AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): The American magazine The Atlantic, in an article by Asma Khalid, a BBC anchor, wrote that Islamophobia in the United States has not only affected the lives of Muslims but has also eroded the values America claims to uphold regarding citizenship, identity, and civil liberties.
The author, noting that this year coincides with the 250th anniversary of America's founding and the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, emphasized that these two events cannot be viewed separately. According to The Atlantic, the September 11 attacks not only transformed America's relations with Muslims outside its borders but also changed the way American society views Muslims within.
Asma Khalid, who each year takes her children to her hometown in Indiana, in the American Midwest, to watch the Independence Day celebrations, spoke of the changing atmosphere of these celebrations in recent years. She wrote that alongside music bands and Girl Scouts, now military vehicles, massive Christian symbols, and memorials for American soldiers killed in the wars that invaded Afghanistan and Iraq are also seen.
According to the author, the images of young Hoosiers who lost their lives in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars give the ceremony a somber and somewhat anti-Islamic atmosphere; wars that began after September 11 as part of America's campaigns in West Asia. She emphasized that the shadow of September 11, the subsequent wars, and the culture that emerged from these developments still weigh heavily on American society.
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