Yesterday marked the ninth anniversary of the attacks on 9/11. Like most people in this country, I have very vivid memories of 9/11. I rushed off to the old 24 Hour Fitness over on Second Street to meet up with my personal trainer. When I got there I was shocked to learn that Cecilia (we would not be married until the next summer) was on the phone calling for me. As she was trying frantically to explain that we had been attacked, I caught the TV screen and there was something not right going on.
It took a second and things became more clear, the Twin Towers were on fire, it looked like a bomb or something hit them. As I was on the treadmill warming up, watching the TV, I could hear the news broadcaster say something about the AP, a very reputable source, saying that one of the towers had collapsed. As I was warming up I watched with fear and horror the second tower collapse. It looked like someone had demolished it.
Human reactions are interesting. I was ready to go to war that day. I was ready to personally fight. I don’t even believe in war or violence, but I was ready to do something. Heck, I was only 28, I was in good shape, I was a graduate student, I could do something.
Had President Bush called on us all to engage in National Sacrifice, I was ready. It was only somewhere in the next month he lost me.
People talk about honoring the victims of 9/11, but we were all victims. After some youths in Davis, of Muslim dissent, got beaten up in school, we decided our role would be as beacons of peace. So, we had a large amount of flowers delivered to the Islamic Center. I will never forget some of the ladies in our apartment complex, Muslims, thanking us for giving them strength to continue.
I was opposed to going into Afghanistan from the start. I knew it was a huge mistake. There is a reason why mighty armies and empires fell in Afghanistan and I knew that President Bush, lacking the conviction to nation build, would lack the attention to finish the job there. For a few years at least, I looked like a fool on that front, but we are still there and still dealing with the same problems.
We made the same mistakes in Iraq. Iraq was always going to be easier than Afghanistan. Afghanistan had been torn by violence for decades and generations. It had no political system. Iraq had a weak one, but it had one.
The problem is that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Nothing. They tried to make it have something to do with 9/11. When that was not convincing, then we had the war to remove weapons of mass destruction. Weapons that ironically turned out not to exist. I am not one to believe that the US knew that these weapons did not exist, we had every reason to believe they did. However, as I have said many times in years since we invaded Iraq, if we make WMDs our raison d’être, then you had better be sure your intelligence is correct or you end up with egg on your face.
My biggest problem with the war on terror is that it quickly became a war on civil liberties. The right to a trial, the right to privacy from the government, the right not to have the government spying on your activities under the guise of terrorism are all crucial to our freedom. If we allow the terrorists to scare us into giving up freedom for temporary security, then we lost the war even if we remain physically safe.
It is remarkable what 9/11 shows in us. The best of ourselves and the worst of ourselves. In the days following 9/11, we were one nation. We pulled together. We got help to the people who needed the help. There were not riots in the streets of New York. There was no looting. There was even very little, relatively speaking, violence towards Middle Easterners in the days immediately following 9/11.
But we also saw, in the years that followed, the worst of ourselves. The nasty impulses of our nation’s history turning Islam into the enemy, racism, government surveillance, impulses that are destructive to our very core values.
In the wake Pearl Harbor, we would round up all Americans of Japanese descent and put them into internment camps. In the wake of the Cold War, we practiced modern-day inquisitions, attempting to rout out and discover Communists and those with sympathies toward communism. Very few people were willing to stand up and say, “sir, have you no decency?” But we knew that this is not an American problem, it is a humanity problem. It is why people grappling with the Nazi Holocaust recognized that they failed to say no because it was not them being rounded up.
Things have not improved. The ACLU and others filed a lawsuit on August 24 against the FBI to speed the release of FBI records on the investigation and surveillance of Muslim communities in the Bay Area.
According to a press release, the civil rights organizations and The Bay Guardian have requested the records in order to understand and to report on whether and how the FBI is:
- Investigating Islamic centers and mosques (as well as Christian churches and Jewish synagogues);
- “Assessing” religious leaders;
- Infiltrating communities through the use of undercover agents and informants;
- Training agents in Islam and Muslim culture; and
- Using race, religion and national origin in deciding whom to investigate; and
- Identifying particular schools for its Junior Agent Program.
