noticeable and most frequently vilified members of their communities.
Those persons who were not as easily recognizable as muslim also
suffered from the backlash, albeit sometimes in different ways. in essence,
these individuals could “pass” as non-muslim because of their skin colors,
decisions not to wear islamic attire, or lack of formal religious affiliations.
These muslim men and women were consequently much less likely to be the
primary targets of discriminatory actions. nonetheless, they often witnessed
discrimination directed toward other muslims or Arabs. These experiences
were personally painful and also confirmed the severity of islamophobic
religious prejudice and anti-Arab ethnic bias in the general public.
Verbal Harassment and Intimidation
muslim Americans became the targets of widespread verbal abuse in the
aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. nearly 80 percent of the muslims in this study
reported that they were personally verbally harassed or in the immediate
proximity of a friend or family member who was ridiculed in the weeks and
months following 9/11. participants were called vulgar names, shouted or
cursed at in the street or from passing cars, and subjected to disparaging
remarks in public settings. most often, these insults came from strangers.
However, neighbors, acquaintances, classmates, teachers, and co-workers
were also responsible for some instances of verbal harassment.
The interviewees offered a long list of derogatory names that they or their
muslim peers or family members had been called after 9/11. “Terrorist,” “dirty
muslim,” “camel jockey,” “rag head,” “towel head,” “sand roach,” and “sand
n-gger” were all epithets that were mumbled or yelled at males and females. As
noted in the previous chapter, the participants had been called many of these
names before 9/11. After the terrorist attacks, the interviewees heard these
offensive slurs much more often and in a wider variety of contexts.
in addition to these more familiar anti-muslim insults, the respondents
were also referred to in new and disparaging ways that were clearly
associated with the 9/11 atrocities. For example, the men reported they were
called “Osama” or “Taliban,” while some of the women were referred to as
“Osama’s goats” and were told to “take off the burqa.”4 salman, who was born
in Afghanistan, explained how he was treated by a woman whom he had just
met: “i told someone that i’m from Afghanistan, an older woman. she was
like, ‘Oh, my God, we have bin laden in the house.’ This didn’t shock me at
all. Before 9/11, people hardly even knew where Afghanistan was. now when
Backlash / 65
i tell someone i’m from Afghanistan, they’ll probably treat me in a certain
way, or they’ll probably think about me in a different way than before.”
najah described what happened to her and her friends, all of whom were
wearing headscarves, when they exited the subway in Harlem:
nobody abused me physically, but i got a lot of verbal slang. One
time, my friends and i were coming out of the subway, and we were
all hijabis [women wearing headscarves]. Two guys, when they saw
us, they started joking to each other. They were saying, “let’s go kill
all of Osama’s goats.” i looked at them and i started laughing. it was
like, “What does this have to do with me?” But then i realized that
they were talking about us.
several other respondents encountered hostility as they navigated city
streets. in their research on African Americans and discrimination, Joe
Feagin and melvin sikes note that public streets represent some of the
least-protected sites in our society. Consequently, racial minorities are
continually at risk for verbal abuse as they move through these open places.5
religiously motivated harassment may follow a similar pattern, as evidenced
by the numerous problems with verbal attacks that muslims faced in public
locations in the aftermath of 9/11. Badia, who lived in Colorado in the fall
of 2001, talked about her experiences as she would walk near her home: “Of
course, generally, Americans are really nice, very friendly people. But i was
really surprised about how rude and ignorant some people were after 9/11. i
‘terrorist, terrorist.’ i really didn’t think Americans would be like that.”
many other muslim men and women indicated that they were shouted
at by people in passing cars. The episodes they described involved animosity
against other nations: “When i was walking down [a busy street in Denver],
i saw this guy driving down the street, and this guy yelled out his window,
‘F— pakistan!’”
sometimes people were cursed at because they were perceived to be Arab,
as was the case with this south Asian man: “Once i had picked up my sister, i
was walking my sister back home. This man said, ‘Get out of here, you f—ing
Arabs.’ i’m like, ‘That’s funny, because nobody here is an Arab. Who’s an
Arab?’ it’s just ignorance.”
And other times, the person hurling the insult drew on demeaning
stereotypes, as an Arab American woman described: “i was walking down
the street after work, minding my own business, and some kid stuck his head
out the window of the back seat of a car and called me a terrorist. Then they
turned the corner. i was expecting them to turn all the way around and come
after me. i just turned around and started to run.”
