The 9/11 terrorist attacks that devastated the United States in 2001 have had profound political, economic and social effects that still reverberate to this very day. However, most people don’t focus on the consequences that the attacks had on the social fabric of America, even though they were incredibly impactful.
US Muslims and people of color turned to Twitter to tell the stories of how their lives were changed by the 9/11 attacks. Using the #AfterSeptember11 and #After911 hashtags, they revealed the intense persecution they and their family members faced because of their religious beliefs, how they looked, and how they dressed. The following is a list of the most poignant stories. Upvote the ones you felt touched you the most, and leave a comment with your thoughts about 9/11 and its effects on the US and the world below. After you’re done reading, have a look at Bored Panda’s post about the incredibly heroic search and rescue dogs who are remembered for doing their duty at Ground Zero 18 years on.
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My heart breaks for much a needless and senseless loss. I'm so sorry you had to grow up without your mum.
Verbal and physical abuse against Muslims was rife in the weeks, months and even years following the terrorist attacks. From bullying in schools to taunts in public, both Muslims and people of color were ‘presumed to be guilty’ for what happened. The people who thought themselves to be just as American as anyone else found themselves outcasts in a society that didn’t know how to deal with their grief and anger.
Even though for some the memory of 9/11 fades, for others it is still as though the tragedy happened yesterday. And new information about what happened is still coming out even now. For example, according to CNN, the US Justice Department has recently stated that it will reveal the name of a person who is believed to have aided two of the 9/11 hijackers.
That's very sad, the same happened during WWII with Adolf, the royal family changed its name to Windsor to be less German sounding and for a while German shepherds were called Shepard dogs. None of that should be important, but it matters to people.
Americans in New York honored victims of the attacks at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. During the ceremony, two moments of silence were held (one for each plane that hit the World Trade Center); names of all the nearly 3,000 people who died were also read. This year was the first time that all New York schools were legally required to hold a moment of silence.
Sikhs are not Muslims. They’re Sikhs. But ignorant people, as always, tend to clump certain types of people together based on appearance. In their pea brains, wearing a turban automatically equates with being a terrorist, which is absolutely not true. Neither is the opinion that all Muslims are terrorists, which I know from experience is not true. Much of this false information is perpetuated by warmongering politicians and the mainstream media that reports on them. It needs to stop. We need to stop.
I'm really sorry. But as a German I can tell you that we have been doing that for 70 years. And none of my relatives were involved in the genocide
I'm usually against violence, I'd have done the same if they badmouthed my dad
"Teachers never did anything".... horrendous cowards that they were. For the sake of all deities... she was a *kid*, and was deserving of protection.
So, you should tell him that white man should be banned from world because a lot of them rapes, attack schools and kill childs, etc. This is so ridiculous.
In jr high I was told I would go to hell when I die for not being catholic. That was in the 1950 s, I'm still not catholic. I'm going to hell.
In my personal experience, I've found that more black people who I worked with were the most anti-Muslim / anti-Arab. I was shocked, considering what they've experienced in life.
Teacher should’ve been reprimanded, at the very least, for that.
Alex Harris, don't be so quick posting inane comments, they make you seem very, very young and very shallow. I am absolutely certain that you can participate in a much more constructive manner and I promise you that many of us here will welcome your more sincere comments. How would it make you feel if someone threw a brick at your own grandma? I'd be mad as hell.
The fact that you'd deprive your child of a friend says everything about these "parents" before you look at all the other inherent wrongs
I read about adult Muslims being beaten and even killed after 9/11 but I didn’t think how awful this must have been for the children. Here it is 18 years later and I’m just now learning of this. To all the children who suffered from 9/11, both from parents dying in the attack and those attacked afterwards, please accept my apologies for my ignorance.
In a city near the college where I taught, after 9/11/01, a local Pakistani halal restaurant was burned down (we later learned it was arson), and the local fire department watched it burn. That was just the beginning. -Dr M, ret prof
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Its bad enough when adults allow themselves to become ignorant and intolerant out of fear and prejudice........but when they start teaching THEIR children, our FUTURE generation, such disgusting thoughts it makes me SICK, to take the ONE thing that makes a child a child: their innocence
I have ANOTHER story about Islamophobia when I was 11. Before, my neighbor- this old lady- said that me and my family (who also became Muslims) should go back to our countries. We were from here, and then my smart father brought the fact that white people ancestor's used to NOT come from North America. She also said that "Islam's not a religion, it's a political cult". AND she tried to rip off my mother's hijab. The police didn't give a f**k about this hate crime.
I am a Muslim. Before, I was in shotgun seat of the car while making the daily 5 Islamic prayers. A white lady went up to the window and yelled "Oh hai". Now, I couldn't answer just yet due to prayer, so I yelled out the part where you're supposed to say "ALLAHU AKBAR", which means "God is the Greatest". When I did, the lady was so scared and ran away. She yelled "AAAH WATCH OUT THAT KID'S GONNA BOMB THE PARKING LOT". I was 11.
I am a Muslim convert. Basically, this is how the first time I ever did Islamic prayer went like.
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I was raised that you open your arms to anyone - black, white, brown, purple, green with orange polka-dots, Christian, Muslim, Jew, toilet-worshiping, gay, straight, lamp-lovers - ANYONE, as long as they were honest hard-working people. I will never judge a person by their appearance or religious beliefs, only by their actions. Considering this upbringing originated from a tiny lady who was born in the early 1900's in rural Iowa (my great-grandmother), I'd say she was pretty progressive; and her love and caring for all people has been a gift. So to anyone who might read this who feels outcast, you've got a friend/ally in me!
ctd. in the 1980s / 1990s We had families fleeing the violence in Ireland. Catholic *terrorists* bombing Protestants and vice-versa. My point is it is the terrorists of *any* flavour that are the problem. NOT an entire religion / race / country / ... sexuality / ..um what else ?
Load More Replies... People forget that the 9/11 attacks were designed to promote massive blowback and retaliation against muslims in the West to prove the recruitment propaganda right
John confused conflated Islam with a single country.
