On behalf of America's Muslims, I apologise [and urge profiling!]

The Daily Telegraph ^ | September 17, 2001 | By Tarek Masoud

[aculeus]

"But would that I had been made to feel like a criminal a thousand times than to live to see the grisly handiwork of real criminals in New York and Washington."

[Anonymous2]

this sums up all my feelings about this matter. nuff said.

[Anonymous2]

second reading gave me goose bumps it was so truth.

[Anonymous2]

thank you so much for posting this.

[Lizzy W]

Wow. What a genuine American.

[CWOJackson]

This only makes me even sicker over the treatment that some darker skinned AMERICANS are receiving.

[charlesc290]

more people should feel the same

[Anonymous2]

that's the SPIRIT we NEED!!

[aculeus]

Too bad we have so many idiots here at FR whining about the possibility of losing some 'rights' during this dire emergency.

This man -- no, this AMERICAN! -- has put them to shame.

[Darheel]

A little common sense and courage goes a long way.

[Anonymous2]

amen. to a constitutional limit.

[caddie]

It is a myth that their religion does not condone this.

Try and get a paperback of their so-called holy book.

You can't.

That's because it is probably jam-packed with anti-infidel rhetoric.

Americans who think this is just extremists supporting this are wrong. Mainstream muslims are ok with what happened.

This author is sickened because he knows that, for years, his community has tacitly endorsed this type of thing. Now he's scared, because we are furious.

Notice his comment about the chat-rooms.

The chickens have come home to roost, indeed.

If this sort of activity is not endorsed by their religion, then what does the word 'Jihad' mean? Why is there a word for the systematic, religiously-endorsed killing of infidels?

Americans need to wake up and smell the coffee.

[Havisham]

Will the government take advantage of this crisis to consolidate its powers? It always has. Yet the writer makes excellent points: the muslim community has to do more. We all would, but our elites betray us every time. What do they really care if we're slaughtered from time to time. They fly safer carriers.

[caddie]

Here is a quote from their book, from the thread about Bin Ladin's email to the press:

'But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)'

See, their religion endorses slaying 'pagans'.

That would be us non-muslims.

Strange but true.

That's why the crusades were crusades, they were really one religion against another, not mere fights about land, or about some king dissing another.

This is indeed a crusade.

Let's roll.

Yale should kick this guy and all the other muslims out.

Then the INS should put their asses on a dirty pork-transport ship and send them back to their hell-hole, lice-endemic countries.

Too little and too late for your crybaby editorial dude.

[Darheel]

When American women get a chance to read the screed Koran over a bowl of Haagen-Daz, we're gonna see a sea-change in attitudes.

[Josiah6]

As it becomes ever more apparent that our co-religionists have visited slaughter upon our compatriots, so many of us want to declare from the rooftops our allegiance to this great nation, to show our solidarity with our fellow citizens, and to join the fight against our common enemy.

I understand why this guy feels this way, but I have a serious problem with his use of the word co-religionists .

I am a Christian and would never consider the sects of the Aryan Christian Nation as co-religionists.

We are being lead to believe that Bin Laden are the "Aryan Christian Nation" of Islam.

Being from Yale surely he knows the difference.

I still do not see the comdemnation of

[LOC1]

The truth is, if you happen to look like the bad guys, people are going to treat you with suspicion.

That is true if you happen to be a short, fat, bald, white guy, like me, driving through a minority neighborhood. Or a poor hispanic driving a dilapidated vehicle through an upscale neighborhood.

It is fair to be suspicious of those who might resemble a bad guy. It is fair to be on heightened alert to their actions. It is not fair to act on that suspicion without proof that the individual is, in fact, a bad guy.

[Straight Vermonter]

IMHO, far more important than the profiling aspect, is for the people within the Arab and Muslim communities to be up front in "outing" those they feel are potential terrorists. It appears that these most recent terrorists kept mostly to themselves while in this country. Those who bombed the WTC, in 1993, however, were living in the midst of the Arab community in NYC. If only one person had made a phone call and gotten the word out.

It would also be nice if some Arab-Americans would go to Langley and tell the CIA they want to get involved with the war on terrorism. In WW2 many ethnic Japanese, German and Italian young men put aside the bigotry of their countrymen and fought for the USA. Lets hope those in the Arab community can do the same and achieve the same integration that Japanese, German and Italians now enjoy.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The "freedom versus security" tradeoff is a false choice. 

The WTC attack did not occur because Americans have too much freedom. 

It occurred because:

1. U.S. border/immigration policy (or selective enforcement thereof) allowed known terrorists to enter and remain in the country while attending flight school.

2. The terrorists were able to gain access to the cockpits of the hijacked aircraft.

The fact that William Cohen, Dick Gephardt and other statists propound that the only solution to terrorism is to "trade freedom for security" betrays the reality that their true agenda is to curtail freedom.