9/11 and the racial limitations of religious freedom in America

For the past 20 years, Muslims in the US have been systematically racialised and their civil liberties curbed.

Each anniversary of the 9/11 attacks generates debates on how to balance security with liberty in the United States. What is often lost in the conversation is the role that race plays in constraining civil liberties for religious minorities. Today, the targets are Muslims. A century ago, it was Jews and Catholics. The racialisation script is the same. First, the religious minority is vilified in the media and among public officials as a disloyal fifth column. Then, the religion’s followers are racialised as a threat to the (Anglo-Saxon Protestant) American way of life. Finally, the religion is expelled from the realm of religion by relabelling it a dangerous political ideology. For the past two decades, Americans have been subjected to a continuous stream of doomsday media portraying Muslims as terrorists. Few, if any, news stories describe how the millions of Muslim doctors, teachers, business owners, lawyers, and other working folks positively contribute to American society. Indeed, according to a 2018 University of Alabama study, from 2006 to 2015, terrorism committed by Muslims was covered 357 percent more times than terrorism committed by non-Muslims in the US.