9/11 Backlash Still Prevalent Four Years Later

September 11, 2005

Source: Seven News/AAP

http://brisbanemuslims.com/?content=home&newsID=31

On September 11, 2005 the Australian Associated Press reported, "The world changed on September 11, 2001.

For Muslims and Arabs in Australia, it changed for the worse. People started abusing them in the street, physically assaulting them, sexually assaulting them. The media vilified them and they faced discrimination and harassment.

Four years after hijacked airliners destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York and killed more than 3,000 people, the hatred continues, according to a report published by the Community Relations Commission (CRC) for a Multicultural NSW.

The report's author, Tanja Dreher, said the events of September 11 seemed to compound existing tensions and prejudices in Australia.

Arabs and Muslims in Australia were physically and verbally abused and made to feel they were not welcome in the months following the September 11 terrorist attacks, her report says.

And the fear and insecurity continues to impact on those communities, it says."