I recently came across this editorial again...This fella is speaking for me... A PILOT 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
gave
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 defended
Johnny Cochran and O. J. Simpson after the latter butchered his wife and
murdered an innocent friend. 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." ""
