INCLUSION AND EXCLUSION - TWO DIFFERENT JOURNEYS - 25 YEARS AFTER 9/11

Swaminathan S Anklesaria Iyer writes in The  Times of India, September 20, 2026

25 yrs after 9/11,  two different journeys for Muslim Inclusion

Democracy should be about minority rights as well as majority rights. That makes the comparison with America so poignant. India started much further ahead. A generation ago, its Muslims could look at Rashtrapathi Bhavan and see Abdul Kalam. They could look at the Union Cabinet and see Muslim ministers. They could see that political power was open to all. 

That was an India worth marveling at.  One that could teach the world. None of this means America has conquered Islamophobia. Far from it. Pew Research found this year that "public attitudes toward Islam have become more 'negative' and more 'partisan'  than they were in the wake of the attack. 

Twenty five years after the al-Qaeda attack on 9/11, something remarkable has happened in the US. While Islamophobia has not disappeared - by some measures it has worsened - democracy has overcome hate at the ballot box.

No one  could imagine this on Sept 11, 2001.

The US had just suffered  the deadliest Islamic terror attack in history. Almost 3000 people had been killed. Mosques were threatened. Muslims were attacked. Hate crimes soared.                   

The US Congress did not have a single Muslim.

Yet Muslims did not retreat from American democracy. They entered it. 

Today, there are four Muslims in the US Congress. 255 Muslims have been elected in 26 states  - 46 state legislators, 11 mayors, 18 elected judges, 98 council members and 63 education officials. 

43%  of the elected are women.

The latest is the election of Zohran Mamdani as the mayor of New York, the target of 9/11.

It is truly a triumph of democracy.

Now turn to India. Twenty five years ago, India was hardly free of communal hatred. But its political landscape offered striking examples of democracy at its best. Vice President Dick Cheney marvelled at this in 2006, noting that "the religious majority is Hindu, the largest political  party is led by a Christian, the President is Muslim and the Prime Minister is Sikh."

However it doesn't conform in the current scenario.

 'Bulldozer justice' has become part of India's political vocabulary. India's Supreme Court has spoken words that should shame any democracy. "Justice through bulldozers are unknown to any system of jurisprudence."

America provides an unexpected lesson in how political Inclusion can grow even while prejudice survives. India provides a warning about how political Inclusion can shrink even as elections continue.

The pupil and the teacher have exchanged places.