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I remember after the Oklahoma City bombing by Tim McVeigh, anti Muslim attacks sky rocketed. After it was found out that McVeigh was the one, no apologies given. Haters just want to hate, regardless of the reason.
Hey Dave G do you remember the countless incidents in which PEOPLE harmed other PEOPLE? Not just Muslims or Jews or Christians or Atheists or any specific religion, just people.
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To anyone reading Dave G's comments: not all Jews think this way. I come from a Jewish background and yes my grandma is wary of immigrants and Muslims because of the whole Israel/Pakistan issue, but there are lots like me who have tried to understand everyone's perspective, and not judge people for things others have done no matter what. Please don't listen to Dave - yes, the Habron massacre was bad but that DOES NOT mean all Muslims are evil. By the way: just from reading that Wikipedia article, I learned that over 400 jews were hidden from the massacre by Arabs. Just saying - Dave is just hiding his hate behind these 'facts'. I am friends with several Middle Eastern people and they are some of the nicest people I have ever met. Don't hate anyone, please.
Yeah, Dave's a moron. but did you mean Israel/Palestine ?
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Okay Dave G, I'll bite. I don't know what you hope to achieve by continuing to mention Hebron 1929. That muslims have done terrible s**t? Well yeah, that's a fact, and constantly. You only have to look at the Ottomon empire and forced conversion to see. But does that mean that they've not been victims of others or that Jews/Israeli's can't be perpetrators? Or that there aren't equally horrific atrocities other than the Holocaust (supported by those lovely Belgians) ie. Congo. Fact is, History is a shitstorm of violence in which Muslims have only been a part of, so just like Jews, an innocent person's mother or child shouldnt be made to answer for something they didnt do. I fully acknowledge (and am deeply saddened by) Hebron 1929 and the fact Jews have been persecuted constantly, Even during the black plague, Jews were murdered and thought to have caused it! even though they were cleaner than most due to their religious practices and probably aided in curbing it.
Dave G PEOPLE have been raping and murdering PEOPLE for literally hundreds of years. Why bring religion into it? Why not accept that people can and will be horrible. Of course, not everyone will be horrible but plenty will. Religion plays no part, nor does race, gender, or sexuality, okay?
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I always speak up whenever I hear people accusing Muslim on 9/11. I'm not even a Muslim.
Why? Ignorance, naivety, and fear. (not that it justifies such behaviour). :(
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What is with Dave and Hebron? Ok dude we hear you, doesn’t mean the Muslims don’t face discrimination too. I actually read up on it too, calm down Dave. We get it.
Queen, know that many of us Jews stand by our Muslim brethren.
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Please, terrorists are NOT Muslims. They do not stand for Islam. They stand for their culture and brainwashed ideologies. Islam is not an ethnicity and it is not a country. Colour is not religion, neither is ethnicity. Religions do not preach hatered. Cultural aspects are not religious nor is Islam a culture. Seek knowledge. I repeat terrorist are not Muslims. Islam is against terrorism. Read the Quran. Please. Don't have the billions of people that have nothing to do with the terrorists, if terrorists said they were doing something in the name of pinnaples then you wouldn't hate pinnaples. If there is anyone that hates terrorism and terrorists the most are the real Muslims that are taught to never even hurt a fly. Read about things. This generation has such a great access to information but yet they rather watch TV and listen to far right extremists and racists than read things for themselves and find the truth about what things really are like.
No where in Islam does it say killing is allowed. Ppl always associating Islam with terrorism. The two don't go together.
Load More Replies... As an indian I have to say these acts were made worse from 9/11 and now brexit. im 36 and will tell you I still experience racism at least once a week and have done all of my life. Its so common in my life that I now don't notice, it has become a normal part of my life.
Sandeep, I'm so sorry that such abuse has had to become "normal" for you. It's totally uncalled for, unnecessary, and NOT NOT NOT your fault. Please take this comment, as my standing in solidarity with you, as an ongoing ally. :)
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Sad to see that there are many on boredpanda downvoting everyone who is saying words of support to all these youngsters who have been bullied. Hope the upvotes outweigh the downvoted.
Good grief Dave G would you just shut the hell up! This post is about Muslims who suffered after 9/11. So your comments have no place here. No one here is a holocaust denier or are hating Jewish people. Just stop with the hatred. Hatred towards ANY person is wrong.
Dave G. : What happened in Hebron was horrible. You keep posting the wiki link. Did YOU read it? Who hid the Jewish survivors? ARABS. Open your heart and let go of your anger. That happened 90 years ago. Worse has happened to the Jewish people since then. No animosity toward the German people living today? Hopefully not, since they have nothing to do with the Holocaust.
This isn’t new behavior. We did the same to German-Americans during WWI, and Japanese-Americans (even worse) during WWII, plus countless groups before and after. We can be a bunch of sorry sacks of s**t when threatened, and should learn to dismiss such knee-jerk reactions, and allow our cooler heads to take over, before acting out our worst and basest impulses. And when we see people who appear incapable of that basic level of self-control, we should stand up, defend the objects of their venom, and publicly call the attackers out as the rotten, filthy subhumans they actually are.
My aunt's brother (aunt through marriage), a Muslim, was killed by Isis for refusing allegiance to Isis. He was there to visit his mom who had a stroke. Upon hearing about his murder, she also died. That happened 2 years ago.
I'm sorry to hear that! People often forget that Isis is more violent towards fellow Muslims than towards westerners
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Is there any way to report someone's comment for being inapropriate? Cause there is this one insensitive guy, Dave G whose comments are bordering on hateful and inappropriate. Bored panda please do something.
I bet you anything that Dave G is not even really Jewish. He’s just trying to make Jews look bad. He’s just a racist troll.
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I find it hypocritical how most racists and Islamophobes are right-wing "Christians" and yet they seem to forget that a guy who claimed to be Christian had 12 MILLION people put to death, half of those solely because they were Jewish. "Christians" have killed FAR FAR FAR more people just in the 20th century than Muslims did their entire history.
