First of all, let me say that I despise the term "Islamic Terrorists". I don't believe that terrorists act in the name of any religion or any god. Terrorism is just an extreme and violent form of politics. I am not a political person - I am generally disgusted by politics no matter where it happens in the world. My view may sound naive, but so be it.

On 9/11, I was sitting at my desk, watching the news bulletins come in on my computer screen. Of course, I was stunned and saddened, as were humane people all over the world.

Over the few minutes, my phone rang twice. The first call was my best friend in Cairo. He'd seen the news reports on CNN and knew that I have friends in New York. He called to ask about my safety and theirs. He was with his mother and she was crying to see such horror supposedly in the name of Allah.

The second call was from my best friend in New York. She was sitting at her desk in Midtown Manhattan and had just seen the plane hit the second tower. As we spoke, my colleagues in New York were in a conference room that overlooked the Financial District - they were watching the tower burn and people jumping out windows to their death just to avoid being incinerated. Many times during that day, my friends and co-workers trudged down to Ground Zero, trying to help as many people as they could get away from the area and get medical attention. My friends are white, African American, Arab, Indian, Asian, Latino, Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, atheist. It didn't matter who or what they were, they were just human and they all helped.

Before that day and many times since, I have been to Egypt. Egyptians have always welcomed me with open arms. Yes, they are curious about American opinions of George Bush and Iraq. And yes, I answer their questions honestly - I didn't vote for Bush and I didn't approve of invading Iraq.

Most of the people I know here have never been to Egypt, although they don't say bad things about Egyptians or about Muslims. They denounce terrorism whether it comes from the US or the other side of the world. I tell them about the warmth of Egyptian people and ask them to open their hearts and their minds.

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Originally posted by neo*geo:
This doesn't mean we hate other countries or anything. We just are a bit arrogant, self-centered, and isolated from the rest of the world.

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As you have stated yourself Americans are isolated from the rest of the world and 'a bit' gives the impression that it's on a small scale which is simply not true. And therefore Americans are susceptible to embracing everything stated by their government as the absolute truth as they have not been exposed to opposing views. That combined with the Anti Arab/Muslim US media will lead the Americans to hate Arabs and Muslims because they are only aware of one side of the story. Like I said they are greatly misinformed, and it is not our job to go and shove what's really going in front of their faces. And this arrogance displayed by America does make it extremely difficult to sympathise with them.

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Originally posted by dajjal supreme:
As you have stated yourself Americans are isolated from the rest of the world and 'a bit' gives the impression that it's on a small scale which is simply not true. And therefore Americans are susceptible to embracing everything stated by their government as the absolute truth as they have not been exposed to opposing views. That combined with the Anti Arab/Muslim US media will lead the Americans to hate Arabs and Muslims because they are only aware of one side of the story. Like I said they are greatly misinformed, and it is not our job to go and shove what's really going in front of their faces. And this arrogance displayed by America does make it extremely difficult to sympathise with them. [This message has been edited by dajjal supreme (edited 21 June 2004).]

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Dajjal, you & your ilk are determined to believe that all Americans hate you, despite all my words to the contrary. So fine, have at it. Think what you like. I know believing all Americans hate you makes it easier for you to hate us, which is really the issue here.

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Originally posted by Carleen:
Dajjal, you & your ilk are determined to believe that all Americans hate you, despite all my words to the contrary. So fine, have at it. Think what you like. I know believing all Americans hate you makes it easier for you to hate us, which is really the issue here.

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Originally posted by dajjal supreme:
As you have stated yourself Americans are isolated from the rest of the world and 'a bit' gives the impression that it's on a small scale which is simply not true. And therefore Americans are susceptible to embracing everything stated by their government as the absolute truth as they have not been exposed to opposing views. That combined with the Anti Arab/Muslim US media will lead the Americans to hate Arabs and Muslims because they are only aware of one side of the story. Like I said they are greatly misinformed, and it is not our job to go and shove what's really going in front of their faces. And this arrogance displayed by America does make it extremely difficult to sympathise with them.

[This message has been edited by dajjal supreme (edited 21 June 2004).]

