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9th Anniversary: Free Tote & Mug

25 years after 9/11, we are still stuck with blaming and defending an entire religion

What I witnessed within the community was frustrating — a senseless defensive attitude. Nobody wanted to take accountability. Nobody seemed ready to introspect.

Today marks the 25th anniversary of 9/11. I still remember watching it as a teenager, seeing those images all over the news. Anyone who watched it unfold at the time would understand how unreal and shocking it felt — a feeling perhaps easier to share with those who remember it than to describe in words.

At the time, I had no idea how one attack would go on to change so much around us — geopolitics, wars, economies and societies. I had even less idea how, over the years, my own identity as a Muslim, and the way Muslim identity was seen and discussed around the world, would change with it. 

Looking back, I find myself caught between two conversations that have grown louder since then. One treats Muslims collectively as a threat. The other, within parts of the Muslim community, sometimes treats difficult questions about religion, extremism or reform as attacks that must simply be rejected.

I have never been comfortable with either.

But interestingly, as an Indian Muslim at that time, I don’t remember 9/11 feeling immediately connected to my own Indian Muslim identity. The names on the news—Taliban and Al-Qaeda—moved through a faraway political mist, strangers wearing a faith we shared in name, but little else. It was happening somewhere else, involving people who seemed very far removed from our everyday lives.

For most ordinary Muslims around me, geopolitics soon gave way to more immediate concerns — work, family, making it to Jummah on time, whether there was enough salt in the biryani, and the everyday struggle to put food on the table. 

I consider myself lucky to have been born and brought up in a defence society, as my father was serving in the Indian Navy. It was an environment where my religious identity did not matter much. But later, when I moved into civilian society, I began noticing a slight difference. Comments like “aap log Muslim nahi lagte” (you people don’t look Muslim) became so common that I remember my........

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