Im muslim and I am in middle school. I remeber once when I was five, my mom, my brother who was six, and me who was 5, where kicked out of a resurant for being musilm. I also remeber one kid at school who was nice and rather innocent, saying that he was going to one day grow up and go to the army to blow up all the "bad muslims" the he smiled at me and told me he wouldn't blow ME up. I was 11 when I got my first death threat.
John Smith, you are wrong. There are TONS of “Christians” that still kill people in the name of Jesus. White Christians who terrorize people for being brown, Muslim, Jew, queer, etc. it happens all the damn time. And even “pro-lifers (really just anti-choicers) who kill doctors who perform abortions of undeveloped FETUSES. And they do that in the name of their Christian god.
We had four Muslims who lived in the upstairs apartment above us. They were brothers, trying to make a life for themselves after leaving Iraq. They were respectful, kind, and even friendly. We didn't get the chance to become friends because they moved in a week before 9-11. They were kicked out of the apartment by the landlords because suddenly their "credit was bad". Of course, they had already moved all their things in and had been given the keys. They didn't want to cause trouble after what happened, so they left. I sure hope they are doing ok.
We had a Muslim refugee living in our house for five years, in Belgium. After the attacks on the Belgian international airport he was sent home to Mauretania almost immediately. Even after dozens of credentials, letters etc. He taught me about Islam. There are things in this faith that I don't agree with, but love one another is not one of them. Respect each other, people. And look at every case individually. Criminals are from every colour, faith and nationality.
It's lucky we don't make old rich white dudes answer for every old rich white dude who drives the sex trafficking industry
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It is so easy to manipulate people. From my point of view, the authorities should address those crimes before they even arise. Do you know how the USA treated Japanese in America after Pearl Harbour? This country uses inequality so people can attack the poor ones, not the rich ones who are responsible...
fighting among ourselves is a good distraction technique for the powerful
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I had to stop halfway through so I wouldn’t cry in the middle of my school hallway. No one should ever be ashamed of, or have to apologize for something they didn’t do. Prejudice makes people blind to the truth and hateful and should never be encouraged. Don’t be a bystander if you see this happen, be kind!
No one likes to be blamed for someone else's actions, so why do it to others? I was a senior in High school during 9/11. There was a local Muslim store owner that was beaten to death by 3 white men days after it happened. I didn't understand it then and I still don't.
When I got my first death threat it was online, and I was 11, and I freaked out. Then I remembered that there are over 1 million people out there that are willing to kill me if given the chance, and meeting one in person does not add to that number. I hope this helps any Muslims out there.
These are just so heartbreaking. The ignorance in some people is astounding mistaking Sikhs etc for Muslims and targeting a whole group of people because of a few undesirables that “claim” they are Muslim. Terrorism has no religion.
Goli Soda, you obviously didn’t understand what I meant. Just because they are CLAIMING to do it for religion doesn’t mean it’s true. No actual, proper religious teachings encourage terrorism.
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People that say "Go home" to muslims (and any foreign) shouldnt go back to anywhere since they are inmigrants since 1492? Who know where they are from, Eurpe, Asia, Africa... but not from US.
I am pretty sure native americans wouldn't mind sending back everyone and then make the strictest immigrant policies of the history of mankind.
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My former boss was from India. He was a good man who was Hindu. I had the utmost respect for him. He was the kind of man you wanted to work hard for. A week after the attacks, he was nearly beaten to death, called a terrorist. He soon after sold his business and moved back to India with his wife, son, and newborn daughter. He called it a sickness, what the US was going through (and still is, in some cases).
I was responding to Daniel Lewis's comment. Still trying to figure out how comments work on BP.
And, there have been attacks in the name of Christianity. But, to include all Muslims and Christians as evil is just plain ignorance,.
This makes me sad that Islamophobia exists. Just because a few Muslims are terrorists, doesn't mean ALL Muslims are terrorists. People should just be accepting of other people's beliefs, because they don't know their story...
Around here there was a business owner (jeweler) who was Muslim. Shortly after 9/11 he had a heart attack and someone spread the false rumor that he'd been nabbed by the fiBI.
I feel so sorry for all the people that have suffered and are still suffering from this horrible happening! I live in East Europe and i was about 15 when 9/11 happend i understood that it was a tragedy.....but it was not until later when i realized exactly how horrible this was not just for the ones that lost friends and family but to all the Muslims that needed to carry on in a world of hate !
I really want to scream to the world that Islam, much like any other religions, DOES NOT promote or condone violence 😥 Being muslim doesn't automatically make one a terrorist...I'm a muslim and I don't consider those bombers as one of us. sadly nowadays its easier to put the blame on the religion instead of individuals.
This is the same logic as saying a Christian caused a school shooting, so we should attack all Christians because of a couple people. (Not saying all shooters are Christian, I was just using an example)
Okay Dave G, let me tell you what I think. Yes, Jews have been attacked many times over, but so have Muslims. Are you trying to say that all Muslims deserve horrible treatment because of an event that happened 90 years ago? Because this post is to commemorate the horrible event on 9/11 that was committed by a small percentage of Muslims, and it is to talk about the aftermath. There are plenty of sites to commemorate hate attacks against Jews, and Bored Panda may have some articles. But it is not fair to call everyone hare nazis because no one here is. They are simply here to commemorate 9/11 and they downvote you because you are talking about something irrelevant (to this specific post) and you are doing so in a rude and insulting manner. Now do you see why you are being downvoted?
What do I think? I think that these attitudes reflect a lot about the country in which they live.
Let us all not forget who was really behind 9/11 our own government with the help of the Saudi. They are genius really they got home land security passed which ended life in the united states forever and has created the mess it is now. Also to destroy evidence of why we are in this much debt. The government spreads hate and divides us on purpose because if we would ever stop being ignorant and really look at the facts we would hang 75% of our government officials for treason. Thats reds and blues together both are the same pieces of s**t just a different smell.
Just wondering, does anyone know why I got downvoted? I’m not offended I just want to know what I did wrong so I can improve. I always try to be open minded and listen to both sides of any argument so please don’t be shy to tell me.
