One Arab's Apology

NY Post ^ | 9-18-06 | EMILIO KARIM DABUL

[SJackson]

September 12, 2006 -- WELL, here it is, five years late, but here just the same: an apology from an Arab-American for 9/11. No, I didn't help organize the killers or contribute in any way to their terrible cause. However, I was one of millions of Arab-Americans who did the unspeakable on 9/11: nothing. The only time I raised my voice in protest against these men who killed thousands of innocents in the name of Allah was behind closed doors, among the safety of friends and family. I did at one point write a very vitriolic essay condemning their actions, but fear of becoming another Salman Rushdie kept me from ever trying to publish it.

Well, I'm sick of saying the truth only in private - that Arabs around the world, including Arab-Americans like myself, need to start holding our own culture accountable for the insane, violent actions that our extremists have perpetrated on the world at large.

Yes, our extremists and our culture.

[weegee]

There is also a telling question in Kurt Vonegut's Mother Night, in which a disaffected American playwright living in Germany before WWII is approached about working for the Americans as an undercover agent.

The playwright holds allegiance to "the nation of two" (him and his wife) but accepts the offer. He essentially rises to the rank of a propagandist on par with Lord Haw Haw, spewing Nazi hate in English over the radio. He sends out coded messages based on coughs, pauses, and inflections; messages that even he is unaware he is sending, they are coded by an undisclosed speech writer.

Only 3 people know of his placement, one is the agent who approaches him, one is FDR, and I don't recall the third.

He encounters the agent at a few key points in his life. In one of these encounters (where the author is denying any sympathies for the Nazis), the agent asks him what he would've done if the Nazis had won. Would he have then stood up to their regime and announced his rejection of their world view?

What of the silent peaceful muslims? Would they become the new terrorists striking down Islamic rule if the extremists get their way?

[yldstrk]

What a relief to read this and see that at least one Arab gets it.

[DoctorMichael]

Well, that's one. Another 1,199,999,999 to go.

[...assuming 1.2 billion followers of the schizophreic pedophile that started this insane death cult]

[twigs]

Yes, he is a Muslim. It's an excellent article. He's nailed it. And he obviously loves America. I love it: he calls NJ NYC's West Bank. And he would live in his West Bank than the ME West Bank. Because of freedom. A most excellent article, worthy of a read. It's not long. But it is courageous.

[twigs]

This author gets it. I think he would agree with what you've written and quoted.

[Rummenigge]

certainly we can expect they all apologize on freep...

[Rummenigge]

yeah - to sorry he wouldn't find much open ears on freep.

[Old Student]

"I like to see them march and protest AGAINST the terrorists. They show their numbers when Allah and Mohammed have been defamed. To hear them tell it, the terrorists have hijacked their peaceful religion and ignore the teachings of Islam. To me that would me the terrorists defame Mohammed, Allah, and Islam."

I'd like to see them marching myself. If enough of them start talking and writing about it, maybe that will happen, too. I'm not holding my breath waiting for it, but I would like to point out that we do have allies in the war against terrorism who are Muslim. Some of whom have been fighting and dying alongside our troops. It's not impossible.

[RobbyS]

I doubt you will see many more. Pardon my cynicism. Still maybe he has a book in him, one that would give an alternative view of Islam that is not so bloody and unforgiving and full of lies as the ones that come from Saudi Arabia and Iran.

[El Gato]

But is he Muslim? There are many Arabs who are Christian

Emilio is sort of an unusual name for an Arab, *especially a Muslim one. Remember Joseph Farah and Massad Ayoob, not mention Danny Thomas and his progeny, are of Arab ancestry, just not Muslim. Same with Jamie Farr, aka Corporal Max Klinger of M.A.S.H, who I just discovered is a U.S. Army veteran, albeit of only two years.

[beckett]

This guy has guts. I applaud him for it.

[MeanWestTexan]

Farr is also Antiochian Orthodox Christian.

He does a lot for children's charaties.

A pretty good guy for a MASH alumni.

[Rastus]

And without looking it up to confirm, I believe Paul Anka is a Christian of Lebanese descent.

[Hildy]

Dead Man Walking....

[keats5]

The "silent peacful muslims" are afraid. Freedom requires courage.

[weegee]

We are told how muslims are the targets of hate crimes, especially when they riot, er, march in protest of cartoons (calling for the beheading of the cartoonists). They don't seem to be "afraid" of reprisal before acting in those instances.

Why didn't those rallies take 5 years to step forward?

Too much sympathy for the cause of a global Islamic empire.

[Ready4Freddy]

I thought this letter to the editoe of the Dallas Morning News was interesting...

Stand for what is right

Re: "Cleared man cites prejudice – He says being Muslim was reason he was arrested in cell case," Sept. 8 Metro.

I've been a Muslim for 30 years, and I have never been followed, harassed or stopped by the FBI or CIA or at the airport just because I'm a Muslim.

Our scriptures say, "Be fair and just in our dealing," and "Stand up for what is right regardless of whom it is against."

For someone on the Council on American-Islamic Relations to say, "Every Muslim has been the victim of suspicion," is ignorance. Neither CAIR nor any other group speaks for all Muslims.

Some Muslims have to stop thinking that Americans are unintelligent. As an imam, I will never say that I represent all Muslims because I know we have some bad ones and some who need to be checked out.

I'm all for that. I will not stand up for bad people.

Imam Muhammad Shakoor, Irving (Texas)

[George W. Bush]

Hopefully, the other Islamists won't murder this rare, civilized Arab for speaking his opinion on 9/11.

[edsheppa]

Oh my. I fear the fellow is not long for this world.

[Jason_b]

There's enough there for someone of extreme tendencies to find their way to a global jihad. There's also enough there for someone of a different mindset to find a path to enlightenment and peace.

I tried to read the Koran once. I couldn't stomach it. Are there any scholarly freepers out there who have read the koran and can confirm the claim that there is enough to find a path to enlightenment and peace?" Or is he blowing smoke.