The 25 Years Later Community Hub brings together publicly available resources developed by organizations and advocates responding to the effects of 9/11 and the domestic and global War on Terror. It is intended as an archive, a repository and learning resource, and does not represent positions of organizations included here. Members of the South Asian Coalition and allies curated the hub over the course of a year.
25th Anniversary Reflections
Read this reflection by Harman Singh, Executive Director of The Sikh Coalition.
Read this reflection from Darakshan Raja, Executive Director of Muslims for Just Futures.
Sikh Reflections on Unity and Division in America, 25 Years After 9/11 (Kiran Kaur Gill, Executive Director of the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF))
“Let’s Just Round Them Up”: The Rise of Islamophobia in the Post-9/11 Domestic War on Terror (Democracy Now! interview with Fahd Ahmed, Executive Director of Desis Rising Up and Moving, and Rozina Ali, journalist and author)
25 years after 9/11, Sikh Americans turned fear into service, belonging (Sameep Singh, The Sikh Coalition Speakers Network, Dayton Daily News)
Statement: 25 Years After 9/11, the U.S. Government Is Continuing to Use “Counterterrorism” to Expand Executive Power and Crush Dissent (Center for Constitutional Rights)
Statement by South Asian Public Health Association on the 25th Anniversary
Statement by Sakhi for South Asian Survivors on the 25th Anniversary
25 Years of the War on Terror: An Open Letter to Trans Muslims and Those Who Love Us (MASGD)
25 years later, what 9/11 means for Bay Area South Asians (Shristhi Prabha, KALW)
9/11, as South Asian Families Remember It (Tulika Bose, The Juggernaut)
25 Years Later, We Still Live in the World the War on Terror Made (Maha Hilal, Truthout)
Documentaries, Talks & Podcasts
American Muslims: A History Revealed (PBS Documentary)
American Muslims: A History Revealed is a six-part documentary series that reveals and explores the early history of Muslims in the United States. The films are hosted by journalists Malika Bilal, Aymann Ismail, and Asma Khalid, who travel the country to piece together stories spanning over 200 years…
Reflections on the 25th Anniversary of 9/11 (APEX Express, 94.1 KPFA)
On this 25th anniversary episode, APEX Express hosts members of the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action, ASATA. Several ASATA members listen to Apex Express episodes about the impact of 9/11 and share their thoughts. You will hear pieces of shows starting all the way back to two thousand two and as recently as this spring. You can find links to those episodes below.
Video: “LAPD Muslims Mapping Project” (Br. Shakeel Syed, Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, Islamic Institute of Orange County)
Video: Islamophobia in post-9/11 America (Othering & Belonging Institute)
Video: The Backlash against American Muslims (BBC)
Video: Surviving and Thriving 20 Years after 9/11 (Deepa Iyer + American Psychological Association)
Podcast: Solidarity Across Division (Solidarity Is This Podcast, Building Movement Project)
Podcast: Solidarity – 20 Years Later, We Look Back and Chart A Path Forward (Solidarity Is This Podcast, Building Movement Project)
Podcast: Solidarity – 17 Years Later (Solidarity Is This Podcast, Building Movement Project)
Podcast Series: Unpacking Islamophobia (The Bridge Initiative)
Podcast: 20th anniversary of 9/11 and Re-wilding our urban spaces: Two Tales of Grassroots Activism (APEX Express, 94.1 KPFA)
Historical Archives and Community Stories
The War on Terror Resistance Timeline (Muslims for Just Futures)
Learn about the evolution of the War on Terror and how it impacted BAMEMSA and SWANA communities.
Shattering Justice Online Exhibit (Muslim Counterpublics Lab)
Re-making the Muslim Threat: A Visual Timeline of the War on Terror
Reading List: 25 Years of 9/11 & Global War on (t)error (Bol Bookstore & Cafe)
Bol Bookstore has compiled a list on Bookshop.org with key titles by community leaders reflecting on the impact of 9/11 and the War on Terror on BAMEMSA and SWANA communities. Purchasing from this link will support independent bookshops.
