Posted on 12/16/2001 4:36:38 AM PST by sarcasm
The events of Sept. 11 were not only a terrorist attack on America, but on Islam in the United States. About 500 Muslims died in the tragedy and the rest of them became hostage to fear, intimidation and insecurity about their future.
All the progress made in the growth of Islam in our country for the last 50 years seems to be reversed, and some immigrant Muslims have started to question whether they should go back to their countries of origin.
Of course, Muslim Americans like my children, who were born here, have no place to go. This is their home.
The response of many American Muslims to the tragedy of Sept. 11 is seen in two extremes. At one end is the group most visible on the Internet, still working on the conspiracy theory, touting the idea that this evil act was done by the work of Mossad, the CIA, the Pentagon, the militia or remote control devices, completely denying the possibility that it could have been the evil act and plot of Muslim terrorists.
On the other extreme are Muslim leaders, who, after recovering from the shock of Sept. 11, suffered from an unwarranted guilt complex and became apologetic. After visits by the FBI, they realized they must make politically correct statements now in order to save American Islam. They had to change their tone of speech and writing, and even retracted and regretted statements made before Sept. 11 against the U.S. "superpower."
Now, some of them are telling the same Muslim-American audience, "If you do not like the West, go back to your own country."
The average middle-class, mosque-going Muslims who run grocery stores, are office workers or students, are totally confused at what they should do or say. Should they side with the terrorists overseas or with the superpower that is bombing the innocent civilians in hospitals and houses in Afghanistan in order to free the world of these terrorists?
How can we present Islam to those who stereotype, profile and even call us their enemy? On record are close to 1,000 cases of such hate crimes since Sept. 11. Is the FBI our friend or our foe? Will our children get admission to schools of flight training, biomedical research and nuclear physics? Will we ever feel comfortable flying as a passenger in an airplane? Will our women in hijab be able to shop without fear?
The joy of being a Muslim in America is gone, at least for now. How can we live our faith while we work with those who defame it? We Muslim Americans are going through the most difficult time in our history in this country. These are difficult questions, and I have no simple solutions.
I hope and pray we regain our bruised self-esteem. Many of us, especially those from overseas, tend to live in the past rather than the present. While our bodies are here, our hearts and minds were left behind. We need to bring our hearts to the land we have adopted as our home.
Ordinary Muslim Americans need to take charge of our religion as we take charge of our families, our health and our lives. We should learn Islam for ourselves as a religion of love, peace and tolerance and prove it by our individual actions. If we want to be counted as Muslim Americans, we must take all the concerns of Americans, whether terrorism, anthrax, drugs, violence or even pollution as our own concerns. We must show Islam by our actions, not by speeches, videotapes and pamphlets.
We must denounce all those who use religion for their political gain and denounce political powers that wish to abuse the religion of Islam. We must reclaim our faith from the terrorists who hijacked it and also from the leadership who apologize for them.
God has chosen Islam for us, and we are thankful for it. As for the question, "Are you with us or with the terrorists?" We are neither with the terrorists nor with those who intend to terrorize us. We are here to stay, vote and participate in the American process. We are not going back, nor can we be interned.
Athar, M.D., is past president of the Islamic Society of Greater Indianapolis and the author of numerous articles on Islam. He can be reached by e-mail at sathar3624@aol.com
[Footnote] 3 Estimates vary widely for all the figures quoted throughout this fact sheet. In terms of overall population, M.M. Ali reports that there are 6 to 8 million Muslims in America in The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May-June 1996, p. 13.
So a Muslim guy invents a number and the State Department repeats it. That proves absolutely nothing. The correct number, produced after an actual survey by an unbiased survey company, is more like 1,800,000.
America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
Download 8 Mb zip file here (60 minute video)
If there is any question in your minds about whether or not to stay in America and live as our patriot brothers, then I implore you: LEAVE.
Probably gets his numbers from the 'Major Owens Institute of Inflated Math'.
I am sorry that Muslims are being shouted at from pickup trucks... because shouting from pickup trucks is unseemly and ineffective. But constantly tripping over ourselves apologizing to Muslims who are just "normal Americans" is going to ensure that we lose.
These terrorists make an art of coming to this country, making friends and seeming very normal for many years, taking full advantage of our political correctness, our free right of travel, our education in universities, our flight training, and while they are here they study our weaknesses, not the least of which is our desire to be completely trusting and accepting of them.
The hijackers who did this did not wear "Terrorist in Training" T-shirts. They looked very much like those who claim to be unfairly treated now, and also look like those that I have seen walking through Seattle trying not to make eye contact with anyone... I am very vigilant at watching them now.... I wonder what they think, whether they know one of them, whether they are one of them. I know they feel me watching them, and I hope they are getting mad... Not mad at me, but mad at those among them that are causing my fear.
I guarantee that my mistrust of Middle-Eastern Muslims will grow and not diminish, until there are long lines of Muslims waiting at police precincts to report suspicious behavior among them, and until the interviews shown on television are NOT people of European decent full of guilt at their own mistrusting thoughts telling us how to behave and what to think.
My mistrust will diminish when those Middle-Eastern Muslims here in America are the most vocal about rooting out this problem. The problem is that those that are speaking up so far are those that feel victimized unfairly, or offer vague references that Islam is a religion of peace, and not terror. Clearly there are lots of Muslims who have read something else. Where are those that have overheard discussions, but did not participate? Where are those that have been approached to participate or give money, but chose not to? Where are those that were trusted enough to confide in, but did not decide to join? Or those that joined ethnic or Muslim groups they believed to improve people's lives, only to find out that the real mission was something very different? Where are those that are vocal about exposing those among them that are the problem? Until they speak up, I will continue to mistrust all of them without feeling an ounce of guilt, because I refuse to feel guiltier than they do about these attacks on our country.
