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A PILOT'S EDITORIAL-- "YOU WORRY ME."
unknown | attributed to AA Captain John Maniscalco

Posted on 06/30/2004 8:50:46 PM PDT by backtothestreets

A PILOT'S EDITORIAL-- "YOU WORRY ME." ************************************************************************ I've been trying to say this since 9-11.

I guess I will be labeled as a bigoted American.

By: American Airlines Pilot - Captain John Maniscalco ************************************************************************ "You worry me. I wish you didn't. I wish when I walked down the streets of this country that I love, that your color and culture still blended with the beautiful human landscape we enjoy in this country. But you don't blend in anymore. I notice you, and it worries me. I notice you because I can't help it anymore. People from your homelands, professing to be Muslims, have been attacking and killing my fellow citizens and our friends for more than 20 years now. I don't fully understand their grievances and hate, but I know that nothing can justify the inhumanity of their attacks.

On September 11, nineteen ARAB-MUSLIMS hijacked four jetliners in my country. They cut the throats of women in front of children and brutally stabbed to death others. They took control of those planes and crashed them into buildings killing thousands of proud fathers, loving sons, wise grandparents, elegant daughters, best friends, favorite coaches, fearless public servants, and children's mothers.

So I notice you now. I don't want to be worried. I don't want to be consumed by the same rage and hate and prejudice that has destroyed the soul of these terrorists. But I need your help. As a rational American, trying to protect my country and family in an irrational and unsafe world, I must know how to tell the difference between you, and the Arab/Muslim terrorist.

How do I differentiate between the true Arab-Muslim-Americans and the Arab-Muslims in our communities who are attending our schools, enjoying our parks, and living in OUR communities under the protection of OUR constitution, while they plot the next attack that will slaughter those very same good neighbors and children?

The events of September 11th changed the answer. It is not my responsibility to determine which of you embraces our great country, with ALL of it's religions, with ALL of it's different citizens, with all of it's faults.

It is time for every Arab-Muslim in this country to determine it for me.

I want to know, I demand to know, and I have a right to know whether or not you love America. Do you pledge allegiance to it's flag? Do you proudly display it in front of your house, or on your car? Do you pray in your many daily prayers that Allah will bless this nation? That He will protect and prosper it? Or do you pray that Allah with destroy it in one of your "Jihads?"

Are you thankful for the freedom that only this nation affords? A freedom that was paid for by the blood of hundreds of thousands of patriots who have given their lives for this country? Are you willing to preserve this freedom by paying the ultimate sacrifice? Do you love America? If this is your commitment, then I need YOU to start letting ME know about it.

Your Muslim leaders in this nation should be flooding the media at this time with hard facts on your faith, and what hard actions you are taking as a community and as a religion to protect the United States of America. Please, no more benign overtures of regret for the death of the innocent because I worry about who you regard as innocent. And no more benign overtures of condemnation for the unprovoked attacks because I worry about what is unprovoked to you. I am not interested in any more sympathy...I am only interested in action. What will you do for America - our great country -- at this time of crisis, at this time of war?

I want to see Arab-Muslims waving the AMERICAN flag in the streets. I want to hear you chanting "Allah Bless America." I want to see young Arab-Muslim men enlisting in the military. I want to see a commitment of money, time, and emotion to the victims of this butchering and to this nation as a whole.

The FBI has a list of over 400 people they want to talk to regarding the WTC attack. Many of these people live and socialize in Muslim communities.

You know them. You know where they are. Hand them over to us, now!

But I have seen little even approaching this sort of action. Instead I have seen an already closed and secretive community close even tighter. You have disappeared from the streets. You have posted armed security guards at your facilities. You have threatened lawsuits. You have screamed for protection from reprisals.

The very few Arab-Muslim representatives that HAVE appeared in the media were defensive and equivocating. They seemed more concerned with making sure that the United States prove who was responsible before taking action. They seemed more concerned with protecting their fellow Muslims from violence directed towards them in the United States and abroad than they did with supporting our country and denouncing "leaders" like Khadafi, Hussein, Farrakhan, and Arafat. If the true teachings of Islam proclaim tolerance and peace and love for all people then I want chapter and verse from the Koran and statements from popular Muslim leaders to back it up. What good is it if the teachings in the Koran are good and pure and true when your "leaders" are teaching fanatical interpretations, terrorism, and intolerance.

