America’s War on Terror — a commissioned piece
It was the most photographed and video taped day in history. These days, regardless of where you are in the world, you can browse the internet for 9/11 videos and instantly pull up 3,280,000 results in approximately 0.28 seconds. In the days after September 11, 2001, newspapers published all sorts of images throughout the world giving a true sense of the horror of that day. This action created rage and fear in an already anxious world.
Prior to September 11th not much was known about Islam or Muslims in general, these attacks marked a key turning point in world history. The American response to the events established a new set of conditions, both domestically and internationally that to recent have shaped the contemporary world. To what extent did the attacks on September 11, 2001 negatively influenced America’s point of view on Islam? My research will examine how the attack on the World Trade Centers instantly brought negative attention to the Islamic religion — more than ever before, and how the growing use of the internet from globalization saturated the public with information regarding terrorist groups and their activities, and how the media continues to developed a focus on Islam and terrorism which has lead to an Islamaphobic public that we can find today.
Historical Context of September 11, 2001
“Hi, this is the captain. I would like you all to remain seated. There is a bomb on board and we are going back to the airport … Please remain quiet.” — Hijacker aboard United Flight 93, which crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
In 1971, the World Trade Center towers were completed and stood 110 stories high; it was a place where hundreds of thousands of people walked through its doors everyday. September 11, 2001, had been just another gorgeous crystal clear blue-sky day. At 8.46 am, American Airlines flight 11 (the first plane) crashed into the North Towers and through floors 93–99 instantly killing hundreds and for nearly one thousand people there was no exit — they were all trapped. The plane had sliced through the elevator shaft and access to the emergency staircase obstructed. Instantly broadcasters began to display the live images all over the world. Those who could get out did, but the heat and thick smoke made it impossible. The people trapped inside the floors began to call and sent text messages their loved ones explaining their situation. Unavoidably people began to jump out the windows to save themselves, but only fell to their deaths; this was something that broadcaster failed to show and only verbally reported.
Immediately afterwards, the unbelievable happened which made it clear that the first plane was not an accident. Millions watched live as United Airlines flight 175 flew into the South Tower. Up to now, thousands of people were trapped in the North Tower, and now approximately 600 people in the South tower joined them. More and more people began to communicate their experience of being trapped leaving hundreds of fearful messages and videos ultimately archived by their loved ones. A third plane, American Airlines flight 77 was hijacked at 8:50 am and diverted into the western side of the Pentagon. All 64 passengers on board were killed in addition to 125 Pentagon employees. People in the fourth plane, United Airlines flight 93, learned about what happened with the other planes and they managed to divert their plane from the intended target. The fourth plane crashed on the ground in western Pennsylvania and killed all aboard. The death total for the September 11th attacks reached 2977.
President George W. Bush identified the militant Islamic organization al Qaeda as the responsible party for hijacking the four airplanes and crashing them into the World Trade Center, and also the Pentagon. For the first time since Pearl Harbor, the American homeland was in physical danger. The attacks represent a fundamental and revolutionary shift in national security and the “War on Terror” was born.
After September 11th, the media refrained from publishing any more disturbing or emotional visuals, because the world preferred to remember heroic images of the rescuers, and how the American spirit had prevailed against the evil villain. The events that followed would illuminate the conflict between America’s principles of “justice and liberty for all,” and the tendency to banish and scapegoat minorities in times of trouble.
Islam declares Holy War in America
“We…call on every Muslim who believes in Allah and wishes to be rewarded to comply with Allah’s order to kill the Americans,” Osama Bin Laden
The first phase of America’s post-9/11 efforts included military action to topple the Taliban and pursue al Qaeda. The Militant Islamic organization, Al Qaeda had been found responsible for the attacks of September 11, 2001 and immediately became the world’s best-known perpetrators of terrorism. They were believed to be responsible for many of the worst acts of terrorism against the U.S. throughout the 1990s. During the Persian Gulf War (1990), Bin Laden’s had become infuriated at the presence of U.S. soldiers in Saudi Arabia and decided to use Al Qaeda as a force to eliminate all U.S. influence in Islamic nations around the world, and to destroy Israel. In 1998, Bin Laden declared jihad, (holy war) against America. Later that same year, there were U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa and in 2000, the bombing of USS Cole in Yemen.
Americans had not been aware of this declaration of jihad until after the September 11th attacks. Shortly after these events, Bin Laden published a “Letter to America” and released several videos which initially appeared on the internet. In these communications, he cited the reasons for the attacks and declared war on the United States. Bin Laden explained, that they (al Qaeda), were fighting and opposing America;
“Because you attacked us and continue to attack us. You attacked us in Palestine: The Americans continue to support the occupation of the Muslim holy city of Jerusalem, with your help and support, to the Jews, who have occupied it for more than 50 years; years overflowing with oppression, tyranny, crimes, killing, expulsion, destruction and devastation.” Bin Laden also accused the U.S of, “stealing our wealth and oil. This theft is indeed the biggest theft ever witnessed by mankind in the history of the world. In accordance to Allah’s orders, all Muslims must kill Americans, both civilians and military, wherever they may be found. Allah will reward in heaven all those who sacrifice their lives for his glory.”