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I think it take an american more effort to love muslims or arab than hating them and vice versa

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Originally posted by Troubles101:
I think it take an american more effort to love muslims or arab than hating them and vice versa

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Originally posted by dajjal supreme:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Carleen:
[b] Dajjal, you & your ilk are determined to believe that all Americans hate you, despite all my words to the contrary. So fine, have at it. Think what you like. I know believing all Americans hate you makes it easier for you to hate us, which is really the issue here.

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[This message has been edited by dajjal supreme (edited 21 June 2004).][/B][/QUOTE]

Oh my!!! where did u get this from...check these links out...

http://www.alwatan.com.kw/default.aspx?page=1&topic=137290
http://www.aljazeera.net/programs/shareea/articles/2000/12/12-12-6.htm

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Originally posted by BahYBasha:
at least it is the fastest growing relgion in North america after 9/11 and that is a fact!

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Originally posted by neo*geo:
This is true. Most Americans couldn't find Iraq or Afghanistan on a map. Most Americans could care less about affairs outside the USA. This doesn't mean we hate other countries or anything. We just are a bit arrogant, self-centered, and isolated from the rest of the world.

There is also a lot of anti-Arab sentiment in the US since 9/11/2001. The tragic killings of American civilians in Iraq and Saudi Arabia hasn't helped to improve American opinions of the Arab world. I hope all this will come to pass very soon and the US will find friends in the Middle East like we've had in the past. It can happen.

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Originally posted by kimo_the_maniac:
I agree with troubles. I am not really impressed with those statistics. I am Muslim because I like being a Muslim and I don't care if only a handfull of other people approved of my religion (those who hate me for my religion can go **** themselves). And Moko, just because you opted out of Islam doesn't mean everyone else should, and the fact that you are trying to invalidate a very commonly disemminated statistic is proof enough that you are in constant need to justify your decision.

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9/11. The Day.
I had been up all night preparing a shipment, and the tv was on as background noise. (I live in my studio.) Canadian news is mostly international in the early morning broadcasts. Thus, the tube was on for the very first reports.

When it happened, it seemed as though I went numb. I didn't ... The emotions were simply too profound and too contradictory. I remember the (erroneous) American premise of never being attacked on their home land, of being impregnible, passed through my mind - with a modicom of jaded humour. As did the knowledge that the New Yorkers would not be able to handle the horror - because this was something so alien to their experience, too great a shock to the structure of their national dogma. Which had to be in part the point of the attack, or so I felt. I was able to empathize somewhat with the minds of the terrorists, for after all, those who live by "an eye for an eye" must be willing to forfeit their own. I could also comprehend the elation of the mouse who causes the elephant to stumble. It is possible to comprehend the feeling of another without concurring that their actions are correct. Conflicting.

All this, while simultaneously, tears ran down my face, bile filled my throat, and my stomach grew cold at the blood and the death and the chaos.

I also felt immediate fear for the manner in which the Americans would retaliate - and how all of this would affect *everything*. The analogy of an elephant and Bush is a good one. Raging elephants obliviously destroy everything in their path.

When the fine metals supplier opened, I had the presence of mind to spend every last penny on gold stock so that the business could survive - because they use the stock market prices from the close of the prior day.

9/11 - Strongest Memory of That Week.
Keeping my Raks Sharki teacher calm. He's an old Lebanese man who had the misfortune of naming his school "Alkhaima" (which sounds a little like "Alkeida") and whose wife was in Lebanon when it happened.

Poor Colleen. The problem with myopia is one cannot see that they are myopic precisely because they are myopic. The Canadian news station was quickly buried in emails by Americans thanking Canada for their full, uncensored reporting. And the Canadian show "Counter-Spin" became incredibly popular.

I worked full time at the Toronto Disarmament Network during the 1st Gulf War. During the lead-up to that war, I was visiting a friend in Germany, and letting her translate the news for me every night. They were talking sanctions. They were councilling their population to boycot their own German companies that continued to handle contracts with Iraq. They would scroll the company names down the screen every night.
I flew home to Toronto in mid-August. And it was as though I had jumped planets, not merely continents. There was no mention of sanctions on the American news, no scrolling list of American companies continuing to profit through Iraqi contracts... only endless butch updates on the latest American war planes.

