How Sept. 11 changed American life

Richard Beck, author of "Homeland: The War on Terror and American Life," joins Fresh Air to discuss the profound and lasting impact of the September 11th attacks on American society, politics, and the rise of Islamophobia. Beck, who was 14 on 9/11, traces how the country we live in today was shaped by the nation's response to that morning.

The Enduring Shadow of Islamophobia

Host Tonya Mosley opens the discussion by highlighting a recent controversy: Zohran Mamdani, New York's first Muslim mayor, faced a petition to be excluded from the Ground Zero ceremony on the anniversary of 9/11. This incident, occurring 25 years after the attacks, prompts Mosley to ask Beck what it reveals about the current state of the nation.

Beck responds by stating that the first thing this tells him is that since September 11th, Islamophobia has become "the most tolerated, most accepted form of bigotry in the United States." He argues that no other explanation could justify the objections to Mamdani, a popular and elected mayor, being present at the ceremony. Beck notes that while there have been periods where the intensity of Islamophobia has receded or people have tried to ignore it, it has "been there steadily for the last 25 years and it has not yet been confronted with sufficient force to root it out."

Mosley recalls former President George W. Bush standing at a mosque after the attacks, declaring "Islam is peace." She then cites a Pew Research study showing that in March 2002, 25% of Americans believed Islam was more likely than other religions to encourage violence, a number that rose to 51% by today. Beck attributes this increase, in part, to the "generalized bigotry of the Trump administration and the MAGA movement," pointing to Trump's Muslim travel ban as a significant factor.