NCC~1701, I have no idea why your comment was downvoted. I agree people should be safe from prejudice and we can all help make our world a kinder place.
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Caesar used to say, "divide and rule".... The "enemy" is not the one who you fight, but the one who benefits from the damages. We were born by chance in whatever country we were born. Ιt's not our religion that makes us good or bad, but our character does. The courtesy of our soul is our individual religion...I try to honor the courtesy every day...and you?
Dave G. I'm worries about your support comment, after all the things you write in others comments. And if you have so many angry inside you and you supported me, maybe my message is misunderstood. Any way I'm not Muslim, I'm not Jewish and in my country's history and stories in families are not very friendly neither for Muslims neither for Jewish, neither some others nationalities. The point of the history is to remember and learn to not repeat the same mistakes. But either you, you don't understand this that the enemy is not the one you fight ,but the enemy is the one who benefits from damages. The politicians...how hard is to guess , they manipulate for to do what they wnat to do
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A good friend of mine in high school on the day of. got really chased by some students in the halls because they blamed him for the attacks. We ran into each other as he was running from 2 kids and he though that I was going to beat him up too. But I told him "man if they are going to fight you because of this, I will fight with you." he for the rest of our junior was teased and scared.
A few weeks after 9-11, I was on a bus on my way home. A young woman wearing a beautiful hijab was being assaulted by group of catholic school boys. They were proudly wearing their school uniform from the most prestigious catholic boy's school in the city. My alma mater. I was so god damned mad I nearly had a stroke. I knew if I hit one of the bastards I'd go to jail. So when the bus driver finally figured out what was going on, he stopped and opened the back doors. At that exact moment, a bunch of other kids pushed the bastards out the door and into the gutter, which was full of all kinds of s**t. They left behind their school bags etc. We gave them to the police. The young woman being harassed was fine. I wanted to go up to that charnel house of a school and kick the princapal in the nuts. I didn't. When I got my next fundraising envelope, I returned it with a strongly worded note, saying what a great job the Jesuits did with those boys. They were never punished.
Many still think 9/11 was an inside job. So maybe not so much Muslims as rich old white men.
Yeah, something weird is going on with that, especially when you see very similar comments under the actual stories receiving numerous upvotes. Quite odd.
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They say we learn history so we don't repeat mistakes but the West has een repeating itself over and over and over. There is always a "villian" of the time. During ww2, it was Germany, and in the Cold war, Russia. However, in the Vietnam war, all the brutalities were exposed through the new media technologies and so the public stopped supporting it. The government learned their mistake. To ensure that they keep having public support for their military decisions, the new villains of this time are the muslims. So many hate crimes and awful actions have been done to muslims but conviniently those reports get the least attention. white people who do crimes are conviently "mentally disturbed" and any muslims who do crimes are "terrorists." Small wording differences and controlling the levels of attention brought to certain incidents are how whoever is in charge is slowly building up the antagonistic view of muslims.
I've learned while travelling through the Balkans that not all muslims are brown or middle eastern, there are many European muslims. Bosnians, Albanians, Chechnyans. Pomak Bulgarians. I've been told that while they had an easier time in terms of being profiled (at least until their names are seen), tensions in the area worsened due to their neighbours using 9/11 as an excuse to attack
Wow!!! Anti-Muslims have arrived en masse! Upvotes suddenly downvoted into oblivion. Hope you can absorb into your f*****g tiny heads that true, good Muslims and Christian Middle Easterners suffered (and continue to suffer) by Isis, the Taliban and whatever else they call themselves. Just as Jews, gays, Muslims, Protestants, and many others were by The Church. I am Christian... You c***s. As Pussy William said (I'm paraphrasing, cuz I have no f***s to give), 'bring on the downvotes. You can't shut me up'.
Honestly, starting to wonder if that Dave G. guy didn't make some fake accounts just to downvote people because no one was taking the bait and engaging him about his repetitive "massacre in Hebron" posts.
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Wow persecuted for something that some psychos in your religion did! Where have I heard this one before? Just saying... there are other religions that have been equally beaten/killed/etc for the actions of some psychos. Thats the unfortunate result of having terribly evil people in society.
Whatever... okay possibly wasn't the right word, but Puck seemed to be saying "who cares" because it happens to everybody. We should care that it happens to anybody.
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I am sorry for all of you. If you feel like a ghost hugging you, it's probably me <3
I am still the "honorary, white friend" amongst so many my 'non-white' friends (of varying nationalities / faiths) .... because of the profound amount of c**p they and their families were put through after 9/11 by "whites". My friends' parents' are still (understandably) concerned that *I* will have issues with them, because of such experiences. These concerns are typically alleviated as soon as we share a meal, and they discover that I'm a total foodie, and love their food & want to learn more. While I'm actually multi-ethnic, I'm very proud to be the "honorary, white" friend, & look forward to the day, when this is "honour" is no longer even a thing. <3 <3 <3
These stories sound EXACTLY like the early hate crimes against Jews in Nazi Germany.
But the bombing and killing of 2,000+ people doesn't!?! 🤔
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Dave G. We get it, you're passionate about informing others of the crimes commited against Jewish people, but this is not the time, nor the place. If you truly want to tell people, make a post and get straight to the point rather than spamming the chat and saying everyone else is a Nazi or a snowflake just because they are focusing on the thing that the article is about. To put it in simple terms, we're reading a passage about sharks and sharks being killed because of what a few sharks did, and you can't stop talking about whales.
I feel so sorry for these people whose lives were drastically affected after 9/11 , and , yes , Dave G , the people from the Hebron massacre too 😰
My husband was born and raised in Egypt and on Paper is Islamic and as you can tell our last name is Arabic. My husband was almost on flight 93 but had a change in plans just a day or two before. at the time we were living in Central VA. My husbands very arabic sounding first name was his license plate. We didn't have any problems fortunately as we lived in a large college town but we were afraid as were our families.