66 / Chapter 4
These hateful words not only were emotionally painful but also induced
fear and served as a reminder of the risks associated with traversing public
settings. As the last quote shows, muslims were aware that at any moment
these verbal confrontations could turn into physical altercations, should the
harasser “turn around” and “come after” them.
some people directed their anger at muslims by yelling, “Go back to your
country” and other taunts grounded in the misconception that muslims
cannot be native-born citizens. As discussed in the previous chapter, muslim
Americans are no strangers to this “perpetual-foreigner” stereotype. Following
9/11, however, these encounters took on a much more hostile tone. selina,
a second-generation pakistani American who was born and raised in new
york, emphasized the pain associated with verbal harassment: “it really hurts.
you’ve been living here, and i hate it when somebody says, ‘Go back to your
country; go back home.’ This is my home. i live here. Who the hell are you to
tell me? Honestly, that’s the way i feel. i’ll just give them a dirty look. i try not
to answer. But it really hurts. i can’t see myself living anywhere else but here.”
The rise in anti-immigrant and especially anti-Arab and anti-muslim
rhetoric in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks likely encouraged this
particular form of verbal bigotry. indeed, a number of media pundits and
conservative political and religious figures depicted America as a country
virtually overrun with hordes of violent, subversive muslims. For instance,
televangelist pat robertson, speaking on the Christian Broadcasting
network’s 700 Club program, said, “Our immigration policies are now
so skewed towards the middle east and away from europe that we have
introduced these people into our midst and undoubtedly there are terrorist
cells all over them. . . . They want to coexist until they can control, dominate,
and then if need be, destroy.”6 Columnist stanley Crouch of new york’s Daily
News wrote:
We have had war declared on us by a spider at the center of a web
of terrorist cells. Followers of that spider are hiding in the Arab
American community. no one doubts this. no one. in fact, it should
bother all of us that a moratorium was not declared on immigration
from the middle east after the 1993 attack on the Twin Towers, espe-
cially since most of those identified with 9/11 arrived here after that
time. if more Americans are murdered by people who are part of the
terrorist web from the middle east and successfully hiding out in a
certain community, the response is going to have less to do with any
kind of bigotry than with the icy nature of war.7
Commentators also questioned the loyalty of muslims and cast doubt
on whether they could ever fully assimilate to “American” values and ideals.
Backlash / 67
in november 2001, William s. lind, director for the Center for Cultural
Conservatism at the Free Congress Foundation, argued, “There is no such
thing as a peaceful islam. . . . islamics [ sic] cannot fit into an America in
which the first loyalty is to the American Constitution. They should be
encouraged to leave. They are a fifth column in this country.”8 lind and
his colleague paul m. Weyrich also published a pamphlet entitled “Why
islam is a Threat to America and the West.” Their pamphlet states plainly,
“We do believe islam is at war with the Christian West, and we are proud
to be considered spokesmen for that view.” Weyrich later warned, “They’re
[muslims] going to, at some point or another, attack us. it’s like having a
giant fifth column in your own country.”9
With this kind of derisive speech increasingly making its way into
mainstream media, it is no wonder that a 2002 national survey found that
nearly 60 percent of Americans favored reducing the number of immigrants
admitted to the United states from muslim countries.10 Another poll,
also conducted in 2002, showed that the majority of Americans believed
there were “too many” immigrants from Arab countries.11 several surveys
carried out in the days following the 9/11 attacks suggested that a significant
minority of Americans felt mistrustful toward the Arabs and muslims living
in their midst: 43 percent of Americans said that 9/11 would make them
more suspicious of people whom they thought were Arab; 35 percent said
they had less trust in Arabs living in the United states than previously; 27
percent admitted to feeling less favorably toward Arab Americans since 9/11;
and about 33 percent said they had heard friends, neighbors, or co-workers
make negative comments about Arabs or muslims.12
As the American public grew more wary of Arabs and muslims, mem-
bers of these communities began to receive increasingly hostile inquiries
concerning everything from their religious beliefs to their perspectives on
terrorism. The men and women in this study reported that they were regularly
asked whether they were “glad” or “happy” that the terrorists destroyed the
World Trade Center towers. The following remark sharply underscores how
dehumanizing these experiences were: “some people are like, ‘Are you happy
it happened?’ some people have said that to me. you’re kind of like . . . what
do you even say to that? it’s like the mentality that people literally have is that
muslims and people from the middle east aren’t normal human beings.”
