That's the basic thesis of a new book: Backlash 9/11, Middle Eastern and Muslim Americans Respond, by sociologists Anny Bakalian and Mehdi Bozorgmehr, out now in paperback from the University of California Press.

The authors interviewed more than 60 community leaders, top civil rights and legal experts, and Middle Eastern and Muslim Americans across the nation in research for the book. The result is a fascinating and important study on how 9/11 impacted those crucial communities in the United States.

Bakalian and Bozorgmehr argue that the devastating backlash faced by Middle Eastern and Muslim Americans after 9/11 is not new: at many points in the United States history, immigrant communities sharing nationality and physically visible characteristics with the current 'enemy of the state' face similar hostility and enmity

The book reminds us of German Americans who were subject to special registration during World War I; discrimination of Russian and Eastern Europeans during the anti-Communist raids of 1919-1920; and Japanese Americans internment camps after Pearl Harbor.

And so it was after 9/11 that Muslim and Arab Americans became targets of federal initiatives like the NSEERS [National Security Entry-Exit Registration] program (DHS special registration); the Patriot Act; "voluntary" interviews; detentions and deportations. This tore apart communities and caused widespread fear and anguish amongst Middle Eastern and Muslim Americans.

However, the authors argue that the response was different in this case. The civil rights era of the 1960s fostered a deep-seated confidence in activism, and since many of the Middle Eastern and Muslim American communities had strong roots in the United States going back several generations, activism and resistance was a viable option.

Thus, community and civil rights organizations (the Arab American Family Support Center, in Brooklyn, N.Y; or the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee, in Washington D.C, for example) swung into action. They taught community members their rights and duties, rousing them to activism and helping them overcome their fear.

Faced with hostile public opinion, including stereotyping, media bias and hate crimes, Middle Eastern Americans responded in distinct ways: educating their peers, partnering with other ethnic groups, organizing interfaith meetings, denouncing biased media etc.

In the final analysis, the book argues that the social repercussions of the 9/11 terrorist attacks has pushed Muslim-American communities to be more politically active and integrated with leaders seeking political power as a tool for participation and equality.

"Though Muslim Americans have a long way to go before they reach political parity with Christians and Jews in this country, they can no longer be ignored," noted the authors.

And nor can this book – a timely chronicle of communities' struggle for integration and a powerful message at that. In the author's words, "America's hard won ideals of equality and equity will be at risk if civil rights are abused and lost."