It matters little how good Islam SHOULD BE if large numbers of the world's Muslims interpret the teachings of Mohammed incorrectly and adhere to a degenerative form of the religion. A form that has been demonstrated to us over and over again. A form whose structure is built upon a foundation of violence, death, and suicide. A form whose members are recruited from the prisons around the world. A form whose members (some as young as five years old) are seen day after day, week in and week out, year after year, marching in the streets around the world, burning effigies of our presidents, burning the American flag, shooting weapons into the air. A form whose members convert from a peaceful religion, only to take up arms against the great United States of America, the country of their birth. A form whose rules are so twisted, that their traveling members refuse to show their faces at airport security checkpoints, in the name of Islam.

Do you and your fellow Muslims hate us because our women proudly show their faces in public rather than cover up like a shameful whore?

Do you and your fellow Muslims hate us because we drink wine with dinner, or celebrate Christmas? Do you and your fellow Muslims hate us because we have befriended Israel, the ONLY civilized democratic nation in the entire middle-east? And if you and your fellow Muslims hate us, then why in the world are you even here?

Are you here to take our money? Are you here to undermine our peace and stability? Are you here to destroy us? If so, I want you to leave. I want you to go back to your desert sandpit where women are treated like rats and dogs. I want you to take your religion, your friends, and your family back to your Islamic extremists, and STAY THERE!

We will NEVER give in to your influence, your retarded mentality, your twisted, violent, intolerant religion. We will NEVER allow the attacks of September 11, or any others for that matter, to take away that which is so precious to us: Our rights under the greatest constitution in the world.

I want to know where every Arab-Muslim in this country stands and I think it is my right and the right of every true citizen of this country to demand it. A right paid for by the blood of thousands of my brothers and sisters who died protecting the very constitution that is protecting you and your family. I am pleading with you to let me know. I want you here as my brother, my neighbor, my friend, as a fellow American. But there can be no gray areas or ambivalence regarding your allegiance and it is up to YOU, to show ME, where YOU stand."

"Until then ... you worry me." *********************************** LET'S COVER THE COUNTRY WITH THIS ONE


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 911; arab; editorial; islam; muslim
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To: All

Here's the thing... Timothy McVeigh professed to be a Christian...

If we had thousands of Timothy McVeighs in this country, doing what Timothy McVeigh did, or homicide bombing people, or cutting people's heads off... you can bet your sweet bippy that the REAL Christian community would be standing on the highest mountains denouncing him, his cohorts, and their actions, as loud and as often and as publically as was humanly possible.

Why isn't the American Muslim community doing the same thing?? Can ANYONE in this country (or in the world) answer this question??


41 posted on 06/30/2004 10:09:06 PM PDT by BagCamAddict (Congratulations IRAQ !!)
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To: Gator113

Anyway, I just keep hoping and praying that president Bush will win and that after the election, many, many changes will take place.


It is Sooooooo unfortunate that this is an election year and the media is so liberal. But, like you, I think things will change after Bush wins.


42 posted on 06/30/2004 10:09:46 PM PDT by conshack
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To: conshack

I think a second Bush term will be a 'taking off the gloves' approach to terrorists. I hope so, at least.


43 posted on 06/30/2004 10:15:01 PM PDT by Az. Mike
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To: backtothestreets

bookmark


44 posted on 06/30/2004 10:16:18 PM PDT by WestCoastGal (Freeping & Nascar >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> How Bad Have You Got It????)
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To: backtothestreets
Already posted here: You Worry Me with a lot of good links within the thread. Your post does include the name of the writer, and I'm sure there are a lot of new members who weren't here when it was posted the first time.

I think it's better to post something that's truly worthy, like your post, and leave it up to the mods, than to not post at all.

45 posted on 06/30/2004 10:27:52 PM PDT by Eagle9
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To: backtothestreets

Good luck - let me know how many musslims get back with you


46 posted on 06/30/2004 10:46:42 PM PDT by ezo4
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To: backtothestreets

This is a good read. It's been on Jim Quinn's website since right after 9/11.

http://www.warroom.com/mostwanted.htm

http://www.warroom.com/youworryme.htm


47 posted on 06/30/2004 11:02:51 PM PDT by BulletBobCo
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To: backtothestreets

I gotta admit, whenever I see some of 'em in public, my alert status goes up a notch or two. I KNOW in my heart that they aren't here to join us, but to undermine and destroy us.


