To commemorate 9/11 is to add to an established genre that spans multiple anniversaries: five, ten, fifteen, twenty. And yet there remains much to take stock of, even if we were to limit our focus to just the immediate aftermath of the attacks: the lives tragically lost, the first responders sickened by toxic dust, the surge in hate crimes against those perceived to be Muslim.
This year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of 9/11. That also means we are now a quarter century into the so-called War on Terror, which either engineered or expanded (and sometimes both) many of the horrors around human rights and civil liberties that we face today. Overseas, the United States waged wars across the Middle East and South Asia that devastated ecologies and claimed millions of lives. Domestically, the United States ramped up a criminal legal machinery fine-tuned, in part, on incarcerating Black freedom fighters, and laid the groundwork for today’s surveillance state and a world dotted by sites—most infamously Guantanamó—where people labeled as terrorists are imprisoned indefinitely. The Department of Homeland Security was born in this same crucible and today, at a cost of over $100 billion a year, it detains and deports countless migrants—including to countries to which they have no legal connection, and in which they have, by design, little hope of recourse.
For the next two weeks leading up to 9/11, Inquest (the magazine of the Institute to End Mass Incarceration) and Acacia (a magazine of politics and culture for the Muslim left) will be copublishing this series, which examines the structural impacts of the enduring post-9/11 policies, including on incarcerated people. True to our publications’ overlapping missions, it valorizes and centers the voices of Muslim Americans in shaping the conversation about what this anniversary means. Continue to check back as new content is added every couple days.
Hira Ahmed, Editor-in-Chief, Acacia
Romaissaa Benzizoune, Assistant Editor, Inquest
“Muslims Were the Enemies at That Time”
In New York prisons, Islam offered Black men discipline, dignity, and a path away from violence. After 9/11, it also made us targets.
Rashon Venable
When Counterterrorism Comes for You
At nineteen, Asad Dandia discovered that an NYPD informant was spying on him. He joined a landmark suit against the department—and won.
Asad Dandia interviewed by Hira Ahmed
Rebuilding the Ummah Behind Bars
A decade after 9/11 fractured the Islamic community at Central Prison in North Carolina, I helped rebuild it.
Alim Braxton
The Post-9/11 Surveillance Payday
How the pretext of homeland security birthed a public–private tech surveillance economy that makes billions in profit every year.
Brendan McQuade & Ed Vogel
American Muslims and the Race Trap
After 9/11, racialization became a powerful way to describe anti-Muslim oppression. It also may have made racial thinking harder to escape.
Atiya Husain
A Somber Peace in Angola
In response to our 9/11 coverage, a contributor shares his memory of watching the attacks unfold from inside Louisiana State Penitentiary.
Source images: “Arabesques : détails d’une porte de la mosquée d’el-Khanqah (XVIIIe. siècle),” New York Public Library (public domain); page from “A collection of sūrahs, prayers, and other religious writings,” New York Public Library (public domain).