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Lehigh Preserve Institutional Repository Embracing Islam in the Age of Terror: Post 9/11 Representations of Islam and Muslims in the United States and Personal Stories of American Converts Brunet, Clemence 2013 Find more at https://preserve.lib.lehigh.edu/ This document is brought to you for free and open access by Lehigh Preserve. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of Lehigh Preserve. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Embracing Islam in the Age of Terror: Post 9/11 Representations of Islam and Muslims in the United States and Personal Stories of American Converts by Clemence Brunet A Thesis Presented to the Graduate and Research Committee of Lehigh University in Candidacy for the Degree of Master of Arts in American Studies Lehigh University May 2013 i © 2013 Copyright Clemence Brunet ii Thesis is accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts in American Studies. Embracing Islam in the Age of Terror: Post 9/11 Representations of Islam and Muslims in the United States and Personal Stories of American Converts Clemence Brunet Date Approved Thesis Director Dr. Saladin Ambar Co-Director Dr. Bruce Whitehouse Department Chair Dr. Edward Whitley iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract 1 Introduction 2 Chapter One: Perceptions and Representations of Islam and Muslims after 9/11: language, media, hate groups and public opinion 8 Chapter Two: Muslim terrorists in the Entertainment Media and American Jihadists in the Media 49 Chapter Three: Personal Stories and Experiences of White American converts to Islam 85 Conclusion 133 Works Cited 138 Vita 155 iv ABSTRACT The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were one of the most traumatic events experienced by the American people on their soil. In the aftermath of 9/11, and in the context of the War on Terror, Islam and Muslims became associated with and suspected of terrorism and anti-Americanism. While the political rhetoric of the Bush administration described the situation in terms of “us” against “them”, and the enemy as “evil”, conservative and anti-Islamic media sources increasingly depicted Islam as a threat to America and to the notion of freedom. Stereotypes of Middle-Eastern, Muslim terrorists were reinforced by the entertainment media, in movies and television shows. The political and social context encouraged popular and academic interest in Islam, and as Islam was said to be growing, so was the number of white American converting to Islam. In this context, why have tens of thousands of Americans embraced Islam? 1 Introduction The terrorist attacks which destroyed the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11th, 2001, commonly known as “9/11,” marked a pivotal moment in American contemporary history, politics and culture. The events received immediate extensive media coverage and had significant long-term consequences for America’s national security, foreign policy, and economy. For the American people, it was one of the most shocking, even “traumatic”1 events ever experienced. It was traumatic for survivors, first-responders and observers, and shocking for those who watched it happen on the news throughout the American nation, and worldwide. The attacks were soon attributed to and claimed by al Qaeda, a radical-Islamist terrorist organization based in the Middle East, and its leader Osama bin Laden, who justified them as a direct attack on America and what it represents, its power in the world, its values, and, as claimed by the terrorists, for the US hegemony in the world. 2 1 Anemona Hartocollis, “10 Years and a Diagnosis Later, 9/11 Demons Haunt Thousands,” New York Times, 9 Aug. 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/10/nyregion/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-from- 911still-haunts.html?pagewanted=all “One measure of the psychological impact of 9/11 is this: At least 10,000 firefighters, police officers and civilians exposed to the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center have been found to have post-traumatic stress disorder, and in a kind of mass grieving, many of them have yet to recover, according to figures compiled by New York City’s three 9/11 health programs.” See also “It became very clear after 9/11 that the impact of communal and collective trauma spilled over beyond the directly-impacted communities in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania,” […] “But in general, the message was one of resilience, rather than psychopathology. We saw normal reactions to an abnormal event” quoting from an essay published in American Psychologist by Roxanne Cohen Silver, a psychologist at the University of California at Irvine, in Catherine Pearson “9/11 Mental Health: What We Now Know About Trauma,” Huffington Post, first posted 9 Sep. 2011. