9/11 entrenched Islamophobia in US politics. But it doesn’t work the way you think | Moustafa Bayoumi

Anti-Muslim sentiment is used as a political weapon. Meanwhile, Muslim American leaders are making a difference for all

It's been 25 years since the terrorist attacks of September 11, and during this time Muslim Americans have learned how to live in that dangerous space between other Americans' fears and their ignorance.

The fear was clear from the beginning. Immediately following 9/11, Muslim Americans faced what Human Rights Watch called a severe wave of backlash violence". A tide of hate rose up against ordinary Muslims and those who appeared to be Muslim, including at least three murders in the immediate backlash after the attacks. The federal government, for its part, began targeting Muslim immigrants in a massive surge of repression that legal experts soon compared with the Palmer Raids of the 1920s.