Bin Laden felt justified for his “jihad” based on the following premises: 1) For seven years the Unites States occupied lands of Islam in the holiest places, plundering its riches — oil, 2) The Persian Gulf War of 1990–1991 which claimed to have killed in excess of one million people, 3) To support the Jewish state of Israel and to divert attention from the murder of Muslims there. In this moment, the word Islam became connected with terrorism and war, which was something every non-Muslim American became afraid of. If someone declares war on you, the first response is would be to attack and defend by all means possible to annihilate the enemy. In this modern world, it was military might and an anti-Islam media propaganda campaign. The creation of Islamaphobia began.
Al Queda metamorphosed into ISIS
In the last few decades, the international, “War on Terror” replaced the Cold War as the main source of world tension. Bin Laden managed to evade capture until May 1, 2011, when the U.S. forces raided a compound in Pakistan where he was hiding. On May 2, 2011, almost ten years later, President Obama addressed the Nation to announce that the United States has killed Osama bin Laden, leader of al Qaeda.
“It was nearly 10 years ago that a bright September day was darkened by the worst attack on the American people in our history. The images of 9/11 are seared into our national memory — hijacked planes cutting through a cloudless September sky; the Twin Towers collapsing to the ground; black smoke billowing up from the Pentagon; the wreckage of Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where the actions of heroic citizens saved even more heartbreak and destruction. Nearly 3,000 citizens taken from us, leaving a gaping hole in our hearts. We were also united in our resolve to protect our nation and to bring those who committed this vicious attack to justice. We quickly learned that the 9/11 attacks were carried out by al Qaeda — an organization headed by Osama bin Laden, which had openly declared war on the United States and was committed to killing innocents in our country and around the globe. And so we went to war against al Qaeda to protect our citizens, our friends, and our allies.” President Obama
The news of Bin Laden’s capture should have marked a high-point in the lives of most American’s, but regrettably it did not. Since September 11th, there had been a series of new disturbing images of Muslim terrorists beheading westerners, bombings of school buses, car bombs, suicide bombers enacting jihad against the west and proselytizing Anti-American and Anti-Western rhetoric. This continued to fuel the debate about the nature of Islam, and talk shows such as “Real Time with Bill Maher” began to question whether Islam is an intrinsically violent religion or not.
Fast forward to the last decade, a new militant Islamic terrorist organization has arrived. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) established in 2006 became the successor organization of Al Qaeda. As Al Qaeda, ISIS seeks to expel all foreign troops and personnel from Iraq. They are also fighting a sectarian battle within Islam (which has nothing to do with America) and have waged war against the Shia-dominated, secular government of Iraq. For Americans, they are an easy group to ignore, except that they keep killing people and posting these high quality videos and advertisements on the Internet claiming responsibility for the following terrorist attacks: “a suicide bombing at two Shiite mosques in Yemen that killed 137; a mass shooting at a Tunisian beach resort that killed 38; the bombing of a Russian airliner over the Sinai Peninsula that killed 224; two suicide bomb attacks in Beirut, Lebanon that killed 43.”(Pierpaoli) The internet, a gift and a curse from globalization, has saturated the public with information regarding all these events.
On November 13, 2015, the world seemed to stop again, when ISIS attacked Paris killing 130 and injuring approximately 369. The combination of Paris attacks and the bombing of the Russian airliners created a new alliance in the War against Terror. François Hollande and Russian president Vladimir Putin, vowed to cooperate and fight against ISIS, who have been accused of violating basic human rights by kidnapping innocent foreign civilians, beheading them, and broadcasting these executions videos all over the internet.
One of the most significant differences between the events of September 2001, and November 2015 has been the growing use of the internet . It is hard not to agree with the idea that groups such as ISIS make it extremely difficult to restore Islam’s peaceful reputation, but in 2015, people were not so quick to jump on the “anti-Islam” bandwagon and conversely accused the media of racism. Most media and internet agencies covered the Paris attacks in far greater numbers than the suicide bomber attacks in Beirut, Lebanon that literally occurred just day’s prior. Had Arab Muslims not been killed too? This access to only one perspective and contributed to the creation of Islamaphobic public.
#Islamic/Muslim lives matter
“Of all the world’s religions, only Islam uses violent means to achieve its aims. It is not only the Islamic fundamentalists who pose a threat it is the faith of Islam that jeopardizes human rights, individualism, democracy, and world peace.” Ibn Warraq
Some of the reasons that 9–11 and the recent Paris attacks drew such an overwhelming amount of media attention is because it was considered to be something unusual and particularly interesting. These events are thought to affect viewers personally. Since the Paris bombing, Muslims were the least popular group in America according to the Pew Research Center. It is understandable that the U.S. media will only cover terrorist attacks with U.S. victims or disasters in wealthier countries as this is what the average viewer can relate too, but it creates a tremendous bias to only show Islamic terrorist groups bombing Western cities. Since news media outlets set their priorities and are ultimately influenced by their consumers the media bias in terrorist coverage only leads people to believe that Muslim lives are not important, and that individuals should only be concerned about victims with whom they can identify with.