Report: Hearing on the Unheard Voices of 9/11 (The Sikh Coalition)
Over 200 community members from the Sikh, Arab, Muslim, and South Asian American communities—as well as government officials, advocates, and scholars—came together for two hearings in 2011 to reflect on the realities of post-9/11 bias.
Archives
SAMAR Magazine Issue #14, Fall/Winter 2001: The South Asian American Generation (South Asian Magazine for Action and Reflection)
1996 – 2006 Civil Rights Reports (Council on American-Islamic Relations – CAIR))
June 2002 Hearing on Immigration Reform and the Reorganization of Homeland Defense (Senate Judiciary Committee)
Asian American Civil Rights Advocacy and Research Agenda After 9/11 (Karen K. Narasaki and June K. Han)
2002 Audit of Violence Against Asian Pacific Americans (Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC)
Photo: Post 9/11 Disaster Assistance Clinic at LaGuardia Airport (New York Taxi Workers Alliance)
SAMAR Magazine Issue #15, Summer/Fall 2002: Dogmas of War (South Asian Magazine for Action and Reflection)
Photo: Taxi Workers for Peace (New York Taxi Workers Alliance)
2003 Report on Hate Crimes and Discrimination against Arab Americans: The Post – September 11 Backlash (American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee))
2004 Letter advocating for Legal Services Corporation (NAPALC, NAPABA, AALDEF, et. al.)
2004 Letter Asking Congress to Support the Civil Liberties Restoration Act (Human Rights Watch)
Post-9/11 Civil Rights & Civil Liberties Priorities for the South Asian Community: Recommendations for the Obama-Biden Transition Team (South Asian Americans Leading Together)
Recession and 9/11: Economic Hardship and the Failure of the Safety Net for Unemployed Workers in New York City (Brennan Center for Justice)
The Practice of Profiling: Immigration and Profiling in the Post-9/11 World (South Asian Americans Leading Together)
How Bay Area South Asian Americans Organized in the Years After 9/11 (ASATA + Asian American Writer’s Workshop)
American Backlash: Terrorists Bring War Home in More Ways than One (South Asian Americans Leading Together)
Combating Post-9/11 Discriminatory Backlash (Dept. of Justice)
The September 11 Backlash (Human Rights Watch)
Sept. 11 Backlash Murders and the State of ‘Hate’ (Washington Post)
Remembering Those Killed in the 9/11 Backlash (Arab News)
Power, Pain, Potential: South Asians at the Forefront of Growth and Hate in the 2016 Election Cycle (South Asian Americans Leading Together)
Testimony for House Judiciary Committee Hearing on “Discrimination and the Civil Rights of the Muslim,
Arab, and South Asian American Communities” (Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC)
Community Resilience: A South Asian American Perspective on the Ten-Year Anniversary of September 11th (South Asian Americans Leading Together)
Learning Hub — 9/11: Understanding America 20+ Years Later (Revolutionary Love)
Community Stories: Testimonials and Stories of Impact
A Mother Remembers Her Son, A Muslim-American First Responder Who Died On Sept. 11 (NPR)
September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
99 Clay Vessels: The Muslim Women Storytelling Project
9 Lives Affected by 9/11 (SALDEF)
The First 9/11 “Backlash‟ Fatality: The Murder of Balbir Singh Sodhi (SALDEF)
Unabashed and Unbroken: Afghan American Women Reclaim Their Stories (SAADA)
A Long, Hard Road for Family’s Naturalization (NPR)
25 Years Since 9/11 Series (Inquest)
Islam In Minnesota: A Community Reflects (American Archive of Public Broadcasting)
Islamophobia Shaped the Lives of Muslim American Students After 9/11 (Vanessa Taylor, Teen Vogue)
Understanding Policies from the Global War on Terror
Stop the Disappearances: Organizing for Freedom in the Wake of Post-9/11 Violence (2000-2009) (Desis Rising Up and Moving)
A timeline that delves into some of how DRUM members, organizers, and volunteers organized in the context of immigrants becoming the fastest growing percentage of the prison population at the beginning of the century–a statistic that was only exacerbated by the repressive immigration policies of the post 9/11 period.
