2001 – 2022

On September 11, 2001, nineteen militants from the Islamist extreme group, al Qaeda, hijacked four commercial airplanes. In a coordinated attack, two planes were flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, the third into the Pentagon. Alerted, unarmed passengers of the fourth plane were able to defeat the four hijackers and divert the plane, which was likely aiming for the U.S. Capitol or the White House. A total of 2,977 people were killed, making 9/11 the single deadliest terrorist attack in history.

Shortly after the terrorist suicide attacks, those who were easily identified as Muslim or Arab, including Sikhs who were mistakenly assumed to be Arab or Muslim because of their turbans, were subject to amplified scrutiny, surveillance, hate crimes, and questions about their national loyalty. From vandalized mosques, to targeted assault, to travel bans, an unprecedented number of South Asian, Muslim, and Sikh Asians became scapegoats and targets of Islamophobia. Over twenty years after the attacks, anti-Muslim sentiments in the U.S. persist. Muslim Americans who were born or raised in the wake of 9/11 continue to be vilified and casted into the “other” category—and it has become their generation’s legacy to counter Islamophobia.