSEERS in 2011 and formally removed the regulation in 2016.
Ali said the Sept. 11 aftermath affected not only Muslims, but other communities, as well. He said a unique aspect of the attacks was that other communities were roped into anti-Muslim bigotry. Ali said, at the time, Sikhs were targeted based on a profile of appearance and level of visibility.
“I think anybody that could plausibly look Muslim, whatever that means, could potentially be roped into that,” Ali said.
Today, the social landscape has shifted in a different direction, as American culture has become more inclusive. In the past couple of decades, online and political discourse around diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace has led to a more accepting political landscape.
Ali said there is a major difference between Islamophobia and criticism of Islam. He said Islamophobia should have a specific definition when used to protect criticism or simple ignorance. Ali said many reach for a “language of grievance” to be heard in discourse, when questions, back-and-forth and productive conversation can prove fruitful. “I feel students are afraid that if they express criticisms, then they’re being Islamophobic, and I think that is what they’re taught when they’re younger in schools,” Ali said.
“So that makes me uncomfortable, that makes me uneasy,” he said. “And I think it makes a lot of other people uneasy.”