Muslims Living in the Aftermath of 9/11
By Safaa Nhairy

Muslims, one of the fasted growing populations in the United States, are entitled to the same civil rights as Irish, Scottish, Latino and Asian Americans under the U.S. Constitution. However, since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, many Muslims have felt harassed, insulted, threatened and discriminated against. Some American media have portrayed them as "terrorists," "radicals," "extremists" and "fundamentalists" since then. Two years have passed, but many are still dealing with lingering prejudices because of their religion and ethnicity.

Amal Mudey, a George Mason University senior, has been living in the U.S. for nine years. She said she felt "a big difference" since Sept. 11. She said that sometimes people would be rude to her because of her religion, especially in her workplace, since she deals with customers. "Sometimes, people would throw away some F words, or ask me to return to where I am from," she said. Mudey said that she feels less safe than before.

Mohamed Mohamed, the president of the Mason Muslim Student Association, defended this argument. He saidd that Muslims do not feel comfortable in this country because the FBI arrests people who work for Muslim religious associations and they are then automatically referred to as terrorists.

He said that Dar El Hijjra, a mosque in Alexandria, is under surveillance and people are often questioned just because they are Arabs. He described it as "harassment from the government." Mohamed also said that it is difficult to be an Arab-American, because in the case of the war in Iraq, for example, people had either the choice of supporting the troops or being against the war. "If you are against the war and you are Muslim, you are then considered to be a terrorist," Mohamed said.

The attack was, clearly, a shock for everyone. Although it has been said that the actors of that event were Muslims, Muslims in the U.S. feel differently about this topic. "Killing people is not allowed in the religion of Islam, it is a very wrong thing," said Mudey.

Hajar Algosair, a Mason freshman, came a year after the World Trade Center attack happened. She said that she had not suffered any disturbances in her life in America, except that sometimes "people would put some weird looks at me." As she does not deal much with the outside world and stays between family and campus, she feels secure in this country.

Despite the misconceptions and stereotypes they sometimes face, the Islamic community, here and elsewhere, is getting bigger and stronger. "The fact that I live in a foreign country made me be closer to my religion, Islam," Mudey said. She said that she is a better Muslim now than before. When asked about what was positive about Sept. 11, Mohamed said that it made Muslims a united community.

Surprisingly, after the World Trade Center attacks, thousands of Americans became aware of this Islam and chose to convert. "People who were open-minded and willing to learn more about Islam ended up converting to this religion," said Mohamed.

Some simply showed curiosity toward this formerly obscure topic. "My classmates ask me all the time questions about Islam," Algosair said. Lesa Crane, a senior at Mason, said, "Before Sept. 11, I never really even thought much about the Muslim faith."

Crane believes that the basic "Golden Rule" applies to everyone. "Sept. 11 happened because of some misguided people. They could have just as easily been Christians, Buddhists or Hindus, but they happened to be misguided Muslims," she said.