Adversity
When you hear the word “terrorist” you probably think of a crazy-looking guy holding an AK-47 out of the back of a Toyota pickup truck in the middle of some desert. When I hear the word terrorist, I think about the countless times I was called this just because I come from a Muslim background. Discrimination against Muslims ran rampant following the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers. This is because a vast number of Americans were led to believe that all Muslims were psychopathic killers and since most Americans don’t personally know a Muslim, it was easy for them to generalize all Muslims to be this way. This led to violence against Muslims and a crackdown on Muslims from the federal level. The Bush administration did this with the establishment of NSEERS.
NSEERS or the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System was established in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks as a counter-terrorism method. This system basically mandated that citizens of 25 Muslim-majority nations would be subject to secondary screening and more documentation upon entry and exit from the United States (“National Security Entry-Exit Registration System | American Civil Liberties Union”). When I think about this program, I go back and begin to ponder upon the words of the Declaration of Independence. “All Men are created equal” (“Declaration of Independence: A Transcription”). When you truly think about it, are they really equal if one man can pass through the airport no questions asked but the other is subject to scrutiny based solely on their religious and ethnic affiliation? America’s legacy of racism carried into the 21st century and culminated in discriminatory policies against a new group of people, Muslims.
One surprising aspect about all of this is that not all facets of American society were overcome with discrimination against Muslims. During my conversation with alumnus Abed Islam, I asked him if he faced any discrimination at Poly following the 9/11 attacks as he was a student at that time. He told me that he did not face any types of harassment or discrimination within Poly (Chowdhury, The Muslim Experience at NYU Tandon). This surprised me because I was given to believe that even within institutions, discrimination existed because I was verbally harassed for being Muslim up until high school. One idea I have of why this did not occur within Poly is because there was a large group of Muslims already present in Poly at the time and when people personally know someone of a particular ethnic or religious group, it is harder for them to generalize them as they already have an idea of who these people really are. One thing that Abed did mention however was that he got profiled outside of school in the subway when he got stopped and frisked even when he was dressed like everyone else (Chowdhury, The Muslim Experience at NYU Tandon). This aligns with what I heard from others who lived through this period in New York City.
One of the main perpetrators of the anti-Muslim narrative following 9/11 was the media. In a contributing editor in the Polytechnic Reporter, the author writes "Followed by CNN, all channels showed the clip of Palestinians rejoicing the clip of Palestinians rejoicing the attack at the WTC. But how many times did they make a correction when later it was made clear that the Palestinian tape was actually shot 10 years ago in 1991" (Polytechnic Reporter). This insight was very fascinating to me because this debunked video was even mentioned by Donald Trump during his presidential campaigns. The media spread disinformation yet they did not do an adequate job of correcting their mistake. This polarization effort led by the media is what further propagated all the Muslims as the primary perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks and therefore subjected them to discrimination and harassment.