It's Sept 11, 2020. 19 years. Each fall, I teach a course on the "Introduction to the Study of Religion." We call it, "Rethinking Religion." This fall, most of my course is filled with students who weren't alive on 9/11. #thread #neverforget

Each fall, I see images of the towers, images of the beams of light, images of those murdered. And, my students and I read these obituaries. We read the memories. Using methods & theories from religious studies, we attempt to understand not just al-Qa'ida...

We also attempt to understand what Bellah called "American Civil Religion." As @ProfIRMF and @mpgPhD say -- "'Religion' will never be through with you." But, as they often note -- religions are racialized.

My class is finishing a unit on the 90s. During the @scholarstrike, I had already scheduled for them to study @ZareenaGrewal's documentary on Mahmud Abdul-Rauf. And, so, we talked about the US flag, Durkheim, but did so looking at the experiences of Muslims in the US

So, why this thread? Each fall, I poll my students. I ask if they know the motivations of the Hijackers, of al-Qa'ida, and Usama bin Ladin. By comparison, I also ask if they know Hitler's objectives in World War II. And each year, something happens ...

They don't know. They can't say in any meaningful sense why 9/11/2001 occurred. It was never taught to them. Never discussed in school. They can repeat the broad ideas -- Bin Ladin didn't like the United States because of its government, or, the more general catch-all, "freedom."

Yet, most of them report going to "memorials" each year at school. There were moments of silence. Perhaps a few patriotic assemblies. Yet, for 19 years, as so many say " #neverforget," so many still "never remembered." What happened?

When I first proposed my course, I had colleagues ask whether it was "too soon" to teach about 9/11. It felt too much like current events. I remembered that conversation this week as I taught about "anthem controversies."

I remember it every time I taught @MM_Knight's writings about his experiences in Pakistan and brush with the ideas of jihadism. I remember it when I taught about Haroon Moghul's #HowtoBeAMuslim. https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/09/03/i-understand-why-westerners-are-joining-the-islamic-state-i-was-almost-one-of-them/

I remember that conversation every time I teach about the waves of Islamophobia that swept through the U.S. after 9/11 working through the ideas of @ZareenaGrewal, @KhaledBeydoun, and

And so many, many other Sikh and Muslim voices. Blackamerican voices. Latinx voices. And queer voices. I can't include them all in a Tweet.

I remember that conversation when I read the work of @Ali_H_Soufan and @SkinnerPm who have done so much to work -- globally and in their communities -- to raise a warning to Americans. To let Americans know something went terribly terribly wrong after 9/11.