As part of the War on Terrorism, conservative news programs (such as FOX news) have promoted and debated a myriad of anti-Islamic topics such as racial profiling, and some people such as Micheal Gross (Civil Rights Attorney), have even recommended Muslim screening lines at the airport. Presently in the U.S there is a 2016 presidential race, and the trend is that American Republican presidential candidates are advocating policies targeting Muslims. Donald Trump, the current leading Republican candidate has called for the creation of a database to house all Muslim Americans demographic information in order to track their movements. He has also recommended that it be required to perform surveillance on mosques, to deport Syrians who have been granted asylum and to place a ban on Muslims traveling to America. The other Republican candidates such as Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz are not much better, they have promoted selectively accepting Christian Syrian Refugees, and want President Barack Obama to cancel his previous offer to accept 10, 000 Syrian Refugees.
As previously studied, this isn’t the first time American nativism has raised its ugly head, centuries ago Americans were concerned about another religious minority — Catholics. By the mid-20th Century, it was the Jews who were accused of causing the Wall Street Crash and causing World War I. In 1939, 61% of Americans were opposed to offering Jewish children, who were being persecuted by the Nazi’s asylum, slightly more than this number oppose accepting Syrian refugees today. Have we forgotten about the more than 1000,000 Japanese Americans who were held in internment camps? According to the FBI, since the Paris attacks there have been 36 Anti-Muslim incidents in the United States. A pregnant Muslim woman was attacked in San Diego California. A mosque was fired upon in Connecticut. Armed protesters gathered outside a mosque in Texas. Shots were fired at a Muslim family home in Florida. A man calls 911 to threaten to shoot, “anything that looks like a Muslim after what they did to France,” and then the countless cases of vandalism and social media threats to do harm to Muslim people. When did it become okay in America to step away from political correctness and remove the requirement to treat everyone equally?
The Emerging Pattern
In each of these significant events, a combination of these circumstances are present; economic trouble, apprehensiveness over national security, and racial and religious anxiety. America is a fortress that must protect its citizens from the outside world and from the fear that a formerly mostly white Christian country is slowly becoming a more diverse patchwork of color. Long before the Internet was readily accessible to the billions of inhabitants on our planet, there were events called crusades or “Holy Wars,” where Christians killed Muslims, Jews, and other Christians. The First crusade occurred in 1095 by Pope Urban II, with the objective to recapture the Holy Land. These “Holy Wars” were not televised or posted up on Youtube because they happened thousands of years ago. The only trace of these stories can be found in history books sitting in libraries or transferred down generation to generation.
It is unfortunate that we can’t watch a live crusade, or see clips from the KKK bombing a Jewish owned law firm on Snap Chat or Youtube as we can an ISIS beheading, because maybe then we would see the world a little differently. We as citizens of the world underestimate the contribution of the media and the internet in our daily lives and subconscious. Yes, there are copious horrendous terrorist acts that have been perpetrated by radical Islamist such as the ISIS, Boko Haram, and Al Qaeda; but the reality is for the American living in the United States or abroad, you are more likely to be killed by a legally armed gun man than a terrorist. After looking at this data table, it is hard not to see the juxtaposition. More importantly, how can one justify being more fearful of Islamic terrorists than an American people who legally owns guns? Why is there no media bias on guns owners? Do they not kill more people than Islamic terrorist? The American media doesn’t want to show you this gloomy stuff for too long, it only wants to reflect an optimistic spirit prevailing against a villain, but it’s hard to find a villain when 9 out of 10 people own a gun.
Table 1) Number of American Deaths Caused by Terrorism vs Gun Violence — CDC and US Security Officials
As with many things one of the problems with Islamic terrorists is that they take the name of Islam in vain, and use it as a cover — which doesn’t mean this is Islam. Furthermore, the Quran, which is the holy text of Islam, it is a pile of requirements that God gave to the Prophet Mohammed to deal with different moments and events in life. It was meant to be interpreted by each person individually, which unfortunately leaves the door open for varied interpretation and misrepresentation.
In my lifetime, I can only hope that a renaissance of Islam will occur and transform its image to one that is reflective its origins. Islam, a word that means “peace” in Arabic, and holder of a long history of acceptance of other faiths and peaceful cohabitation with other religions. As it has been so eloquently stated by President George W. Bush, “All Americans must recognize that the face of terror is not the true faith — face of Islam. Islam is a faith that brings comfort to a billion people around the world. It’s a faith that has made brothers and sisters of every race. It’s a faith based upon love, not hate.”
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