“Clear information about the FBI’s activities is necessary in order to understand the scope of their surveillance tactics, to assess whether they have had a chilling effect on the right to worship freely or to exercise other forms of expression,” said Julia Harumi Mass, staff attorney for the ACLU of Northern California.
“This lawsuit is about transparency. The public is entitled to this information under the Freedom of Information Act. The FBI admitted in March that our clients’ FOIA requests are entitled to expedited processing because of the widespread media attention on these issues, but the government has yet to provide them a single document,” said attorney Raj Chatterjee of the law firm Morrison & Foerster.
The records are sought, in part, in response to concerns reported extensively in the New York Times, Washington Post, Detroit Free Press, NBC Bay Area, New America Media, and other publications about the chilling effects of possible racial and religious profiling, and the potential harm such tactics may have on national security.
That pesky fourth Amendment is the cornerstone of our ability to prevent the government from oppressing us. “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
I fear our government is overreacting to these problems, far more than I fear the very remote possibility of a future terrorist attack directly harming me. In the years following 9/11 we have had no terrorist attacks on our soil, but a lot of people have died in wars, accidents, from disease, poor access to health care, etc. We have lost far more people to other causes over the last nine years, and perhaps we ought to focus on those issues.
Now what we have is a phony battle over a proposed New York mosque near Ground Zero and threats to burn the Koran in protest. That is the legacy of 9/11. Is that honoring the victims?
I have a particularly visceral reaction to the idea of burning books, which conjures up images of the Nuremberg nights when the Nazis laid siege on centuries of Western Philosophy and Enlightenment. As German writer Heinrich Heine wrote, “Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings.”
I was pleased to see the community respond, condemning this sort of intolerance. At the same time, I am reminded that just as the Constitution protects the right to burn the American flag as a form of political protest, just as it allows the KKK to rally in the streets, just as it allows the students’ voices to rise up against the establishment, so too does it allow some poor soul the right to burn a Quran, a book, or another sacred symbol.
At the end of the day, freedom of speech must trump human decency. It must trump logic and reason. For it is this value and this value alone – the right to dissent not on “our” terms, but on one’s own terms – that separates freedom from tyranny. Centuries ago the French writer Voltaire wrote, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” (I will not get into the debate over whether he wrote those actual words, for it is clearly a sentiment he would have agreed with).
My lesson of 9/11 is simple and yet complex: do not take anything for granted. Do not take your security for granted. Do not take for granted your freedom and your liberty. Do not take for granted the honesty of your government and its ability to both protect you and protect your frights. Do not take for granted the notion that we are isolated from the rest of the world, that our actions abroad will not impact us at home. But most of all do not take for granted what this nation stands for, and keep fighting for those values every single day you live your life.
That is my lesson and it is one of those lessons that guides me every day of my life. It is those lessons that I took to heart four years ago when I saw those in our community, whom we should trust, violating those trusts on a regular basis.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
My memories and perceptions of the aftermath of 9/11 are very different, as are lessons learned. I watched the television horrified as the second plane hit one of the Twin Towers. I spent the remainder of the day glued to the television set. I remember both my son and I immediately felt we wanted to join the military, to fight our enemies who would attack innocents with no provocation. I was worried about my parents and brother, who live in the Washington, D.C. area, but they thankfully were safe.
I remember the incredible bravery of the people on the plane in PA, that fought the terrorists and prevented the plane from crashing into its intended target – either the White House or Congress. Their spirit will live on forever as a testament to the strength of our nation to sacrifice when necessary.
I was heartened by the way our nation rallied, and bounced back financially from a horrendous hit. I vividly remember Bush’s speech at Ground Zero that we would rebuild, with his arm around the fireman. Bush made sure to provide the emotional support the nation needed in those first days to dig out, find bodies or parts of bodies, and to heal as a nation, and feel that we could go on from such a tragedy. The bravery of the fireman that day was incredible, but so was the bravery of the rescue workers who dug out the bodies.