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/09/911-and-mental-health-a-n_n_951060.html See “Handling 9-11 Trauma,” Dr. Wendy Walsh, YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3D43cnNi0s , from “Handling the Memories, Images of 9/11 may trigger unexpected emotions,” on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, September 11, 2011, CNN Live. See the book (a collection of essays in responses to 9/11 by leading academics, writers, psychoanalysts and others probing beneath the easy conclusions to offer real insight into 9/11) Trauma at Home: After 9/11, by Judith Greenberg, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 2003. 2 George W. Bush said: “The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing, have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness, and a quiet, unyielding anger. These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed; our country is 2 The American government’s response was what came to be known as the “War on Terror,” spanning from new domestic laws aimed at reinforcing national or “homeland” security, tighter immigration and identity and passport control regulations, including news domestic laws such as the Patriot Act and U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq. The beginning of the “War on Terror” was marked by a Manichean vision and definition of the world – as expressed in official statements by then president George W. Bush: on the one hand America and its people; on the other hand its enemy, radical Arab Islamic terrorists. Overnight, al Qaeda became the number one threat to national security and enemy of the US, and of its allies.3 And thus overnight, Islam became associated with terrorism, and anti-Americanism. Moreover, Islam became associated with a specific category of Muslims, those corresponding to the profile of the terrorists.4 Meanwhile, strong.,” George W. Bush, Address to the Nation in Light of the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 8:30 PM E.D.T., September 11, 2001, http://www.nationalcenter.org/BushGW91101Address.html 3 As George W. Bush said: “On September the 11th, enemies of freedom committed an act of war against our country. Americans have known wars - but for the past 136 years, they have been wars on foreign soil, except for one Sunday in 1941. Americans have known the casualties of war - but not at the center of a great city on a peaceful morning. Americans have known surprise attacks - but never before on thousands of civilians. All of this was brought upon us in a single day - and night fell on a different world, a world where freedom itself is under attack.”; “Americans have many questions tonight. Americans are asking: Who attacked our country? The evidence we have gathered all points to a collection of loosely affiliated terrorist organizations known as al Qaeda.”; “Al Qaeda is to terror what the mafia is to crime. But its goal is not making money; its goal is remaking the world - and imposing its radical beliefs on people everywhere.”; “Our nation has been put on notice: We are not immune from attack. We will take defensive measures against terrorism to protect Americans. Today, dozens of federal departments and agencies, as well as state and local governments, have responsibilities affecting homeland security. These efforts must be coordinated at the highest level. So tonight I announce the creation of a Cabinet-level position reporting directly to me - the Office of Homeland Security.”; “This is not, however, just America’s fight. And what is at stake is not just America’s freedom. This is the world’s fight. This is civilization’s fight. This is the fight of all who believe in progress and pluralism, tolerance and freedom.”; “We will come together to give law enforcement the additional tools it needs to track down terror here at home. We will come together to strengthen our intelligence capabilities to know the plans of terrorists before they act, and find them before they strike.”; George W. Bush, “Address to the Nation,” Washington, DC, September 20, 2001 http://www.presidentialrhetoric.com/speeches/09.20.01.html 4 In Being and Belonging: Muslims in the United States Since 9/11, Katherine Ewing discussed how media representations reinforced a narrow and limited understanding of Islam and Muslim, centered on a “radicalized category of Arab-Middle Eastern” or “South Asian Muslims.” Katherine Ewing, Being and Belonging: Muslims in the United States Since 9/11, New York, The Russell Sage Foundation, 2008. 3 American Muslims – or Muslim Americans5 – also came in the spotlight, often regarded with suspicion, as potential homegrown terrorists – the enemy within.6 Americans were asking “why do they hate us?” As the Arabic words jihadists and jihad became widely used in the media to describe terrorists and the motivations behind their actions – describing their actions as an Islamic duty to defend Islam,7 the American people, and the media, wondered “is Islam a religion which promotes violence, war, and terrorism?” 8 At the same time, 9/11 prompted a rediscovery and reevaluation of Islam and of its place in U.S.