Mapping Muslims: NYPD Spying and its Impact on American Muslims (CLEAR Project, AALDEF and the Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition)
This 2013 report reviews the NYPD’s suspicion-less surveillance of Muslim communities across the Northeast and how it impacted Muslim communities across New York City.
Fighting Hate and Discrimination
Community Explainer: How Political Discourse Targets South Asian, Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh Candidates (South Asian Coalition)
This Community Explainer from the South Asian Coalition highlights one critical area of impact: political discourse and civic engagement. For decades, rhetoric steeped in racism, Islamophobia, sexism, and xenophobia has fueled hostility towards candidates from South Asian, Arab, Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh backgrounds.
Guides, Toolkits, and Know Your Rights materials for American Muslims (CAIR)
This is a collection of guides and toolkits on Know Your Rights, Islamophobia, community safety, Securing religious liberty, and Ramadan.
Alternate Approaches to Justice
How Transformative Justice Responds to Violence without the Carceral System (Transform Harm)
Transform Harm: A Resource Hub for Ending Violence (Transform Harm)
Rapid Response Support (Vision Change Win)
What’s Structural Harm Got To Do With It? (Interrupting Criminalization)
Loving and Protecting Us: Abolitionist Crisis Response Rooted in Transformative Justice (Shira Hassan and Mariame Kaba)
Mapping Community Ecosystems of Collective Care (Interrupting Criminalization)
Abolitionist Bystander Intervention & De-escalation (Interrupting Criminalization)
Know Your Rights Resources
Updated Best Practices for Mosques and Community Safety Guide (CAIR)
Know Your Rights Resources for Interacting with Law Enforcement, Travel, Charitable Giving, and Informants (CLEAR)
Know Your Rights Hub for Sikh Americans (The Sikh Coalition)
Trainings to Address Anti-Asian/Asian American Harassment (Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC)
Coping with 9/11 as a Young Adult (The Family & Youth Institute)
Learning Materials
Countering and Dismantling Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Discrimination Toolkit + Hub (Institute for Social Policy & Understanding)
From Macacas to Turban Toppers: The Rise in Xenophobic and Racist Rhetoric in American Political Discourse (South Asian Americans Leading Together)
Moving beyond the ‘Sharia Scare’: A Guide for Faith Leaders and Allies (The Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign)
Community Explainer: How Political Discourse Targets South Asian, Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh Candidates (South Asian Coalition)
Community Memorandum: Recommendations for A Foundational White House Islamophobia Strategy (Muslims for Just Futures)
Turban Myths: The Opportunities and Challenges for Reframing Sikh American Identity in Post-9/11 America (Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund)
Twenty Years After 9/11: A Reckoning for Anti-Muslim Hostility in the United States (Arab Center Washington DC)
Turbulence Ahead: Racial & Religious Profiling at the Border and Ports (Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC)
Countering and Dismantling Islamophobia: A Comprehensive Guide for Individuals and Organizations (The Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign)
Culturally Responsive 9/11 Teaching Resources (Center for Islam in the Contemporary World at Shenandoah University)
Resources for talking with students about Islamophobia (Teaching Tolerance, an SPLC project)
Victimized Twice: 9/11/2001, South Asian Americans & Islamophobia (The Asian American Education Project)
Resources for Teaching about 9/11 (Intercultural Networks Group)
Resources from The Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign
Teaching About the Wars Lesson Plan (ReThinking Schools)
Tools for Reclaiming Communities from Militarism (Bombs and Budgets)
Resources for Students (The Sikh Coalition)
Challenge Islamophobia (Teaching for Change)
Belonging, Loyalty, and Legitimacy: A Guide to Identifying and Responding to Anti-Asian Political Narratives (Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC)
Throughlines from 2001 to Today
Sept. 11-spawned surveillance is ravaging the country (Saqib Bhatti, Chicago Sun-Times)
This op-ed connects the Islamophobia that followed 9/11 to the current status of the federal surveillance apparatus and American democracy.