48 posted on 06/30/2004 11:06:21 PM PDT by FierceDraka ("Party Before Country" - The New Motto of the Democratic Party)
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To: Itzlzha
"The interesting thing is, I said the same things (only NOT as nicely) after 9/11."

I said many things the morning of 9-11.  I tempered my initial reactions with the reassurance of our government leaders that Islam was a peaceful religion.  It's been nearly 3 years now, and while the leaders keep quoting passages from the Koran, my initial feelings have resurfaced, unabated by passages that run contrary to what has occurred since 9-11. 

I can't help feeling a threat is present when encountering Muslims.  It's not what they say.  It's what they don't say.  It's not what they do.  It's what they don't do.  What bothers me most is the unsettling look they give that says we can take you anytime, and your government protects us.

49 posted on 07/01/2004 12:00:51 AM PDT by backtothestreets
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To: MarMema

"They do make brief appearances here. Do any of us every try to crash their place?"

The DU trolls? Naw - you can't cultivate people who believe Cheney is an alien from Area 51. Although I do wander over there from time to time to see if the Dems have finally come up with a specific foreign policy. Nothing yet.


50 posted on 07/01/2004 4:56:59 AM PDT by Fenris6
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To: Fenris6
i think they have a specific foreign policy.....

...cede our identity, our troops, our borders, to globalist organizations - the UN - so we can all be like the french army with sunburned armpits.

51 posted on 07/01/2004 5:27:59 AM PDT by 1john2 3and4 (the left is hatriotic)
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To: backtothestreets

Same here. I have said before that the silent ones are just as guilty as the fanatical ones. If 1% of the billion muslims is fanatical, it still leaves well over 900 million "good ones" to sort it out. Instead, they do nothing. That is why I have little problem with nuking an arab country. My only concern is the fallout on Israel.


52 posted on 07/01/2004 5:39:47 AM PDT by WV Mountain Mama (When are we going to pave the Arab Street? Although is should be properly level before doing so.)
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To: kjenerette

...for reading file.


53 posted on 07/01/2004 8:26:55 AM PDT by Van Jenerette (Our Republic - If we can Keep it!)
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To: All
In fairness...

To all that read the post titled A PILOT'S EDITORIAL-- "YOU WORRY ME" yesterday, today there are other posts that gives me a hint of hope.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1163575/posts

and:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1164056/posts

As the second link reported, there is an on-line petition (http://www.cair-net.org/) being circulated among the Muslim population here in The United States, and it has received nearly 700,000 signatures of Muslims that denounce the acts of terrorism.

This is what I've been waiting for. More is necessary, but it is a good start.
54 posted on 07/01/2004 8:23:14 PM PDT by backtothestreets
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To: backtothestreets
I think you'll be interested in an editorial written by Van Jenerette (see above - post #53) and posted here on Free Republic.

Will The Real Islam Please Stand Up?

55 posted on 07/01/2004 11:35:08 PM PDT by Eagle9
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To: Eagle9
Good article. Had I put my most inner thoughts to paper immediately after 9-11, the government would've probably charged me with a hate crime.

The most difficult time during, and immediately following the the attacks felt like a hostage situation to me. My family and I had traveled from all over the country that weekend for a reunion in Massachusetts. While my return flight arrived in California just hours before the first hijacking, many of the family were in route. Slowly, we heard from all but one, my 19 year old daughter that was flying to Cincinnati.

Due to the panic at airports and with telephones in general, many hours passed before I heard from her. She was safe, but for a few hours, everyone searching for a loved one felt a touch of what the families of hostages must feel, complete helplessness.

The most obvious crimes of the terrorists were the hijackings, murders, and destruction of property. Less obvious were the hundreds of thousands of people held hostage while they awaited a call from a loved one. Hostages are never held alone. Their families are held hostage too.

In complete honesty, I can say that if I'd access to the right buttons, ice skates would have been the only reasonable mode of transportation in Islamic countries on 9-12, and for centuries to come.
56 posted on 07/02/2004 1:13:50 AM PDT by backtothestreets
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