The Post-9/11Muslim Plight

Muslims living in both the United States and the United Kingdom have experienced serious backlash since the attacks of 9/11 and later the subway bombing in July, 2007 and they are not happy about it. Representatives of both communities say that they are the victims of unfair prejudice.

But in the United Kingdom, some extremist members of the Muslim community like Abu Abdullah are promoting dangerously violent ideas.

Just after he met with Sunday Morning correspondent Mark Phillips was arrested for inciting or glorifying terrorism. He espouses some of the most vitriolic rhetoric against the West and Israel.

"My views hardened quite a while ago," he told Phillips."It always comes back as a reflection from the West on the Middle East, as in going to an Islamic land and shoving democracy down their peoples' throat…Saying that you've gone their to liberate and give people freedom. This is absolute garbage, this is a lie and we have to do everything by Allah's grace and mercy to stop this preaching of democracy in the Muslim lands."

By everything, Abu Abdullah mean attacks in the West against soft civilian targets, like the subway bombings here last summer which he refuses to condemn.

"I can never condemn the actions of another Muslim to the Muslim world…no matter what," he said.

When speaking in his community, his language can become frighteningly violent.

"Those that fight you, lay in wait for them, seize them, smite them at their necks," he said in a Muslim neighborhood.

Abdullah's views are still on the extreme end of thinking in Britain's Islamic community and under new anti-terror laws here, inciting or glorifying terrorism is illegal – hence his arrest. But sentiments like his aren't as rare as they once were. MC Riz is a popular British-Muslim rapper. His music rails against what he says is unfair treatment of Muslims in the U.K.

"Israeli fighters are soldiers," he says in his song "9/11 Blues." "Irish are paramilitary and darkie ones are terrorists – a simple canopy. But not me. My friends say Riz is still one of us, but if I haven't shaved they won't sit with me on the bus."

MC Riz innocently expresses the anger that many young British Muslims feel, but the rage goes much deeper. Neil Doyle, who tracks militant Islamic Web sites, says he used to find militant Islamic websites operating from shadowy centers in the Muslim world. Now they're in the U.K.

"Yeah, I would describe it as a main communications hub," he said. "You can see from the chatter, people are quite jubilant, there is a strong feeling at the moment that they have got the upper hand and that the Americans and the British are being pushed back on all fronts."

On the political front, British Prime Minister Tony Blair's forced announcement that he will quit within a year is tied to his support of American policy.

"I think he's gonna have to go," political columnist Simon Hoggart said. "Iraq and Bush really is seriously a big problem, he loves George Bush. People of Britain on the whole don't love George Bush."

Meanwhile, on the streets of Paterson, N.J. the firth anniversary of 9/11 provokes complicated feelings: mourning for the past combined with fear about what the past has spawned.

Muslims like Mohamed Elfilali, a leader of the local mosque said that his people are treated worse than ever before.

"If a person's name is Mohamed it is a crime by itself," he told Elizabeth Kaledin. "There is liberty and Justice for all, except if you are a Muslim."

Patterson is home to one of the largest Muslim American communities in the United States and five years later people here say they still feel targeted – not by terrorists – but by the American government.

Just last, month Dena Fahmi was stopped at Kennedy airport after a flight from Jordan with her four young children. She says she was detained for hours and given no reason for not being allowed into the country – her country.

"They told me to go to a customs agent," she said. "Here, an American citizen, a New Jersey girl born and raised here – hamburgers and hotdogs – and I am being treated like a second class citizen. I just was completely humiliated. I felt like I was nothing just because I have this on."

Mohamed Younis, an American citizen for 40 years was also stopped at an airport returning from a business trip in Thailand.

He says "without question" he lost liberties in the wake of 9/11.

Nevertheless, four of the 19 terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacks lived for a short time in Patterson because they could fit right in. Elfilali says that's no reason to target his people.

"This is home and I am not about to change my idea about home," he said. "If somebody does not like they have a right to their opinion but it isn't going to change my perception of what home is."

He asks "did the Oklahoma city bombing by Timothy McVeigh lead to discrimination against all Christians?"

"I mean are there radical elements in the Christian Community? Yeah. Are they searched equally? No. Are they scrutinized like Muslims? No," he said.

Five years after 9/11, many devout Muslims are having a crisis of faith in their own country.

"The kids ask what is wrong with us?" Younis said. "What did we do wrong? Why are we treated like this? It is just not right."