Coming-of-age after 9/11: Muslim millennials sense progress (audio)
In a small town in Pennsylvania, a young Muslim woman wearing a hijab walked into a mom and pop store and struck up a conversation with the owner. She’d just moved from New York state to start her first reporting job after college. The next day, a police officer showed up at her office. The store owner had reported suspicious behavior.
Husna Haq, now a Monitor editor, says that experience in 2005 is a reminder about how life after 9/11 was different from before: “I was already used to the funny looks or the stares. But I think 9/11 just turned the volume way up.”
The Monitor’s London correspondent Shafi Musaddique was 10 years old at the time of 9/11. But he, like Ms. Haq, experienced the shift as “a flick of a switch,” he says. “Because of 9/11 we became this homogeneous group.” And yet, he notes, “Muslims are a myriad of thoughts and ideas. We’re not always victims. We’re not always perpetrators.”
As the world reflects on 20 years of loss and conflict since the 9/11 attacks, Ms. Haq and Mr. Musaddique look back in a Monitor interview at how Western views of Islam and Muslims shaped their view of faith, country, and self.
This episode is part of our podcast “Rethinking the News.” To learn more about the podcast and find other episodes, please visit our page.
This story was designed to be heard. We strongly encourage you to experience it with your ears, but we understand that is not an option for everybody. You can find the audio player above. For those who are unable to listen, we have provided a transcript of the story below.
AUDIO TRANSCRIPTWelcome to “Rethinking the News” by The Christian Science Monitor. I’m Samantha Laine Perfas, one of its editors. As part of the Monitor’s 9/11 20th
[George W. Bush: “The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness, and a quiet, unyielding anger.”]