25 Years After 9/11, DHS Declares Itself Permanently at War
Maryam Tariq
Ahead of the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the Department of Homeland Security announced it is changing its official seal, replacing the eagle’s traditional gaze toward an olive branch with one directed at a bundle of arrows, a symbolic shift Secretary Markwayne Mullin says reflects a department that considers itself at war every single day. For Muslim American communities who have lived under the institutional legacy DHS was built to enforce, the announcement lands not as a new posture, but as an old one made explicit.
What Actually Changed on the Seal
Speaking with Fox News host Peter Doocy on The Sunday Briefing, Mullin explained the symbolism directly, noting that across most federal agency seals, the eagle faces the olive branch to represent peacetime. Turning the eagle toward the arrows instead, he said, signals war. According to reporting from multiple outlets, this marks the first time since World War Two that any federal agency has made this specific change to its seal, a historically unprecedented break from the peacetime convention nearly every federal emblem has followed since the country’s founding era.
Mullin’s Justification
Mullin framed the change as a sober response to an evolving threat landscape, pointing to terrorism, cyberattacks, weaponized drones and cartel activity as challenges the department confronts daily. He specifically named Iran’s leadership as a murderous regime in the same set of remarks, alongside cyber threats from China, Russia and North Korea. Critics have noted that blending foreign state adversaries with domestic law enforcement priorities under one unified war framing keeps rhetoric associated with the original war on terror alive in an institution that was itself created directly in response to 9/11.
The History Muslim American Advocates Say Never Fully Ended
DHS was established in the direct aftermath of the September 11 attacks, and Muslim American civil rights organizations have spent the last 25 years documenting how the counterterrorism infrastructure built in that period disproportionately touched their communities, expansive surveillance programs, airport profiling, and broadly applied material support for terrorism laws that critics say have swept in nonprofits, charities and student organizations well beyond any genuine security threat. Writing for Religion News Service ahead of this anniversary, one American imam described protesters gathering outside his mosque during ordinary Friday prayers as a routine occurrence, not something that only appears alongside a political event, framing it as evidence that this institutional legacy operates continuously rather than in occasional flare ups.
The Numbers Right Now
The scale of what Muslim American organizations are currently tracking is significant. The Council on American-Islamic Relations recorded 8,683 civil rights complaints in 2025, the highest annual total in the organization’s history. In May 2026, a shooting outside the Islamic Center of San Diego killed worshippers, an attack that became a documented flashpoint in this year’s broader conversation about anti-Muslim violence heading into the anniversary. Coverage marking the 25 year milestone has described what one Religion News Service piece called the post-9/11 infrastructure of Islamophobia, arguing that no single statistic fully captures the anniversary, since some measures have worsened while others have simply persisted without meaningfully improving.
Why the Timing of This Announcement Matters
DHS had a real choice available at this specific anniversary, an opportunity to signal some institutional evolution 25 years removed from the original context that created the department. Instead, it chose to formalize a permanent war posture at precisely that moment. For communities who have spent a quarter century inside the practical consequences of that original war on terror framing, surveillance, profiling, and a legal architecture that treated entire communities as suspect by default, this isn’t read as a new chapter opening. It’s read as confirmation that the chapter never actually closed.
What This Reveals Going Forward
Whatever operational threats Mullin’s justification is genuinely responding to, the symbolic choice to declare permanent war specifically at this anniversary, rather than any alternative framing, sends its own message independent of the department’s stated intent, one that Muslim American advocates say simply confirms what their communities have understood about this institution’s posture toward them for the last 25 years.
Sources:
· Homeland Security Unveils New Seal, What Has Changed — Newsweek: https://www.newsweek.com/homeland-security-new-seal-what-changed-12419335
· DHS chief turns agency seal toward war in “very creepy” new seal, analysis — Raw Story: https://www.rawstory.com/dhs-markwayne-mullin-2677832851/
· 25 Years After 9/11, Muslims Are Still Politicians’ Favorite Scapegoat — The Intercept: https://theintercept.com/2026/09/04/911-muslim-islamophobia-terrorist/
· The post-9/11 infrastructure of Islamophobia — Religion News Service: https://religionnews.com/2026/09/10/the-post-9-11-infrastructure-of-islamophobia/
· CAIR Md. Releases Resource Guide for Educators, Families on Navigating the 25th Anniversary of September 11 — CAIR: https://www.cair.com/press_releases/cair-md-releases-resource-guide-for-educators-families-on-navigating-the-25th-anniversary-of-september-11in-public-education/
