The 9/11 attacks, 20 years on: An Arab doctor reflects on flying while Muslim
Sept. 11, 2001. A day that began like any other, but drastically altered the course of the world, my life and that of other Arabs everywhere. Twenty years on, and I still experience the consequences of the horrific events.
I can remember that afternoon in London better than I can remember what I did yesterday. I was on my way back from a high school soccer match. As my friend and I got into his mom’s car, the radio was bellowing. A moment of suspenseful silence passed before a timorous newscaster deafeningly announced, “There are reports of two planes crashing into the World Trade Center in New York.”
“Ha!” my friend, who is white, inappropriately smirked. I was shocked into silence, paralyzed by the sorrow of innocent lives lost and the inevitable consequences I’d face. Words like “Arab,” “Islam” and “terrorism” echoing across the news report made me worry about the indolent connection the public would draw. The radio suddenly sounded like it was on mute.
The events of 9/11 exacerbated the identity crisis I had been experiencing my whole life. My parents had fled Iraq in the early 1980s to escape a brutal dictatorship that provided no future for a young family. Born in England and growing up in a Muslim household, I struggled to find my place in society — being not British enough for the white kids in school, and not Arab enough for my parents.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/9-11-attacks-20-years-arab-doctor-reflects-flying-while-ncna1278859