But I also remember the Red Cross scandal, in which this “well respected” nonprofit was collecting huge amounts of money, and hoarding it for future disasters, as neighborhood restaurants provided free food to the relief workers at Ground Zero. All the Red Cross was providing was “grief counselors”. Red Cross came away with a tarnished image. But some good came out of it, bc it forced the Red Cross to change the way they do business. It also opened many eyes to charities and how some operate.
I also was heartened by other nations coming to our nation’s defense – almost every nation (even our former enemies) sent condolences, offered support (including military support) to go to war against the people who had attacked our nation, or who harbored those who attacked us. I was surprised and heartened by the deep bond that was evidenced by Great Britain and Tony Blair, who never wavered in supporting our nation through a difficult process.
I was very proud of both military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, their success in toppling corrupt regimes that had been responsible for fostering a new wave of old terrorism that had reared its ugly head. But I also recognized our gov’ts shortsightedness and naiveté in believing toppling a gov’t was all we needed to do to solve the problem of terrorism – the ridiculous notion that somehow people who had been under tyranny would immediately embrace democracy and somehow things would just come together without a struggle. I vividly recall the toppling of the Sadam statue in Iraq, but also the taunting videos from our arch enemy Osama Bin Laden.
I also felt frustrated that we had to go back to Iraq and finish the job Bush Sr left undone. I was frustrated that Russia was in Iraq w advisors and equipment, helping Sadam Hussein, as they were voting in the U.N. to give the U.S. the go ahead to topple Sadam’s gov’t. If there was ever any doubt, I was certain Russia was indeed our enemy. I also remember those horrible oil well fires Sadam set – and the environmental disaster he had needlessly created. I remember the films of huge trucks heading over the Iraqi border into the Becha (spelling?) Valley in Lebanon (?), wondering what was inside them and why they were secretly departing the country with haste. I also remember tests done on the river that runs through Iraq, that came back positive for some sort of gas (Serin I think). Or the chemical weapons truck found mysteriously empty in Iraq.
I was very heartened when I saw how the Iraqi and Afghani people were willing to defy death to vote at the polls for the first time in democratically held elections. I was dismayed at how critical our media/politicians were towards their sacrifice and willingness to risk their lives to rebuild their nation, as we sat comfortable in our own homes. Young men willing to defy Sadam’s supporters and car bombs, to become police officers. As they would line up to become employed, a car bomb would roll through, killing huge numbers, but they still kept volunteering – as we criticized them for not sacrificing enough, not being effective enough, ad nauseum.
The hyper-criticism of our news media in regard to military operations was dismaying. But it was fascinating to have such a close look at how military operations proceeded, almost a front row seat. It made one realize how difficult a job the military had, in fighting a “street war”. I began to understand the importance of special ops in the War on Terror. Some of the nastier sides of war, friendly fire, war crimes, was also highlighted in glorious Technicolor. “War is hell” as the old adage goes, no doubt about it.
The problems of what to do with enemy combatants was an interesting issue, with Obama eventually realizing Bush had been correct on this one. Military tribunals was the only practical answer, despite its being a somewhat unsatisfactory solution to say the least.
I also am reminded of what happened on 9/11 every time I go to the airport and have to go through security. It is the legacy and aftermath of a devastating attack on this country, and our attempts to protect ourselves from another attack. I also remember the Oklahoma bombing, reminding us that we have homegrown terrorists in our midst. Or the D.C. Sniper – disgruntled Americans exploited by terroristic elements willing to do tremendous damage to our nation.
