Teaching Beyond September 11th Project

Democracy and Rights

Americans are constantly reminded by political leaders and the mainstream media that we live in a democracy that protects our civil rights, but the truth is that democracy and rights are hard to define, and even harder for people to agree on. In the years after 9/11, the U.S. battled in Afghanistan and Iraq to, as politicians said, defend foreign threats to Americans’ freedoms and bring democracy to Afghans and Iraqis. Yet simultaneously in the U.S., democracy was called into question as Muslim Americans and Americans of Arab, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African descent felt their rights threatened by policies and policing that othered and singled them out, and the U.S government held hundreds of individuals accused of terrorism at Guantanamo Bay without trial, a violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution that still received bipartisan support in Congress. The election and presidency of Barack Obama, an American citizen, were marred by Islamophobia and racism, and his successor, President Trump, who led much of the fearmongering, immediately signed into a law a travel ban restricting the movement of people from Muslim-majority and African nations. 

Through examples like these and more, the modules in this theme will equip students to challenge the narrative that everyone is equal under a democracy, and will help them observe whose rights matter more. 

2008 – Islamophobia and the Oval Office 
2011 – Right-Wing Extremism 
2014 – Islamophobia in Global (Non-US) Contexts