“We heard repeated stories of persisting prejudice from clients and colleagues who did not feel safe in speaking out,” says Robin Phillips, executive director of Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights. “This report provides a forum for individuals to finally expose the stories they have been too afraid to tell.”

The report is intended to open dialogue about the shift in attitudes after 9/11 in order to reexamine our personal and collective responses in the wake of a national tragedy. A Muslim interviewee of the report said of the lasting impact of 9/11: “[Pre-9/11], you had to be tolerant. Now, after September 11, it opened the floodgates…It is okay to discriminate. That was the aftermath.”

Personal accounts are followed by an outline of state and federal laws that have affected immigrants, refugees, and religious minorities. Pointing to the effect that these laws and policies have had on the experiences of those interviewed, the report calls for the protection of human rights of all and for consideration of the silenced voices in future policy debates about national security, counterterrorism, civil liberties, and immigration.