Hicham Maged's blog Inquisitive curiosity paves knowledge path

Nine Years after 9/11 in America

Nine years have passed since the terrorist 9/11 attacks in 2001 struck United States of America yet the aftermath is still echoing. Although I am not an American citizen, I blog about this tragedy since it has affected Muslims on the minor and major scales regarding their image plus their countries through the War on Terror plus the impact on the human beings and international relations on different aspects.

USA State Map

I’ve previously elaborated during the 7^th and 8^th commemorations (or anniversaries) in September 2008 and September 2009 respectively about Islam, Muslims and USA. Hence in September 2010, this ninth year after 9/11 attacks seems to me a different one from its predecessors since I think America has changed on different aspects that I am tying to analyze while sharing you with my reflections in this blog entry.

America & Changes

In my perspective, USA is facing changes on the ninth anniversary (or commemoration) of 9/11 attacks. Firstly, one and half year has passed since electing Barack Obama as the 44th POTUS with a “Democratic Administration” that was the successor of the “Republican Administration” under George W. Bush presidency.

On one hand, I still observe electing Obama as a reflection for how Americans are positively changing in the 21^st century to support more freedom and step down spotting/recognizing other Americans on an ethnic background in the way that they had suffered from in the past 20^th century. This simply means that Martin Luther King Jr.’s infamous call “I have a Dream” is echoing since 1963 and slowly but positively affecting the different aspects of life in general plus love and justice in particular, which is a good example for illustrating the Common Grounds in Human Nature that I’ve elaborated over before.

On the other hand, it is normal that the Americans agree/disagree about the current Obama’s Administration for what he achieved versus what he hadn’t yet. Such debate can be followed through media outlets that praise/criticize him. Nevertheless, despite your opinion about Obama with his successes/failures, we’ve reached the second change that America has from my point of view which is faking news about his religious status.

If you follow the news, you probably have been flooded by the ongoing news about how Obama is a Muslim, which have escalated to reach un-expected way, for me, when I read that a recent poll tells about how majority of GOP believe that their American president Obama “sympathizes with the goals of Islamic fundamentalists who want to impose Islamic law around the world.” You can check the HuffingtonPost for this poll plus more covering on this issue.

How can I read that? Ah, it’s the election seasons, so the easy way is to blame Obama for his failures (as they see them) by referencing them to his secret Muslimhood and never ever mention the failures of Bush that human beings inside and outside America are the one who suffer from. Eureka! Problem solved, so let us go for restoring honor and make America turn back to God without forgetting to double check the numbers of how many people showed up in the rally!

Man! If you think twice, you shall find that this isn’t only about Islamophobia with its minor meaning “the fear of Islam and Muslims” but mainly the major meaning which is “making Islam and Muslims as the enemies” for the state, humanity and God then!

Dears, America and Amercians are free to turn back to God as they want, same as people are free to worship God as much as they want but this does not mean denouncing Islam and Muslims just because you do not like this religion or creating an atmosphere that help on increasing Islamophobia.

Hereby, these political games reminds me with the hysterical actions by the right-wing parties in Europe who are twisting facts and feeding Islamophobia just to serve their political glory regardless the truth about what they say! This is very dangerous yet the only way to face this is to understand and expose. Consequently, if there are GOP representatives who think in this way, then no wonder to find normal people match with them.

Beyond Islamophobia

In parallel with accusing Obama of being the bad “Muslim” man, America has faced another debate that was ignited due to the plans to build an Islamic center at Park51 in New York called Cordoba House. Hereby, you find pros/anti movements for the construction of this building. This is normal since people can’t agree about everything; however I am not interested in discussing this debate since it’s an American Muslims issue within their own community yet I am concerned about its impact as a Muslim who blog about Islam and the 21^st century.

It’s noticeable that the biased media minimized the project to be Ground Zero Mosque and fed the fears about ”Muslims who celebrate their terrorist attacks according to Islam.” I am focusing on this point because whether you agree/disagree with the location of the Islamic center, you can hardly find these media outlets (news, websites, papers, and blogs) mention the reason behind establishing this project if they are neutral since it doesn’t fit with their purpose. Hence, they went through the ugly game of generalizing, stereotyping and spreading the misconceptions about Islam and Muslims just to prove their point of view regardless twisting the facts or the truth about it.

