This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Sept. 9, 2011 - The morning of Sept. 11, 2001, began a sad period in history that also marks a before-and-after milestone in the lives of many Muslim Americans, says Gulten Ilhan, a philosophy professor at St. Louis Community College at Meramec.
Before that awful day 10 years ago no one cared that she is a Muslim, Ilhan said. But in the days that followed, the reports that Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida were responsible made the attacks even more painful because they claimed to be Muslims.
"It was a double-edged sword for us. Not just seeing the suffering of the individuals -- and there were a lot of Muslims who were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks," she said. "But I remember my youngest daughter saying, 'This is so unfair. Look what they have done to the Muslim population all over the world.' "
Like the majority of American adults, Ilhan remembers clearly those early hours of 9/11, as she watched the events unfold.
"I still see those images; it's not something you forget. It made me extremely sad," she said. "I was supposed to be leaving for England that day for a conference, and my brother called and said, 'I don't think you are going to England today. Turn the TV on.' Then I saw the planes. And I saw the attack, and it didn't matter who was behind it. What mattered at the time was the suffering of the people."
On Sept. 11, Islam became an instant enemy in the minds of many, Ilhan said. But she hopes people will recognize that the terrorists also caused tremendous pain for Muslims worldwide -- and that thousands of Muslims have been killed in the war on terror.
As incidents of backlash against Muslims surfaced around the nation in the days after Sept. 11, Ilhan said she had a totally different experience.
"Many of my students came and said, 'Sometimes horrible things happen. If you think your life is in danger, please come and stay with us.' "
Ilhan said she was never afraid -- and she has never faced discrimination because of her religion -- but she knows many Muslim Americans who have. Ilhan has been active in interfaith community organizations, including the local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. She also serves on a local task force on hate crimes.
Ilhan remembers meeting a waiter at a local cafe shortly after Sept. 11. She recognized from his nametag that he had a Muslim name, and so she offered him a traditional Muslim greeting.
"He looked down and acted as if he didn't hear me. A few minutes later I asked him if he was Muslim. He said he couldn't talk, that he had lost his voice. He was embarrassed," she said.
'Extremists Are the Loudest'
A decade after Sept. 11, Ilhan said that she still sees signs of hatred and ignorance directed at the Islamic faith, but she is more hopeful than she was a few years ago.
"I give a lot of talks to youth, and they give me so much hope," she said. "I don't feel the hatred from the youth. I used to think the images [of Sept. 11] would be etched in their psyche. But I see more hatred from the adults than the young people."
For her presentations, Ilhan has collected images that depict discrimination and slurs against Muslims. She remembers, in particular, a drawing depicting Iran as a sewer drain covered in cockroaches that was published by a Ohio newspaper in 2007. Although the newspaper said the drawing was aimed at extremists harbored in Iran, Ilhan saw it as an attempt to demonize and dehumanize all Iranian people, who are predominantly Muslims.
"Why aren't we bothered by this? If you see America's map covered with cockroaches, how would you feel about that?" she said.
Before 9/11, the Islamic faith was simply not on the radar, Ilhan said. Most Americans had little knowledge or information about Muslims and their perceptions were frequently based on stereotypes of Arabs as portrayed by Hollywood.
"Now I would say they still don't have much information, but what information they have is all negative. That's the difference," she said.
Ilhan understands that bin Laden and the 9/11 terrorists claimed to be Muslims, but she says it is important to stress that they were extremists -- as are the people who in the aftermath of the attacks promoted hatred of all Muslims.
"Extremists are the loudest," she said. "The burden is not on them, the burden is on us. Because if we stay silent, we are enabling those sides. When you see injustice, speak up. It doesn't matter what the issue is: sexual orientation, racial, ethnic, religious, you name it. And if you just stay silent, you are enabling that. That's my message to my children and to my students."
A Tough Time for Muslim Children
Ilhan emigrated from Turkey in 1982 to attend college in the United States. She came to St. Louis in 1990 for graduate studies at St. Louis University. Her brother owns the Boardwalk Cafe in Webster, but most of her family remained in Turkey.
Ilhan became a U.S. citizen in 2003 and immediately became an active participant in her new nation's electoral process. She served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 2004 and is a Democratic committeewoman in St. Louis County.
Ten years after 9/11, Ilhan worries about the psyche of Muslim children who still see Muslims portrayed as murders, criminals and terrorists.
She said it is the Muslim children who are often most affected by her presentations at local schools and youth programs.
"They come and hug me and say thank you," she said.
Ilhan, who teaches comparative religion at SLCC, said she tries to illustrate the common paths of the world's faiths. Her class is often the first time her students have been exposed to Islam -- or even met a Muslim.
"They come with lots of desire to understand one another," she said. "It's a very rewarding experience for me."
Muslims in America
According to a recent survey by the Pew Reseach Center, a majority of Muslim Americans said that it has been more difficult to be Muslim in the U.S. since 9/11. But 48 percent said Americans are generally friendly or neutral (32 percent) toward them.
Twenty-eight percent said they have been looked at with suspicion, and 22 percent said they had been called offensive names. Just more than half -- 52 percent -- said that U.S. government anti-terrorism policies single out Muslim Americans for increased surveillance and monitoring.
In a separate survey, Pew found that two-thirds (67 percent) of Americans are very or somewhat concerned about the possible rise of Islamic extremism in the U.S. and nearly three-fourths -- 73 percent -- were at least somewhat concerned about Islamic extremism around the world.
On the other hand, more than half (57 percent) of the respondents rejected the argument that 9/11 triggered a "clash of civilizations" between the West and the Muslim world, while one-third disagreed.
Pew researchers also noted that a majority of Muslim Americans shared concerns about the possible rise of Islamic extremism in the U.S. and around the world.
