Muslim Communities in New York City

The lives of Muslims in America changed on 11 September 2001. The initial reactions of panic, guilt, defiance, and confusion, were accompanied in subsequent days with physical threats and hostile acts against Muslims. An opinion piece in the New York Times arguing that Muslims hate us not for what we do but for what we are was widely quoted in the media. Veiled women did not appear in public, several students on our campus left theirs at home. A great number of scholars of the Middle East and the Islamic world shouted themselves hoarse insisting that there existed a direct correlation between US foreign policy and the events of 11 September, and others reiterated their anti-liberal stance by pointing an accusing finger at what they regarded as their fellow academics' failure to warn the public about inevitable threats from the outside. Vigilance became the prescriptive word aimed at both New York landlords and college professors.