Regarding Arabs/Muslims celebrating 9/11

[ck4829]

There has been a lot of talk about this ever since it has happened. You can see videos or hear stories of Arabs and/or Muslims celebrating 9/11. There have been questions as to the truthfulness of these videos and stories though.

Take it from me, a convert to Islam, the terrorist attacks of 9/11 were evil, plain and simple.

But, how come nobody pays any attention to these people who tried to celebrate and/or use the terrorist attacks of 9/11 to their advantage?

Was it Arabs/Muslims who are going around saying "Thank God for 9/11!"? No, that would be Fred Phelps.

Was it Arabs/Muslims who tried to blame the terrorist attacks of 9/11 on GLBT people, people who want to see America more secular, and groups such PFAW? No, that would be Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell.

Was it Arabs/Muslims who are always using the terrorist attacks of 9/11 in propaganda? No that would be the Bush Administration and the Republican Party.

So, next time somebody tells you about Arabs or Muslims going around celebrating 9/11, I suggest you counter with a story about Fred Phelps, or the 9/11 blame game that Pat and Jerry were trying to do.

[Bark Bark Bark]

1. Absolutely

It's like the wingnut habit of saying "liberals are happy that our troops are over there gettin' kilt."

We're the ones who tried to PREVENT it, of course. But I can't tell you how many times I've heard some wingnut declare the casualties in Iraq "a small price to pay" for, well, whatever they THINK we're gaining from the war...

...Or Bush's recent declaration that POLITICS is "the ultimate sacrifice, really." (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/01/20050103-22.html ) That's an unbelievably stupid thing to say in peacetime, let alone right freaking now.

Why should the sheep be any smarter than their butcher?

[Bronco69]

2. That's an excellent argument and I shall use it often. N/T

[kk897]

3. maybe it all goes back to that horrid "news" story...

...right after 9/11 the networks all were showing footage of what looked like mobs of Middle Eastern men and boys celebrating in the streets. They played it over and over for a couple of days, long enough to be ingrained into our cultural consiousness.

Then, of course, the alternative media reported that the footage had been shot of an event that had nothing to do with 9/11; in fact, as I recall, it had been manufactured by the cameraman. Anyway, again, as I recall and someone can certainly set me straight here, some store owner was giving out free goodies, prompting a little celebration, and the cameraman framed it so that it looked like a mob.

Of course (again) the CMWs (Corporate Media Whores) never really set the record straight for anyone who didn't go looking for real news on the internet. It became a meme, a strong and persistent one, and I reckon anyone who thinks that Arabs or Muslims were celebrating 9/11 has this meme embedded quite firmly in their individual consciousness, too.

Hope that makes sense...I'm going with a marked lack of sleep...but I HATE such intolerance and ignorance and injustice and hatred and xenophobia... we must do everything we can to counter it. It's a tough row to hoe, and I'm sorry you and ANYONE have to endure it.

[tngledwebb]

5. MSM is complicit in propping up the BushCo regime.

At least since Nov. 2000, if not before, and in spreading the officially sanctioned propaganda and lies that support the BushCo version of what happened on 9/11.

[Selteri]

6. They were showing pictures on CNN

Before the second tower was even hit.

[Deja Q]

4. (back on 9/11) They had a video of St Paul Muslims dancing.

I wish more people would look outside the box and see things from the other person's point of view, rather than blindly saying "they hate us" or "you're either with us or against us" and so on.

Yes, it's not a pleasant thought that anybody would celebrate death. But there's got to be a reason; what's bugging the folks who were dancing that day? Maybe they were the Devil's henchmen. Or maybe they're so sick of how the (Americans in power) have acted to such an extent that such a vile act would only please them. (and that's got to be extreme. Even I, a person who is less than keen on corporate america, did not and would not praise such an atrocity. But people need to communicate now. Just for understanding instead of this blind animalistic aggression. We're supposed to be better than that. Surely?)

[PsychoDad]

8. Maybe they were dancing for another reason?

??
Maybe they were videotaped at a celebration? A marrage maybe, and the film used to support the "evil muzzies" meme?

[PsychoDad]

7. Hamdulilah

Well said Brother/Sister and marharban and welcome to DU. :)

Salaams

[noonwitch]

9. That whole thing reminds me of my grandparents bitching about "the japs"

They went to Hawaii and visited the USS Arizona monument. They stated that there were some japanese tourists who were laughing there, 30+ years after Pear Harbor. We asked my granparents how they knew, if the tourists weren't speaking English, that they knew they were laughing about the attack? When they couldn't answer that, we asked them if an american tourist snickered while touring Hiroshima, would that make it even?

It's just so insane to blame the entire muslim world because some palestineans celebrated the 9-11 attacks. Americans take themselves way to seriously.

[The White Tree]

10. I agree and wrote that to the NY Times recently about Safire

Here is the letter:

Reading Mr. Safire's idea for a sequel to "The Plot Against America" one may come to a sad conclusion: that the esteemed columnist thanks the powers that be for the 9/11 attacks on America. For while he lays out a neo-conservative nightmare of what might have happened had George Bush not chosen to invade Iraq, in reality the president campaigned in 2000 against the idea of spreading democracy. According to the administration (if you believe them) 9/11 changed everything making the policy of preemptive war necessary.

Had 9/11 never happened the scenario he describes including the fictional Bush's humiliating decision, if true, would have been more likely and devastating. That's a cold perspective.

Since I am optimistic, I will give Safire, the administration and the world the benefit of the doubt and believe his scenario is just columnist fantasy.

I leave him and all these words: Peace be with you.

Note: The Op-Ed appeared around Christmas hence the last line.

One caveat on this in the interest of balanced perspective. I combat this with myself often because one of the first things I do in the morning is check the website: <http://www.icasualties.org/oif/>
to see the most recent casualty figures for the Iraq War. Up until the election I was doing it because I felt that if there were over 1000 casualties in the war prior to the election that it would likely spell defeat for Bush. I continue to check daily and note grim statistics about the mounting death toll - for example, more soldiers have died each corresponding month of the war in 2004 then in 2003 with the exception of March (which was when in 2003 the actual combat phase of the war was in progress), by on average I think about 20 soldiers each month. I often try to gage in myself why I do this. I continually ask myself - do I hope for these deaths just so that I can say the president was wrong? What I have realized is that - no I do not. When the war started I wrote to the president and told him that I would pray for him to make the right decision and that I felt that starting this war would only make the world a more dangerous place. I continue to believe that and each death confirms my belief, but I would rather have been wrong and the president right then to have had all these people (as well as the Iraqis) die. But I did not start this war, and I couldn't stop it. And now that it is started I am not even sure what the best thing to do is to end it. So I continue to watch and hope and wonder when will the madness stop.

So I don't (or won't at least) allow myself to think that anyone who really looks at it with perspective celebrates what happened on 9/11 - not the president, not the religious right, not Muslims, not the nut job commentators.

But I definitely think they all use it to their advantage. Some much more then most, and many in ways that are totally unrelated, not least our current president and administration.