On the untold legacy of 9/11

On September 11th, 2001, 19 terrorists associated with al-Qaeda, an Islamic extremist group, hijacked four planes and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States. Two planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, and a third plane hit the Pentagon (the HQ of the US Department of Defence).

Almost 3000 people were killed - the deadliest terror attack to take place on US soil.

The lives lost can never be replaced. The shock and pain felt across the world can never be forgotten. As we approach the 21 year anniversary of this horrific attack, we anticipate content on social media to be about remembering the day, the heroes and the lives lost. So we wanted to offer a perspective of what happened after.

For many Millennials and Gen Z today, the attacks occurred when we were too young to fully grasp what was going on (and definitely too young to be watching it happen on tv), or we weren't even born yet. Sept 11, 2001 changed our world as we know it, so let's take some time to unpack and understand it.

The attacks on September 11th were a devastating tragedy, and a crime against humanity committed by extremists who don't represent Islam. Millions of people watched the events unfold live, and bonded with grief and sorrow, have held onto their enduring memories. This trauma bond, paired with how the media and US officials intentionally portrayed the issue, fueled a "united" hatred of all Muslims.

Here's the thing, there were Muslims - Americans - that died during 9/11. There were Muslim first responders, and Muslims who lost loved ones. So why did the US officials and it's media paint all Muslims as the bad guy, and not just the terrorists?

The 9/11 attacks placed an undeserved target on the backs of every Muslim in the West and beyond, causing a massive increase in Islamophobia and aggressive foreign policy that haunts brown people to this day. But we can’t talk about present day Islamophobia or instability in the west Asia (colonially referred to as Middle East) until we know about the context that started it all, and we have a responsibility to remember.

There is always a good guy and a bad guy

You may have noticed how in history, there's always a 'good guy' and a 'bad guy,' and that narrative is rooted in relationships of power. The powerful (read: yt, wealthy, Christian, cis-het males) use prejudice to politically and culturally define those who are 'good,' while marking who it would be considered acceptable to attack and discriminate against (this sounds all too familiar 👀).

After the highest profile terrorist attack of the time, suddenly, the West had a new collective enemy. The real lives of Muslims were simplified and distorted - the diversity of practices and beliefs of 1.9 billion people flattened into a simple picture of America-haters who shared one essential thing: Islam.

It didn't matter where you were from, how long you'd lived in North America, or even if you were Muslim at all. Every single brown-skinned, 'Muslim-looking,' and Arab person became 'the bad guy'—even though Fatima from HR had nothing to do with the attacks.

The rise of the “Dangerous Muslim” in media

Shortly after 9/11, the bad guys in movies, tv, video games, etc, became Muslims. Think about your favourite shooter video games and American war movies - who are the bad guys? It's no accident that West Asian men are always on the other side of the gun. Our media began to - and to a large extent still does - constantly reinforce anti-Muslim rhetoric.

In fact, in the months following the attacks, Pentagon officials met with (and incentivized) Hollywood producers to brainstorm narratives that sell the War on Terror to the viewers at home. Remember Homeland? The CIA literally invited the producers to their headquarters and gave them episode ideas.

Media representations shape our perception of reality, but they're controlled by the white people in power (and sometimes actually edited by the Government). We need to start questioning how our favourite movies, like Black Hawk Down or Argo, paint Muslims and Arabs as barbaric woman-haters, hopelessly inferior, incapable of democracy, and deserving of Western invasion as though we 'need saving.'

Islamophobia

Islamophobia existed long before 9/11. But it intensified after the attacks.

The Ontario Human Rights Commission defines Islamophobia as “stereotypes, bias or acts of hostility towards individual Muslims or followers of Islam in general.

In just 6 months after the 9/11 attacks, hate crimes against Muslims rose by 1617%

The first recorded death from racial hate crimes after 9/11 was an Indian-American Sikh named Balbir Singh Sodhi. Because racist white people can't tell the difference between different religions and ethnicities, Sikhs, who often wear turbans (read: visibly "different") often bore the brunt of hate.