From “War on Terror” to the “China Initiative:” The Chilling Parallels of Racial Profiling Between Chinese American and AMEMSA Communities (Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC)
This essay explores the parallels in policing experienced by Chinese Americans and AMEMSA community members and highlights similarities in mass surveillance, unwarranted investigations, and unjust prosecutions by the federal government.
Immigration
9/11 and the Transformation of U.S. Immigration Law and Policy (American Bar Association)
Terrorizing Migrants: Five Ways Post-9/11 Legal Precedents Paved the Way for Anti-Immigrant Actions in
the United States (Brown University)
Podcast: The Muslim and Refugee Bans (Solidarity is This Podcast, Building Movement Project)
The Trump Administration’s Registration Requirement for Immigrants (American Immigration Council)
Immigration Policy Fifteen Years after 9/11 (American Immigration Council)
Replacing the Department of Homeland Security with Something Better (Brennan Center for Justice)
Immigrant and Black Communities at Stake: FBI Entrapments and Immigration Enforcement (DRUM NYC, Critical Resistance Magazine)
Community Update: Suspension of Immigrant Visas for 75 Countries (South Asian Coalition)
Community Explainer: Immigrant Students and Targeting on College Campuses (South Asian Coalition)
Statement about Executive Orders from South Asian Groups (January 2025) (South Asian Coalition)
They cleaned up ground zero. Now many are hiding from ICE (Jasmine Garsd, NPR)
Hate + Discrimination
25 Years of the War on Terror: How Islamophobia Became Policy (Mobashra Tazamal, The Bridge Initiative)
Decades of spying and repression: the anti-Palestinian origins of American Islamophobia (Center for Constitutional Rights + The Guardian)
Anti-Palestinian at the Core: The Origins and Growing Dangers of U.S. Antiterrorism Law (Center for Constitutional Rights + Palestine Legal)
How U.S. Muslims Have Transformed in the 20 Years Since 9/11—and What It Means in the Wake of 10/7 (Eman Abdelhadi, In These Times)
The Palestine Exception to Free Speech (Palestine Legal)
Community Explainer: How Political Discourse Targets South Asian, Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh Candidates (South Asian Coalition)
Weaponization of National Security x Counterterrorism Policy
The War on Terror Has Not Waned. It’s Used Against Black and Brown Communities (Saher Selod, Truth Out)
ACLU National Security Project
Brennan Center for Justice: 9/11 at 20
“Trump is Turning “Counterterrorism” into an International Campaign Against the Left” (Samer Araabi, Center for Constitutional Rights)
We Must Dismantle the “Counterterrorism” Framework (Center for Constitutional Rights)
The New Counterterrorism State (Darakshan Raja, Nonprofit Quarterly)
Summary and Commentary: Presidential Memorandum on Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence (Charity & Security Network)
2026 United States Counterterrorism Strategy Escalates Crackdown on Civil Society (Charity & Security Network)
The Struggle for Power: The Ongoing Persecution of Black Movement by the U.S. Government (CLEAR Project)
Ending the ‘National Security’ Excuse for Racial and Religious Profiling (Brennan Center for Justice)
Rolling Back the Post-9/11 Surveillance State (Brennan Center for Justice)
Training to Fight in the Light (Brennan Center for Justice)
How to Combat White Supremacist Violence? Avoid Flawed Post-9/11 Counterterrorism Tactics (Brennan Center for Justice)
Executive Power
The War on Terror Built the Foundation for Trump’s Violence (Center for International Policy)
It’s Time to Tear Up the Executive Branch’s Blank Check (Brennan Center for Justice)
Reining in the President’s Sanctions Powers (Brennan Center for Justice)
Ending the Post-9/11 Forever Wars (Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Brennan Center for Justice)
“War on Drugs” x War on Terror
Trump’s Murders in the Caribbean Rooted in Counterterrorism Framework (Center for Constitutional Rights)