a missed opportunity

I had a very interesting discussion with a friend last weekend. He's a lawyer and an activist. When the Pakistani ambassador was in town, he was going to ask the ambassador to assist in the defence of Pakistanis threatened with deportation. Anyways, I asked him how that meeting had gone, and during the conversation he started talking about the post 9-11 environment in general. He feels that when we look back at this time, we will realize that our generation missed an opportunity to make a real change for Muslims in America. Government action after 9-11 should have motivated us into action, yet our generation did nothing. When historians look back, they will not see anything we did at this pivitol moment as having an impact on the course of this country. For example, from history, a young generation of indian muslims in the early part of the 20th century, facing a challenge very similar to our in terms of minority rights and cultural and religious identity started a movement that enventually led to the independance of india and pakistan. Will we be able to look back and see the start of any sort of movement that is working for a substantial change in our situation?