On Sept. 11 anniversary, let's not let fear cripple us (Barf Alert!!!)

The Athens Banner-Herald ^ | 9/11/04 | By Aladdin Elaasar

[SittinYonder]

The anniversary of Sept. 11 will be painful for Arab and Muslim-Americans - as it will be for all Americans.

After the terrorist strikes, Arab and Muslim-Americans became targets for random hate and violence. They became the latest ethnic group to be singled out in an American time of crisis.

In the 1850s, Irish immigrants were persecuted.

During World War I, German immigrants were suspect.

During World War II, Americans of Japanese backgrounds bore the brunt of that conflict.

America's legacy of nativism - the intense opposition to an internal minority because of its supposed foreign connections - reared its head again.

About 3 million Arab-Americans and 7 million Muslim-Americans live in the United States. Sept. 11 has had a negative effect on many of their lives. Some have paid a hefty price, dealing with discrimination at schools and at the workplace, and even facing senseless and brutal hate crimes that have led to injury and death.

According to government statistics, hate crimes and discriminatory acts against Arab-Americans, Muslim-Americans or those perceived to be of Middle Eastern origins in the United States rose dramatically after Sept. 11.

Some in position of influence in the media or in the religious sector fanned these acts of hatred. On Sept. 13, 2001, columnist Ann Coulter, on National Review Online, said: "We should invade Muslim countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."

Televangelist Pat Robertson called Muslims "worse than Nazis." The Rev. Jerry Falwell labeled the Prophet Muhammad a "terrorist." The Rev. Franklin Graham called Islam "a very evil and wicked religion."

Fear spread through the Arab-American and Muslim-American communities.

The USA Patriot Act diminished the rights of immigrants and allowed the government to round up people by the hundreds and keep them, in secret, from their families.

The special registration of Arab and Muslim males in America terrified communities and broke up families, as some fathers were deported on the most minor technicalities.

Fear still pervades the Muslim-American and Arab-American communities. The horrific acts of terrorism by the Sept. 11 fanatics should not impugn the patriotism of these communities.

In the wake of Sept. 11, thousands of Arab and Muslim-Americans volunteered to serve in the U.S. armed services or in law enforcement. They are protecting us. And they should be thanked, not feared or scapegoated.

Instead, some see swift militaristic action against those who may resemble our enemies as being the best solution. But attacking innocent civilians around the globe will only inflame Arabs and Muslims and create more enemies.

Three years later, we must not let fear cripple us.

CAPTION: * Elaasar is author of "Silent Victims: The Plight of Arab & Muslim Americans in Post 9/11 America." The writer wrote this for Progressive Media Project, a source of liberal commentary on domestic and international issues; it is affiliated with The Progressive magazine.

[Cultural Jihad]

>"We should invade Muslim countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."

She was right.

Apparently, some want to act like 7th Century Muslims.

[anarabismybrotherinlaw]

By my screen name you can tell I have a special interest in this matter. I think that about 90% of Muslims are technically innocent, although many of them they will have to do a lot more than they are to prove their loyalty. That is, most of them aren't turning in the terrorists and those that support them. It's public knowledge that the terrorists are liable to make another massive attack before our election this year, just as they did in Spain, to try to influence the vote. Please, whatever happens, remain law abiding.

In the first place, it's the right thing to do. In the second place, you could go to jail if you're caught. Finally, we don't want to alienate the innocent Muslims. We need people who look like Muslims and know the culture to root out the terrorists. The old saying is you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Besides, we need to convert them without violating their free will, not persecute them wholesale.

Proclamations like there are no innocent Muslims are counterproductive in the long term and needlessly inflammatory in the short term.

[anarabismybrotherinlaw]

This is a cross-post due to the heated nature of many comments on various threads: By my screen name you can tell I have a special interest in this matter. I think that about 90% of Muslims are technically innocent, although many of them they will have to do a lot more than they are to prove their loyalty. That is, most of them aren't turning in the terrorists and those that support them. It's public knowledge that the terrorists are liable to make another massive attack before our election this year, just as they did in Spain, to try to influence the vote. Please, whatever happens, remain law abiding.

