I've been thinking for about a week on the upcoming tenth thirteenth seventeenth anniversary of the attacks on America. I knew more what I didn't want to say than what I did. Billions of words have been written about the events of 9/11. The loss of life, the heroic efforts of the first responders, the sense of nationalism that swept the Country around that time. The lens through which Islam would be viewed through going forward. The causes. The conspiracy theories. Etc. If its remotely connected to that day, there's no shortage of content on the internet that's available. A Google search on "September 11th" and "911" produces over 256 Million returns in less than one second. Using the same search terms on Amazon.com, over 11 thousand returns appeared.
Should I have just skipped it? That didn't seem right either. Here's what I came up with...
My thoughts on the
tenth thirteenth Anniversary of the 9/11 attacks:
Nationalism is not always good...
Islam is not always bad...
I am an American and I love my Country. I am eternally glad I was born here than anywhere else. That said, if I were from Scotland or Canada or Japan or Israel or Syria, I'm guessing I would probably feel the same way. Would I necessarily want to live in those countries is another matter entirely. Economics play a big part in that kind of thing, so to leave your homeland for economic gain hardly cancels one's feelings toward a homeland. Yes, I felt swelled with a sense of nationalism on 9/11. Like many others, I went out to the store that day and purchased a flag. The biggest flag I could hang off of my front porch. That was the thing to do that day for guys like me. We donated to the Red Cross. We followed the news as things unfolded. I added an extra patriotic song to my performances. It wasn't much. It wasn't profound. It's just what I did.
What I didn't do that day, unlike a few of my fellow Ohioans, was to drive to the nearest Mosque and shoot at it. The thought never occurred to me. I'm quite glad for that, because I would've felt rather disgusting if it had. As I watched the images on TV of some in the Middle East dancing and celebrating in the streets, it bothered me. The first reaction was the obvious one. The second one is that many people in those lands have been living with terror and death for a long time. Did I now know how they felt, sort of? Probably not.
We all seek understanding. There's a lot about 9/11 I don't understand.
As the days unfolded and turned into weeks, months and even years, I sense a lot of hatred toward Muslims.Its one thing to hate the extremists, that's proper. There are those who feel all Muslims are evil and that Islam is evil. The rhetoric is typical.
Watch this video. Look at this website. Read this Sura. See? See! They're evil, I told 'ya!!! Under the potent mix of (
read carefully) nationalism and faith, I saw many Americans go way too far in their condemnation of one of the world's oldest and greatest religions.
I've been accused of suggesting the United States asked for an attack of that kind by its policies and practices for decades in the Middle East. Let me lay it out for all to see.
If I were to try and assign some value to responsibility for that terrible day, I'd probably come up with an 95/5 percent split. I hold the terrorists chiefly responsible for the loss of life that day. They planned it, financed it and executed it. They're the ones who designed it, who took flying lessons and who flew the planes, slit the throats, and crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and if they could've, probably the Capitol. They own that. The terrorists do. No way around that...
Its simple to say the USA was purely innocent that day and just a victim. Its also wrong. For far too long, the US has directly and indirectly interfered with other Countries' affairs when it suited our interests. Trouble is, we're not the only ones with "interests." At times we've been invited, at other times not. We've over stayed our welcome in some places. We've crawled into bed with bad people we shouldn't have. It may work out in the short term, it rarely works out in the long term. (Remember when Osama Bin Laden was working for us against the Russians?)
Hopefully, our foreign policy is moving in a different direction. Those who say we should only act in the pure interests of the USA are wrong. We don't live in a vacuum. We share this world with many other people, faiths, and beliefs that don't always jive with ours. We should listen more and dictate less. Do we really always know best? Really? Really?
The big clunky nation building thing has failed on an epic level. The price tag has been enormous in both blood and money. Hunt down all the terrorists, those who would do us harm. Find them, kill them. Bring the troops home and dear God please think twice before sending our troops into harm's way the next time.
Islam, on the other hand, has a big problem that I don't think they're doing enough about. If I go searching, I can find anti terror statements from the Islamic world. But with the rhetoric of the far right, Christian conservatives and the likes of Fox News, I say they (Muslims) are not doing enough to reject terrorism. They are doing better, but when the next attack comes (and it will) I fear a loss of any ground gained in the last ten years. They should speak louder and more often. As silly as it sounds, every time an Iman preaches death to infidels, moderate Muslims must raise their voices above those that preach hate. It may not be fair, Christians aren't compelled every time a Fred Phelps says "God hates fags" to denounce him. He's fringe, everybody knows he's fringe and mostly ignores him. Except when he's protesting the funerals of fallen servicemen.
It may be a double standard, but there's a lot of people freaked out in the US about Muslims. So, they (Muslims) would be well advised to redouble their efforts in communicating their rejection of violence and those that preach it. Cast them out, if you will. Publicly and loudly. You have numbers-use them.
The hate speech I hear from some so called Christians is ugly and disgusting. Wrapped in equal parts the Bible and Flag, the allegations that all Muslims are out to kill all Christians was presented to me recently. I was a fool, they claimed, to not believe their words. According to this delusional wing of Christians and Political Conservatives, any Christians who seek co-existence with Islam have quite simply been duped. They know not the truth. The wingnuts of the far, far right have taken possession of that turf. All while portraying themselves as the real true Christians and the real true Patriots.
However well intentioned, however well meaning-this group is doing damage of unthinkable measure. Who's against God? Who's against the US of A? These are big, grand concepts and when snake oil salesmen start their pitch, too many people fall in line. To suggest they're wrong could bring the sincerity of your faith into question. Or your patriotism. Who wants to mess with that? Its easier to just go along, but its also dangerous.