I also remember the college in Florida, harboring Sammi El Arian, who raised funding for terrorists groups. The Bin Laden family were at Harvard, and helped out of the country immediately following 9/11 by none other than Bush if I remember rightly. It seemed like Theater of the Absurd. It made it clear that the problem of terrorism is difficult, intractable, a shadow type of warfare difficult to combat. I remember multiple attacks, even in Russia, from terroristic elements. Clearly terrorism by extremists is the new threat to our world order.
Yet what has brought our nation to its knees is not terrorism, but economic blunders of mass proportion bc we have a gov’t unwilling to regulate itself (mortgage meltdown). Whose gov’t agents watch porn as the Gulf burns. That overspends to an extreme degree. The moderates have left Congress, so that we are left with the extreme dysfunctional left and right, which is not where most of the country is.
For me, my impressions of 9/11 was of a time when the nation pulled together, whereas in the aftermath we are destroying ourselves from within by not being more ethical and responsible as to governance. It is going to take massive amounts of correction to undo the horrendous mistakes we have made on the economic front. And the current political climate doesn’t seem particularly conducive to correcting mistakes. We are wallowing in massive unemployment, despite numbers that are artificially massaged to hide the reality. Worse is to come, as the next budget in CA comes down from on high, and we are forced to do more with less. Yet we have a UC President that is causing the university to spend $600,000 on housing repairs for him. This is so out of whack… Just my impressions of 9/11 and its aftermath…
With all due respect, you both may miss the ‘miracles’ that happened on that tragic day… St. Paul’s chapel, across the street (~ 150 ft) was unscathed, except for a tree (which is immortalized both there and at the successor church, Trinity Cathedral)… It was the triage center, then served as the place for the rescue workers to ‘stand down’… people brought teddy bears, blankets, etc. to comfort those folks whose jobs (or, volunteer service) meant that they literally had to descend into “hell”… other buildings, farther away, had significant damage, and some needed to be razed and/or seriously retrofitted.
Instead of looking at “pay back” (like that so-called “Christian” minister who threatened to burn Qurans), or criticizing the Red Cross, we should remember the heroes of Flight 93 (Shanksville, PA, Elaine… pretty close to the Pittsburgh airport). IMHO we should celebrate those values of those in public service who risked their lives, those volunteers who supported and succored them, and who financially support the Red Cross, the Crescent Cross, and all of the humanitarian effort Americas have funded for relief in Indonesia, India, and elsewhere including ‘closer to home’, and thank God (yep… real… exists) that there were so many of them.
Interesting observations, hpierce. I think everyone takes away different perspectives from that day, but certainly everyone starkly remembers. My perspectives are both postive and negative, prospective and retrospective. But like you, my general impression was more one in which the nation pulled together as a whole like no other – much as the people on Flight 93 (God bless ’em). And of course that includes all the humanitarian efforts that went on to dig the bodies out and heal the nation. When you think about it, a herculean task was accomplished in an amazingly short amount of time…
I think we saw the best and the worst in ourselves in the aftermath of 9/11.
Yes to both Elaine’s & Davids comments… my context: within the ten days following that event, which the whole family witnessed on TV… my daughter turned 18 & began her college career; coming home, my wife lost her wallet and the credit cards were stolen; my mom died from pneumonia one day after she was released from the hospital following a fall; my dad got his 6-mo ‘death sentence’ of pancreatic cancer; I couldn’t fly back with my mom’s body to be interred back east until mid-October. For me, it was a seriously intense time, which I know has shaped my memories.
Wow. That’s rough.
Life… it happens…
hpierce: “Yes to both Elaine’s & Davids comments… my context: within the ten days following that event, which the whole family witnessed on TV… my daughter turned 18 & began her college career; coming home, my wife lost her wallet and the credit cards were stolen; my mom died from pneumonia one day after she was released from the hospital following a fall; my dad got his 6-mo ‘death sentence’ of pancreatic cancer; I couldn’t fly back with my mom’s body to be interred back east until mid-October. For me, it was a seriously intense time, which I know has shaped my memories.”