In the first place, it's the right thing to do. In the second place, you could go to jail if you're caught. Finally, we don't want to alienate the innocent Muslims. We need people who look like Muslims and know the culture to root out the terrorists. The old saying is you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Besides, we need to convert them without violating their free will, not persecute them wholesale.

Proclamations like there are no innocent Muslims are counterproductive in the long term and needlessly inflammatory in the short term.

[SittinYonder]

When one is deported the cost is taken care of by Government... the family has to follow by their own costs.

Well, maybe the families of these Muslim terrorists who get deported should solicit donations. I'm sure there would be plenty of people willing to drop some coins in a jar to pay their costs of leaving our country.

[JiggyMac]

I'm glad the Jews, WHO WERE BURNED IN OVENS!, are never the victims in hate. But a Muslim can't fly on an airplane and it's like we let off a nuke in Mecca. The special registration of Arab and Muslim males in America terrified communities and broke up families, as some fathers were deported on the most minor technicalities. Yes, we should only deport you if you have a backpack full of explosives, unless you can produce a passport. The most brilliant point is: I will not forgive the muslims until I hear news reports that the government has to turn away translators for counter intelligence. Help us help you. If you're not our enemy, prove it.

[Alouette]

Well, growing up here in the states

If you grew up here in the states you would be fluent in English, which you obviously are not. Or did you attend a publik skrewl?

[Alouette]

many Muslims do condemn what happened. Yes, there are some fanatical freaks of supposedly Muslims.. they call themselves this... but I personally can not even stand to be near one!

What mosque do you attend? And how many of these "fanatical freaks of supposedly Muslims" have been expelled by the moderate members and turned over to the police?

[Alouette]

Read other entries, sweety

I have read your other entries, lambchop. Even though you just signed up today, your unique style is very similar to others who have posted here in the past. So similar, in fact, I'm astonished.

Who's Astonished Now????

Astonished	J Harris	Lematha	sawgrass
Passin Pilgrim	LeeAnn6	tynker	Kudzu Flat
Samaritan	Patria One	beecharmer	Miss Pixie
necho6	glassheart3	Friend_Or_Foe	Kirkland Junction
nohorse	faintpraise	FlaLawyer	Sumayya
alberuni	irishhijabblue	TBD	TBD

[BlueLancer]

Yo ... Aladdin ... it's a whole new world ...

200 years from now, I want their children's children's children's children
to cower and cringe in fear whenever they hear the sounds of jet engines overhead
because their legends tell of fire from the sky.

I want them to hide in dark caves and holes in the earth,
shivering with terror whenever they hear the roar of diesel engines
because the tales of their ancestors talk about metal monsters
crawling over the earth, spitting death and destruction.

I want their mothers to be able to admonish them with
"If you don't behave, the Pale Destroyers will come for you",
and that will be enough to reduce them to quivering obesience.

I want the annihilation to be so complete that their mythology
will tell them of the day of judgment when the stern gods from across the sea
.. the powerful 'Mericans .. destroyed their forefathers' wickedness.

(Original created by BlueLancer ... 13 September 2001)
(Thanks to HiJinx for the accompanying pictures)

[SJackson]

In every religion you have your self-rightious freaks. In my family I have met such types in all three religions; Judism/Christianity/Islam.

Are you related to John Kerry? And congrat's on the ancestor who arrived a couple decades before the Mayflower. Was he Muslim?

[SittinYonder]

I understand everyones paranoia, but some situations have more depth and reality then just simple "overall" classifications

It's not paranoia. Arabic Muslims killed 3,000 on Sept. 11. Arabic Muslims are cutting off the heads of Americans and other Westerners in Iraq in the wake of our nation trying to liberate them from a brutal dictator. Arabic Muslims are responsible for the 1993 WTC bombing; the USS Cole; the American embassies in Africa ... the list goes on.

That's not paranoia, it's history. If you truly condemn these actions and were raised as an American then you must be able to face the fact that Muslims in this country and around the world have a long way to go to regain trust. As long as Muslims are continuing to employ terror against the West I'm not interested in situations with depth and reality, I'm only interested in winning the war. And if that means deporting suspected terrorists who we don't have enough of a case to arrest and try, then I say deport them. If they're innocent, then they can go be innocent in their own countries. And if they're American born, they'd better act like it.