{"id":8574,"date":"2011-09-08T13:26:23","date_gmt":"2011-09-08T17:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/?p=8574"},"modified":"2012-12-26T20:08:01","modified_gmt":"2012-12-27T01:08:01","slug":"september-11th-and-the-legacy-of-islamophobia-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/cultural-correspondent\/09\/08\/september-11th-and-the-legacy-of-islamophobia-in-america\/","title":{"rendered":"September 11th And The Legacy Of Islamophobia In America"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was 11 years old. After the first plane hit, teachers took kids in from the playground and quickly ushered them into the classrooms. Some of them turned on TVs; others did not. Mine did. At that age, I was not fully able to comprehend what I saw. Though what I did see — buildings stripped to skeletal foundations, men and women covered in ash wandering the streets like ghosts, and remnants of homes, identities, and belongings strewn about like shattered glass — left quite an indelible mark in my heart. Ten years later, I think that this was my first glimpse into how fragile a nation and its unity can truly be. Funny, then, that we have chosen to rebuild ourselves and attack others with some of the very things that caused the mass destruction to begin with.<\/p>\n

\"islamophobia\"<\/center><\/p>\n

Although the neologism that is Islamophobia dates back to the 1990\u2019s, it was not until after September 11, 2001 that the intolerance was so rampantly widespread that Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations, stated that \u201cwhen the world is compelled to coin a new term to take account of increasingly widespread bigotry, that is a sad and troubling development.\u201d While its definition, and for that matter, existence as a term, is contentious, many agree that Islamophobia is the hatred and fear of Islam and by extension, all Muslims. Though as much as I would like to say that American Islamophobia only emerged after 2001, the unfortunate truth is that it and the driving themes behind it have been around for quite some time; it is only after that cataclysmic day that it reared its ugly head that much higher.<\/p>\n

\"Antisemitism<\/p>\n

According to Hussein Ibish<\/a>, Senior Research Fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine, what we recognize today as Islamophobia is merely a reincarnation of 20th century anti-Semitism, a time when it was popular to create fantastical scenarios wherein Judaism and its followers were \u201cdedicated to plotting and carrying out the violent overthrow of American and Christian Capitalist society.\u201d Sound familiar? That\u2019s because it is.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ibish also uncovered some other popular anti-Semitic literature of the era, and the parallels between now and then are alarmingly similar. Just substitute \u201cMuslim\u201d for \u201cJews\u201d in statements like \u201cJewish immigration to the United States is a weapon of this war and a mortal peril\u201d or \u201cJews are religiously authorized to lie to, cheat, steal from and murder non-Jews whenever possible,\u201d and you\u2019ve got a winner.<\/p>\n

\"oklahama<\/center><\/p>\n

Coming a little closer to September 11, the entire Muslim-American population was quick to be called the culprit for another horrific terrorist attack, this time at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. KFOR, the local news station, received an anonymous phone call that day from a man who claimed his membership to the \u201cNation of Islam\u201d as well as the responsibility for the bombing. Although unaware if the claim was accurate, the news station chose to air this claim several times that day, which resulted in over 200 hate crimes being committed to Arab and Muslim Americans in the next 72 hours, according to a report by the Arab American Institute. Suffice it to say, the perpetrator was not, in fact, a Muslim, but rather Timothy McVeigh, a homegrown terrorist who claimed to be a devout Christian.<\/p>\n

Despite the fact that those responsible for the unnecessary deaths on September 11 were by no means identical to the majority of Muslims in America (much like many devout Christians are nothing like Timothy McVeigh), and the fact that over 300 people who died that day were Muslim, the unwarranted hatred continued, this time with a vengeance. From 2000 to 2001, the amount of hate crimes<\/a> (pdf) committed against Arab-Americans quadrupled. <\/p>\n