It is a testament to your strength and endurance that you came away with such a positive outlook in regard to 9/11 in light of what you were going through at the time… my condolences, tho belated…
Thanks… we need to lean on each other’s strengths… I am a supporter of the Children of Abraham movement… a forum where individuals of three major faith groups look for common cause/values… 911 wasn’t about Muslims attacking the US… it was about folks suffering from recto-cranial inversions who cloaked themselves in pseudo-piety, IMHO. The lessons of 911 include the fact that “no man (or woman) is an island unto themself”… whether between neighbors, the City, the State, the Nation, or the world. To co-op an old adage… “my neighbors, right or wrong… to affirm when they are right, and to correct when they are wrong”… paix… pachem… peace…
oh… forgot… shalom…
Howard, Elaine and David: Appreciate this interesting, thoughtful and respectful discussion about really important issues. My over-whelming take-away from the past decade is our incredible lack of appreciation for [u]any[/u] lessons of history, our own and others’.
One concern: If “freedom of speech must trump human decency….logic and reason.” we would be inviting the very anarchy you abhor. Good thing the Supreme Court already has settled part of this issue. Also, illogical and unreasonable speech eventually is found out. But we still should strive harder to demonstrate and value logic and reason in our free speech.
When the 9/11 attacks took place I was quite young and my knowledge of the world was not vast. I remember being woken by my mom to the words “we are being attacked, people flew a plane into one of the twin towers in NYC.” Of course I immediately turned on my television only to see the second tower get hit shortly thereafter. I really did not know what to think and I was really confused. I could not comprehend why someone would despise America so much that they would seek to cause us so much death and destruction. I also had no idea who Bin laden or Al-Qaeda were. I don’t remember being angry or wanting to seek revenge, just kinda stunned and bewildered.
My mom told me that she would understand if I did not want to go to school that day, to which I replied something to the effect of “no, I want to go and anyway what good does staying home and watching all this horror do me?” To my mind, it was like this, “I’m not going to let these mother f*** affect me, instill fear within me, make me change my way of life as a result of their terrorist acts.” So, I went to school just as I did any other day and was very contemplative, as well as taken aback by some of my classmates’ reactions to the events that morning. Some seemed to just want to blow up someone brown in that region of the country. Some had very bigoted and racist remarks. All of that made me disappointed in my peers. That is not a rational reaction and it’s not fare to Muslims, IMHO. I remember explaining to them that it’s not reasonable to blame an entire religion, race, region of the world etc. for the actions of several terrorists. I don’t know if that resonated with anyone, people were understandably upset and their judgement clouded do to fear, rage, trauma, etc.
Unlike David and Elaine, I didn’t feel compelled to join the military because of the 9/11 attacks. To be honest, I don’t think that thought crossed my mind. What the events of 9/11 did do for me is that it inspired me to seek knowledge about other cultures, religions, US foreign relations, politics and so forth. Furthermore, I had no clue why these fanatics hated us so much and I also knew that not all Arab countries and followers of Islam are out to hurt me or anyone else. I was inspired to learn, which, I thought, would help me better understand the world in which I live. To some extent it has.
I knew that if I let the terrorists affect my life, the terrorists had a little victory every time, for example, if I am afraid to board a flight because I know they are out there and they would like to harm me-their campaign is successful. I also knew that we can’t use the actions of these extremists as reasons to target certain groups in the US, get us into an unecessary war, deny due process to those “enemy combatants,” unlawfully wiretap phone conversations or force an Islamic community center to be moved further away from ground zero because people falsely associate all things Islam with 9/11 and terrorism. I spent the last 9 years fighting and arguing for our freedoms (albeit on a small scale), the very freedoms that make this country great. Ironically, it is for these freedoms that these extremists, in part anyway, despise us.
I also think it’s interesting that people wanted to join the military to “fight” those who have attacked us. That assumed there would be a military effort to fight the terrorist group(s) and shed their blood. I wasn’t really sure what our country’s response would be and I’m not really sure the war in Afghanistan was the best decision. I most definitely did not support the war in Iraq, ever. I could not fathom why we were even considering launching a second war against a country and government that had nothing to do with 9/11. I hope that those who did support that effort realize all the tragedy and death that came with that stupid decision. To my mind, there is blood on their hands.
