The 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon was a defining moment in the lives of Muslim Americans.
CHICAGO (WLS) — Salman Azam grew up in Staten Island in New York City. He said 9/11 was a defining moment in his life.“I went to funerals for friends‘ parents who worked in the World Trade Center or who were firefighters or police officers, it was a very emotional time,“ he recalled. Not only as an American but also as a Muslim.“I walked outside the mosque one day. And I remember a truck driving by telling me ‚go back to where you came from.‘ And I’m thinking to myself I was born in Brooklyn. I’m just as American as anyone of you,“ Azam said. Muslims and people of Arab and South Asian descent in America also faced racial profiling by law enforcement.
