Question

Are there any similarities between the treatment of German Americans during WWI and the treatment of Islamic Americans and Arab Americans after 9/11?

Answer 1

Sure, but the differences are probably much more interesting. For example, being a "German American" is a matter or birth: you're born with German DNA. But being an "Islamic American" is not. You choose to practice Islam, and you can do it more or less conspicuously. Being Arabic is back to a matter of birth.

As another example, during the First World War, the American government encouraged suspicion of German-Americans. Not so post 9/11, when the government was at pains to *discourage* hostility towards Islamic Americans.

An additional issue is that there was in the 1910s only one kind of "German" you could be: you had parents emigrate, or yourself emigrated, from the German Reich, the same one now at war with the United States. While your own personal loyalties might be unknown, one thing of which anyone could be certain is that the land of your ancestry was the enemy of the United States. However in the modern era neither "Islam" nor "Arab" is one thing. There are many varieties of Islam, and only a few branches are hostile ideologically to the United States to the degree necessary to approve of 9/11 terrorism. There are also many different Arab states, and most are allies of the United States, while only a very few are sympathetic to terrorism. (Furthermore, ironically enough, the only government that assissted the 9/11 terrorists wasn't Arabic at all: it was the Taliban government of Afghanistan.) So there is a lot more possibility for ambiguity and mistaken identity in the modern era, which is why Sikhs have been targeted by crazy people hostile to Islam, even though Sikhs have zip to do with either Islam or Arabic nations.

If you just want to say that when ideologies or nations clash, people inspect their neighbors for signs of disloyalty much more closely, which is kind of a gee duh no kidding obvious thing, you can do that, but I think you would have a much more interesting essay if you thought carefully about the differences between that phenomenon in the context of a 20th century declared war, and the 21st century world of terrorism. Then, you would be focussing on genuine history -- something not completely obvious to anyone who knew anything about human nature.