I am not surprised by their fanatic actions. Few years ago, I had discussed in the post entitled “Scary Movie of the 21st Century” how Islam and Muslims are anti-terrorism according to our teachings plus discussing such attitude of anti-Islam and equating it to terrorism, so while referring you to my post, I want to highlight on three issues that are usually ignored by biased media outlets:

1. Muslims victims have fallen in the tragedy of 9/11 attacks;
2. Muslims who have fallen under the terrorists attacks worldwide;
3. Muslim civilians who have fallen under the War on Terror for no particular reason.

These topics are rarely discussed by these media outlets since they don’t serve the purpose of spreading Islamophobia and applying racialism against the American Muslims. As for the last point, I was going to write a future post about this topic but I read another interesting post over Racialicious entitled “Casting Out: Exploring the Racialization of Muslims” which is insightful for following up with this issue.

Burning Koran for What?!

Consequently in this endless chain of hate and ignorance not only fear, Terry Jones, the pastor of a local church in Florida called to remember the 9^th anniversary of 9/11 attacks through organizing a planned protest under the theme of “International Burn: A Koran Day.” since he thinks that Islam, Muslims and Qur’an are evil and caused these attacks.

I stopped by his call because it is an example for the extremism way of thinking and generalizing. It would have been understandable by another simple man who isn’t in a religious position but unfortunately he did so while ignoring that his actions might not only give the chance for terrorists and radicals to apply their work, but also portrays Christians with something that don’t agree with in the ways he think.

After his call has sparked worldwide firestorm, he retreated and mentioned that his planned protest is against building the mosque in ground zero, which again makes me wonder about what is he looking for exactly? After many people have condemned his shameful call, he is showing another side of his bigotry that makes me wonder by weighing on the islamic center controversy.

Now think twice about his new action and ask yourself: how come that I threat other people by burning their holy book or whatever they believe in just to convince -or better say terrorize- them to accept my point of view? Think thrice about his actions from this perspective and you shall feel wonderment like I did especially that the man is a religious figure who is supposed to understand religious tolerance. This is dangerous but not strange -for me at least- since it is the same mentalities of fanatics bigotry that we see here in Egypt from some religious figures who calls for hate between Muslims and Christians while ignoring that we are all Egyptians.

Yesterday on September 10^th 2010, I read that he is abandoning his plans in exchange of moving the planned mosque from New York. This seems to me another proof for my observations in the previous paragraph. Anyway if he wants publicity, then surly he got his 15-minute fame of shame because nowadays my dears we are in living in a cheap season where anybody can be anti-Islamic (that equates Islam to terrorism for fake reasons) and shout out loud against Muslims and they shall get the shameful lights that they need.

Trees at 9/11 Ground Zero Memorial Museum

Ground Zero Area

In a nutshell, America in the ninth year after 9/11 attacks is facing many changes to the positive and negative, but the worst among such changes is the tunnel vision of mentalities that has badly affected some groups and media outlets is not healthy for the Americans regardless their orientation.

I would understand if they stand up aganist Al-Qaeda and terrorism in general not being anti-Islam as they want to portray, so I want to say shame on all fanatics judge other people and think they have the ultimate truth while ignoring that Allah (God) is the only one who shall judge people according to their deeds not people like them in the hereafter!

My final message for the pro/anti movements about Cordoba House is simple: argue and debate as much as you want since this is your right, but please remember the 9/11 victims and war on terror of all religions and their families since they have suffered enough. You already have a common ground which is Ground Zero Area where trees are growing now; this should not be a base of hate and ignorance by stereotyping Islam and Muslims but spot it for tolerance, facing terrorism and extremism or else the terrorists are succeeding in their work after nine years of 9/11 attacks.

Related Quotes and Sayings

The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic. — John F. Kennedy

« photo credit 1 – photo credit 2 »

Tags: 9/11 attacks, anti terrorism, barack obama, islamophobia
Categories: Critiques
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