Since September 11,2001 a lot of Americans have been very skeptical about, who we let enter this country. When the Twin Towers got attacked our country immediately went to hating the enemy in the Middle East. Many Americans claimed that anybody of Middle Eastern descent could be a potential terrorist and they were definitely not afraid to show their hatred to them. There was a sharp rise in hate crimes towards Middle-Easterns.
There was defintely an increase in hate crimes targeted to people of Islamic faith post 9/11. "The FBI report found that incidents targeting people, institutions and businesses identified with the Islamic faith increased from a mere 28 in 2000 to 481 in 2001-a rise of 1,600 percent" (Abdelkarim,2003,p.51). This obviously, because after the attack Americans felt threatened and pretty much were ignorant about the whole Islamic faith as a result of this hate escalated.
Americans took it in their own hands to deliver what they felt was right. Many feel that not enough was done post 9/11 for the tragedy that the country suffered. The Hussein family had indured hate ever since the 1990s in their neighborhood with property damage being done to their house and this only escalated after September 11. The Hussein family even went public with their outcry "By midday, TV stations and The Washington Post came to record the story of this Muslim family who has been victimized even before backlash from 9/11 made many Muslim Americans feel unsafe" (Hanley, 2007,p.53). Even Muslims who were US citizens were being targeted just simply, because they belonged to a certain faith they were automatically associated with the terrorists of 9/11.
Even as the story of 9/11 is being added into textbooks we are failing to leave out the mistreatment of Muslim-Amercians that occured heavily at this time. " No incidents of harassment or hate crimes against Middle Easterners and other "Middle Eastern- looking" people that were reported in the aftermath of 9/11 are mentioned, nor are bomb threats at a Muslim school in Detroit, the three hundred protesters who stormed a Chicago-area mosque, or the singling out of Arab Americans in airports" (Romanowski,2009,p.290). These voices are being forgotten and it is sad, because they are just as much a apart of history. It has been 10 years since September 11,2001 and although the hatred towards Muslims have died down it is still prevalant and many Americans still feel animosity towards them for what happened on that tragic day.
References:
Abdelkarim, R. (2003). Surge in hate crimes followed by official u.s. targeting of muslim, arab men. The Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs, 22(3), 51-53.
Hanley, D. (2007). Muslim family endures hate crime again. The Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs, 26(8), 53.
Romanowski, M. (2009). What you dont know can hurt you: textbook omissions and 9/11. The Clearing House, 82(6), 290-296.
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