Remember grade school, when the teacher needed to know which student in the class had stolen Suzie's crayons? And all students were forced to stay after class until the guilty party confessed, or his friends ratted him out? Everyone in the class faced equal suspicion until the common desire to go to recess was greater than the embarrassment of confession. The peer pressure to end the detention of everyone turned toward finding the evil-doer within. Well, I for one will continue to blame the whole class rather than be made a fool of when they strike again while we do our best to be polite.
I have no doubt that America can take out all the terrorists and supporters that they find. But killing them from the outside will never really solve the problem. Weaken it maybe, make money harder to raise maybe, keep them running maybe, but we do not have a lock on craftiness and talent. Outsiders can never get them all, and will probably create more enemies as we try. Only "they" can solve this problem, and it is imperative that we compel them to do so, or assume they are guilty if they do not.
We should be very afraid that Muslims here and abroad that have been our friends when we could help them are only quietly and half-heartedly helping us now, trying not to be overly offensive to their own. We should be very afraid that Muslims in this country are silently trying to keep their heads down. I am very afraid that many Muslims in this country know more than they have admitted, and yet want the benefit of the doubt from me.
Let us not seem hysterical by shouting at them from pickup trucks, but let us never let political correctness allow us to be blindsided again...
America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
Download 8 Mb zip file here (60 minute video)
Well, seems Osama's plan wasn't too successful, if selling his brand of religious tyranny was the end goal.
... and some immigrant Muslims have started to question whether they should go back to their countries of origin.
Let me make that decision easier for you ...
Uniformed children stand in units named after guerrillas killed fighting Israel as part of Hizbollah's Jerusalem day rally December 14, 2001 in Beirut. The head of Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrilla group urged Palestinians to launch more suicide bomb attacks on Israelis and defy U.S.-led demands to crack down on 'terrorist' militant groups. (Sharif Karim/Reuters) |
That is why you don't belong here! No one should even think for a moment about supporting terrorists of any kind. Your hearts are in the homeland---well go to the homeland. Make your own countries into places that you would want to live. The reason you come here is because we have built a beautiful country because we are GOOD PEOPLE. You are BAD PEOPLE. You are not nice. You will never create anything wonderful or magnificent. You will never write a beautiful song--or even a good bad song. No, "I'll Be Seeing You" or "I Am I Said" or "I Want to Hold Your Hand" or even "Material Girl" will ever be written or sung by your people.
You will never write a great movie. A great book. Or paint a great painting. You will never have a choir of bright and shining faces singing so beautifully that the joy in their hearts makes your own heart melt.
God did not choose you. You chose to follow a 'religion' that is a perversion. If you were born to cannibals, it wouldn't make being a cannibal the right thing to be! You would have to change! Well, wake up. You people have to change. Look at what Mohammed was and what he did. You should be ashamed to follow him. You should throw out the veils and let your women lift their faces to the sunshine and learn to smile. Let them understand that they shouldn't have children in order for these children to strap dynamite around their waists in order to die to go to paradise to rape virgins. It is not logical. It is not nice. It is STUPID!
Go back to where your heart is--far away from America. We are good people. Kind. Generous. You just don't belong and you never will.
Want to know why you should leave? We will never trust you again. Never.
Don't bet on it raghead!
I don't see any reason for this man's confusion. Either you're a terrorist or not. Some of the things he says in this essay are laudible, however, words w/o actions are meaningless. If the Moslems want to live in this country then a minimal level of citizenship is required. Ifyou have a problem w/ that you're gonna have a problem w/ me.
ROFL
What the heck was this guy thinking, when he let them publish his email address? I can just imagine the list of subject lines, alone, right now. :-P
>Probably gets his numbers from the 'Major Owens Institute of Inflated Math'.
Maybe Screwy Louie Farrakan's Million Man Math? (1.5M *.wav)
Isn't it the least bit plausible that Islamic groups would exaggerate their own numbers enough to knock Judaism out of second place in the list of major religions in the USA, with all the ramifications that such a belief would help bring about in foreign policy?
I read the figure of 1,800,000 from several surveys done by disinterested survey groups such as the Barna survey company, which concentrates on religious identifications and attitudes.
Just by comparison, one frequently reads estimates from Eastern Orthodox Christian groups that there are 6,000,000 Orthodox faithful in the USA, and I (as a life-long Orthodox) don't believe a word of it. I estimate no more than 1-1,500,000 myself, no matter what somebody official says. The math is that for such an estimate to be true, then every 50th person in the USA would be Orthodox, and I would see at lot more than 2,200 Orthodox churches many of which have small congregations. I can more readily believe that there are a million of us Orthodox and that half hardly ever attend church, than I would believe that there are 6 million and 90% hardly ever go to church.
Well, on the same basis, there would have to be SOME evidence that there are such large numbers of Muslims since I have never yet met one outside of college (30 years ago). Nor have I ever ever even seen a mosque in the USA. Let's just stick to verifiable truth.
I got to here and saw the clear evidence that this guy is just another mohammedan anti-american. Why can't they just come out and admit that islam is NOT a religion of peace.
No need to read the rest.
God (Yahweh, Jehovah, Jesus) Save America (Please)
Athar, M.D., is past president of the Islamic Society of Greater Indianapolis and the author of numerous articles on Islam.
He's not a journalist, but he is still a professional liar :-)
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