I would finish this article but I can't because most are the comments are from some jackass calling himself "David G" who keeps bringing up some massacre in 1929. I don't know if he's bored or just trying to cause arguments, but I just cannot get anything out of this article because of his stupidity. Apparently, he doesn't realize that when any religion or race is mistreated it's wrong.
Wth bin laden if you could see your fhcked up action's reaction now
Well kill almost 3,000 in one day and expect Americans to be forgiving, small acts of violence and disgust? Man, you people are pathetic. If things were reversed say Arab Emerates jets hijacked by Christian extremists and crashed into random highly occupied buildings in the MiddleEast Muslims would have slaughtered any foreigner in the streets or country after they found out. Be thrilled we are not savage murderers like your fellow countrymen.
Sadly the USA was and never will be the same after 9/11. My step father is Iranian and drove a white van and got stopped repeatedly after the pentagon was attacked. It was a scary time. A large part of our country was brought together in this crisis while simultaneously ripping apart in other terms. All races, ethnicities, religion, sexuality, identity, and any other classification of man kind receives prejudice in one form or another. Do not let the acts of a few steer the future generations into hate. Grow and bring love and acceptance into the world so that if one is shown love the can continue to show compassion in others. Have you ever stopped to think that a whole generation was taught that they are hated by others because of something someone else did? All it take is proving them wrong and showing them, people care. Media and politicians gain from the separation of society. It’s how they stay in business. Please do not feed into hatred.
I tell my son every day to say hello to every person he passes. You never know what someone is going through and you could have just saved their lives. It’s amazing how many people tell me that’s one of few nice gestures they have had from a stranger in awhile. So if you can take anything from this a simple hello or smile can often soften many hearts. It is hard to defuse hate with hate and debate but it is a lot easier to do so with kindness.
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geez, this is just racism masquerading as a hate for a religion. They wouldn't do this to a white muslim. They don't shame christians when their extremeist camps come to light where they marry their children off to their uncles and crazy s**t like that.
Everyone’s lives changed after 9/11. The lives of the people on the planes and in the building changed a bit.
The other side of the coin. Its sad all their stories only because racist people. I am so sad that this havent changed. Now are mexicans, latins, etc.
I really hope, that I've got the courageous to step in if I witness something like this.
Not all of us, but the ignorant ones typically like to be quite loud and proud about their ignorance.
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William, there's no reasoning / civil discussion with them (terrorists). Yes, whether you believe it or not, Muslims are also victims. Why do you think so many are fleeing their countries?
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I was raised that you open your arms to anyone - black, white, brown, purple, green with orange polka-dots, Christian, Muslim, Jew, toilet-worshiping, gay, straight, lamp-lovers - ANYONE, as long as they were honest hard-working people. I will never judge a person by their appearance or religious beliefs, only by their actions. Considering this upbringing originated from a tiny lady who was born in the early 1900's in rural Iowa (my great-grandmother), I'd say she was pretty progressive; and her love and caring for all people has been a gift. So to anyone who might read this who feels outcast, you've got a friend/ally in me!
ctd. in the 1980s / 1990s We had families fleeing the violence in Ireland. Catholic *terrorists* bombing Protestants and vice-versa. My point is it is the terrorists of *any* flavour that are the problem. NOT an entire religion / race / country / ... sexuality / ..um what else ?
Load More Replies... People forget that the 9/11 attacks were designed to promote massive blowback and retaliation against muslims in the West to prove the recruitment propaganda right
John confused conflated Islam with a single country.
Load More Replies... I remember after the Oklahoma City bombing by Tim McVeigh, anti Muslim attacks sky rocketed. After it was found out that McVeigh was the one, no apologies given. Haters just want to hate, regardless of the reason.
Hey Dave G do you remember the countless incidents in which PEOPLE harmed other PEOPLE? Not just Muslims or Jews or Christians or Atheists or any specific religion, just people.
Load More Replies... To anyone reading Dave G's comments: not all Jews think this way. I come from a Jewish background and yes my grandma is wary of immigrants and Muslims because of the whole Israel/Pakistan issue, but there are lots like me who have tried to understand everyone's perspective, and not judge people for things others have done no matter what. Please don't listen to Dave - yes, the Habron massacre was bad but that DOES NOT mean all Muslims are evil. By the way: just from reading that Wikipedia article, I learned that over 400 jews were hidden from the massacre by Arabs. Just saying - Dave is just hiding his hate behind these 'facts'. I am friends with several Middle Eastern people and they are some of the nicest people I have ever met. Don't hate anyone, please.
Yeah, Dave's a moron. but did you mean Israel/Palestine ?
Load More Replies... Okay Dave G, I'll bite. I don't know what you hope to achieve by continuing to mention Hebron 1929. That muslims have done terrible s**t? Well yeah, that's a fact, and constantly. You only have to look at the Ottomon empire and forced conversion to see. But does that mean that they've not been victims of others or that Jews/Israeli's can't be perpetrators? Or that there aren't equally horrific atrocities other than the Holocaust (supported by those lovely Belgians) ie. Congo. Fact is, History is a shitstorm of violence in which Muslims have only been a part of, so just like Jews, an innocent person's mother or child shouldnt be made to answer for something they didnt do. I fully acknowledge (and am deeply saddened by) Hebron 1929 and the fact Jews have been persecuted constantly, Even during the black plague, Jews were murdered and thought to have caused it! even though they were cleaner than most due to their religious practices and probably aided in curbing it.
Dave G PEOPLE have been raping and murdering PEOPLE for literally hundreds of years. Why bring religion into it? Why not accept that people can and will be horrible. Of course, not everyone will be horrible but plenty will. Religion plays no part, nor does race, gender, or sexuality, okay?
Load More Replies... I always speak up whenever I hear people accusing Muslim on 9/11. I'm not even a Muslim.
Why? Ignorance, naivety, and fear. (not that it justifies such behaviour). :(
Load More Replies... What is with Dave and Hebron? Ok dude we hear you, doesn’t mean the Muslims don’t face discrimination too. I actually read up on it too, calm down Dave. We get it.
Queen, know that many of us Jews stand by our Muslim brethren.
