Earlier this month, Americans and people around the world commemorated a day that still resonates with disbelief, astonishment and profound sorrow. We don’t know how the world will look at the events of 9/11 in 100 years. But, after 20 years, the heaviness persists and the portents remain still...
The violent attack on the US Capitol that defiled the very foundations of “the beacon of democracy” not only violently jolted the American psyche but astonished the world. While many scratched their heads and asked why this was happening, many others pointed to Donald Trump as being culpable...
No serious reader of the news reflecting on how the knowledge we acquire of today’s world is disseminated through the media could deny that The New York Times is not just one of the world’s great newspapers, but also a cultural institution in its own right. That means it is skilled at playing...
A little more than a month ago, the most newsworthy controversy surrounding the imminent and highly symbolic 20th anniversary of 9/11 concerned the message by families of the victims that Joe Biden would not be welcome at the planned commemoration. They reproached the US president for failing to...
Looking back on it now, the 1990s were an age of innocence for America. The Cold War was over and our leaders promised us a “peace dividend.” There was no TSA — the Transportation Security Administration — to make us take off our shoes at airports (how many bombs have they found in those...
Twenty years ago, the United States sustained the first substantial attacks on the mainland since the War of 1812. It was a collective shock to all Americans who believed their country to be impregnable. The Cold War had produced the existential dread of a nuclear attack, but that always lurked in...
Those were heady days in the US stock market. I would wake up by 5 am and watch CNBC before the stock market opened for trading at 6:30 am Pacific time. It was no different on the morning of September 11, 2001. Little did I know that catastrophic things were about to happen that would change the...
Fifteen years later, it is revealed that the UK aided and assisted — but didn’t usually commit — rendition and torture. George W. Bush’s war in Iraq is still a work in progress, depending on how one defines progress. In March, The Economist claimed that, with the Islamic State (IS)...
When will Muslims stop being fodder in the American political process? Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s now famous “I think Islam hates us” barb is fitting for his role as the loudest Islamophobe in mainstream politics. However, since the 9/11 attacks, Muslim-bashing has...
In the 15 years since the 9/11 attacks, heightened surveillance and security have cracked down on Muslims and immigrants. “Do you have any prejudice against Muslims?” We heard the judge ask a set of questions to each potential juror. To this inquiry, one middle aged white woman said,...
The effects of the 9/11 attacks live on today from the formation of the surveillance state to the rise of Islamic State, and how Obama’s successors deal with the legacy of September 11 will define this century. The attacks of September 11, 2001, were a turning point in world history. That...
Making sure the Constitution and our rights are strong is the best way of honoring the victims of the 9/11 attacks. The Founding Fathers thought keeping a standing army was a danger to democracy. The great wars of the 20th century appear to have imbued the United States with a permanent standing...
Even indirect exposure to the terrorist attacks of September 11 has left a profound and deep impact on those too young to remember a world before that. The September 11, 2001, attacks were the worst acts of terrorism on American soil to date. Designed to instill panic and fear, the attacks were...
In a letter to American Muslims, Maria Khwaja Bazi reflects on rising Islamophobia and the murders of Deah, Yusor and Razan in Chapel Hill. Dear MSA kids, I was 17 on September 11, 2001. It was fall of my senior year of high school, and I was worried about a US History exam. I wore a scarf...