The presumption of guilt by religious association was even more painful
when it was friends or colleagues—people who knew the muslim men and
women prior to 9/11—who were compelled to ask how muslims felt about the
murder of nearly three thousand innocent people: “A friend of my husband,
he called and said, ‘How do you feel about the whole thing? Are you happy?’
Then he left a message, ‘God bless America.’ We’re like, ‘Okay, now we know
which way you stand.’”
68 / Chapter 4
The woman quoted above said her husband ultimately chose to end
the relationship with the man who called and left the hostile message. she
described the ordeal as “intensely stressful,” because her husband had been
friends with the man for many years before 9/11.
After the terrorist attacks, patriotic sentiment surged in the United
states, expressed through signs and songs that represent American strength
and identity. For many Americans, displaying such symbols as the American
flag reaffirmed their loyalty to the nation and allowed them to show their
solidarity with others. in some instances, however, patriotic displays were
used to harm and to isolate muslims. For example, sirah, a lebanese
American woman, recounted how a man began singing “The star spangled
Banner” when he saw her. she was certain the incident occurred because
of her visibility as a muslim: “i was wearing a hijab to school, and a big
American white guy looked at me and sang the American anthem in a loud
voice, in the subway. it was like he was singing it to me.” As a consequence
of this incident, sirah was left feeling as though patriotism was being used as
a cover for anti-muslim bigotry.13 she sadly commented, “many people say,
‘We love America.’ But to me that means, ‘We hate muslims.’”
The 9/11 attacks introduced a new sense of vulnerability into the American
psyche. spaces that were formerly considered safe are now approached with
unease. High-rise structures, once regarded as extraordinary feats of human
engineering, are viewed today as potential terror targets. national monuments
and government buildings are envisioned as fair game for nefarious terrorist
plots. A feeling of danger is associated with activities that draw large crowds
of people together, such as sporting events and music concerts. And, if aircraft
are at risk in the post-9/11 era, so, too, are trains, buses, subways, bridges,
ports, and dams. The list of threats is seemingly endless, and incessant
warnings from government officials to “stay alert” remind Americans that
another attack could happen at any time in any number of locations.
since 9/11, muslims have been treated with suspicion and contempt as
they enter public spaces that antiterrorism experts have labeled “potential
targets.” in the months following 9/11, the interviewees who relied on public
transportation received a slew of comments, which ranged from angry
outbursts to feeble attempts at humor. The accounts below came from two
young muslim women in the fall of 2001. The first respondent was waiting to
catch a train in new Jersey, and the second, a university student, was taking
a bus home from manhattan for the Thanksgiving holiday:
i went to new Jersey. i w
as coming back, and i was waiting for the
train. This guy, he goes to me, “Before you blow up this train station,
just let me know so i can get my ass out of here.” i just laughed and
looked at him and said, “Okay, sure.”
Backlash / 69
Thanksgiving, i took Greyhound. i was so tired. midterms had just
finished. i was carrying all these bags. There was a huge line, because
they were checking everything. Only ticketed passengers could go in
the line. Usually they don’t do that. By the time i actually got on the
bus, i was extremely exhausted. The second i got on, the first person
sitting right by the door goes, “Oh, my God, there’s going to be a
bomb on the bus.” He said it loud enough so the whole bus heard it.
i’m the kind who would stand up for myself, but i was way too tired
that day.
some of the episodes of verbal harassment were more indirect, such
as when people would make comments loud enough for the muslim men
or women to hear but not explicitly to their faces. For instance, Thana,
a second-generation pakistani American, found that when she would
visit restaurants or other public accommodations, fellow patrons would
sometimes intentionally engage in muslim bashing: “i have sat down, and
people have come and sat down next to me. They’re having a conversation
loud enough so specifically i can hear them. They want me to hear them, and
they’ll be slamming islam, and they’ll be saying things about muslim suicide
bombers and all this. . . . it’s just like, do you honestly believe the things you
are saying?”
Another interviewee, laila, also faced indirect verbal abuse. As she told
her story, it was clear how hurt she was by the incident. laila and her cousin’s
family, whom she lived with in lower manhattan, were evacuated for several
weeks following the collapse of the Twin Towers. When they were finally
allowed to return to their ash-covered apartment, they were mistreated by
another resident who had also been displaced:
you have to give iDs in four different places just to get back to my
cousin’s apartment. We had our luggage, because we stayed some-
where else. so coming back, we’re carrying backpacks and suitcases.
We had a lot of stuff. There was this one guy who also lives in that