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Post 9/11: Effects within the US

Sabria Chowdhury
ON this 10,h Anniversary of the tragedy that we now know as 9/11, a great deal is being reflected upon, written and said. Most of the reflections on this horrific incident are related to the geo-political, defensive, economic and anti-Islamic aspects of the events. What is extremely relevant to note here are also the effects 9/11 has had over the years on the culture and psyche of the people living, working and studying on US soil.
Immediately after the attacks on September 11, 2001, the attitudes and level of suspicion on the part of US authorities of Arab and Muslim communities took a negative turn. Muslims in the US, present in about equal numbers from South Asia, South East Asia, North Africa and the Middle East, were targeted without exceptions. Some examples include detention of several hundreds of thousands of men for months with no justification -- some were deported for even minor reasons — Muslim charities became an object of target by the FBI, it became increasingly difficult for Muslim students to obtain student visas, mosques were under continuous surveillance and many Muslims felt uncomfortable and intimidated speaking out about US foreign policy and the Iraq war.
The assumption on the part of the US government seemed to be that these people were somehow linked to terrorist activities and that there were, without a doubt, domestic conspiracies. The 9/11 attacks also targeted other immigrants such as migrants from Latin America and Mexico. We know now from the Report of the 9/11 Commission that in fact there were no domestic conspiracies.
One of the most significant responses to 9/11 was the creation of the Department of Homeland Security whose responsibilities it was to protect the territory of the United States from terrorist attacks,
man-made accidents and natural disasters. This organisation is now known to have engaged in abuse of power not only in its treatment of the Muslim population of the US but also in its controversial control and patrol of the US-Mexican border. Even the US's allies, notably France, were not spared due to President Chirac's refusal to follow in the footsteps of the US to send troops to invade Iraq.
The post 9/11 era brought about fearful images of
the stigma of McCarthyism of the 1940's and 1950's. The "liberty and justice for all," which is the foundation of the American Constitution, seemed to have been severely violated on the grounds of an unsubstantiated fear factor and the veritable creation of a Big Brother watching over the population at large.
Hence came the establishment of a whole host of practices worldwide which we now have become
accustomed to in the last 10 years. Some of these practices include the presence of the army within cities, mobile phone surveillance, air travel which encompass the stringent rules and restrictions of carrying liquids on board a flight, security checks involving the removal of clothing and shoes, full body scans, biometric passports, and the installation of CCTV's, just to name a few.
What can be considered most shocking is that a land, priding itself on being a melting pot of cultures, ethnic backgrounds and religions, had altered its policies towards the factors which rendered the nation so rich and enlightened in the first place. The ever famous quote on the very symbol of American freedom, the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," had taken a violent turn.
It goes without saying that the unforgivable actions committed on 9/11 are in no way made banal or simplified. However, what is notable are the methods in which the US government had decided to manifest itself after the fact, questioning the fundamentals of democracy and liberty which it so prides itself on. She became the nations she loathed during the Cold War.
Today, on the IO"1 Anniversary of 9/11, the people within the US continue to re-build, not only the physical damages to locations such as Ground Zero, but also their morale. The trust factor is beginning to seep back into the fabric of society, replacing the fear factor. However, the scars remain within the millions of American Muslims, to prove that what happened on that unfortunate day cannot take away what made this nation a great one to begin with, to learn to stand together against adversity for, as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt so wisely said: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself."
The writer is Senior Assistant Editor, The Daily Star.
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