Teaching the Ongoing Global Impact of 9/11: Religious Literacy and Dialogue Matter More than Ever
As the 20th anniversary of September 11, 2001, approaches, educators may be grappling with the event from myriad levels. We may remember and mourn it personally, and we teach it as a pivotal historical moment, defining so much of the past two decades of US international and intercultural relations, from counterterrorism to the interfaith dialogue movement. So many lives have been lost and changed irrevocably by and since the attacks. And since that day so many people have been targeted and discriminated against because of their religious or cultural identity.
Today as we still struggle through a global pandemic, we grapple from a distance with the tragic events unravelling in Afghanistan. The world feels still divided and in conflict, our future uncertain. But there is also a new sense of urgency that we can only survive if we tackle global problems together as a global community, in solidarity.
9/11 made me a global citizen. I was 20 years old, studying abroad for the first time in Madrid, Spain. I watched on TV as the towers fell, my sense of American exceptionalism and innocence destroyed. Days later as I signed the condolence book at the US Embassy with hundreds of Madrilenos, I was stunned at the sorrow these strangers shared with me through their tears, their hugs, their pain. The solidarity I found as an American abroad made me part of something greater, a movement that could transcend division and hatred to work for global peace and understanding. My life and career today are built from that movement begun on 9/12/2001 and developed in ways I never could have imagined.
I grew up in a Southern town in the United States where I didn’t know any Muslims, yet Islam and religious studies became a huge part of my personal and academic life. I married a Pashtun man from the tribal areas of Pakistan. I’ve spent time there, falling in love with the harsh beauty of the land and the proud and hospitable people. I’ve seen what the Taliban did to the area – towns scarred by fighting, monuments to martyrs, the destroyed Buddha statues. I’ve also visited vibrant girls’ schools and seen the immense potential of the young people there. Now in DC, I hold virtual dialogues between my students and girls in Swat, an ethnically Pashtun area of Pakistan near Afghanistan.
I am heartbroken by the situation unfolding in Afghanistan over the past few weeks. When I turn on the news and social media, I’m frustrated by the same tired stereotypes about refugees, Muslims, and women. Stereotypes do vicious cultural work to dehumanize and distance ourselves from each other. But the work so many have done to nurture action towards mutual understanding and peace has not been in vain.
I recently reflected along with a colleague about the impact and lessons learned from our involvement with the interfaith work of the past two decades. We found that fostering strong community networks is essential, along with deeply investing in personal relationships across lines of difference. And that we must practice hope. These lessons apply to us as global educators as well – connect across differences and practice hope.
What can we do as global educators?
Teach Religious Literacy
Religious literacy is a basic understanding of the world’s major religions as well as “the ability to discern and explore the religious dimensions of political, social and cultural expressions” (Harvard University’s Religious in Public Life initiative). Religious literacy is an essential skill for our students to develop as global citizens. Much of the global conflict related to the events of 9/11 certainly teaches us that ignoring the global impact of religion is dangerous and irresponsible. While many Americans increasingly identify as non-religious, religious ideas, practices, and communities have a significant impact on ours and most societies around the world. Preparing our students to navigate and thrive in the world today requires religious literacy.
Students hear a lot about the Taliban, and much less about the actual religion of Islam, therefore potentially equating all Muslims with the Taliban. They need to understand some basics about Sharia law (there is no standard, it varies across countries and cultures, and does not justify the oppressive behavior of the Taliban). They also need to understand historical context for the events happening in Afghanistan including the relevance of the long imperialist history of Afghan invasion on the current situation (from the Americans to the Russians, British, Sikhs, Mughals, Persians, Mongols, and Macedonians), and the distinction between tribalism and religion. The Taliban are based in the Pukhtun, or Pashtun, tribal ethnic group, and operate through a code known as Pukhtunwali, which is based in honor-driven behavior, tribal solidarity, revenge, reciprocity, and the advancement of religious justification for tribal militancy towards foreign powers.
The religious literacy approach helps us understand complexities like tribalism and religion in Afghanistan in an analytical way, training ourselves to avoid biased judgments on beliefs and practices different from our own and encounter them as they are. The approach helps us to understand religion in context; it helps to teach and understand that religions are internally diverse, that religions change over time, and that religions are inextricably embedded in culture. This approach to teaching about religion, across disciplines, can also help combat stereotypes.
Combat Stereotypes
Most of our students need more education about the diversity of Islam and Muslims. As a teacher of religious studies, most students come with very limited to no knowledge about Islam, let alone about the diverse Muslim populations and cultures all around the world. And for most Americans who still do not know a Muslim personally and know little or nothing about Islam, what they do know are stereotypes.
The return of the Taliban has hyper-focused the world on the oppression of women and girls in Afghanistan. This is a terrifying situation, and our hearts break for the lost progress of the past two decades, and the fears for the future. But the media is portraying a dangerous narrative that this oppression is linked to Islam, and that without America, without the West, Afghan women will never work, be educated, or even survive. An important part of religious literacy on Islam is elevating the Islamic feminism embraced by so many Muslims that has enabled so many Muslim women to become great scholars, leaders, and empowered from within their own tradition. A global perspective on violence towards women and girls is also important. For example, violence against women and girls in North America is called domestic violence, not terrorism or religious-based oppression.
