The U.S. Muslim neighborhood nonetheless lives below the shadow of hate and discrimination that discovered its manner into the nation over 20 years in the past within the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist assaults.
“After 22 years, unfortunately, Islamophobia has taken root and become part of the structure of racism that exists in parts of our country,” stated Hussam Ayloush, chief government officer of the California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CA).
Ayloush informed Anadolu that just about 1 million of the estimated 5 million Muslims residing within the U.S. reside within the state of California and identified that harassment and prejudice towards the Muslim neighborhood stay prevalent a long time after 9/11.
“More than 50% of Muslim students in California face some form of verbal and physical bullying at public schools just for being Muslim,” stated Ayloush.
“In addition, there are nonetheless authorities watchlists for practically 1.6 million individuals, nearly all of whom are Muslims, who’ve their names on the journey watchlist or have Muslim-sounding names.
“The types of abuses that came out of 9/11 that the government took part in became a part of how Islamophobia evolved,” he continued.
“Muslims being harassed at airports, having the FBI conduct searches as well as plant informants at mosques and giving federal agencies like the FBI and CIA the green light to track Muslims from countries such as Syria, Libya and Sudan.”
Hate crimes towards Muslims skyrocketed instantly after the 9/11 assaults, rising 1,617% from 2000 to 2001, in accordance with statistics from the FBI. That extreme spike marked among the highest numbers of hate crimes towards the Muslim neighborhood in U.S. historical past.
“The U.S. government under the George W. Bush administration needed an enemy that would allow the new conservatives to launch their campaign and 9/11 created a perfect pretext to make Muslims the enemy,” Ayloush defined, saying that each stereotype of the Muslim neighborhood was used to harass, mistreat and detain anybody becoming that mould.
“How we ate, how we dressed, how we spoke became suspicious,” he stated concerning the discrimination Muslims confronted after 9/11.
“If they rented a truck to maneuver their furnishings, the FBI can be known as on them. If a Muslim traveled too many occasions in another country or withdrew a number of money for his or her business, they have been perceived as doing one thing improper and the FBI can be known as to research.
“9/11 created momentum to build and shift the bigotry and xenophobia in America to justify discrimination against Muslims. It allowed them to say ‘I don’t hate all Muslims, just the ones who do x, y or z,’ only to justify their hate,” stated Ayloush.
“Islamophobia was already strong prior to 9/11,” stated Louise Cainkar, a professor of sociology at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin who focuses on Arab and Muslim American Studies.
“The immediate backlash against all perceived Muslims proved that to be the case,” Cainkar informed Anadolu Agency (AA). “That relies on the perception that all are the same. Such perceptions are never applied to whites or Christians. Of course, the framing that 9/11 was a ‘Muslim thing’ – something inherent in being Muslim – just made it worse.”
With many Muslims being labeled terrorists and being in comparison with al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden, Cainkar stated the Muslim neighborhood in America appeared to fade into the shadows instantly following the 9/11 assaults.
“At first, they somewhat ‘went into hiding,’ meaning they conducted their lives very quietly,” stated Cainkar. “Then, they built organizations to fight for their rights, built solidarity with other groups and eventually became strong components of U.S. civil society.”
The Muslim empowerment and equality motion within the United States has taken greater than 20 years of battle and persistence to evolve to the place it’s now. But even after 22 years, the identical components from 9/11 and pre-9/11 proceed to stoke fears in some Americans.
“The same stereotypes may be used: Violent, terrorist, and oppressive to women,” stated Cainkar. “Their use for political gain rises at election times and war times.”
The backside line is that Islamophobia exists within the current, though 9/11 has light into the previous.
“Studies have shown that it increases not only in connection to real-world events but at times of U.S. elections. Thus I expect that if Muslims again become a target of campaign rhetoric this year, (we) will see an increase,” Cainkar continued, making reference to former President Donald Trump, who’s presently campaigning for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Trump made it worse
“So far, I know Trump says he is going to expand ‘the ban,’ but he did not use the word ‘Muslim’ in the quote I saw. But people know what it means.”
She was referring to the Trump administration’s restrictions which barred practically all vacationers from 5 primarily Muslim nations – Syria, Iran, Yemen, Libya, Somalia – from coming into the United States. Chad, North Korea and Venezuela have been later added.
Ayloush concurred with that notion, saying the correlation of 9/11 to Islamophobia reworked right into a a lot deeper type of discrimination throughout Trump’s 2016 presidential marketing campaign and after he was voted into workplace.
“When Trump got here into the image, he reignited and popularized being racist in America along with his base espousing the assumption that ‘I’m not the one one who thinks that manner’ and condoning racism in direction of Mexicans, Blacks, Asians, Jews and Muslims.
“Believe it or not, we saw another wave of Islamophobia that was more vicious and more intense than what we saw after 9/11,” Ayloush continued. “Trump launched a campaign that entailed fear of Muslims and fear of Islam and revived Muslims as a threat. That’s when we began seeing new acts of Islamophobia including school bullying, discrimination against Muslims and targeting of mosques with vandalism and hate speech which became much greater in scope than we saw after 9/11.”
Ayloush stated that sort of maximum Islamophobia is outstanding right now.
“Unfortunately, the numbers have gone up again. We’re witnessing a resurgence of Islamophobia. But to be fair, more people are reporting these cases of discrimination than they were immediately after 9/11,” he stated. “Islamophobia still exists, but we’re dealing with it on a much larger level through policy issues.”
Cainkar believes that anti-Muslim views are stimulated by U.S. international insurance policies and wars, no matter who’s president.
“These stereotypes are played on to promote popular support for them. They are also stimulated to buttress the U.S. government’s backing, or not condemning, the actions of an ally (such as Israel or France) perceived to be engaged in anti-Arab and/or anti-Muslim actions,” stated Cainkar.
“Therefore, as long as the U.S. engages in violence in parts of the Muslim majority world or supports allies who do, those stereotypes will remain … 9/11 did not cause them, so distance from 9/11 alone will not remove them.”
Cainkar defined that vital steps have been taken over the previous 20 years to create a greater understanding of the U.S. Muslim neighborhood.
“Muslims have built organizations and done a great job building solidarities,” she stated. “Those are across religious groups, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) organizations, and civic groups. So I would say Muslims have been at the forefront of producing this change.”
But change is not going to come straightforward, in accordance with Ayloush.
“Racism still exists, but we have to make sure we can contain Islamophobia and racism in general,” he stated. “Make sure it is illegal to discriminate based on race and make sure people are punished and penalized for doing so. Make sure the public majority is not silent and is willing to speak up when necessary and stand up to those who engage in Islamophobia and racism.”
Ayloush believes that sentiment transcends properly past the 22 years since 9/11 introduced Islamophobia to the forefront of American society.
“I don’t think we’re going to have an illusion that we can ever make Islamophobia or racism disappear,” he stated. “If anyone thinks that, they will be disappointed.”
“We cannot allow for the targeted victims to defend themselves because an attack on one is an attack on all,” he continued. “If we watch a group being targeted and we do not act or speak up, then we are part of the problem because we are allowing that racist behavior to be normalized.”
Source: www.dailysabah.com