To say that this war was about oil is almost - but not quite - on the mark. Bush tore up the agreements to keep the Arctic pristine, and they will be drilling there. This war was more subtle - it was about the *currency* of oil. If the main currency of oil became the euro, the dollar would cease to become the dominant currency. The American debt would have to be repaid. Think about it.

I am so sorry for all the pain. I wish I had the answers. I don't.

Israel is one of the most racist places in the world if you are a Arab Israeli, a black Falasha Jews,a ethnic Jew[Sephardi,Yemani etc],and just an Arab Israeli citizen. Not to mention that America literally walked out during the Durban southern African conference on racism.

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Originally posted by ausar:
The Zionist controll America without a doubt.

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Originally posted by cassia:
(The Canadian prime minister who signed the free trade agreement is considered a national traitor by many in Canada.)

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Colleen, I vacation every summer in New York State, and have relatives in San Fransisco and L.A. So I'm very fond of many Americans, honest!

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Originally posted by cassia:
But the fact that the American public is so unaware of Canada's issues illustrates the degree of censorship on CNN. These issues are on our TV daily.

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Yes, you are exactly right, and that's what I try so hard to make non-Americans understand. It's not that Americans inherently evil & hateful - we just aren't presented with the news & issues with respect to foreign policy that those on the "short-end of the stick" are.

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Beheadings fuel fresh backlash against Muslims
Saturday, June 26, 2004 Posted: 8:35 PM EDT (0035 GMT)

EAGLESWOOD TOWNSHIP, New Jersey (AP) -- The recent beheadings of two Americans in the Middle East have added fuel to the angry backlash against Arab-Americans and Muslims that began after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The murders of Paul Johnson and Nicholas Berg triggered hate mail, verbal attacks and anti-Muslim signs. Muslims received death threats and their mosques were vandalized.

"Since 9/11, every time there is an incident overseas attributed to Muslims or Arabs, we go on orange alert ourselves," said immigration lawyer Sohail Mohammed.

"There are individuals here who are off the wall, who think that every woman who wears a hijab or every man named Mohammed is out to blow things up."

Al-Qaida-linked militants in Saudi Arabia decapitated Johnson, an American engineer, after warning that they would kill him if the Saudi government did not release jailed comrades. Berg, a businessman, met a similar fate last month in Iraq.

Following Johnson's death, anti-Islam signs surfaced around the rural New Jersey neighborhood where he once lived. One read "Stamp Out Islam" next to a drawing of a boot over a crescent and star. Another, hung on a mailbox next door to Johnson's sister's home, was more detailed.

"Last night I wasn't a racist, but today I feel racism towards Islamic beliefs," it read. "Last night Islamics had a chance to speak up for Paul Johnson, but today it's too late. Islamics better wake up and start thinking about tomorrow."

The New Jersey attorney general sent bias crimes investigators to the area, along with stepped-up state police patrols. The signs are gone now, replaced with hand-lettered placards on utility poles that say "Our prayers are with the Johnson family."

But more anti-Muslim graffiti appeared Thursday on a Muslim man's home in Egg Harbor Township.

"It's really our fear coming true," said Faiza Ali of the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "It indicates a hatred that could turn into something violent."

Relatives of Johnson, in a statement made through a church pastor after a memorial service Saturday, said that they hope his legacy is one of peace in the land he grew to love during more than a decade abroad.

"When history is written on the war on terrorism, let Paul's death be the catalyst that led to thousands more Westerners working in harmony with people in the Middle East to ensure fear and barbaric acts against free peoples come to an end," the Rev. Kyle Huber of Greentree Church said.

The day after Johnson's death, a coalition of Muslim groups held a rally to condemn the killing in Paterson, the heart of New Jersey's Arab-American community.

A few days later, vandals tossed empty liquor and beer bottles at a mosque in Union City as congregants inside mourned a teenager who died in a car crash.

"If they are throwing empty bottles today, they could be throwing rocks, or worse, shooting at us tomorrow," said Aref Assaf, president of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee's New Jersey chapter.

