After Sept. 11, 2001, politics professor Amaney Jamal remained in her house for two days. She did not show up for work, run errands or even send her children to school. Instead, she spent the time contemplating the consequences of the attacks, wondering how society would now perceive her Muslim family.
Jamal, who was finishing her dissertation at the University of Michigan at the time, feared a backlash, not against Muslims within her own academic community, but rather against those who lacked such a supportive environment.
"I knew that it would be fine on a university campus," Jamal said. "I knew that I myself was well-positioned. I was worried about my children, my spouse; I was worried about what it's going to be like five years down the road, 10 years down the road."
Five years after 9/11, Muslims on Princeton's campus say they have felt safe from discrimination in this academic environment. None of the persons interviewed suffered from ostracism at Princeton, or can remember instances of hate crimes committed against their peers.
"I didn't feel that I was treated any differently," Sameer Shariff '06 said. "My friends are pretty intelligent people. Generally, for the most part, people just treated you for who you are and didn't really make any assumptions."
Outside FitzRandolph Gate, however, many Muslims across America have not experienced such acceptance, a point accented by incipient fears of homegrown terrorist attacks and the disenfranchisement of some immigrant communities.
"When the American population was surveyed after 9/11, one-third had negative feelings of Islam. Now, almost 60 percent have negative feelings," Jamal said. "The incidents of discrimination against Muslims have increased 400 percent since 9/11."
Being Muslim in America
Both anecdotal and statistical evidence point to a society that has become significantly less tolerant of Muslims and the Islamic faith.
According to data kept by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an education and advocacy group in Washington, D.C., reports of abuse against Muslims skyrocketed in the first six months after 9/11, fell in 2002 and have climbed again since the Iraq war began in 2003. The number of assault and other discriminatory complaints filed with the group jumped from 1,019 in 2003 to 1,972 in 2005.
Many Muslims at Princeton also said that, outside campus, they or others they know have been victims of discrimination.
"If you're in the mall or the grocery store, every now and then you'll get a negative slur or get a negative remark," Jamal said.
Lubna Malik '08 said in an email that she noticed a "huge difference" in the way society treated Muslims after 9/11. Some of her female Muslim acquaintances stopped wearing the hijab, a traditional head covering, because they were worried about being targeted.
Such reports of racism prompted Asli Bali, a graduate student in the politics department, to take a leave of absence from her studies to support Muslim-American rights. She immediately took action, organizing efforts at a local mosque to provide escorts for Muslim women in public places "because there were so many issues with people yelling obscenities."
Bali was particularly concerned with the U.S. government's alleged persecution of Muslim-Americans.
"I found my own community being attacked in a way that, when I graduated law school, I could never have imagined," Bali said. "I became much more involved in civil rights work and immigrants rights work in order to alleviate the discrimination in terms of racial profiling and acts of the government."
Bali said she herself has been the target of racial profiling. She remembers being detained at a U.S. airport upon entering the country, and told simply that it was because she "didn't have an American name."
Being Muslim at Princeton
At Princeton, while there have been no reported incidents of hate crimes, some Muslim students said they have encountered negative reactions to their faith.
One sophomore, who was granted anonymity so she could speak openly about her experiences, said that though she has generally found the Princeton community to be open-minded, it is not free from intolerance. There have been reports, for example, that when Muslim associations put up flyers for speakers, they have been torn down soon afterward. A recent survey by The Daily Princetonian found that over one-third of student respondents said they have a less favorable view of Islam since 9/11.
The student said that 9/11 "has made the fact that you are of a certain religion something that you need to defend, because you may be mistaken for a public enemy."
Sean Cameron '05, who was just starting his freshman year at the time of the attack, said 9/11 made him hesitant about drawing attention to his Iranian background. Though he eventually became the president of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) his sophomore year, he was initially reluctant to join a minority group on campus.
"I think that there was a bit of a feeling that it would be good to lay low right after the incident, because you didn't want to be too bold," Cameron said. "Clearly you didn't want to seem like you were on the other side of things."
Bali agrees that 9/11 has drawn more attention to Muslims on campus. For example, she said, during the controversy over the Danish cartoon that began in 2005, many people approached her to ask for her opinion on it.
"Any time people know you're a Muslim, you're an ambassador of the Muslim community," she said.
This increased visibility may be a positive development, she said, because she would rather people ask her about Islam than form prejudices on their own. Bali also feels that being singled out has sparked more community activism among Muslim students.
"On campus, I now know more students who share a similar background than I did before 9/11, because we formed much more of a community," she said.
Cameron was also comforted by how quickly religious groups came together after 9/11. He felt he had a whole community, from those at the Office of Religious Life (ORL) to his RCA, "who were willing to look out for me."
Dean of Religious Life Thomas Breidenthal said he thought the close relationship between the MSA and the ORL made a difference.
"My sense has been that the Muslim community has felt pretty safe at Princeton and we've done a good job there," Breidenthal said. "I think it has to do with the way that people [on campus] immediately reached out to the Muslim community after 9/11."
Reassessing religion
September 11 did not just create negative perceptions of Islam. It also sparked interest in the religion, and led some Muslims to learn more about their faith.
Jamal, who studies political development in the Middle East and among Arab-Americans, said she has noticed a greater interest on campus in learning about Islam. Not only have more students enrolled in her own classes, but there has also been a demand for more courses on the subject.
She has also found that religious dialogue has increased, though she would still like to see more of it. "I think we have a good model here at Princeton, a model that other universities should follow," she said, adding that there is always room "for dialogue and more understanding."
The 9/11 attacks also prompted some Muslim students to evaluate their faith on an individual basis, although most have ultimately retained the same beliefs.
"I think it did make me reassess," Cameron said. "You start to wonder and question what it is you really believe in. Probably as a byproduct, I read a bit more about some of the faith and some of the scripture behind it, but I think, in the end, my beliefs were essentially the same."
Several Muslim students said they have tried to keep their own religious beliefs completely separate from the 9/11 attacks, since they do not feel that the World Trade Center terrorists professed the true Islamic faith.
"I've never equated any of the discussions on terrorism or on the War on Terror with my beliefs. I've never internalized them or made them personal in any way," the Muslim sophomore who was granted anonymity said. "I don't look at al Qaeda and think, 'that's my religion'; I just think, 'this is an individual.' "
Comparing her own faith to that of the 9/11 terrorists did cause a significant change in the way Jamal approached her religion. Since the attacks, she has become more committed to Islam and more vocal about this commitment.
"I realized that the religion was being expropriated by extremists," Jamal said. "It's the Muslim obligation to not allow the voice of their religion to be dominated by an extremist vision. I need to let people know what my religion is about, and not let extremists get the last word."
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