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othing has been the same in America since 9/11: The events of 9/11 changed America and the world. An attack took place on American soil for the first time in 60 years and this created a level of fear never experienced before. 9/11 triggered a shockwave of events around the world, consequently a sequence of legislations were hastily passed in the United States Congress and enacted by the president that has since proved controversial both to Americans and Islamic countries.

America faced such a catastrophic attack that caused the deaths of thousands of people on American soil. The attack occurred in an unexpected,terrifying way, at an unexpected moment. The overwhelming emotional response that dominated the psyche of Americans was fear. Fear was used not only to create a response to the attacks but it also laid the groundwork for what would be a very controversial legislation.

The Patriot Act was signed into law on Oct. 26, 2001 '€“ by former president George W. Bush '€“ and was initially passed to protect the United States against terrorism. At its most basic definition, it (The Patriot Act) allows federal agents to investigate suspected cases of terrorism swiftly in order to protect the country.

Actual proof is not required and suspicion is enough for authorities to wiretap a person'€™s phone, search their home without their knowledge, gain access to credit cards, bank transactions, surveillance and anything else they would like to monitor.

Hypnotized with the word '€œterrorism'€, they were convinced to believe that this act was the only way to prevent another attack from happening again.

Fear was the casus belli of the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and then Iraq in 2003. America wanted to go on the offensive with the aim of preventing attacks by terrorists on the country again. But who were these terrorists?

The hijackers of the airplanes, as reported, had Islamic identities, thus the term terrorism became strongly associated and almost synonymous with Islam and Muslim people.

This fear and confusion was not a feeling experienced since World Word II, ultimately giving birth to Islamophobia, which is '€œan undue fear of Islam'€. When we closely analyze the essence of this fear, we see that it is not the religion of Islam people fear but radicalism, which is the greatest threat for the whole world right now.

Twelve years have passed since 9/11, but has anything really changed since then? Has the Patriot Act made America a safer place?

On the contrary, most believe that this controversial USA Patriot Act has made the US a less democratic country since it limits the freedoms of its people and in many ways, violates their rights; it supersedes basic rights given in the US Constitution. In many ways being anti-Muslim has led to less freedom for Americans.

Instead it should be realized that radicalism, not Islam, is the biggest threat in the world and it is totally divorced from the teachings of Islam and the Koran.

There is no violence, terror, hatred, or anger in Islam; rather it promotes peace, love, affection, compassion, friendship, solidarity and everything that is beautiful. Islam and terror cannot be compared; terrorism is forbidden and peace and security among nations is promoted in the Koran.

It is also essential that Islam should not be left in the hands of ignorant people. Such ignorant people often turn radical and they will start to kill, bomb and create disorder in the name of Islam. These fanatics deliberately use the Koran to act out their hatred.

Contrary to these actions, God tells Muslims to forgive people who have ever deliberately committed murder, an example of compassion shown in the face of a very terrible crime. Thus, how can one possibly find violence in such a faith?

The intention of legislation such as the Patriot Act was to '€œspy on Muslims'€ to find terrorists, out of fear of a repeat terrorist act. However, the unintended consequences were not anticipated as we have recently seen in the case of Edward Snowden, a former NSA analyst who revealed massive surveillance and metadata-gathering effort on the part of the NSA. This broad global surveillance extends not only to Muslims, but to whole countries and even to the highest levels of leadership in many lands.

Meanwhile, the media disclosures have fueled debates in the United States and elsewhere over mass surveillance, government secrecy, and the balance between national security and information privacy.

Today, no one has the guarantee of whether their private life is indeed private and to what extent and where government'€™s control begins. No one could have imagined that such fear could become an aspect that would limit human rights and freedoms to such a degree. Certainly, people paid a price to achieve what they perceive as security. That price was their freedoms, and as Benjamin Franklin said: '€œHe who trades freedom for security deserves neither.'€