Cultural change after the 9/11 attack
The 9/11 event is one of the most devastating events that has ever happened on the American soil since time in history. This is an attack that took place in the early mornings as people were busy with their daily lives only to be attacked by some merciless terrorist. The attack was carried out on the towers of the world trade center’s both the north and the south buildings. Both buildings were occupied with people when the planes crashed and sliced through the buildings that morning (LaFree & Dugan, 2015). More than 300 000 people were directly affected by the attack where more than 2999 people lost their lives inclusive of more than 350 firefighters and police officers. After the attack, an Islamic community by the name al-Qaeda claimed to be responsible for the attack and which was aimed at ensuring that America stays off the then ongoing war in Israel.
Issues which face many organizational leaders and people in the society today both directly and indirectly are many. In the Islamic community, individuals have been called all sorts of names and their future cut short due to the attack that took place on September 11th. One such case is the Muslim leader who went to save some of the people who were trapped but died in the attack. This heroic figure was termed as a terrorist publicly and his death there on was not honored in any way until his name was cleared from the list of terrorist. To the Muslim society, the attack took away their freedom as American citizens and deprived them of their pride to even pursue bigger dreams in life. Various leaders and Islamic followers were interrogated in a very harsh manner to define their involvement in the attack. School going students were forced to hide their faces from schools and also from the streets due to the discriminations subjected on them (Haddad & Harb, 2014). In many occasions, students were forced to change their religion as a result of the attack. Muslim leaders were almost in every state intensively interrogated to identify their connection to the terrorists. Such occasions affect the lives of people directly and indirectly since they all happen to fellow friends and neighbors without the concern of the authorities in many cases.
State and federal laws were developed in order to deal with the issue of terrorism in the United States, especially after the 9/11 attack. The government had to consider using alternative means to make sure that terrorism has been stopped with the best strategies ever (LaFree & Dugan, 2015). Some of these laws included having the federal department and the state department working together to ensure that no unauthorized person gets into the country without a thorough inspection. There was coordination between the homeland security agents and the white house in order to ensure that any activities that were done in the state were known by the president. The advantage of having an office next to the president is that it enables the quick and immediate response in case of an attack. Laws such as the full inspection of personnel before he or she enters a plane was developed and put into action. Currently, any suspicious activity in an aircraft is detected and a strong signal is sent to the anti-terrorism department immediately to take care of the issue. Today, every airport is manned by the federal officials who are present 24/7 making sure that every entry point and exit point in the airports are safe (LaFree & Dugan, 2015).
The air is always monitored by the navy seals and also the security experts to ensure that any aircraft that does not have the permission to enter or leave the United States atmosphere is dealt with on the spot. Individuals who have already booked a flight are expected to be at the airport 3 hours prior to departure to make sure that they are clean and do not possess any dangerous materials or explosives which they might use to attack their colleagues (Gilbert & Ponder, 2014). Screening of every person who visits the airport both within the airport and inside the airport is mandatory. Video monitoring inside an aircraft is a new development which state departments are using to counter terrorism in the future. Sophisticated software’s which have the capability of analyzing and identifying a person’s background and any malicious activities have been developed by the states.
Many organizations both private and the public took initiative to clean up after the attack. Involved parties made sure that the recovery team had access to adequate personal protective equipment. The dust that was produced as a result of the collapsing building and the toxins which were all over the place made it difficult for the teams to coordinate a thorough clean up (Gilbert & Ponder, 2014). The environmental department took care of the air, water, and the dust through taking samples for the experiment to verify their content is not harmful to humanity especially those who took part in cleaning up. After an experiment, the department gave the result that the air, water and dust around the area affected were safe for the general public. However, this report was not taken in kindly since the public said that the air around the center was polluted and not safe for the general public in any way (LaFree & Dugan, 2015). A representative of the New York City individuals took the department to the court regarding this issue and wanted the department charged with deceiving the members of the public about the situation. Also, the department was accused of having the New York City handle the testing of the air in the indoors which was done without deep concerns. The department was accused of breaking the law through issuing these reports since they were inconclusive and less than 100 percent accurate. Many of the workers and the firefighters who took part in clearing the mess today are suffering severe breathing issues as a result of cleaning up the ground zero area.
There is a shift in the attitude of Americans towards every foreign culture since the attack happened. People all over the United States who were affected directly and those affected indirectly changed their perception with regards to the outsiders. In the movie theaters, before the attack culture did not matter and therefore any quality cinema could be bought but after the attack, the sales went down if the cinema was done by the foreign cultures (Hegghammer & Nesser, 2015). Today most of the Muslim Americans in the United States live in fear since the attack especially due to the discrimination that takes place in almost every sector of the society. The Islam community has been affected most by being termed as the masterminds behind the attack and therefore any contact with them is considered as a dangerous move.
References
Hegghammer, T., & Nesser, P. (2015). Assessing the Islamic State’s commitment to attacking the West. Perspectives on Terrorism, 9(4).
LaFree, G., & Dugan, L. (2015). How has Criminology Contributed to the Study of Terrorism since 9/11?. In Terrorism and counterterrorism today (pp. 1-23). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Haddad, Y. Y., & Harb, N. N. (2014). Post-9/11: making Islam an American religion. Religions, 5(2), 477-501.
Gilbert, E., & Ponder, C. (2014). Between tragedy and farce: 9/11 compensation and the value of life and death. Antipode, 46(2), 404-425.
