Discrimination After 9/11

On September 11, 2001, America was the victim of a brutal terrorist attack by members of the extremist group Al-Qaeda. That day will not only be remembered for the lives lost and the damage to the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but for the changes it brought in the everyday American's lives and perceptions of people who are different, specifically those of Middle Eastern descent. Even now, almost 13 years later, we are still dealing with the discrimination against those of the Muslim faith and a loss of some basic freedoms Americans used to take for granted.
Today, the terms of “terrorist group” and “Muslamic faith” have been blurred together under one definition. The Al-Qaeda is a group of people who operate under an extreme and harsh interpretation of Sunni Muslim, something that Americans at the time of the attack, did not understand. This lack of understanding about the Muslim faith lead to the perception that all people of that faith were not to be trusted; and up to now, targeted. A better word to use would be racially profiled. This concept is not new to the American public, it dates as far back to when white settlers came to America and enslaved the Native Americans for labor in 1620. (Definition of Racial Profiling).
From September 2001, to the present, the public's perception of the Muslim faith has not changed, partly because of media propaganda and its inaccuracies. The Bush Administration coined the term “War On Terror”, for an example (Walsh, War on Terror). America now has the TSA monitoring terminals with full body scanners, and full body “pat downs” (Airport Screening). Tests like these have become an unnecessary hassle for most travelers, but a nightmare for anyone with middle eastern characteristics, somet...

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...nd the links within it have a basic overview of the TSA security protocols used in airports. Providing a simple list of protocols used. Mostly based on screenings and advanced imagery technology. It describes more of how the technology finds threats.
Walsh, Kenneth T. "War on Terror: Bush's Legacy." US News. U.S.News & World Report, n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2014.
Weiner-Bronner, Danielle. "A Complete Timeline of the Search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 - The Wire." The Wire. N.p., 21 Mar. 2014. Web. 02 Apr. 2014.
This website describes the timeline of events that happened while searching for Malaysian Flight 370 that went missing earlier this year. Reports show that two Iranian men were on the plane and were immediately targeted because they had stolen passports. Later, their case was dropped after further research. They had no connections to any terrorist groups at all.