Well, perhaps the USA has turned the crisis to an opportunity.
Iraq and its oil are now firmly under influence/control of US interests (notwithstanding some appearances to the contrary, necessary for PR purposes in mideast; much like the case in Saudi Arabia).
If Iran is subdued by Israel/US, US interests will substantially influence/control each and every one of the mideast countries with a substantial fraction of world oil reserves. It could be argued that this is a good move, from a business standpoint, that will substantially benefit the economies of the entire western world (or keep them from sinking as fast into the debt quagmire).
It will take some time to effect conversion of most Muslims to the Capitalist/Western way; but my guess is that few Muslims will be able to resist the seductions of a materially abundant lifestyle, if it is perceived that it lies within their grasp to attain. Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and etc. are adept at highlighting and marketing this perception, both within the western world and wherever else television beams are picked up.
Organized resistance (violent or peaceful) to advancement of the capitalist way can be nipped early on by utilizing the surveillance service networks currently being advanced at home and abroad; which also help enable the possibility for tightening any social screws that help the bottom line.
Wish it were otherwise, and the capitalists could be content with their sphere of power and influence in the West and the Muslims content with their sphere of power and influence in the East; and the twain need not ever cross or conflict with each other. But 9-11 and other events seem to have enabled a major clash between capitalist and Muslim powers; I for one am wary of any monolithic power structure that effectively rules over the whole world, and would be more content with a number of smaller power structures that compete for the loyalty of citizens based on their merits (without any competition, what incentive does any power structure have to honor its constituents?)
jimt: ” I for one am wary of any monolithic power structure that effectively rules over the whole world, and would be more content with a number of smaller power structures that compete for the loyalty of citizens based on their merits (without any competition, what incentive does any power structure have to honor its constituents?)”
Yes, history has shown us that for any one power to rule absolutely, that power will corrupt absolutely. And true competition, even between competing governments, tends to drive improvement. Why do you think Iran is so frightened at the spread of democracy – the leaders fear it will be the downfall of their own despotic and corrupt regime. Instead of embracing some change for the better, their only answer is to crack down on dissidents. I hope your vision of a better world order comes to pass…:-)
yes, 9-11 brought out the best, but also brought out the worst in some ways… like you said, the country pulled together…
but some people, decided the best way to handle the attack was to turn on the government, to accuse it of all kinds of unsubstantiated claims: war atrocities, conspiracy theories, racism against all person’s of middle eastern dissent,
DPD: “Now what we have is a phony battle over a proposed New York mosque near Ground Zero and threats to burn the Koran in protest. That is the legacy of 9/11. Is that honoring the victims?”
was the decision to build a mosque near ground zero (which just happened to represent the religion of the terrorists) the best way to honor the 9-11 victims?
David and Elaine,
Thank you. Very well done.
Although lacking her ability to say it so well, my thoughts and experiences match Elaine’s almost to a “T”.
I for one am committed to never forget about that day 9-11, and what we learned about ourselves and the world.
Like many people today, I still struggle with the meaning of 9-11 and what the optimum response should be with respect to Islam. I am certainly motivated toward religious freedom and tolerance, and harbor great sensitivity and respect for the religious beliefs of others. Left-leaning people more often steer clear of any uncomfortable analysis of Islam, and seem to want to push 9-11 and other terrorist acts into a box of domestic crime al la Timothy McVeigh. They downplay the significance of the global security threat and demand that we pull out of Afghanistan and prosecute terrorist perps in our American criminal and civil court system. Right-leaning folks seem to still be quite angry about 9-11 and terrorism, more concerned about the global security threat and more apt to fully support our military actions to prevent it. Ironically, even given a stronger affinity toward religion in general, conservative people seem to be more suspect of Islam and see 9-11 as evidence of a greater problem with the religion. I find myself more in this last camp while also being strongly motivated to find a way out of it.
