American Muslims must stay active and educate fellow citizens

Life has not been the same since that day. On Sept. 11, 2001, America was attacked; more than 3,000 innocent people lost their lives for doing what everyone does — working hard to achieve better lives for their families.

Those victims knew their fellow workers as human beings; they did not differentiate them as Jews, Christians, Muslims or Sikhs. They worked together to build a better America. The people who attacked America were not Americans, and they did not represent the values of Islam, which teaches the sanctity of innocent lives and tolerance toward others. A Muslim knows that Islam requires every Muslim to greet everyone, Muslim or not, with “Asalaam U Alekum” (Peace be upon him). How can such a religion be accused of bigotry or of violence?

About 300 victims in the Twin Towers were Muslims who died along with others but who have been forgotten. They were not accomplices in that hateful crime, but no one talks about them or their families. Reflecting on the aftermath, one can see the immediate effect of innocent Muslims becoming the target of hate crimes. Many were deported — many who had built businesses and called America their home were told that they did not belong here and without any justifiable reasons were summarily uprooted. Mosques were damaged and burned. Hatemongers and Islamophobes had a field day painting 1.5 billion Muslims as terrorists. Xenophobic pundits filled TV coverage with hate and bigotry. Unfortunately, some gullible Americans bought into it. Sharia became an ugly word, mosques became unwelcome structures and Muslims next door became undesirable aliens.

Globally, innocent Muslim lives were destroyed due to faulty intelligence. Iraqi citizens paid with their lives to fulfill the promises of our political leadership. More than 20 years of protracted war in Afghanistan left its citizens, who played no part in the 9/11 attack, with their country in ruins after the loss of thousands of American and Afghan lives and trillions of U.S. taxpayers’ dollars.

No matter how high the emotions and what damage we have suffered, we must consider the short-term and long-term consequences of war. More Americans were killed as a result of going to war in Afghanistan than on 9/11. Countless more Afghans were killed during the 20-year war. And in the end, we ended up where we started, replacing the Taliban with the

Taliban.

Still, some good has also happened. Many in the Muslim community and many Americans with a sense of responsibility tried to find out why this attack happened and what role American Muslims can play in explaining their religion to others. The Quran became a bestseller for many weeks — people wanted to know about Islam and its followers. Many found that it teaches exactly what the Torah and the Bible do. They learned that the Quran is an extension of the Old Testament and the Torah and the Book of David. The 9/11 tragedy made many American Muslims realize that they were living in bubbles and they needed to get out and get involved. It gave rise to many organizations that engaged the media and political leaders who fostered interfaith dialogue. André Carson, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar are the result of this Muslim awakening. We have also engaged with law-enforcement agencies and become more vigilant about suspicious characters in our own community.

Locally, the Coalition of South Florida Muslim Organizations reached out to the broader community. South Florida Muslims started getting involved and become socially active by starting a free medical clinic (www.uhicares.org), engaging Muslims by registering voters and serving the needs of domestic-violence victims through organizations such as NUR Center, Food Pantries in Mosques and feeding and helping the homeless through Project Downtown.

Muslims will be participating in 9/11 memorials throughout the country to pay tribute to those who lost their lives. While the tragedy brought pain and suffering to everyone, American Muslims paid the price twice —as Americans, we were attacked on Sept. 11, and as Muslims, we were attacked afterward. And yet, we still believe in our country. A recent Pew Research poll found more than 90% of American Muslims are proud of their country, and 80% are satisfied with the way things are going in their lives.

We will continue to educate those xenophobes and Islamophobes and work with like-minded people to make sure that another 9/11 does not happen. We will make sure that hate and bigotry has no place in South Florida or anywhere.