Muslims experienced very different treatment in America 15 years ago.

There was a sense of intrigue; it was something different, said Adam Soltani, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Oklahoma chapter , of how others viewed Islam. But I didnt sense any fear in being Muslim at all.

That was before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 , when a grieving America desperately tried to understand how anyone could carry out such an assault and found its scapegoat: Muslims, Arabs and anyone who looked like the terrorists responsible for hijacking four U.S. airliners and killing nearly 3,000 people after flying them into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon.

I think for most American Muslims, many of us categorize our lives as pre-9/11 and post-9/11 because of the impact the attack had on our lives in a personal and professional capacity, said Zainab Chaudry, the outreach manager at the Maryland chapter of the CAIR .