In this paper I will be talking about September 11 and the people that were affected by it and also how Muslim women represented in TLC’s All American-Muslim. I will also be talking about how Muslim people and Muslim women are viewed in the media. The tragic of September 11th attack on the World Trade Center has affected many Americans, in different ways, and changed their lives forever. In the morning of September 11th 2001 America has witnessed one of the most shocking and devastating when two planes were been hijacked and crashed into the world trade center in new York. America was speechless and terrified of 9/11. They were ready to surrender to their most treasured liberties. The bombing of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 has changed not only the American history but it also brought Islam to the center of Media and political debates. Now days, one cannot escape the negative depiction of Islam. Few people’s actions cannot represent the actions of 1.57 billion people. Western fascination with the Muslim “Other” is not a recent phenomenon. As Edward Said (1979) argued, there has been a long tradition of false and romanticized images of Asian and Middle Easterners that are uses as an implicit justification of Europe’s and America’s colonial and imperialist ambition. He believed a society builds up their identity by labeling “Other”. In a way, the western society used the binary as a way to exert their cultural and intellectual superiority. On October 26, 2001, president bush signed an enormous bill designed to fight against terrorism into the law. The bill is the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to intercept and Obstruct Terrorism, they even found the perfect name for it, largely known as The Patriot Act.
Don’t bother going into your bedroom to talk to your love ones who are at war, or better yet; don’t bother pulling your blinds and getting comfortable in your own living room without the fourth Amendment intact. Privacy is a thing in the past. You’re not secure in your own home anymore, while reading “What is Democracy” written by the government. If I’m remembering right, they said “Democracies exist to serve the people; the people do not exist to serve the government". Many American citizens feel like they have deeply been betrayed by their own government. It doesn’t feel like much a free society anymore. Especially since Congress passed the Patriot Act only six weeks prior to the September 11th terrorist attacks.
As we shifted transition weeks followed by 9/11, the country was terrified that another attack can occur at any moment from any corner. The Bush administrators quickly began to push thru sweeping policy changes. Before anyone had the chance to understand what went wrong, he purposed fixes that went far beyond fighting against terrorism. This is what happens when federal legislator respond in panic. When Patriot Act was first send to congress by the Bush Administrators, it came with a request that they should hold no hearings on it, so there won’t be a public input or public discourse.
Several weeks before the attack, Congress and Bush Administrators debated how to address and improve the needs of Law Enforcement. The new bill contained provision that has been rejected by congress before 9/11 has even occurred. All most all of the provision represented an effort to expend Federal Law an Enforcement power. The bill was printed 3:45 a.m. the morning before the vote in the house occur, now how many of those four-hundred and thirty-five congress members had a chance between 3:45 am to 11:00 a.m. to read a bill that was three hundred and fifteen pages? No member of congress has read this legislation, not even one.
Disadvantages of the Patriot Act has been widely criticized for being, in effect, too thorough. The Act provides sweeping power to government agencies to monitor the personal habits of not only those who have been identified as suspected