Two mosques in Florida were vandalized in the days after Johnson's killing. In the Tampa suburb of Lutz, someone broke into the Islamic Community Center and scrawled "Kill All Muslims" on the mosque's interior walls, then smashed windows. In Charlotte Harbor, someone vandalized a mosque's sign and left threatening phone messages.

In the St. Louis suburb of Ballwin, Missouri, vandals painted a swastika and the word "Die" on the wall of the Dar-Ul-Islam mosque.

In Texas, dead fish were dumped near the entrance sign to a mosque under construction in a suburb of Houston.

And in the Chicago suburb of Orland Park, residents urged officials this past week to reject a mosque's building application. A Baptist pastor told a public hearing he feared it would attract Islamic extremists and violence. The center was approved over boos and catcalls from the audience.

"I believe the time is coming when Muslims will not be safe inside the U.S. borders," one man wrote to the Washington, D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. "I see nothing wrong with us doing the same things to them that they are doing to innocent people."

"It is high time you people wake up and smell the blood," another man wrote to Assaf's group in New Jersey. "Turn in the terrorists. They are your relatives, in a lot of cases. Cousin Omar. Uncle Mohammad. You know what I mean. Until you come forward to help us stamp out this vermin, you are as bad as they."

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Anyways, after sept 11, the jewish society in western univ (london,canada) was spreading fliers to the univ student which was full of hate and accusations against arabs and claiming we are the biggest threat to the world peace,etc. and the univ admin did nothing about it.

also here in dalhousie univ, they invited irshad manji (lesbain) the author of the book "trouble of islam" so that it can speak to the muslim and arab student of the univ to solve our porblems . from when was the jew interested in solving our problems, they just invited her to provok us, nothing more or less. Her book is full of insults to our religion from its introduction to the last page. They cant leave us alone.

This is one of the lessons u can learn from life "life isnt always fair". With the help from ppl like u, we can make the world a better place to live without racism.

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Originally posted by annie_81:
I will be happy to send a copy of my thesis on racism at Con U to anybody interested.

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Originally posted by Undead:
The Saudis own about 8% of America according to Farenheit 911. I think that European and American Jews might have that beat. However an interesting point has been made by some elder US statesmen that I know personally : America will always support colonial imperialist governments because that is how the USA was born. A bunch of Europeans invaded and slaughtered the native population of a place they had no business being. Just like the Afrikaaners and the Israelis. The US supported apartheid in South Africa because up until 40 years ago there was Apartheid in the US. Now that Apartheid is the standard in Israel do these old timers in the US that grew up during segregation really care? Texas fought civil rights progress as hard as anyone in South Africa did, and Texas is where a good deal of the US policy makers hail from currently. If the US condemned Israel they would have to eventually revisit that the US is built upon the very same thing, and I don't believe that these GOP families that have been in politics for 60+ years really minded segregation or American apartheid one bit, otherwise the black Americans would not have had to fight so hard for civil rights. It is an old legacy of hatred that goes beyond the Jews. The Jews may be just the shock troops for the GOP true colors. Who owns the remaining MAJORITY of the US, far beyond the Jews, the Saudis, and the Far East Asians? That is who weilds the true power, and they like the way things are going.

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couldn't agree with u more....
good points

salam,
brian

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Originally posted by Undead:
Just like the Afrikaaners and the Israelis. The US supported apartheid in South Africa because up until 40 years ago there was Apartheid in the US. .

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Dont forget how the introduced drugs to the locals...with the intent of pushing them to destroy themsleves....kind of like an ethnic cleansing.Ever wondered who introduced and supplied the drugs to South Africa in the first place?...

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Originally posted by cappa:

killing 5000+ civilians in the name of god!!

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Originally posted by BahYBasha:
It was between 2800-3000 civilians!
5000+ is what i call the **** up propoganda that brainwash ppl like u :P.
thank you for proving my point!

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i din't realize that statistics were gonna be the only thing u objected to.., the actual number is 2,998 to be exact...not counting the thousands of ppl affected..so maybe the death of those specific 2,998 civilians can be justified in the name of god!!