Muslims and Muslim-looking people were placed into a very precarious position, straddling the line between model minority and perpetual outsider. Even if the public didn't think that every Muslim was literally doing terrorism, Muslims were surveilled and disciminated against as if they supported the attacks, had a violent disposition, and werebackwards, tribal brutes.

"The War on Terror"

The War on Terror is an ongoing international military campaign launched by the U.S after 9/11, attempting to target extremist Islamic terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS. Canada, as part of NATO, is an active part of this.

The War on Terror justified the costly invasions in Afghanistan and Iraq by suggesting that soldiers were "fighting for our freedom" and for global security from the "Islamic threat." Even though the US accomplished their goals (to defeat Al-Qaeda and eliminate Osama bin Laden) literally within months, they continued to terrorize the West Asia for years.

Hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslims in America and Canada were profiled, secretly surveilled, arrested, put on no-fly lists, and detained just because of their religion. Millions of civilians in the West Asia were killed at the hands of NATO in these wars; cultures and communities were forever destroyed.

Ironically, the 'War on Terror' terrorized millions of people who had absolutely nothing to do with the attacks on 9/11. We'll unpack this bullshit revenge plan more in a future post.

The Legacy of “See Something, Say Something”

“If you see something, say something” became the unofficial slogan post-9/11. The mantra, posted on billboards and public transportation, turned every day (mainly white) people into amateur anti-terrorism crusaders. It should come as no surprise that white people, who we know falsely accuse Black people on the regular, had no problem jumping into these new roles - and the perceived power that came with it.

This resulted in innocent Muslims being under constant surveillance by their friends, neighbours, colleagues, peers, baristas and more.

Now pair that with the actual surveillance that countries like the US and Canada unethically forced onto Muslim communities. The CIA surveilled mosques, shisha bars, student associations, and more, with undercover officers weaselling their way into the real lives of Muslims and coercing them into admitting to petty crimes, just to detain brown folks with no connection to terrorism whatsoever.

Having an 'ancestry of interest' (🤨) or a Muslim name was enough to put you on a no-fly list, even if you were a toddler.

Another Canadian Fallacy

Just like with every crisis that hits our neighbours across the border, Canada loves to act high and mighty. Although the 9/11 attacks happened in America, Canada was and is part of the Western response to it. The rise in Islamophobia and the political fallout that followed is a huge part of our legacy too.

The West treated all Muslims as if they were card-carrying members of a terrorist group that the vast majority of Muslims do not support. Yet, the west spent decades talking about how evil and horrible Muslims are while covering The War On Terror nightly on the news. Our media and government officials would never say that all Christians carried the same values and beliefs of the KKK, and yet they didn't hesitate to do that to Muslims.

Muslims and Arabs in this country are Canadians, and they felt the same heartache and shock at the 9/11 attacks that white people did. They mourned, just as we all did. And yet our government failed them when they needed support. The government continued to blame and terrorize Muslims for years, in North America and in ancestral homelands.

What Now?

In the last 5 years, more Muslims have been killed in Islamophobic hate crimes in Canada than in any other G-7 country.

In a country that's still reeling from the domestic terrorist attack against a Muslim family in London, Ontario last year, it's obvious that brown people are still unsafe and unprotected.

We can't talk about Islamophobia in Canada without talking about Quebec and Bill-21. In 2019, the Coalition Avenir Quebec passed a law that bans public-facing employees such as teachers and police officers, from wearing religious symbols (like turbans, the hijab, and crosses). This bullshit ban disproportionately affects Hijabi Muslim women, and it turns Muslims into second class citizens with targets on their backs.

When writing about Jim Crow, sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois asked "how does it feel to be a problem?"

After 2 decades of racial profiling, violent hate crimes, and devastating wars in their homelands, Muslims know that it doesn't feel fucking good.