Two Decades After 9/11, Muslims Continue to Face Prejudice and Bias
"After 22 years, unfortunately, Islamophobia has taken root and become part of the structure of racism that exists in parts of our country" said Hussam Ayloush, chief executive officer of the California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CA).
Ayloush told Anadolu that nearly one million of the estimated five million Muslims living in the US reside in the state of California and pointed out that harassment and prejudice against the Muslim community remain prevalent decades 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" said Ayloush.
"In addition, there are still government watchlists for nearly 1.6 million people, almost all of whom are Muslim, who have their names on the travel watchlist or they 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 other countries such as Syria, Libya and Sudan."
Portraying Muslims as enemy
Hate crimes against Muslims skyrocketed immediately after the 9/11 attacks, rising 1,617% from 2000 to 2001, according to statistics from the FBI. That severe spike marked some of the highest numbers of hate crimes against the Muslim community in US history.
"The US 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 explained, saying that every stereotype of the Muslim community was used to harass, mistreat and detain anyone fitting that mold.
"How we ate, how we dressed, how we spoke became suspicious" he said about the discrimination Muslims faced after 9/11.
"If they rented a truck to move their furniture, the FBI would be called on them. If a Muslim traveled too many times out of the country or they withdrew a lot of cash for their business, they were perceived as doing something wrong and the FBI would be called to investigate.
"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" said Ayloush.
Source: Anadolu Agency