Load More Replies... Please, terrorists are NOT Muslims. They do not stand for Islam. They stand for their culture and brainwashed ideologies. Islam is not an ethnicity and it is not a country. Colour is not religion, neither is ethnicity. Religions do not preach hatered. Cultural aspects are not religious nor is Islam a culture. Seek knowledge. I repeat terrorist are not Muslims. Islam is against terrorism. Read the Quran. Please. Don't have the billions of people that have nothing to do with the terrorists, if terrorists said they were doing something in the name of pinnaples then you wouldn't hate pinnaples. If there is anyone that hates terrorism and terrorists the most are the real Muslims that are taught to never even hurt a fly. Read about things. This generation has such a great access to information but yet they rather watch TV and listen to far right extremists and racists than read things for themselves and find the truth about what things really are like.
No where in Islam does it say killing is allowed. Ppl always associating Islam with terrorism. The two don't go together.
Load More Replies... As an indian I have to say these acts were made worse from 9/11 and now brexit. im 36 and will tell you I still experience racism at least once a week and have done all of my life. Its so common in my life that I now don't notice, it has become a normal part of my life.
Sandeep, I'm so sorry that such abuse has had to become "normal" for you. It's totally uncalled for, unnecessary, and NOT NOT NOT your fault. Please take this comment, as my standing in solidarity with you, as an ongoing ally. :)
Load More Replies... Sad to see that there are many on boredpanda downvoting everyone who is saying words of support to all these youngsters who have been bullied. Hope the upvotes outweigh the downvoted.
Good grief Dave G would you just shut the hell up! This post is about Muslims who suffered after 9/11. So your comments have no place here. No one here is a holocaust denier or are hating Jewish people. Just stop with the hatred. Hatred towards ANY person is wrong.
Dave G. : What happened in Hebron was horrible. You keep posting the wiki link. Did YOU read it? Who hid the Jewish survivors? ARABS. Open your heart and let go of your anger. That happened 90 years ago. Worse has happened to the Jewish people since then. No animosity toward the German people living today? Hopefully not, since they have nothing to do with the Holocaust.
This isn’t new behavior. We did the same to German-Americans during WWI, and Japanese-Americans (even worse) during WWII, plus countless groups before and after. We can be a bunch of sorry sacks of s**t when threatened, and should learn to dismiss such knee-jerk reactions, and allow our cooler heads to take over, before acting out our worst and basest impulses. And when we see people who appear incapable of that basic level of self-control, we should stand up, defend the objects of their venom, and publicly call the attackers out as the rotten, filthy subhumans they actually are.
My aunt's brother (aunt through marriage), a Muslim, was killed by Isis for refusing allegiance to Isis. He was there to visit his mom who had a stroke. Upon hearing about his murder, she also died. That happened 2 years ago.
I'm sorry to hear that! People often forget that Isis is more violent towards fellow Muslims than towards westerners
Load More Replies... Is there any way to report someone's comment for being inapropriate? Cause there is this one insensitive guy, Dave G whose comments are bordering on hateful and inappropriate. Bored panda please do something.
I bet you anything that Dave G is not even really Jewish. He’s just trying to make Jews look bad. He’s just a racist troll.
Load More Replies... I find it hypocritical how most racists and Islamophobes are right-wing "Christians" and yet they seem to forget that a guy who claimed to be Christian had 12 MILLION people put to death, half of those solely because they were Jewish. "Christians" have killed FAR FAR FAR more people just in the 20th century than Muslims did their entire history.
Im muslim and I am in middle school. I remeber once when I was five, my mom, my brother who was six, and me who was 5, where kicked out of a resurant for being musilm. I also remeber one kid at school who was nice and rather innocent, saying that he was going to one day grow up and go to the army to blow up all the "bad muslims" the he smiled at me and told me he wouldn't blow ME up. I was 11 when I got my first death threat.
John Smith, you are wrong. There are TONS of “Christians” that still kill people in the name of Jesus. White Christians who terrorize people for being brown, Muslim, Jew, queer, etc. it happens all the damn time. And even “pro-lifers (really just anti-choicers) who kill doctors who perform abortions of undeveloped FETUSES. And they do that in the name of their Christian god.
We had four Muslims who lived in the upstairs apartment above us. They were brothers, trying to make a life for themselves after leaving Iraq. They were respectful, kind, and even friendly. We didn't get the chance to become friends because they moved in a week before 9-11. They were kicked out of the apartment by the landlords because suddenly their "credit was bad". Of course, they had already moved all their things in and had been given the keys. They didn't want to cause trouble after what happened, so they left. I sure hope they are doing ok.
We had a Muslim refugee living in our house for five years, in Belgium. After the attacks on the Belgian international airport he was sent home to Mauretania almost immediately. Even after dozens of credentials, letters etc. He taught me about Islam. There are things in this faith that I don't agree with, but love one another is not one of them. Respect each other, people. And look at every case individually. Criminals are from every colour, faith and nationality.
It's lucky we don't make old rich white dudes answer for every old rich white dude who drives the sex trafficking industry
Load More Replies... It is so easy to manipulate people. From my point of view, the authorities should address those crimes before they even arise. Do you know how the USA treated Japanese in America after Pearl Harbour? This country uses inequality so people can attack the poor ones, not the rich ones who are responsible...
fighting among ourselves is a good distraction technique for the powerful
Load More Replies... I had to stop halfway through so I wouldn’t cry in the middle of my school hallway. No one should ever be ashamed of, or have to apologize for something they didn’t do. Prejudice makes people blind to the truth and hateful and should never be encouraged. Don’t be a bystander if you see this happen, be kind!
No one likes to be blamed for someone else's actions, so why do it to others? I was a senior in High school during 9/11. There was a local Muslim store owner that was beaten to death by 3 white men days after it happened. I didn't understand it then and I still don't.
When I got my first death threat it was online, and I was 11, and I freaked out. Then I remembered that there are over 1 million people out there that are willing to kill me if given the chance, and meeting one in person does not add to that number. I hope this helps any Muslims out there.
