Here we go again. It’s the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks and the whole world is going bananas. There has already been a deluge of special reports and commentary in anticipation of the anniversary. Newspapers and television networks have been going on and on about the events that we have heard and read about ad nauseam over the past 10 years—every year.
It’s as though this is the end of the world. Every pundit and columnist worth his/her share of audience must come up with his/her own take to mark the occasion. In the end though, most of us end up solemnly churning out the same old trite and tiresome arguments and theories that everyone seems to expect and few really pay attention to. And it’s not just the media that faithfully goes through this ritual every year. There is a complete industry out there catering to this market, regularly peddling books that claim to offer new light on the events that apparently changed the world.
Most of these tomes, however, add little to the existing corpus of theories and interpretations about the stunning attacks on the symbols and icons of American power and glory. What distinguishes these ostensible attempts to understand Islam and “Islamic terrorism” though is their pathological hatred of the Other and incredible ignorance or willful misrepresentation of Islam, Arabs, and Muslims.
Bernard Lewis’ The Crisis of Islam, Daniel Pipes’ Militant Islam Reaches America, David Horowitz’s Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left and Efraim Karsh’s Islamic Imperialism: A History are only some of the most ‘respectable’ names that ostensibly cater to the heightened curiosity about Islam and Muslims.
In the immediate aftermath of the September 11 events, many horrified Americans understandably asked: Why do they hate us? So even as most of us were as outraged by the horror of 9/11, as most Americans and Westerners had been, we nurtured a faint, innocent hope that perhaps now the US would see reason and review its policies and actions all these years. We had hoped that 9/11, unacceptable and totally reprehensible as it was, would perhaps make the US pause and ponder the cause of this corrosive anger and source of this conflict. Of course, we were wrong—and how!
Whoever carried out those attacks on New York and Washington, they turned out to be the greatest enemies of Islam and Muslims. They have managed to visit the greatest catastrophe on Muslim lands since the Mongols invasion eight centuries ago. The Mongols raped and pillaged Baghdad, the capital of Abbasid caliphate, and virtually every Muslim city. When the Mongols left Baghdad, the richest and greatest city in the world then, they had left behind two million dead, including the caliph and his sons who were bundled in a carpet and trampled by Mongol horses. River Tigris was full of blood and darkened by the ink of millions of books and rare manuscripts that were burnt down by the invaders.
What Baghdad has witnessed under the Coalition of the Willing hasn’t been much different. And if anyone thought 9/11 would prompt America to mend its ways, well, they need to think again. Clearly, America—the militant global superpower America that we get to see and experience far beyond its borders and not American people—doesn’t seem to give a damn one way or another.
According to a new poll by the Pew Research Center, Americans today are more willing to believe that US policies in the Middle East might have motivated the 9/11 terror attacks on New York and Washington. Reflecting a remarkable shift in US public opinion over the past decade, today, 43 percent of Americans feel the attacks may have been motivated by something “the US did wrong in its dealings with other countries.” However, 45 percent think otherwise. In the wake of attacks, 55 percent of respondents had rejected the notion.
Clearly, all is not lost yet. There’s still hope for America; that is, people’s America, the nation of Abe Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Mark Twain, and Martin Luther King that once inspired and beckoned dreamers from around the world. The Land of the Free, where it is possible for a black man with a Muslim father to pursue his ‘audacity of hope.’
That America, however, seems to have lost its way in a wasteland where no morals, no justice, and no principles exist. Some of my fellow travelers have convinced themselves that the original land of the free has been hijacked by a bloodthirsty, amoral and lunatic fringe. I wouldn’t know the truth. After the betrayal at the hands of our hero, the change-we-can messiah who helped the world amend its view of America, I am not sure about anything anymore.
Coming back to the issue at hand, all of us share the pain of those who lost their loved ones that cold morning in September 2001. Like me, most of us remember where we were that fateful day—I was watching the horror unfold on television in my cabin at the paper I worked for back then in India—and how our hearts went out to those trapped inside the World Trade Center. Those who perished in that awful tragedy were innocent folks like you and me.
Representing the rich diversity of the country, there were many Muslims among the victims, just as there had been people from all faiths and ethnicities. It was no jihad, if it was indeed carried out by Al Qaeda—which is now increasingly challenged by independent researchers and experts like Dr. Alan Sabrosky, a Vietnam and US Navy veteran. It was murder, pure and simple. And you know what the Quran says about murder? Taking one innocent life is equal to killing entire humanity. Whoever perpetrated that outrage deserves severest punishment in this life—and next.
That said, I have to ask this: What about the hundreds of thousands of innocent lives the US and its ever willing allies have expended—and continue to—in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere since 9/11?
Amid all this brouhaha and grand ceremonies to mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11, does anyone spare a thought for the innocent victims of America’s endless war? Comparisons are odious but ask one must: How many people died in 9/11 attacks? 2,751. In its overwhelming response, the US and its allies have ravaged Afghanistan and killed more than a million in Iraq alone. And this war is far from over, although the bible-thumping crusader in White House has been replaced by someone who never tires of singing paeans to peace and has already been feted with a Peace Nobel (I know not for what!). So, dear America, while shedding tears for 9/11 victims this year, please spare a thought for the million plus victims of your wars.
