9/11 and the long shadow of Islamophobia

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

WBUR Podcasts, Boston.

Moustafa Bayoumi (0:06)

Islamophobia is part of our political scene today, and Muslims are its victims.

Chris Bentley (0:12)

In some ways, the country has changed a lot since 9-11. In other ways, sadly, it has not.

It's Wednesday, September 9th. And this is Here & Now Anytime from NPR and WBUR. I'm Chris Bentley. Today on the show, as we approach 25 years since the September 11th attacks, we're learning just how much officials knew at the time about contaminated air that was sickening New Yorkers.

Ben Chevat (0:49)

And clearly from the documents that we've seen, they had concerns. And what they did with those concerns is really bothersome.

Chris Bentley (0:57)

Also, a historian says terrorist attacks in 1998 and 2000 should have been warning signs, but the government failed to connect the dots.

Julian Zelizer (1:06)

I think it's worth wondering whether we're now repeating some of those mistakes. It's not clear the government is reacting fast enough or adjusting to the new threats, let alone other issues like pandemics and climate change.

Chris Bentley (1:19)

That's coming up in about 15 minutes. By the way, we'll have lots more on Friday's episode marking 25 years since 9-11, so click that follow button in your podcast player now.

We're going to hear from some of you who shared your memories of that day and how it changed your lives. But first, one painful legacy of that day is anti-Muslim bigotry, something that flared up after the attacks in 2001, egged on by many leaders in government and media at the time, but which was not left in the past. Look no further than the Islamophobic remarks Rudy Giuliani made last week on the right-wing outlet Newsmax. Giuliani was mayor of New York in 2001, and he does not want New York's current mayor, Zohran Mamdani, to attend the 9-11 commemoration on Friday because Mamdani is Muslim. They have every desire to take us over.

Robin Young (2:16)

This is not, they want to be just another religion.

Chris Bentley (2:19)

Well, Mamdani told WCBS in New York he will attend. What I want this week to be a focus on is on the families whose loved ones were stolen from them 25 years ago in the horrific act of terror of September 11th, and a focus also on the first responders who gave everything they could to this city and to the people who came together to try and help their fellow New Yorkers. We wanted to hear from another Muslim New Yorker, Moustafa Bayoumi. He's an English professor at Brooklyn College, author of a number of books, including This Muslim American Life, Dispatches from the War on Terror.

Here's his conversation with Robin Young.

Moustafa Bayoumi (2:56)

There's a concerted campaign to turn what should be a somber, reflective moment into a political football. And that political football is about making life really difficult, not just for Mayor Zohran Mamdani, but making life increasingly difficult for Muslim Americans around this country. And I think that that really illustrates something that's at the core of what Islamophobia is all about today, which is to say that it's not just a kind of irrational hatred.

Islamophobia is part of our political scene today, and Muslims are its victims.

Robin Young (3:39)

Twenty-five years ago, many people didn't even really know what Islam was in any way.

All they knew was that Muslim terrorists had done this incredibly evil thing. Are you saying there's a difference between that shock and not understanding and then 25 years later in Islamophobia?

Moustafa Bayoumi (4:04)

There is a continuity, though, between 25 years ago and today, and that continuity is that life has been increasingly difficult for Muslim Americans all the way through. But then the other part of that continuity is that from what began as a shock, quickly turned into politics and it became instrumentalized into our political scene. There was a concerted effort, there was a real honest desire, I think, from a lot of ordinary Americans to understand this thing that was suddenly in front of them, and this thing we would call Islam. For example, in the days following, in the weeks following 9-11, Oprah Winfrey even had a show called Islam 101

But the problem too is that we focus on, we have to understand the Quran, which instantly became a best seller following 9-11 as well. But in fact, instead of doing that, what we really should be looking at, I think, are the historical reasons or the contexts for political violence in our whole world. That we still have precious little discussion over. Yeah.

Robin Young (5:13)

Well, we're going to put that aside for this discussion. Because I want to talk more about what's happening now, which is you talk about words like Giuliani's fanning the flames, the embers that have been there.