Over America's nearly four hundred-year history, there have been many significant changes that impacted its people as well as people worldwide. One such event in recent memory is the September 11 attacks that took place in 2001. Four planes were hijacked by terrorists, two were flown into the World Trade Center, one crashed into the Pentagon, and one crashed before approaching its intended unknown target. This tragic event cost nearly three thousand lives of civilians and firefighters at ground zero. This event had significant and permanent implications in the years that followed and throughout the international community, especially in Europe.

It is not the direct effects of the 9/11 attacks that caused it to be such a turning point in American history. Instead, it is the major shift in attitude and Muslims of America and beyond that cements the 9/11 attacks as a major turning point in American and international history. Overnight, the perception of Muslims completely changed not only in the individual minds of people but also in the major news and media outlets' portrayal of Muslims in news and pop culture. A further consequence of the 9/11 attacks is the change in immigration policy towards not only Muslims but all minorities trying to immigrate to the United States. Furthermore, the 9/11 attacks also led to the invasion of Iraq which led to the loss of countless lives of both Americans and locals.

Although Muslims have not been viewed positively historically, before the 9/11 attacks they were still generally treated fairly. For example, Muslim workers did face some discrimination as they’d be laid off unfairly but were almost immediately hired elsewhere by a different company. But following the attacks, no one was willing to rehire them due to their negative connotation. Muslims were already somewhat associated with being American due to the different way they dress but there was a movement to push narrative away. For many years before the attack, Muslims had been stereotyped as anti-American terrorists or just oil suppliers in the media by crime fiction authors. However, it was being recognized as a major issue in America at the federal level. President Bill Clinton’s Advisory board reported that the portrayal of Muslims and Arabs was problematic in news & media three years before the attacks. People knew of the issues that plagued the Muslim American community and their potential to impact them yet did not take sufficient action to prevent it. There was a significant push to alter this bigoted narrative but those voices all fell silent after the attacks.

The media treatment after the 9/11 attacks completely shifted to the extreme negative of Muslims. People were shocked, confused, and full of emotion which made them vulnerable to the extremely polarized narrative of the attackers on the news. In the roughly 14 hours of new reporting following the event, in association with Muslims the word “evil” was used 16 times, and words like “terrorists” nearly 100 times. These words became strongly associated with Muslims instead of the hijackers which had the effect of redirecting the public’s anger onto them. The narrative of Muslims became that of a Hollywood movie overnight. Muslims were depicted as the archetype of evil villains plotting against the US. Americans expressed their anger on the attacks on innocent Muslims who were equally as upset, as they associated Muslims with terrorists due to their similar appearance. As a result of this association, Muslims in America and all over the world experienced unseen levels of hate and violence towards them in the months and years that followed. This treatment fanned the flame of hate.

Another stereotype strongly associated with Muslims was the wearing of hijabs/turbans/head coverings. Wearers were often treated to a strict frown which reminded them that they were out of place but nothing more. However, after the 9/11 attacks, people who wore head coverings, primarily Muslims and Sikhs were harassed on the streets and often assaulted, even as far as having their head covering ripped away. They were also assaulted by racial slurs and epithets such as “rag-head” while walking on the street. Hate crimes against Muslims rose by 500% after 9/11 and even though overall hate crimes declined in the following years, Muslim hate crimes had steadily risen. Anybody with an appearance or name that bore any resemblance to the terrorists could not find a job in the labor market for the following years. This clearly shows that although Muslims were not necessarily welcomed with open arms before the attack, following 9/11 their treatment completely changed to much worse than earlier. It is also one of the few times that an entire sector of people had been lumped together and unfairly punished such as in the Japanese internment camps during the Second World War.

Americans strongly associate Muslims and Arabs with terrorists due to the presentation of the hijackers on the news networks and movies following the attack. All news sources emphasized the religion (Islam/being Muslim) and their ethnicity (Arabic) rather than their different nationalities. This choice changed the association from an ideology difference to a race and religious difference. This resulted in a much less diverse and accepting general public. Ordinary Americans became more religiously and politically intolerant of others. Their desire for revenge led to much more extremist behavior. People were willing to give up more of their civil liberties to deny the same liberties to those perceived to be associated with terrorists.

The 9/11 attacks would also have lasting impacts on the immigration policy of not only the United States government but also most other Western countries such as the European Union Parliament and Great Britain. The United States government developed immigration systems and other policies to attempt to prevent terrorist attacks. However, these systems unfairly singled out Muslims, Arabs, and South Asian individuals despite them having no connection to terrorist groups. People who looked Arab or Muslim were selected for “random” security checks at a much higher rate by the TSA to this day. Yet despite the higher security checks the TSA still missed 96% of potentially dangerous materials being smuggled through security during a secret test run.

The immigration policy change also made life for those already living in the United States much more difficult. The confusing and broad definition of terrorism caused many non-English speaking immigrants to be unfairly deported from the US due to their lack of understanding of the policies. Not only is this practice racist and xenophobic, it also damages the United State’s intellectual community. Many international students shied away from America following the immigrant changes in favor of other countries as the United States gave out student Visas at a much slower and rarer rate than before. It also forced Muslims who had temporary visas in America (such as tourists or working visas) to register themselves in a specific database so that they could be monitored better. The change in immigration also damaged the US economy from a tourism standpoint. The number of tourist visas approved for the two years after the attacks dropped by 44%. This significantly lowered the tourism revenue for the years that followed.

The 9/11 attacks also played a significant role in America’s decision to invade Iraq. Many people believed that Iraq was somehow a response to the 9/11 attacks, whether harboring or aiding those terrorists. This belief led to the government justifying their invasion of Iraq that ultimately proved not worth its costs. Looking back on the war, the majority of Americans agreed that it was not worth fighting, this opinion is shared by the majority of veterans, many of whom actually served in Iraq. Ultimately, the public believed that the invasion did not achieve its goals despite the massive loss of life it caused and was a failure.

In short, the 9/11 attacks were a major turning point in American (and the world) history due to its role in the changing perception of Muslims and Arabs, in not only the eyes of the everyday common Americans but also the view of the government and their representation in news media and pop culture. It led to many immigration policies that pushed away refugees coming from Muslim-majority countries and instead welcomed more from elsewhere. For example, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many Ukrainians were displaced and forced to flee to Europe for asylum. On the news, they were much more humanized than the refugees fleeing the Syrian war or those fleeing from African conflicts. Take Canada, it has promised for years to accept more refugees from Afghanistan fleeing the Taliban, yet they accepted more Ukrainians in the past three months than Afghans in the past year. This unjust treatment of Muslims simply due to their appearance is a pressing issue that needs to be resolved peacefully and effectively.