Muslims continue to experience a "double whammy," of grief and shame from Sept. 11th terrorists attacks
Oct. 16, 2008 - Time has done little to ease the feelings of pain, horror and shame Muslims felt after the Sept. 11th terrorists attacks in America, a pilot study by Indiana University School of Social Work researchers has found.
Responses from Muslims in the United States, Argentina, Australia and Canada, show the respondents still feel “a lot of pain, a lot of grief, a tremendous amount of grief,” said Dr. Khadija Khaja, an Assistant Professor of Social Work.
While Muslims experienced the emotions of loss and horror associated with the attacks on 9/11, they faced a “double whammy,” because of the suspicion cast upon some of them simply due to the fact they were Muslims.
Muslims living the United States considered themselves just as much as an American as any of their neighbors. After the attacks though, many realized people no longer saw them as countrymen, but something other, something foreign.
“I think somewhere in the media depiction, it was lost that Muslims are also Americans, that they served in the Army, the Marines,” said Dr. Khaja, one of the leaders of a 10-member research team that conducted the study.
One such person was a Vietnam veteran, Dr. Khaja noted. “After 9/11, he realized he was no longer seen as an American. Now he is seen as Muslim.”
He was hardly alone.
Respondents described their pre-9/11 lives as “less stressful, generally better.” While they knew stereotypes existed before the attacks, the felt they were treated positively and were unaware of scrutiny in public.
They did not feel “defined,” by being a Muslim, and while they might have been anxious about the future of their children at times, they were not fearful. They also reported not being afraid to wear hijab or head covering in public as well.
After the attacks many lives were turned upside down.
They saw an increase in “negative stereotyping,” and reported incidents of racial slurs, violence and or threats of violence and vandalism. Many witnessed an increase in prejudice and discrimination.
Along with that they experienced an increase in the anxiety about their children, the future and a sense of powerlessness.
Dr. Khaja, who is a Muslim, came up with the idea for the study in 2007 while watching the anniversary of 9/11 on television. “I just wanted to contribute something to a more peaceful world that did not have terrorism,” she said.
She recalled that on Sept. 11th, 2001, she was a graduate student at the University of Utah. By this time in her life, she considered herself a citizen of North America. Dr. Khaja was born in a small town in West Africa where she was uprooted when the civil conflict started in Nigeria.
Her family moved to Canada leaving everything behind. She experienced what it felt like to be displaced. In fact, as a child she remembers some of her classmates calling her names because she had a British accent and brown skin.
When the attacks happened, some cast a wary eye at her because of her religion, but Dr. Khaja also remembered the many acts of kindness of Americans reaching out to her and as she reached out to them.
As Dr. Khaja tried to deal with the shame and guilt over how any one from the Muslim community could have been part of the attacks, a classmate at the university reached out to her and invited her to dinner. “What she did meant so much to me.”
The memories of such acts of kindness that were overshadowed by the hate and suspicion in the days after 9/11 led Dr. Khaja to want to document how Muslims were faring now and how to move to a world free of the hate, a peaceful world, a world free of terrorism.
She turned to Dr. Irene Queiro-Tajalli, the executive director of undergraduate programs for the School of Social Work and Interim Executive Director of Labor Studies, and the two agreed to push ahead with the idea.
They initially devised a plan to send a survey to some 200 organizations in four western countries as part of an online survey to gather information through telephone and in-person interviews on lives of Muslims pre and post-9/11.
But the plan ran into difficulties from the beginning.
Dr. Khaja acknowledged that she underestimated how raw peoples’ feelings remained. They gave up on using online surveys because some Muslims were afraid their responses might be monitored somehow. Some Muslims even challenged the study, due to the sensitivity of the subject matter.
“Even though we asked simple questions about what was your life like before and after and what do you think it will take to have peace, we had a tremendous amount of resistance to doing it online,” Dr. Khaja said. “I have to say that was something I did not think would happen.”
The researchers then decided to gather information in telephone and in-person interviews. Even so, Dr. Khaja worried that they might not be able to get anyone to participate. “There was a point in the first week when I honestly wasn’t sure I was going to get one person to agree to participate in the study.” The researchers eventually were able to elicit responses from approximately 40 people.
If talking about their outlook on life in the wake of the attacks took an emotional toll on the respondents, it was hard for the researchers as well. “It was the most difficult thing we had to do – see people break down during the interviews,” Dr. Khaja said.
“People cried. Many people cried, grown men,” Dr. Khaja said. “When I say cried, I mean they broke down,” she explained. “I saw Muslim Vietnam veterans sob.”
The respondents were often reduced to tears when they were asked what has kept them going, she explained. “They would look up and say, the kindness of other Americans who reached out to us.”
The respondents were also worried about the future of Muslim women, she added. They felt the women had it hardest of all because the Muslim women wear hijab, or head coverings, and it is easy to tell they are Muslims.
There were times the researchers worried if they were doing the right thing in conducting the study. “But they (the respondents) said no, we have to talk about it,” Dr. Khaja said.
Researchers talked to people ranging in age from about 20 to 86, she noted. “There is a lot of fear, not just of terrorism, but fear of what will happen to their children.” They wonder whether their employment opportunities may be affected, whether their children will be made fun of and what people will call their wives names if they decide to wear hijab.
When asked what they thought could be done to secure peace in the world, the Muslim responses were fairly simple: people need to talk to each other, spend time with each other to realize we are more similar than different.
An attempt to tell the stories of western Muslims and what happened to them is important, Dr. Khaja said. But the importance of such information stretches beyond the group of individuals the researchers were able to talk to.
Now, with the results of the pilot study in, she believes it is even more important to do a similar study but on a larger scale.
The researchers point out there are 7 to 8 million Muslims living in America, with an estimated 1.5 billion Muslims in the world. That is about one-fifth of world’s population. By 2010, Islam is expected to be the 2nd largest religious group in the United States.
To know what it will take to have peace and understanding in a world without terrorism is critical at this time, Dr. Khaja said.
Results of the study will be presented at the end of October at the Council on Social Work Educators annual conference, the largest social work educators conference in North America. It was previously presented at the largest international social work education conference in the world in South Africa.
Others who assisted in conducting the study included: Dr. Carenlee Barkdull of the University of North Dakota, Dianne Cunningham, M.Ed at the University of Utah, Marva Augustine, a doctoral candidate at the IU, Shelia Dennis, MSW, Indiana University, Dr. Kathy Lay, Indiana University, Dr. Obioma Nnameka, Indiana University, Michelle Kellogg, Independent Study Student, Indiana University and Jane Mokaya, Independent Student, Indiana University.
For more information contact Rob Schneider, Indiana University School of Social Work at 317-278-0303 or at robschn@iupui.edu
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