However, here are some troubling facts…
– 1968 Bobby Kennedy was killed in the name of:
– In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred in the name of:
– In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over in the name of:
– During the 1980’s a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon in the name of:
– In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up in the name of:
– In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70-year old passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair in the name of:
– In 1985 TWA flight 847 was h1jacked at Athens, and a US Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered in the name of:
– In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed in the name of:
– In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time in the name of:
– In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were b0mbed in the name of:
– On 9/11/2001, 4 airliners were hijacked and 3000 innocent Americans were murdered, and people danced in the street to celebrate, in the name of:
– In 2002 the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against an enemy that still fights in the name of:
– In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered in the name of:
– In 2002, Washington DC sniper John Allen Muhammad killed 10 random people in the name of:
– In 2004, Mohammed Bouyeri murdered Dutch author and film-maker Theo Van Gogh in the name of:
– In 2009 at Fort Hood, 13 people were killed and 31 wounded by a shooting spree by Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, and Army psychiatrist, in the name of:
– In 2010 Hamas gunmen shot dead four Israeli settlers, including a pregnant mother and her husband and another married couple with six children, in the name of:
– Today, 90% of the wars being fought on the planet are in the name of:
Hint: The answer is not “Christianity” or “Judaism”
This and other evidence overwhelming indicates that something is wrong with modern Islam.
Frankly, I believe there is very little that the US should apologize for to Muslims and there is very little that we can change about us that would appear to satiate the large global population of Islamists and Islamic fundamentalists. We are and have been the most inclusive and diverse modern super power ever since our civil rights movement, and even before (slavery was not just a US problem). We give more foreign aid than any other country, and our military are frequently dispatched for humanitarian causes as well as ensuring safety for much of the free world. Yet, we are still hated and despised by so many Muslims.
I am worried about turning more Muslims against us because of actions and policies they deem anti-Islam; however, I see more danger in simply accepting Islam for what it is and what it can become. Simply the fact that we would be worried about turning more Muslims against us should open our eyes to this unique global problem (e.g., what if we were concerned about a similar violent global response from Christians or Jews).
It is not the actions of Islamic extremists that bother me as much as the weakness of counter from those that claim to be moderate and categorize Islam as a peaceful religion. Frankly, the response from identified moderate Muslims has been far from strong enough to garner my acceptance of the more inclusive approach that the political left demands. The Catholic Church does not get my full acceptance and support until Catholics and the Church implement an aggressive program to discover and prosecute pedophile priests; and likewise, Islam does not get my complete acceptance and support until moderate Muslims implement an aggressive approach to root out the Islamists.
For me, the meaning of 9-11 was first and foremost a wakeup call to the danger of growing Islamic fundamentalism. Our response should be focused on permanently reducing and eliminating that danger. And, with every new threat of violence coming from the Islamic population related to some non-violent actions they deem insulting, I will support those actions specifically because of the threat. Otherwise they learn that violence advances their Islamist cause. If we learned anything from 9-11 it should be that we cannot let that happen.
DPD: “Now what we have is a phony battle over a proposed New York mosque near Ground Zero and threats to burn the Koran in protest. That is the legacy of 9/11. Is that honoring the victims?”
Regardless of any one person’s personal feelings about the near ground zero mosque, I submit that the following populations of people do in fact exist:
(1) Those people (mainly non-Muslim, some Muslims too) with family or friends who died in the 9/11 attacks, and others who do in fact feel strongly offended by the notion of building such a mosque.
(2) Muslims, perhaps mainly outside the USA, who would in fact view the mosque to some degree as a victory mosque. It is not unreasonable to suppose that a small fraction of the Muslim population might tend to view or be pre-disposed to view (or open in the future to view, given exhortations by a persuasive imam) the mosque in the light of a victory mosque. I propose that the proportion of Muslims open to such a view is small, but is not zero.
