20 Years After 9/11: The State of the American Muslim Civic Life

Issue 42: Friday, 10 Sep 2021

THIS WEEK IN DC — Biden Taps D.C. Utility Regulator Phillips For FERC; Biden Announces Sweeping Vaccine Mandates Affecting Millions Of Workers; DOJ Sues Texas Over Abortion Law; Capitol Police Officers To Get Briefed On Sept 18 Rally Against Jan. 6 Arrests; Capitol Police Memo Warns Of Potential For Violence During September 18 Rally - Plan To Reinstall Capitol Fence Ahead Of Rally; Debt Limit Showdown In Congress Looms Ahead Of October Deadline; Blinken To Testify To U.S. Congress On Afghanistan Next Week.

IN THIS ISSUE

First Published in The Hill: 9/11 Sparked a Surge in Islamophobia — For Years, the Media Fed the Flames
Upcoming: The Forums at MPAC: State of American Muslim Civic Life: 20 Years After 9/11
ICYMI: Thoughtful: Reflections on National Security Post 9/11

On Sept. 11, 2001, the skies descended upon Manhattan while parts of the Pentagon were engulfed in flames. Immediately after the attacks, President George W. Bush attempted to console the nation and provide hope to the millions of Muslims living here who feared reprisal — targeted because the attackers claimed to be Muslims.

Over the course of the last two decades, American Muslims have been put through the ultimate test of allegiance — being made to feel like strangers in our own homeland.

Read the full op ed first published in The Hill →

Upcoming:

State of American Muslim Civic Life: 20 Years After 9/11

Suhail Khan and Hamid M. Khan examine the reactive measures taken in the post-9/11 climate and their unintended consequences for American Muslims.

Suhail Khan is the Director of External Affairs at Microsoft Corporation. Mr. Khan has extensive experience in the federal government, having served as a policy advisor and counsel on Capitol Hill, and as a senior political appointee in the Bush administration, where he served in the White House and as an advisor for two cabinet secretaries.

Hamid M. Khan is a Judicial Education Attorney with the Federal Judicial Center and has served as a Postdoctoral Fellow for Stanford Law School’s Afghanistan Legal Education Project. Additionally, Mr. Khan has worked for a number of federal agencies including the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Department of Defense and Department of State.

Register here →

ICYMI:

Thoughtful: Reflections on National Security Post-9/11

On the eve of the 20th anniversary of 9/11, Salam Al-Marayati, President of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, sat down with the top counterterrorism official at the Department of Homeland Security, John D. Cohen to reflect on our national security and counterterrorism approach over the past two decades.

Watch the full webinar -->

Beverly White with NBC4 News speaks with MPAC President, Salam Al-Marayati about life after 9/11.

Watch the recording -->

GOOD TO KNOW

MPAC President, Salam Al-Marayati, joins Dr. Muqtedar Khan and Dr. Ingrid Mattson to discuss the impact of 9/11 on American Muslims.
'Breaking stereotypes': How 9/11 shaped a generation of Muslim Americans
American Muslims recall how hate and scrutiny after 9/11 changed their lives
Close to home: how US far-right terror flourished in post-9/11 focus on Islam
'The Genocide of Uyghurs and the Silence of Muslim-Majority Countries" by former MPAC Policy Intern, Mucteba Gokcek, published in ISNA’s Islamic Horizons Magazine

- THIS WEEK IN HISTORY -

Sep 5, 1973 - Conference of less developed countries approves forming "producers' associations" and calls for withdrawal of Israeli forces from occupied Arab lands; Sep 5, 1978 - Anwar Sadat, Menachem Begin and Jimmy Carter begin Egypt-Israel peace conference at Camp David; Sep 8, 1937 - Pan Arab conference about Palestine opens; Sep 8, 1978 - Iranian army fires on Khomeini followers in Tehran, 100s killed; Sep 9, 1990 - George H. W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Helsinki & urge Iraq to leave Kuwait; Sep 9, 1993 - Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization exchange letters of mutual recognition; Sep 10, 1990 - Iran agrees to resume diplomatic ties with Iraq; Sep 10, 2007 - Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif returns to Pakistan after seven years in exile, following a military coup in October 1999; Sep 11, 1697 - Battle of Zenta: forces of Prince Eugen of Savoye defeat the Turks, ending Ottoman control of large parts of Central Europe; Sep 11, 1939 - Iraq and Saudi Arabia declare war on Nazi Germany; Sep 11, 1971 - Egypt adopts its constitution; Sep 11, 1986 - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak receives Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres; Sep 11, 2005 - The State of Israel completes its unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip.

Sep 5, 1774 - The first Continental Congress, a meeting of delegates from 12 of the 13 British colonies that later became the United States, convenes at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, which becomes the first capital of the United States; Sep 5, 1914 - US President Woodrow Wilson orders US Navy to make its wireless stations accessible for any transatlantic communications - even to German diplomats sending coded messages; leads to interception of the Zimmermann telegram, helping bring the US into the war; Sep 5, 1939 - FDR declares US neutrality at start of WW II in Europe; Sep 5, 1975 - First assassination attempt on US President Gerald Ford by Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme in Sacramento, CA; Sep 6, 1866 - Frederick Douglass is first US black delegate to a national convention; Sep 6, 1901 - US President William McKinley is shot by Leon Czolgosz while visiting the Pan-American Exposition in New York; Sep 8, 1974 - US President Gerald Ford pardons former President Richard Nixon of all federal crimes; Sep 9, 1776 - Congress officially renames the country as the United States of America (from the United Colonies); Sep 9, 1957 - US President Eisenhower signs first civil rights bill since Reconstruction; Sep 11, 1777 - Battle of Brandywine, PA - Americans lose to the British, Polish soldier Casimir Pulaski saves life of George Washington; Sep 11, 1789 - Alexander Hamilton appointed first Secretary of the US Treasury; Sep 11, 1941 - Construction of the Pentagon begins in Arlington County, VA; Sep 11, 1998 - Independent counsel Ken Starr sends a report to the U.S. Congress accusing President Bill Clinton of 11 possible impeachable offenses; Sep 11, 2001 - Four airplanes are hijacked and attacks are carried out against targets in the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing almost 3,000 people in total.

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