Fourteen years after the horrific attack, it’s time we remember the other victims of 9/11 — American Muslims.
This past Friday was the 14 anniversary of 9/11 and my Facebook newsfeed — like yours — was abounding with posts of somber remembrance, reflective tribute and heartening patriotism. Most of these posts were wholly appropriate and substantiated. A few were not. As I browsed, I came across a disturbing meme “Islamophobic and proud of it!” I scrolled down immediately, so to remove the bigotry from my screen. I found no relief. Below was a dated picture with the Twin Towers still standing. In the foreground, white text “Imagine a world without Muslims.”
September 11, 2001, was a horrific day for many Americans. Husbands lost wives, wives lost husbands. Children lost parents, parents lost children. Lovers lost lovers and friends lost friends. I cannot begin to fathom the depths of their despair. 9/11 was perhaps one of the most significant days in contemporary American history. I am part of the last cohort of college students who will remember what it was like to be alive on September 11, 2001. For the first time in my life, at the age of seven, I was acutely aware of my nationality. On that day, sometime between 8:46 A.M. and 10:28 A.M., the collective American identity changed immeasurably.
In the coming months and years, our nation waged its “War on Terror,” vowing to bring the perpetrators to justice. Subsequent investigations revealed that the 19 hijackers were affiliated with al-Qaeda, the radical Islamist military organization with which we are painfully familiar. Regardless of political or economic motivations, the 19 men did what they did in the name of Allah, and so, September 11, 2001, was indeed a horrific day for many Americans — American Christians, American Atheists and perhaps especially, American Muslims.
In the 14 years since 9/11, we have nourished a ruinous cancer. Our nation’s anti-Muslim sentiment has marginalized, misrepresented and fundamentally misunderstood the people who in one way or another align themselves with the Prophet’s teachings. We have somehow normalized the idea that all Muslims act as a homogeneous and cohesive entity. Of course, it is absurd to claim that all Muslims believe the same things, just as it would be absurd to say that all Christians (Catholics and Protestants alike) are identical in their beliefs and practices. But there is a double standard. We recognize our own individuality while denying Muslims any shred of agency.
It seems absurd that I even have to say this but when it comes to qualifiers, Muslim and terrorist are not synonymous. Furthermore, Islam isn’t a nation and those who identify as Muslim don’t invoke a nationality. Many of the Muslims who have been told to “go home” are in fact American citizens; they have as much right to be here as any of us. And yet these disgusting attitudes persist. Just last week an American Sikh (not Muslim) from Chicago was sent to the hospital after he was attacked and called a “terrorist” and “Bin Laden.”
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I wish I could say that these hate crimes are rare. And while these physical attacks are despicable, it is our silent xenophobia that poisons us most.
I do not mean to suggest that American Muslims have suffered more grief than those who lost immediate family or friends in the worst terrorist attack our country has ever seen. The individuals who lost their lives were innocent and we should, of course, applaud the heroic efforts of the first responders. In this way, we should forever acknowledge, appreciate and honor their endeavors. But, we have been told time and time again to “never forget.” What is it that we aren’t forgetting? If some inaccurate part of our memory reinforces this nation’s collective Islamophobia, then maybe that part we’d be better off forgetting.
Grace Eberly is a senior studying world religions and biology. Do you think 9/11 created Islamophobia in the United States? Email her at ge713313@ohio.edu.
