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Berlin – Today, the American flag flies at half mast everywhere around the country as American citizens remember the 2,996 people who died on September 11, 2001.
The coordinated and simultaneous terrorist attack, the deadliest in US history, was committed by Al Qaeda under the leadership of Osama bin Laden, who was later killed by a Navy Seal Team in Pakistan in 2011.
Pentagon commemoration
US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump visited the Pentagon today in Washington DC, where the president delivered a speech for the 24th anniversary of 9/11, which was attended by service members as well as survivors’ families.
The president’s speech was somber and direct, rarely alluding to party politics but instead focusing on the stories of victims and their family. In typical Trump fashion, however, it was filled with staunchly patriotic language riddled with threats to America’s enemies.
“On that fateful day savage monsters attacked the very symbols of our civilization,” Trump started. “Americans stood on their feet and showed the world that we will never wield, we will never bend, we will never give up.”
He went on to recount stories of families who talked with their loved ones on final goodbyes — before two planes hit the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, one hit the Pentagon in Washington DC, and one crash-landed in a Pennsylvania field.
“In a quarter of a century since those attacks of mass murder 9/11 families have felt the burden of missed birthdays and empty bedrooms, journals left unfinished and dreams left unfulfilled…
“In the years that followed America’s warriors avenged…and sent an unmistakable message to every enemy around the world: If you attack the United States of America we will hunt you down and we will find you…we will crush you without mercy…”
Trump also recalled the recent costly administration shift to change the “Department of Defense” to the “Department of War” — an optical move that he boldly claimed “everybody wanted” and are “very happy” for the change.
“The enemy will fail. 24 years have passed since then, and Americans have come of age in a totally different world,” he added in his closing remarks.
In addition to Trump’s somber speech, the ceremony also included remarks by US Defense (War) Secretary Pete Hegseth, whose speech echoed the patriotism in the president’s speech but was filled with even sterner language and threats against foreign powers and “enemies” of America. When discussing US soldiers at war he said: “We should hit hard, seek vengeance, and return home.”
The president and top defense executive’s speeches touched briefly on what the reality has been in American post 9/11, mostly talking about the challenges for the victim’s families.
However, what they did not allude to is the reality of post 9/11 for everyday Americans, namely, the Muslim population.
Islamophobia since 9/11
Islamophobia in the US spiked after 9/11 . Americans needed a common enemy to band together, and Al Qaeda was it. However, this shared disdain for Al Qaeda tragically and unfairly often slipped into disdain for Muslims as a whole.
Muslim NGOs, community and policy centers, and communities themselves have been calling out the lasting negative effects of these prejudices since the planes hit the Twin Towers.
In a 2022 report by Al Jazeera, Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations talked about this lasting discrimination. “Muslims continue to be the target of hate, bullying, and discrimination as a result of the stereotypes that were perpetuated by Islamophobes and the media in the years following the 9/11 attacks,” he said.
In the same report, Zahra Jamal, associate director of Rice University’s Boniuk Institute for Religious Tolerance in Houston, talked about the vast differences that American Muslims face in contradiction to their fellow American Christians. He noted that 65% of Muslims report feeling religion-based hostility, while 65% feel respected by others, stressing that this figure represented almost “three times the percentage among Christians.”
The reality for American Muslims: loss of confidence in identity, isolation
The spike in negative media – from Hollywood American war movies using Islampahobic slurs, to media headlines assuming that all terrorists must be “Islamic” – has not only changed the very fabric of life for American Muslims but also perpetuated internal challenges for young people growing up with these toxic messages.
“Internalized Islamophobia is more prevalent among younger Muslims who have faced anti-Muslim tropes in popular culture, news, social media, political rhetoric, and in policy. This negatively impacts their self-image and mental health,” Jamal went on to say in the Al Jazeera report.
These stereotypes and societal shifts have even gone so far as affected how Muslims interact with their own US communities – from within the workplace to personal life.
A 2025 study by Shadi Farahzadi – faculty member at the University of Liverpool and research associate at the Center for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics – reveals that social changes in the US post 9/11 have even affected the rate of intercultural and cross-religious marriage within Muslims communities.
Farahzadi notes that external messaging and bigotry caused many Muslim communities to isolate and internalize. “Rising anti-Muslim sentiment, fueled by increased surveillance, media narratives, and political rhetoric, created an environment where interfaith relationships became more difficult to form and sustain,” the academic writes.
Intermarriage rate among Muslims fell by 8 percentage points relative to other minority groups following 9/11, her data shows, adding that there was an “even sharper 11 percentage point decline in marriages between Muslims and White Americans.”
Farahzadi argues that this matters deeply when it comes to the makeup of American society, as marriage is a huge component for social cohesion.
“As these marriages declined, opportunities for social cohesion weakened, reinforcing cultural divisions. The post-9/11 shift in social attitudes created a lasting ‘integration penalty’ for American Muslims, restricting one of the most fundamental avenues for social mixing,” she writes.
Challenges remain
Today, as headlines swirl around the genocide in Gaza and the world increasingly talks about the realities of Palestinians, American Muslims face different, yet equally daunting challenges.
It is hopeful to see that the younger generation is opening up to religious differences and freedoms – specifically with a rise in young Americans’ opposition to the US government in support of Palestinians. Young Americans who have maybe never had a huge Muslim community in their hometown, or lack proper education about Islam, are now meeting young Muslim Americans on the streets united in support of Palestinians.
However, similar to the rise in Islamaphobic rhetoric following the hatred for Al Qaeda, Muslims yet again face a renewed wave of anti-Muslim rhetoric and attitude since Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023.
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) released an op-ed this year that recalled the complaints it received from Muslims, noting that 2023 marked the highest number of Islamophobia reports that the organization has ever recorded in its 30-year history.
The number stood at 8,061 that year, representing an uptick in Islamophobic acts that brought “numerous stories of human tragedy,” including the murder of a six-year-old Palestinian American boy in Chicago. In 2024, the number of Islamophobia reports rose to 8,656 complaints, showing a 7% increase compared to 2023.
In addition to the uptick in anti-Muslim sentiment with the headlines around Palestine, Muslim communities are also burdened with living under a president who has openly spewed Islamophobic rhetoric and sentiments, starting from his campaign trail, political rallies and continuing into his legislative decisions.
During his first term, President Trump’s Executive Order 13769, titled “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States” and dubbed by himself and his supporters as the “Muslim ban,” continued the racist trend and sentiment of coupling being a Muslim with being a terrorist. The ban limited or suspended refugees from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen and had lasting impacts on US immigration law for Muslim communities.
Twenty-four years after 9/11, the world has opened up and globalized, but at the same time political parties in the West have become more radical and polarized than ever. The First Amendment of the US Bill of Rights vows that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” Although there is hope for young people and shifting attitudes, America still has a long way to go until they can fulfill that promise.
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