Trending
Last week, we remembered the 25th anniversary of one of the most horrific terrorist attacks in human history, which occurred on Sept. 11, 2001, that basically made the world upside down in every respect. I strongly believe that one of the most affected areas of 9/11 is the ongoing distrust among people and decaying mutual respect.
Specifically, the international and intercultural relationship between the West and East and perceptions about Islam and Muslim people/culture in the Western societies have dramatically shifted with the barbaric terrorist attacks on 9/11. Every time I fly and must go through the nearly stripping security checks protocol, I hate those people who are responsible for 9/11 that killed 3,000 innocent people on that day.
As a young Muslim man, I grew up, and my journalism career evolved right after 9/11. I still remember the day as a young sub-editor working in the international desk of the Bangladesh Sangbad Sangtha (BSS) and watching the terrorist planes crash on the Twin Towers in New York City broadcast on the television news. Initially, we thought that was merely an accident, and we did not have any clue how this event would reshape world politics, and Muslim people around the world would go through a hell-like experience because of mistrust and misperception about the Muslim community and Islam. The media covered the attacks on Muslim people in Western countries because of stereotyped perceptions thinking that all Muslims are terrorists.
I experienced this type of hatred firsthand when I came to America as a graduate student in Carbondale, Illinois, in 2008, which was seven years after the 9/11 attacks. One day, I went to Walmart, and I was carrying my laptop bag. One man approached me and asked whether I was carrying any explosives. Even after nearly two decades of 9/11, a student came to me and asked whether people in Bangladesh, my country of birth, were the same as ISIS people in Syria. That was not an innocent question, and I strongly believe my student asked me a loaded question because of my Arabic name. She did not know anything about my personal belief and ideology. Many times, people looked at me with a weird stare when they had to call my previous first name, Mohammad. After so many embarrassing moments, eventually I decided to use my middle name as my first name and change the spelling of my first name to Delaware to sound like something more American.
As I worked a decade in the Deep South, I have many conservative friends, and some of them are very influential in the current administration. As a student of journalism, I also actively follow conservative media and see a plethora of hatred about Muslim people and Islam in the rhetorics of those media and social media even after nearly two decades of the 9/11 incident. I do not think that all Muslims are perfect, and there are many bad people like the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda. However, it is not fair to have stereotyped views about Muslim people all over the world. Hypothetically, even if there are problems in Muslim cultures and some Islamic practices, Western countries, including the United States, must work with the Muslim countries and communities to rebuild the trust and thus make a better world. All of us know about the very close-knit relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia. If so, why do we not strive to make this kind of relationship with other Muslim countries too? It is great to see that the current administration has started working with the Syrian government led by former ISIS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa and lifted all sanctions against Syria.
The United States might come up with this decision to work with Syria for the greater good or for the sake of regional and global peace. As an ordinary American, I would highly appreciate the effort of the current administration to build more bridges instead of burning bridges.
In line with these types of strategic steps, the conservative media and social media outlets also need to change their narratives against Muslim people and stop stereotyping about Islam. This step will help to rebuild the trust and relationship and public perceptions of Muslims in the United States and Western societies.
Dr. Delaware Arif is the Director of Journalism at Canisius University in Buffalo and resides in Fredonia. He can be reached at delawarearif@gmail.com