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Opinion · 9/11 at 25

Twenty-Five Years After 9/11, We Still Refuse to Confront Islamism

As a Muslim American who has spent a quarter-century opposing extremism, I believe our silence has allowed an anti-pluralist ideology to migrate from terror networks into civic life.

By Dr. Anila Ali

President & CEO, AMMWEC · September 11, 2026 · 8 min read

On September 11, 2001, I sat with a dozen Pakistani families in one home, afraid of what might happen to us. Nothing did. Jewish friends and neighbors stood with American Muslims. Twenty-five years later, I find myself asking a more painful question: Have we shown the same courage for others?

The ideology that animated al-Qaeda did not disappear when its camps were bombed or its leaders killed. The 9/11 Commission described an enemy of “Islamist extremists” and explained how Osama bin Laden manipulated memories of Muslim greatness, modern grievances and selective religious texts to build a lethal movement. The threat was never Islam itself. It was Islamism: the conversion of faith into a total political program that claims divine authority over conscience, citizenship and law.

Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Iran’s theocracy and the Muslim Brotherhood are not the same organization, and serious people should not pretend they are. But important strands of their thought share a dangerous premise: society must be reordered around a self-appointed movement’s interpretation of Islam. Scholars trace that modern political project through figures including Hasan al-Banna, Abul A‘la Maududi and Sayyid Qutb. Violence is one expression of it. Social coercion, misogyny, antisemitism and the silencing of dissent are others.

“We mistook silence for community solidarity. We allowed the loudest activists to define Muslim authenticity.”DR. ANILA ALI

I recognized this mentality when I first entered American mosques. I had left Pakistan and Saudi Arabia seeking a country where belief could coexist with freedom. Yet I encountered the same patriarchal gatekeepers: women displayed as tokens, minorities disparaged and honest questions treated as disloyalty. I founded a Muslim women’s organization because I would not accept that bargain.

In 2015, my organization joined the White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism. President Barack Obama urged civic and religious leaders to reject sectarianism and confront the warped ideologies used by al-Qaeda and ISIS. When we returned, we were harassed by activists and mosque leaders who treated Muslim women’s independence as a threat. Even then, more moderates were willing to resist. Today, moral clarity is harder to find.

A Coalition That Punishes Dialogue

Parts of the Democratic coalition have made the problem worse by rewarding grievance and confusing representation with immunity from criticism. In 2019, Democratic leaders condemned Rep. Ilhan Omar’s suggestion that political support for Israel was driven by money; she apologized for invoking antisemitic tropes. Too many activists treated the criticism itself as the offense. In 2024, the Democratic Socialists of America withdrew its national endorsement of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and called her participation in a panel on antisemitism a “deep betrayal.” A movement that punishes dialogue teaches intimidation, not justice.

The same identity politics can enter government in gentler language. Massachusetts bill S.2134, now before Senate Ways and Means, would establish a permanent commission on the status of people who practice Islam; members must demonstrate commitment to the Muslim American community. Combating anti-Muslim bigotry is necessary. But no state should empower one set of religious or activist gatekeepers to speak for a diverse faith. Equal citizenship requires a common constitutional standard.

Whose Sharia?

When Muslims who call themselves moderate ask me why America should not adopt Sharia, I answer with another question: whose Sharia? The Taliban’s decrees have excluded Afghan women from secondary education, most work and public life. Iran’s rulers enforce institutional discrimination and punish women who resist. Private religious observance is protected by the First Amendment. Coercive religious government is precisely what many of us fled.

Nor should our children be taught a fantasy of lost caliphates. Abbasid achievement was real, but so were court slavery, enslaved women known as jawari, and the mihna—in which the state imprisoned and flogged the scholar Ahmad ibn Hanbal over a theological dispute. Theology has often been used to consolidate human power. Ijtihad—reasoned interpretation—must remain open, especially to women.

“It is tragic when a country long associated with religious conservatism moves toward greater female participation while some Muslims in America race toward ideological rigidity.”DR. ANILA ALI

Women were never strangers to Islamic authority. Aisha taught men, transmitted religious knowledge and challenged prevailing judgments; generations of Muslim women followed her. The Quran instructs believers to invite with wisdom and reason with others in the best manner (16:125). Denying service to a woman because she is Israeli, intimidating Jewish neighbors or teaching children that the West is their eternal enemy violates that ethic.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia—once a symbol of severe restriction—has allowed women to drive and reported female labor-force participation above 36 percent in 2024. Its reforms remain incomplete, but the direction matters. It is tragic when a country long associated with religious conservatism moves toward greater female participation while some Muslims in America race toward ideological rigidity.

Recovering Moral Courage

Where did we go wrong? We mistook silence for community solidarity. We allowed the loudest activists to define Muslim authenticity. We failed to distinguish defending Muslims from defending Islamism. And some political leaders discovered that grievance mobilizes votes more easily than responsibility builds citizens.

That failure is not final. Muslim Americans must defend Jews against antisemitism, women against subjugation and our Constitution against every claim of religious supremacy. We must teach our children that America is not their enemy and that criticism is not persecution. If we remain silent, our children will bear the cost—through radicalization, alienation and backlash.

The 25th anniversary of 9/11 should be more than a ritual of mourning. It should be the day we recover our moral courage.

About the Author

Dr. Anila Ali

Anila Ali is a Muslim American faith leader who is also the President of the American Muslim Multi-Faith Empowerment Council (AMMWEC). A lifelong educator, Ali retired from her public school teaching career to take on advocacy for Muslim women and education and now resides in Washington D.C. Anila has worked with multiple universities to build a friendly campus climate in the student communities. She has worked in conflict mediation, interfaith, and women’s empowerment on various California boards. Ali promotes collaborations between students of differing faiths to come together to build resiliency.