In honor of the tenth anniversary of September 11, a panel was held to give organizations and citizens a chance to discuss how far American society has come since the attack.
Lindsey Armer
-Staff Writer-
In honor of the tenth anniversary of September 11, a panel was held to give organizations and citizens a chance to discuss how far American society has come since the attack. STLCC professor Gulten Ilhan attended this Panel speech at Washington University to give her intake on life since then.
“It was a very rewarding experience for me, but I still see those images; it’s not something you forget. It made me extremely sad,” Ilhan said.
Other Panelists were speaking as well, John Bowen a professor at Washington University and Sahar Aziz a professor of law from Texas were in attendance. The speakers gave their intake on how they think America is different and how the country has changed since then.
“Before that awful day 10 years ago, no one cared I was a Muslim,” Ilhan said.
During the Panel a few topics were discussed. One of the topics in particular was racial profiling on most Muslim people since the attacks.
“Federal agents picked up and detained many Muslims for ‘voluntary’ questioning,” Ilhan said.
Ilhan said terrorist does not mean Muslim; extremist violence can come from a number of sources. Before September 11 the Islamic faith wasn’t racially attacked as it is now.
“I would say they still don’t have much information [about Muslims], but what information they do have is all negative,” Ilhan said.
A few other topics the panel discussed included greater national security, political ideas, civil liberty and religious freedom. The panel discussed how Americans could work to improve the freedom of Muslims in America.
“The more awareness you bring to the issue of discrimination of injustice it will be solved,” Ilhan said.
