September 11: for American Muslims, nothing has ever been the same after the attacks

Audio 02:30

Two young girls in the Brooklyn neighborhood of New York (illustrative image).

Getty Images via AFP - STEPHANIE KEITH

By: Loubna Anaki Follow

5 mins

After 9/11, the United States adopted a series of security measures designed to protect the country.

But these policies and the rhetoric that accompanied them for years had consequences for Muslim Americans.

Especially since certain decisions adopted in recent years, such as the Muslim Ban, are a continuation of what happened on September 11.

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From our correspondent in New York,

“ 

Everyone says they remember exactly where they were that day. I think I am one of the few who does not remember very well

 ”. When the 9/11 attacks took place, Isra Al Dosoughi was just 9 years old. If her memories of that day are fuzzy, she knows things have never been the same again. “ 

I believe that before, Muslims went unnoticed. There was not necessarily negativity towards us but things changed after that, for the years that followed, until today.

 Isra is all the more concerned because she wears the veil, which sometimes earns her insults in the street, even today.

In 2001, 500 Islamophobic acts had been recorded against twenty the previous year. Since then, the numbers have never returned to their pre-attack level. In 2016, during Donald Trump's campaign, a new increase was even recorded.

“ 

People look at us differently. And that was not the case before. My identity was not at the heart of daily discussions as it is now. The fact of being a Muslim, a Palestinian, we didn't talk about it as much before,

 ”explains Waleed Abbasi, who was also 9 years old in 2001. Unlike Isra, he remembers those times. “

I understood from the way my parents spoke or avoided saying certain things that they worried that our world would change. I remember they put an American flag on our balcony.

 "

Racism, American policies are all reasons that pushed this native of New Jersey to become a lawyer. “ 

I wanted to regain faith in our American justice, our democracy and I wanted to be part of the change,

 ” he says.

Waleed has a particular experience with the NYPD when he was in college.

New York police were spying on the Muslim student association to which he belonged.

A vast spy program that also targeted mosques, charities and political organizations, revealed in 2012. “ 

We weren't doing anything wrong!

We were 18-19 and we were talking about girls and rap songs.

When we found out that we were being watched, it shook me, because it destroyed my right to privacy,

 ”recalls the young man /

Waleed and Isra both explain that growing up in post 9/11 America made them more invested in the politics of their country, because somehow those politics have to have consequences on their daily lives.

►Also read: September 11: 20 years later, the World Trade Center between commemoration and reconstruction

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  • United States

  • Islam

  • Racism

  • September 11, 2001

Our guests

  • Loubna Anaki