These are just so heartbreaking. The ignorance in some people is astounding mistaking Sikhs etc for Muslims and targeting a whole group of people because of a few undesirables that “claim” they are Muslim. Terrorism has no religion.
Goli Soda, you obviously didn’t understand what I meant. Just because they are CLAIMING to do it for religion doesn’t mean it’s true. No actual, proper religious teachings encourage terrorism.
Load More Replies... People that say "Go home" to muslims (and any foreign) shouldnt go back to anywhere since they are inmigrants since 1492? Who know where they are from, Eurpe, Asia, Africa... but not from US.
I am pretty sure native americans wouldn't mind sending back everyone and then make the strictest immigrant policies of the history of mankind.
Load More Replies... My former boss was from India. He was a good man who was Hindu. I had the utmost respect for him. He was the kind of man you wanted to work hard for. A week after the attacks, he was nearly beaten to death, called a terrorist. He soon after sold his business and moved back to India with his wife, son, and newborn daughter. He called it a sickness, what the US was going through (and still is, in some cases).
I was responding to Daniel Lewis's comment. Still trying to figure out how comments work on BP.
And, there have been attacks in the name of Christianity. But, to include all Muslims and Christians as evil is just plain ignorance,.
This makes me sad that Islamophobia exists. Just because a few Muslims are terrorists, doesn't mean ALL Muslims are terrorists. People should just be accepting of other people's beliefs, because they don't know their story...
Around here there was a business owner (jeweler) who was Muslim. Shortly after 9/11 he had a heart attack and someone spread the false rumor that he'd been nabbed by the fiBI.
I feel so sorry for all the people that have suffered and are still suffering from this horrible happening! I live in East Europe and i was about 15 when 9/11 happend i understood that it was a tragedy.....but it was not until later when i realized exactly how horrible this was not just for the ones that lost friends and family but to all the Muslims that needed to carry on in a world of hate !
I really want to scream to the world that Islam, much like any other religions, DOES NOT promote or condone violence 😥 Being muslim doesn't automatically make one a terrorist...I'm a muslim and I don't consider those bombers as one of us. sadly nowadays its easier to put the blame on the religion instead of individuals.
This is the same logic as saying a Christian caused a school shooting, so we should attack all Christians because of a couple people. (Not saying all shooters are Christian, I was just using an example)
Okay Dave G, let me tell you what I think. Yes, Jews have been attacked many times over, but so have Muslims. Are you trying to say that all Muslims deserve horrible treatment because of an event that happened 90 years ago? Because this post is to commemorate the horrible event on 9/11 that was committed by a small percentage of Muslims, and it is to talk about the aftermath. There are plenty of sites to commemorate hate attacks against Jews, and Bored Panda may have some articles. But it is not fair to call everyone hare nazis because no one here is. They are simply here to commemorate 9/11 and they downvote you because you are talking about something irrelevant (to this specific post) and you are doing so in a rude and insulting manner. Now do you see why you are being downvoted?
What do I think? I think that these attitudes reflect a lot about the country in which they live.
Let us all not forget who was really behind 9/11 our own government with the help of the Saudi. They are genius really they got home land security passed which ended life in the united states forever and has created the mess it is now. Also to destroy evidence of why we are in this much debt. The government spreads hate and divides us on purpose because if we would ever stop being ignorant and really look at the facts we would hang 75% of our government officials for treason. Thats reds and blues together both are the same pieces of s**t just a different smell.
Just wondering, does anyone know why I got downvoted? I’m not offended I just want to know what I did wrong so I can improve. I always try to be open minded and listen to both sides of any argument so please don’t be shy to tell me.
NCC~1701, I have no idea why your comment was downvoted. I agree people should be safe from prejudice and we can all help make our world a kinder place.
Load More Replies... Caesar used to say, "divide and rule".... The "enemy" is not the one who you fight, but the one who benefits from the damages. We were born by chance in whatever country we were born. Ιt's not our religion that makes us good or bad, but our character does. The courtesy of our soul is our individual religion...I try to honor the courtesy every day...and you?
Dave G. I'm worries about your support comment, after all the things you write in others comments. And if you have so many angry inside you and you supported me, maybe my message is misunderstood. Any way I'm not Muslim, I'm not Jewish and in my country's history and stories in families are not very friendly neither for Muslims neither for Jewish, neither some others nationalities. The point of the history is to remember and learn to not repeat the same mistakes. But either you, you don't understand this that the enemy is not the one you fight ,but the enemy is the one who benefits from damages. The politicians...how hard is to guess , they manipulate for to do what they wnat to do
Load More Replies... A good friend of mine in high school on the day of. got really chased by some students in the halls because they blamed him for the attacks. We ran into each other as he was running from 2 kids and he though that I was going to beat him up too. But I told him "man if they are going to fight you because of this, I will fight with you." he for the rest of our junior was teased and scared.
A few weeks after 9-11, I was on a bus on my way home. A young woman wearing a beautiful hijab was being assaulted by group of catholic school boys. They were proudly wearing their school uniform from the most prestigious catholic boy's school in the city. My alma mater. I was so god damned mad I nearly had a stroke. I knew if I hit one of the bastards I'd go to jail. So when the bus driver finally figured out what was going on, he stopped and opened the back doors. At that exact moment, a bunch of other kids pushed the bastards out the door and into the gutter, which was full of all kinds of s**t. They left behind their school bags etc. We gave them to the police. The young woman being harassed was fine. I wanted to go up to that charnel house of a school and kick the princapal in the nuts. I didn't. When I got my next fundraising envelope, I returned it with a strongly worded note, saying what a great job the Jesuits did with those boys. They were never punished.
Many still think 9/11 was an inside job. So maybe not so much Muslims as rich old white men.
Yeah, something weird is going on with that, especially when you see very similar comments under the actual stories receiving numerous upvotes. Quite odd.
