Along with the human casualties and material destruction, the 9/11 attacks depicted Islam negatively.
That the largest single human-inflicted deaths were carried out in the name of Islam fuelled negative stereotypes against the religion.
While al-Qaeda did not represent the 1.5 billion global Muslim population at that time, those who carried out these terrorist acts were driven by their commitment to a radical interpretation of Islam and justified their actions in its name.
No matter how hard one tried, the post-2001 spread of Islamophobia across the globe was primarily a fallout of 9/11.
Widespread negative feelings towards Islam and Muslims in the West and elsewhere cannot be delinked from that carnage.