By Tanya Sakzewski
Today marks 25 years since 9/11, the deadliest terror attacks in the US, which claimed almost 3,000 lives. It would be easy to be distracted by the headlines of President Trump’s claims of what he was doing that day and the media’s questioning of his record, but while the war of words over truth will undoubtedly continue, it’s some of the other headlines that warrant further attention.
They highlight the growing problem of Islamophobia and the media’s role in countering disinformation and harmful rhetoric targeting specific groups.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani called for current Mayor Zohran Mamdani not to attend an annual commemorative ceremony, saying in a Newsmax interview that: “Having lost friends there and being very close to many of the families, it offends me that he’s coming.”
Guiliani made a series of anti-Muslim statements, including that Mamdani, who is Muslim, supports a plot to “take us over”. “They have every desire to take us over,” he said. “This is not, ‘they want to be just another religion.’ They want to dominate us. … Mamdani is a clear — a clear — supporter of that. All of the Muslims he supports are murderers.”
Mamdani has dismissed the claims and conspiracy theories, saying the focus should be on the families of those killed in the attacks. He will attend the commemorative ceremony.
Some of the backlash from Conservative commentators centres on Mamdani’s appointment of the city’s chief legal counsel Ramzi Kassem, who had represented a man whose brother-in-law was among those who hijacked the plane that struck the Pentagon. There has also been criticism of Mamdani handing a 9/11 ceremonial pen to Kassem.
The rise of Islamophobia
9/11 and the “war on terror” impact on the Muslim community has been profound. The attacks led to the community being singled out for suspicion and a rise in Islamophobia, which continues today.
Suspicions still exist, with a recent Pew Research Centre survey revealing that some Americans still see Islam and Muslims through the lens of 9/11.
43 per cent of American adults say that Muslims are less patriotic, and around the same amount (42%) say Muslim Americans have a negative impact on the country.
Attitudes towards Islam are even more negative today than they were immediately after 9/11. In March 2002, 25 per cent said the Islamic religion is more likely than other religions to encourage violence. Since then, the number has not fallen below 38 per cent, and over the past decade it has hovered between 45 and 52 per cent.
In early 2026, 51 per cent said Islam encourages violence more than other religions do.
The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) assesses threats to Muslims. In a monthly security bulletin earlier this year, it warned there had been an 11-fold increase in threats and attacks against Muslim and Islamic Institutions from January to March 2026, and its most recent bulletin categorises the threat of physical attacks against Muslims as “elevated”.
Moustafa Bayoumi, a professor and writer who penned This Muslim American Life: Dispatches from the War on Terror, recently spoke to NPR’s Here and Now Anytime about the long shadow of Islamophobia. He said the core of Islamophobia today is “not just a kind of irrational hatred. Islamophobia is part of our political scene today, and Muslims are its victims”.
Islamophobia and political discourse
A growing number of Republican (GOP) politicians are embracing anti-Muslim rhetoric, even launching the Sharia-Free America Caucus, which is said to have more than 60 members.
119 Democratic Members have signed a letter condemning the Caucus, saying it would promote legislation that discriminates against the faith tradition of American Muslims. “We must oppose efforts to spread racist and xenophobic misrepresentations that sow more ignorance and hate. The premise underlying this caucus and the measures associated with it reflects longstanding Islamophobic narratives and anti-Muslim sentiment rather than any demonstrated policy need.”
With midterms approaching, GOP candidates in some high-profile races are putting Islam and the threat of Sharia at the centre of their campaigns.
Anti-Muslim rhetoric includes denouncing Sharia law and raising questions about Muslims immigrating to the U.S. and those already in the country.
Spending on political TV ads that mention “Sharia” or “Islam” negatively has topped $10 million, according to news reports citing the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. According to NPR, that’s about 10 times what was spent in the past four elections.
The multifaith Shoulder to Shoulder campaign has called for an end to anti-Muslim bigotry from elected officials. A letter signed by more than 200 faith leaders and 60 interfaith organisations says: “Politicians continue to say deeply harmful things, with little to no consequences: claiming that Muslims don’t belong in the country; actively misrepresenting Islam, stoking misinformation about Sharia, and casting all Muslims as a threat; and even advocating that Muslim immigrants be deported or that Muslim citizens be denaturalised.”
The rising anti-Muslim rhetoric has mostly been met with silence from GOP leaders.
Islamophobia and the media
The war with Iran has also fuelled anti-Muslim rhetoric, which is being amplified online.
In March, the Center for the Study of Organized Hate said harmful content on social media targeting Muslims has “escalated at an alarming rate” this year. Islamophobic posts have maintained a steady and persistent presence since the Israeli war on Gaza. The start of the US-Israel war on Iran on February 28 has sent Islamophobic content targeting Muslim Americans to “new extremes” with political rhetoric compounding the crisis.
Writing in the Columbia Journalism Review, Moroccan reporter and contributor Aida Alami reviewed a new book by Rozina Ali which “asks us to reckon with decades of Islamophobia in the United States and the media’s role in it”.
The book, Seasons of Fury, examines, among other things, the legacy of the War on Terror, which includes “an enduring racism that insists that Islam is too foreign to tolerate,” with Muslims deemed “dangerous unless proved otherwise”.
One of the questions the book and article raises is the role of journalism in helping create the hostile environment. Alami writes that Seasons of Fury “also presents a serious contradiction: reporters exposed surveillance, questioned government evidence, and documented abuses carried out in the name of national security, while adopting government terminology, giving enormous platforms to bad-faith experts, and focusing disproportionately on violence among the community”.
Disinformation and conspiracy theories
The terror attacks also paved the way for the growth of conspiracy theories, often known as the 9/11 “truth” movement, which the internet made easier to spread. They included the idea that the attacks were an “inside” job and that the US government had advanced knowledge of the attacks and let them happen.
As Mike Rothschild, who writes about conspiracy theories, says, the Sept. 11 attacks came during a “boom time for conspiracy theories”, with people using new technology to spread their messages faster and farther.
Despite being debunked, conspiracy theories have spread for decades. With around a quarter of the population – more than 100 million Americans – born after the 2001 attacks, videos of the attacks as well as conspiracies are finding new audiences.
News outlets are sharing their films and resources to help foster greater understanding of the facts around the attacks and their impact on the country and world affairs.
PBS Frontline has made 24 documentaries and one podcast episode available, and the Council on Foreign Relations has listed seven resources debunking 9/11conspiracy theories, just to name a few.
The responsibility of the media
Despite efforts to debunk conspiracies and present fact-based accounts, the fight for the truth is uphill.
Technology, geopolitics, the media and the way we consume it may have changed dramatically since 2001, but the underlying need for truth and responsible reporting remains the same.
Current levels of polarisation and distrust in journalism, the role of online platforms and AI in creating and disseminating fake news and misinformation, and the ongoing clash between authorities and journalists to control the narrative continue to challenge how the media can effectively fight Islamophobia and hate speech and provide audiences with reliable information.
