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Written by Madiha Tahseen, Ph.D. Acknowledgments: Mariam Rasheed, MSW; Fatyma Karamoko, B.A.<\/em><\/p>\n This year marks the twentieth anniversary of September 11th. The world mourned the loss of life and destruction of that day. It was also a pivotal moment in the history of Muslims in the U.S. and across the world. As educators<\/b>, you have the responsibility of meeting the needs of all<\/b> your students as they experience this anniversary. Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR), an Islamic civil rights organization, usually receives a spike in complaints from students and families on anniversaries of 9\/11. Some complaints involve peer-to-peer bullying, while others involve anti-Muslim content in lesson plans. In light of this, Muslim American students need your support so that they can experience a safe and welcoming classroom during this time. Students who are not of the Muslim faith also need support to learn how to interact with their Muslim peers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n In this guide, we provide strategies for creating a welcoming climate and a healthy learning experience for all students<\/b><\/p>\n You may be feeling a wide range of emotions during this time.\u00a0<\/p>\n While you may be stressed for good reason, it is important to <\/i><\/b>not pass it on to your <\/i><\/b><\/a>students.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Muslims experience the aftermath of 9\/11 in many different ways. Some experience negative emotions (anxiety, hate) and incidents (Islamophobic acts). Others feel the need to defend Islam and counter the anti-Muslim narrative. As you teach about this topic, keep in mind that each person has had their own personal journey with the events of 9\/11. Use the following resources to educate yourself as well as to build lesson plans for the anniversary.\u00a0<\/p>\n *Note: Make sure to center your well-being and your students\u2019 well-being–reading or watching too much content about how 9-11 changed the world can be stressful, triggering, and re-traumatizing.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n First and foremost, check your own biases<\/a>. Take the Arab-Muslim implicit bias test<\/a> (click start and then scroll down to Arab-Muslim IAT).<\/p>\n American Muslim youth constantly engage in a balancing act of all their identities: Muslim, American, culture\/ethnic, gender, immigrant, and so on. In the aftermath of 9\/11, these identities came under siege. Questions like \u201cAm I American?\u201d \u201cCan I be Muslim in this country?\u201d \u201cCan I be both?\u201d <\/i>became part of the daily struggles of many Muslim youth — making the balancing act even harder. Impressively, many youth used their identities as a form of empowerment and resilience in the face of hate. As hate incidents may rise during this time, Muslim students need support with their identities so that their well-being does not get impacted.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nearly 40% of Muslim students were bullied at school for identifying or being perceived as Muslim (CAIR, 2019). In the upcoming days, Muslim students may experience counter expressions of bias and discrimination<\/a> from peers or even other educators. Educate yourself on their experiences using the following resources:<\/p>\n For more detailed information about the above strategies, check out this <\/i>guide<\/i><\/a>.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n This is not the first or last time in history that challenging events have taken place. Policies enacted after 9\/11 are just the latest rendition of policies inspired by xenophobic and white-supremacist ideologies that many Black Muslims have been experiencing since the foundation of this country. Post 9\/11 policies just expanded the experience to a broader population of non-Black Muslims. It is important to educate yourself further about the history of oppression and how to build resilience. We highly recommend Sapelo Square<\/a>, an online forum that places Black Muslims at the center as a place to start.<\/p>\n Although the events of 9-11 and its aftermath are associated with painful memories of loss and trauma, frustration, and anxiety, it was also a time of resilience and thriving for all Americans. Individuals from all walks of faith came together to spread the message of unity and to counter prejudice and bias. As educators, this is a teachable and character-building moment to reinforce within ourselves and within our students the resilience and growth of our country. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Written by Madiha Tahseen, Ph.D. Acknowledgments: Mariam Rasheed, MSW; Fatyma Karamoko, B.A. This year marks the twentieth anniversary of September 11th. The world mourned the loss of life and destruction of that day. It was also a pivotal moment in the history of Muslims in the U.S. and across the world. As educators, you have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[148,174,138,140],"tags":[],"age":[],"content-type":[],"persona":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefyi.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7992"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefyi.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefyi.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefyi.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefyi.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7992"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thefyi.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7994,"href":"https:\/\/thefyi.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7992\/revisions\/7994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefyi.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefyi.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefyi.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefyi.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7992"},{"taxonomy":"age","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefyi.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/age?post=7992"},{"taxonomy":"content-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefyi.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-type?post=7992"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefyi.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=7992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Process your own emotions<\/b><\/h2>\n
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Use the opportunity to teach<\/b><\/h2>\n
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Create a safe space\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n
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Recognize the impact on the identities of Muslim Youth<\/b><\/h2>\n
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Countering Bullying and Bias<\/b><\/h2>\n
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What to do if you see expressions of hate or bias:<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n
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