Load More Replies... They say we learn history so we don't repeat mistakes but the West has een repeating itself over and over and over. There is always a "villian" of the time. During ww2, it was Germany, and in the Cold war, Russia. However, in the Vietnam war, all the brutalities were exposed through the new media technologies and so the public stopped supporting it. The government learned their mistake. To ensure that they keep having public support for their military decisions, the new villains of this time are the muslims. So many hate crimes and awful actions have been done to muslims but conviniently those reports get the least attention. white people who do crimes are conviently "mentally disturbed" and any muslims who do crimes are "terrorists." Small wording differences and controlling the levels of attention brought to certain incidents are how whoever is in charge is slowly building up the antagonistic view of muslims.
I've learned while travelling through the Balkans that not all muslims are brown or middle eastern, there are many European muslims. Bosnians, Albanians, Chechnyans. Pomak Bulgarians. I've been told that while they had an easier time in terms of being profiled (at least until their names are seen), tensions in the area worsened due to their neighbours using 9/11 as an excuse to attack
Wow!!! Anti-Muslims have arrived en masse! Upvotes suddenly downvoted into oblivion. Hope you can absorb into your f*****g tiny heads that true, good Muslims and Christian Middle Easterners suffered (and continue to suffer) by Isis, the Taliban and whatever else they call themselves. Just as Jews, gays, Muslims, Protestants, and many others were by The Church. I am Christian... You c***s. As Pussy William said (I'm paraphrasing, cuz I have no f***s to give), 'bring on the downvotes. You can't shut me up'.
Honestly, starting to wonder if that Dave G. guy didn't make some fake accounts just to downvote people because no one was taking the bait and engaging him about his repetitive "massacre in Hebron" posts.
Load More Replies... Wow persecuted for something that some psychos in your religion did! Where have I heard this one before? Just saying... there are other religions that have been equally beaten/killed/etc for the actions of some psychos. Thats the unfortunate result of having terribly evil people in society.
Whatever... okay possibly wasn't the right word, but Puck seemed to be saying "who cares" because it happens to everybody. We should care that it happens to anybody.
Load More Replies... I am sorry for all of you. If you feel like a ghost hugging you, it's probably me <3
I am still the "honorary, white friend" amongst so many my 'non-white' friends (of varying nationalities / faiths) .... because of the profound amount of c**p they and their families were put through after 9/11 by "whites". My friends' parents' are still (understandably) concerned that *I* will have issues with them, because of such experiences. These concerns are typically alleviated as soon as we share a meal, and they discover that I'm a total foodie, and love their food & want to learn more. While I'm actually multi-ethnic, I'm very proud to be the "honorary, white" friend, & look forward to the day, when this is "honour" is no longer even a thing. <3 <3 <3
These stories sound EXACTLY like the early hate crimes against Jews in Nazi Germany.
But the bombing and killing of 2,000+ people doesn't!?! 🤔
Load More Replies... Dave G. We get it, you're passionate about informing others of the crimes commited against Jewish people, but this is not the time, nor the place. If you truly want to tell people, make a post and get straight to the point rather than spamming the chat and saying everyone else is a Nazi or a snowflake just because they are focusing on the thing that the article is about. To put it in simple terms, we're reading a passage about sharks and sharks being killed because of what a few sharks did, and you can't stop talking about whales.
I feel so sorry for these people whose lives were drastically affected after 9/11 , and , yes , Dave G , the people from the Hebron massacre too 😰
My husband was born and raised in Egypt and on Paper is Islamic and as you can tell our last name is Arabic. My husband was almost on flight 93 but had a change in plans just a day or two before. at the time we were living in Central VA. My husbands very arabic sounding first name was his license plate. We didn't have any problems fortunately as we lived in a large college town but we were afraid as were our families.
I would finish this article but I can't because most are the comments are from some jackass calling himself "David G" who keeps bringing up some massacre in 1929. I don't know if he's bored or just trying to cause arguments, but I just cannot get anything out of this article because of his stupidity. Apparently, he doesn't realize that when any religion or race is mistreated it's wrong.
Wth bin laden if you could see your fhcked up action's reaction now
Well kill almost 3,000 in one day and expect Americans to be forgiving, small acts of violence and disgust? Man, you people are pathetic. If things were reversed say Arab Emerates jets hijacked by Christian extremists and crashed into random highly occupied buildings in the MiddleEast Muslims would have slaughtered any foreigner in the streets or country after they found out. Be thrilled we are not savage murderers like your fellow countrymen.
Sadly the USA was and never will be the same after 9/11. My step father is Iranian and drove a white van and got stopped repeatedly after the pentagon was attacked. It was a scary time. A large part of our country was brought together in this crisis while simultaneously ripping apart in other terms. All races, ethnicities, religion, sexuality, identity, and any other classification of man kind receives prejudice in one form or another. Do not let the acts of a few steer the future generations into hate. Grow and bring love and acceptance into the world so that if one is shown love the can continue to show compassion in others. Have you ever stopped to think that a whole generation was taught that they are hated by others because of something someone else did? All it take is proving them wrong and showing them, people care. Media and politicians gain from the separation of society. It’s how they stay in business. Please do not feed into hatred.
I tell my son every day to say hello to every person he passes. You never know what someone is going through and you could have just saved their lives. It’s amazing how many people tell me that’s one of few nice gestures they have had from a stranger in awhile. So if you can take anything from this a simple hello or smile can often soften many hearts. It is hard to defuse hate with hate and debate but it is a lot easier to do so with kindness.
Load More Replies... geez, this is just racism masquerading as a hate for a religion. They wouldn't do this to a white muslim. They don't shame christians when their extremeist camps come to light where they marry their children off to their uncles and crazy s**t like that.
Everyone’s lives changed after 9/11. The lives of the people on the planes and in the building changed a bit.
The other side of the coin. Its sad all their stories only because racist people. I am so sad that this havent changed. Now are mexicans, latins, etc.
I really hope, that I've got the courageous to step in if I witness something like this.
Not all of us, but the ignorant ones typically like to be quite loud and proud about their ignorance.
Load More Replies... William, there's no reasoning / civil discussion with them (terrorists). Yes, whether you believe it or not, Muslims are also victims. Why do you think so many are fleeing their countries?
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