In Zinn’s chapter, “The 200 Election and the ‘War on Terrorism,’” he found a different way to address the war on terror. Instead of condemning the terrorists involved in 9/11, he argued that our response was the same, another act of terror. He states that fighting terrorism with terrorism does not work, and I agree with him. Obviously what happened on 9/11 was unfathomable and scary and hard for millions of Americans, but Bush’s reaction may not have necessarily been what the American people needed at the time, nor do I think it was particularly warranted because the bombings carried our in Afghanistan did not kill Bin Laden, they killed civilians. I think Zinn did a good job of putting these acts of terror in perspective and in turn forcing the reader to really think about what they classify as an act of terrorism.
I also found the other in-class reading, “How Islamophobia was Ingrained in America’s Legal System Long before the War on Terror,” to be very insightful and challenge me to think about things I did not even consider prior to reading. Beyduon, the man interviewed specifically talked about Black Muslims and the idea that people never really consider this large group of people. Today we talk about anti-black racism, but we never consider how that effects people that are also facing the brunt of islamophobia at the same time. Beyduon also stated the idea that people had to prove their “whiteness” in order to become citizens under the Naturalization Act of 1790 and in order to do this they would increase anti-black sentiment to show that they were on the side of the whites and should be considered white as well.
I too thought it was important how we usually talk about “anti-black” racism in terms of African Americans, and refuse to acknowledge how difficult this intersectionality must be for black Muslims. It reminded me of when we talked about intersectionality at the beginning of the year and shocked me how I never even thought about black Muslims because of the lack of representation in the media, TV shows, and movies. It is really upsetting to me that I have never realized this, however now I feel more aware.
I really liked how you phrased your point regarding the War on Terror after 9/11. At the time, no one dared to challenge Bush after such a horrible tragedy, but looking back someone should have made a better effort to think of a better solution. Aimlessly bombing Afghanistan and Iraq caused more anti-American sentiment and made more people join radical groups like Al- Qaeda and The Taliban.