In addition, since 9/11 many in the Sikh community have faced stereotypes, discrimination, and hate crimes related to Islamaphobia. Combatting these stereotypes in our classrooms and communities is unquestionably part of our role as global educators, but so is educating our students to combat these stereotypes in our societies at large. As global connectors we know that personal connections and relationships do wonders to change your perspective of the unknown and suspicious ‘other.’
Create Opportunities for Intercultural Dialogue
We must provide our students with the opportunity to practice dialogue between people who think differently from each other. In the US, today’s polarized cultural and political climate pushes us to feel that someone who thinks differently from us is our enemy. Dialogue teaches us to listen for understanding so we can build trust, empathy and safety to address the complex issues of our communities.
When the Twin Towers fell, the dominant narrative was of a ‘clash of civilizations,’ between the West and the Muslim world. Peacebuilders worked to advance a ‘dialogue of civilizations,’ and within civilizations. We worked across lines of difference building understanding, empathy, and critical reflection on our own motives and beliefs.
At my school, the students in our virtual exchange program between DC and Swat, a Pashtun area of Pakistan, were able to learn for themselves about the different contexts and cultures in which they are growing up. In discussing their daily schedules, interests, and topics like holidays, they learned how religion shows up in their daily lives and how it connects to their personal identities. We shared about attending chapel and Cathedral services and they shared about islamiyat classes. As news feeds filled with stories from Afghanistan these students can remember the laughter shared between Jackie and Marwa as they bonded over having to wake up super early on school days (4:00am for rowing practice and prayer/study/household help). Maybe they remembered commiserating over how strict their teachers could be, and how they loved their down time on the athletics field or in the women’s park to play games. Now they have faces, names, and personal connections that take precedence over the impersonal news cycle and won’t be easily forgotten
Use Trustworthy and Relevant Sources
The Council on American Islamic Relations 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 some instances, schools have used educational materials about 9/11 created by anti-Muslim hate groups, often unintentionally.
For students wrestling with an event that seems distant, it can be helpful to use stories with which they can personally connect. How were young people impacted at the time of the attacks? And how did they react? Read first person accounts or reflections by journalists. Invite them to reflect on what they might do, or have done, in a similar situation when faced with fear, anger, and worry over the future. Engage with first person accounts or reflections of related events or incidents, as appropriate for your class and students. A great example of this is Valerie Kaur’s 2006 film Divided We Fall: Americans in the Aftermath that captures the voices and experiences of many Sikhs targeted by hate crimes or discrimination in the months and years after 9/11 – it has just been re-released and is available with teaching materials.
Our students were not born when the attacks on 9/11 took place but our world has been deeply shaped by the events of that day and its aftermath. On this 20th anniversary, it is critical that we equip our students with tools and resources to understand 9/11 and its impact on the world.
“Each of us is in a position, however small or large, to shift the collective awareness away from the nightmare of Apocalypse and make real the prospect of seeking out and nurturing our common humanity, while celebrating our own uniqueness and the uniqueness of others.” -Dr. Akbar Ahmed, After Terror
Melody Fox Ahmed is the director of global programs and faculty in the religious studies department at the National Cathedral School. She oversees global education and engagement work including travel programs, research fellowships, and curricular and co-curricular initiatives. She is a member of the US-Pakistan Interreligious Consortium and the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom. She received her B.A. from Vanderbilt University and her M.A. in Global, International, and Comparative History from Georgetown University.
Resources
Curriculum and Teaching Resources
“10 Ways to Teach about 9/11 with the New York Times”
Culturally Responsive 9/11 Teaching Resources from Amaarah DeCuir, Center for Islam in the Contemporary World
9/11 Memorial & Museum’s free Anniversary in the Schools program
CAIR Resources on Teaching 9/11 in Diverse Classrooms
9/11 Learning Hub featuring stories from Sikh Americans and other BIPOC communities that Valerie Kaur and The Revolutionary Love Project team collected over the last twenty years, including the newly available re-release of the 2006 film Divided We Fall: Americans in the Aftermath with accompanying teaching materials.
Teaching Beyond September 11 – a new curriculum being released throughout September and October, 2021 from researchers at the University of Pennsylvania led by Dr Ameena Gaffar-Kucher designed to help high school students examine how 9/11 has shaped much of the last two decades, in America and around the world.
Articles and Audio
Pew Research on Perceptions of Muslims and Islam: Key findings in the U.S. and around the world
A Critique on Western Media Coverage of Afghan Women radio segment of The Take Away from WYNC
Is the Taliban’s treatment of women really inspired by Sharia? from Al Jazeera
What is sharia law? And how is the Taliban using it in Afghanistan? from USA Today
How Western Books About the Muslim World Fuel War and Retribution from New Republic
Books
The Thistle and the Drone: How America’s War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam by Akbar Ahmed
For an alternative reading with a strong female Muslim character not focused on oppression, students can check out the YA novel Yes, No, Maybe So, about a Jewish teen and a Muslim teen who meet doing political canvassing.