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The session will explore how crimes committed by al-Qaeda led to Muslims and people perceived to be Muslim being treated as a collective security threat.

FBI- recorded anti-Muslim incidents in the United States rose from 28 in 2000 to 481 in 2001. The US Justice Department subsequently investigated more than 800 cases involving violence, threats, vandalism and arson against Muslims and other communities targeted in the backlash.

The conversation will also examine mass detention, immigration profiling, mosque surveillance, workplace discrimination and the expansion of security powers under the Patriot Act. It will consider how news coverage and political rhetoric repeatedly connected Islam with terrorism, forcing many Muslims to defend their identities and demonstrate their loyalty.

Akwei, an international journalist and founding editor of Global South World, will be joined by Mahmud, the chief executive of Pakistani digital publication ProPakistani. Their discussion will bring perspectives from Africa and South Asia into a debate often framed mainly through American and European experiences.

Twenty-five years after the attacks, the consequences remain visible. A 2026 Pew Research Centre survey found that 59% of Muslim Americans believed there was “a lot” of discrimination against Muslims in the United States.