The post-9/11 infrastructure of Islamophobia

(RNS) — This week, Republicans are gathering for a midterm convention in Dallas, in my own backyard, immediately before the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11.

But angry demonstrators outside our mosques are not something that arrived with the convention. On Fridays, even without a national political gathering nearby, members of our community regularly encounter protesters when they come to pray.

As an American Muslim imam, I consider this setting as we approach this anniversary. Alongside the somber commemorations and historical retrospectives are the ordinary concerns of people wondering whether they can enter their mosque without being harassed.

For us, the legacy of Sept. 11 is not confined to a terrible morning. It includes the institutions, organizations and assumptions that took shape afterward.

Six days after the attacks, President George W. Bush visited the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., and declared : “Islam is peace.” He spoke about Muslim Americans as neighbors and warned against intimidating women wearing headscarves.

Sadly, that reassurance was not the whole record. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq he launched in the aftermath brought about extensive…