In Memory of 9/11/01

September 11, 2001 is a day that no American can forget. The day the Twin Towers came down was an important one, and the effects still show. One of these effects is the general attitude Americans have towards Muslims. Every day, Muslims in the U.S. are discriminated against and many often have to face verbal harassment. To someone wearing a hijab, the word "terrorist" can have the same implication as the word "nigger" does to an African-American.

Today, instead of waving the stars and stripes and reliving the 9/11 attacks, I visited a local mosque for the first time. Two summers ago, I went to Turkey and went inside a traditional mosque there, but I had never seen one in the United States. That being said, I had expectations for a more...decorative building like the one I'd seen before. It turned out to be very basic-looking. I even thought we made a wrong turn before seeing two women in full burkas walking around, which really says something.

My dad and I went together to this open house that was taking place at the center. When we first arrived, the congregation was doing one of their five daily prayers. There was a men's prayer room and a women's prayer room, as per tradition in Islam.

We entered a building adjacent to the main prayer building where samosas, pound cake, fruit, coffee, and juice were all set out. We chatted with some women who speak Bengali as well as English. At this particular mosque, over thirty different languages (including Urdu, Farsi, Bengali, Somali, Hindi, and more I hadn't even heard of) are spoken. The president of the mosque and various other speakers took turns discussing the importance of community in light of the events that happened ten years ago. While I wasn't the only non-Muslim in the room, I was definitely in the ethnic minority for one of the first times in my life, which is always interesting to me.

Yes, 9/11 did change America. But it isn't just our lives that changed. It's not about tolerance, it's about acceptance. Unite the world <3