Brilliant piece, Aijaz. The deaths of millions of innocent poor people in Muslim world will stay unaccounted for as long as Bush and other perpetrators of 9/11 are not brought to justice…
Well if adherents of your “religion of peace” hadn’t flown 3 planes into buildings and crashed one into the ground in Pennsylvania, then you wouldn’t have two wars going on at the moment, would you?
I love it when people who don’t read articles comment on them. John, if you’d read it, you would have seen the author emphasize the point that the perpetrators of the crime of 9/11 were not adherents to Islam.
A Prelude to the War of Terror
This famous documentary film, Loose Change 9/11, was produced in 2006 that challenged the official explanation of the attacks of September 11, 2001. It also aroused a great deal of controversy; it had its supporters and opponents.
I am not an expert on the technical details of the attacks which the U.S. authorities offered or the views of those who contradict or refute the official version as in this film; therefore, I refrain from passing any final word on the issues involved. However, I try to find more about the events and will continue to do so because this tragic date became the sign-post, which was used by the Bush-Cheney administration to start the wars of aggression and global terror that resulted in the occupation and destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan, the deaths of more than a million people and the uprooting of the millions of people. The present U.S. adminstarion under President Obama has not only continued the wars of aggression of his prdecessor but also extended them to other countries and areas by using advanced techonlogical means such as drone attacks to kill and destroy with impunity and without any accoutability for his actions to anyone in the world.
No matter who were the actual criminals or conspirators who committed the crimes on 9/11 that resulted in the deaths of 2749 Americans, one thing is absolutely clear that the people of Iraq and its ruler Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the 9/11. The people or the rulers of Afghanistan or Pakistan were not involved in this crime either. Even if any individual from Afghanistan or Pakistan may have been involved in this crime in some way or the other that should have been the act of an individual. The people of Afghanistan or Pakistan had no part in such a crime, but they are still being killed by the U.S-led NATO forces and American drone attacks.
I assume it is only fair that viewers should have a chance to see the whole film open-mindedly, without any mental inhibitions. Whether they agree with every single detail of the happenings or not is for each individual to discuss and decide after a critical scrutiny of the well-known story. But there is no doubt that some viewers will have some questions about the main course and the details of the events. Those who are interested in finding the facts will have to do some research themselves to find the answers to such questions. No doubt, the matter is complicated and it is not easy to disentangle the facts from the legends. Consequently, there lies the challenge to those who aspire to find the truth about the 9/11.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUGLp5TAVpQ&feature=player_embedded
the writer is typical right wing writer who first sheds crocodile tears for the loss of life but then in next sentence says that it was result of America’s policy, meaning America deserved it. the writer then foolishly contradicts himself, by pointing finger at America, meaning that it was an inside job. according to writer, it was the US which did it for occupying Iraq and Afghanistan. i can’t understand the logic that if it was handiwork of Americans then why he is asking Americans to mend their ways. His sympathy with al-qaeda and other terrorist groups can be gauged by the fact he in his one of earlier articles blasted American for killing pious, frail, old and sick man osama bin laden. he, like other, wing right pamphleteers, blames every problems of muslim world on america. this state of denial has done more harm to muslims than america. the writer tries very unsuccessfully and shabbily to shroud his leaning but use of one word exposes his real self. the use of word ‘wasteland’ for america shows how much he is influenced by Syed Qutab, the spiritual and ideological guru of osama bin laden. the tragedy is that these types of writers try to show that they’re greater supporter of freedom and liberty and fairness but the truth is that they’re trying to please their Arab Gulf masters where they live. they’re trying to be more loyal than arabs when it comes to issue of american interference in the middle east. they blame america for all arab problems but dare not talk about what arabs are doing with their people. the great supporters of freedom and express go silent when it comes the place they’re living. in fact, instead criticizing they sing paeans to these arab dictators for being god’s gift to their people. late custodian of holy shrines king fahd was a great womaniser and gambler. las vegas is full of his stories of losing millions of dollars in one night. they talk of discrimination in america but turn totally blind to rampant discrimination that exits in gulf countries where even in hospitals an arab is seen first by a doctor while an asian keeps crying in pain. the condition asian workers is really pitiable. they’re kept in camps outside the cities where conditions are comparable with nazi concentration camps. any employee where is a ceo or ordinary worker – they’re passports are kept by employers, making them slaves. exploitation of asian maids is unspeakable – from sexual to inhuman physical torture ensured by asian maids should come under crimes against humanity. but these fair-minded and conscientious journalists who so openly lash out american high-handedness keep their eyes and mouths shut. one can’t blame them also as most of these journalists would have difficult in finding a lowly job in any newspaper in their countries. so gulf have become the best refuge for them. get good pay, live in air-conditioned houses but be your master’s voice. in fact, the masters are so arrogant and intoxicated with power and money that they don’t need such trumpeters. the truth is that these white collar slaves are on their own are singing paeans to them in the hope that they might read this one day and raise their salary or housing allowance. so it really amazes me when these people talk of equality, fairness, impartiality. it would be better for such people to look inwards and see what’s wrong with them rather than what’s wrong with america.
To point out the fact that 9/11 was a consequence of U.S. foreign policy is not at all to say America deserved it, and this kind of argument is dishonest to the extreme.
abdul rashid: an inadequate and inappropriate answer.