(3) As I understand it, there is historical precedent for the building of victory mosques.
(although admittedly I am not well-versed in Islamic history; maybe a reader with historical knowledge in this area would like to comment?) This does not mean that this mosque will in any official way be sanctioned a victory mosque, but it adds weight to the views of populations (1) and (2) above.
For these reasons I am firmly in opposition to this building site of this mosque.
Why not build it a few blocks further away?
(the particular imam pushing this mosque site strikes me as an ass)
We seem to assume or pretend to ourselves that symbols have little meaning, or that perhaps we can see through or beyond the symbolic meaning of things. I strongly disagree, and submit that such symbols have a powerful effect on both the conscious and the sub-conscious; much of the power of symbols lies in their inherent ability to bypass rational thought processes and register in more primordial layers of the psyche.
I personally value western culture highly and feel strongly that we should support dominance of the western narrative in the USA; and leave the Muslims alone to dominate the narrative in their mother countries.
Jeff Boone: “It is not the actions of Islamic extremists that bother me as much as the weakness of counter from those that claim to be moderate and categorize Islam as a peaceful religion. Frankly, the response from identified moderate Muslims has been far from strong enough to garner my acceptance of the more inclusive approach that the political left demands. The Catholic Church does not get my full acceptance and support until Catholics and the Church implement an aggressive program to discover and prosecute pedophile priests; and likewise, Islam does not get my complete acceptance and support until moderate Muslims implement an aggressive approach to root out the Islamists.”
A very dear friend of mine, a Catholic, was enraged that the priest pedophelia scandal had come out into the open. Her attitude was the church as an institution was more important than any “scandal”. Frankly, I have always been appalled at that cavalier attitude, which I think is probably not that uncommon. Ignoring abuse is what allows abuse to continue.
That said, I listened to an interesting discussion from Islamic moderates, who insisted they condemned the Islamic fanatics. They said, “How do we prove a negative, that we are not extremists?” or “We have condemned what the extremists have done, but it doesn’t get publicized.”. I did understand where they were coming from. A close friend of mine is Muslim, and I would hate to see her discriminated against or reviled in any way, as she is a very good person, kind and caring.
However, the person who wants to build the mosque near Ground Zero, as I understand it, has been heard to say he believes we deserved what we got on 9/11 as a nation, and is a supporter of Hamas. Or this recent development: “The developers of the Ground Zero mosque are refusing to flat out reject cash for the project from Holocaust-denying Iranian nuke nut Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. “I can’t comment on that” was the reply of mosque spokesman Oz Sultan yesterday when asked specifically if the fund-raising would extend to Iran and Saudi Arabia. “We’ll look at all available options within the United States to start.””
Or this from the Washington Post: “Here, there is an important, relevant history of appropriation. Building mosques adjacent to or upon another group’s sacred and holy sites is a time-honored Muslim supremacist tradition. The Al Aqsa and Dome of the Rock mosques, standing today atop Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, where the former Jewish temples once stood, are only two prominent examples among dozens of this historical practice that can be found in many lands from North Africa to Indonesia that fell to Muslim conquest.
Even if such was not the intention of those involved with the Cordoba mosque, its construction near the site of 9/11 may well be interpreted by some Islamists as a victory over non-Muslims, inadvertently encouraging more terrorism.
But in any case, Imam Rauf – who refuses to condemn Hamas, a terrorist organization which has murdered hundreds of Israelis and whose charter calls for murder of Jews and Israel’s destruction; his calling U.S. policies an “accessory” to Al-Qaeda’s 9/11 horror; and his writing that “Israel will become one more Arab country, in our lifetime, with a Jewish minority” – does not come to this issue with clean hands.
Nor, for that matter, does his wife, Daisy Khan, who described opposition to the mosque to be “like a metastasized anti-Semitism.” With this, Ms. Khan told a double untruth: she used the horror of anti-Semitism to malign legitimate opponents as bigots and perverted the meaning of anti-Semitism beyond recognition.”