September 11, 2001

Terror and Lies: September 11, 2001

The words scribbled on a piece of paper by Connecticut resident Randy Scott the morning of the September 11, 2001 tragedy read, “84th Floor west office 12 people trapped.” These were Scott’s last words, but the note survived the collapse of the World Trade Center. Ten years after 9/11, DNA testing confirmed the blood on the note belonged to Randy Scott, and New York City Medical Examiners tracked down the Scott family. When Scott’s wife saw the note, she recognized her husband’s handwriting even without the DNA confirmation. Many pieces of paper were found amongst the ruins of the World Trade Center, but none quite captured the horror of the event as effectively as this one (“9/11 Note”). September 11, 2001 is a day that will never be forgotten. Loved ones were lost and buildings were destroyed, as a sense of terror struck the nation. This chilling event brought great controversy over the role that racism, religion, and politics played in one of the most violent attacks on American territory.
As the story unfolded, it became evident that the terrorists were Muslim. Security heightened; anyone who looked Arabic was questioned. The question arose: Do you see Muslims and immediately expect the worst? 9/11 molded an image of Arabs into the minds of Americans as “anti-Muslim” became a popular phrase. Violence was equated with Muslims and Arabs in the eyes of many Americans who came to “see the face of terror as a Muslim face.” The uprisings of the Western populations damaged the self-esteem of Muslims and made them feel inferior. Many Muslims were “complaining of employment discrimination from co-workers calling them ‘terrorist’ or ‘Osama’ to employers barring them from wearing head scarves or taking prayer breaks.” In September of 2010, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (E.E.O.C) filed a case against Abercrombie and Fitch for discriminating against and not hiring an 18-year-old Muslim female because she was wearing a head scarf. Similarly, in August 2010 the E.E.O.C sued JBS Swift, a meat packing company, after 160 Somali immigrants said that supervisors and co-workers had “cursed them for being Muslim; thrown blood, meat and bones at them; and interrupted their prayer breaks.” Mary Jo O’Neil, regional attorney of the E.E.O.C stated, “There’s a level of hatred and animosity that is shocking. I’ve been doing this for 31 years, and I’ve never seen such antipathy toward Muslim workers” (Greenhouse). Clearly this hatred toward Muslims continued to linger years after the 9/11 attacks. After the attacks, Muslims and Arabs felt that they had to prove to the West that they were not all terrorists (“On Religion”). This proved to be no easy task as racism played a huge role in the aftermath of 9/11. Along with the hatred towards Muslims and Arabs, came hatred toward the Islamic religion. At first, the 9/11 attacks opened the minds of many Americans to the Islam religion. Quran sales soared and people were interested in taking Islamic college courses. For a period of time, “it seemed as though America’s three great faiths were no longer Protestantism, Catholicism, and Judaism but Judaism, Christianity and Islam,” however, this event was only short lived. In 2002, 33% of Americans indicated they felt hatred toward Muslims. This number continued to climb to 45% in 2006 and nearly 53% in 2010. Terror in the name of Allah turned many Americans against the Islamic religion. During the Cold War, God separated the Americans from the Russians, but after 9/11, God was not enough; Jesus is what separates the Americans from those “killing in the name of Allah” (“Column”).
People began attacking, vandalizing, and burning mosques; all of a sudden, a once sacred place was becoming dangerous. At one point, a plan to publicly burn the Quran was in place. As hatred escalated towards the Islamic religion, nearly 481 anti-Muslim hate crimes were reported as of 2010 (“FBI”). In order to deescalate the situation, it became essential for America’s leaders to prove that those who attacked the World Trade Center were not American and that being Muslim was not synonymous with terrorism. During his speech at the Islamic Center of Washington, President Bush regarded American Muslims as “friends” and then later went on to say:
“‘These acts of violence against innocents violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith. And it’s important for my fellow Americans to understand that.’ He quoted from the Quran: ‘In the long run, evil in the extreme will be the end of those who do evil.’ Then he continued in his own words: ‘The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don’t represent peace. They represent evil and war.’”
Matt Smith, the White House’s Office of Public Liason’s director at the time stated,
“In the aftermath of 9/11, when every move the president made was being watched extremely closely, it was important to demonstrate that American Muslims were not the same people who attacked the U.S. When you show that these people are Americans, it goes a long way.”
On September 17, President Bush entered a mosque and “issued his appeal for tolerance and unity.” As Americans listened, we were reminded of America’s “respect for religious freedom and zero tolerance for hate crimes against innocent people” (“On Religion”).
Even though President Bush helped rebuild the face of American Muslims, there was much controversy as to what went on behind the scenes. Before 9/11, the United States government was contemplating war with Iraq, but they needed a valid reason that justified war. With theonset of 9/11, the U.S. government was given their chance. It became known as the “war’s greatest lie”; a lie that worked (“9/11”). Colin Powell, Secretary of State at the time, consciously lied to the United Nations that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was involved with Al Qaeda. Powell stated,
“These quantities of chemical weapons are now unaccounted for. Dr. Blix has quipped that, "Mustard gas is not marmalade. You are supposed to know what you did with it. We believe Saddam Hussein knows what he did with it and he has not come clean with the international community. We have evidence these weapons existed. What we don't have is evidence from Iraq that they have been destroyed or where they are. That is what we are still waiting for” (“Remarks to the United Nations Security Council”).
People were convinced. Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld enforced “harsh methods” against detainees to uncover evidence that Hussein was linked to Al Qaeda, but ultimately their “principal priority for intelligence was not aimed at pre-empting another terrorist attack on the U.S., but discovering a smoking gun linking Iraq to Al Qaida.” A total of “237 misleading statements about the threat posed by Iraq were made by President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary Rumsfeld, Secretary Powell, and National Security Advisor Rice.” Ultimately, Americans were misguided. By 2003, 69 percent of Americans believed Saddam Hussein was involved in the attacks. “The Saddam-Al Qaida connection did not drive the Bush administration’s decision to go to war with Iraq. But it did drive the administration’s propaganda campaign to generate public support for the war” (“9/11”). In the end, the evidence proved that Saddam Hussein was not stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, nor was he associated with Osama Bin Laden. The attack on the World Trade Center did more than create terror and disruption of the American Economy. Ultimately, it served as a catalyst for the Iraq war and religious persecution in the U.S. September 11, 2001 was a catastrophe the day it happened, but what followed also proved to have immeasurable effects on American Society. No one will ever forget the details of this day and the many years that followed. “Time is passing…yet for the United States of America, there will be no forgetting September the 11th” – George W. Bush (“Remembering 9/11”).