9/11 and the Georgetown University event.

So 10 years ago from today two planes crashed into the World Trade Center and completely changed (re: screwed) the course of history forever. I had just spent my first year in Saudi Arabia and I was just about to turn 17 later that month when I turned on my TV and saw all hell break loose. I still remember my reaction: bewilderment, mixed feelings, not sure what to make of it. I guess I would have had a much stronger reaction had I actually still been living in the US. The reports came out that the attacks were carried out by so called "islamic" terrorists from Al Qaeda. Now things had gotten even more twisted. Because I was also "islamic". But I was also an american. Two sides of a coin that is still flipping in mid-air to this day. Little did I know this dichotomy would eventually define me as an american who happened to be muslim and a muslim who happened to be american.

Well the 10th anniversary was a fairly quiet affair as was the rest of the day, typical for a Sunday. While nothing particularly interesting happened that day, more interesting things occurred three days prior. On Thursday September 8th I had the opportunity to visit Georgetown University's Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding for an event called "Religion and the American-Muslim Community Post 9/11". The speakers were John Esposito, Linda Moreno, Arsalan Iftikhar, and the keynote speaker was Karen Armstrong.

Here's some pics from the event.

Before going into the event hall.

The speakers.

Me and Professor John Esposito

You can view more pictures right here. 

Here's a video clip of me speaking with Professor John Esposito. Check it out!

Check out the other videos from the event on my youtube channel.

The event itself was good however I wasn't completely sure if doing so would really affect any immediate change to the current islamophobic environment prevalent in parts of the US media and unfortunately, the government as well. I was also a bit disappointed by the lack of media coverage the event received. However in general it was a fairly eye-opening event, particularly the talk given by Linda Moreno. You can see her video right here. 

Salam!