My Friend, the WTC Hero
I, Molten Eagle, used to work in the WTC (above 90th) and one of my best friends was there for both the 1993 attack (he required respiratory treatment after that) and the 9/11 debacle (I was not). Just so you know, his tower had not been hit yet, but he could feel the heat from the other tower's fire through their outer wall. When his floor got word not to evacuate, he lead his whole office, boss included, out of there due to his prior bad experience. They survived. We know other people who were not as fortunate.
A couple of years ago he, his wife and child were involved in a traffic accident with a Muslim cab driver, who seeing WTC ID in his car stated "we missed you in the world trade center, but we will get you next time." Today, he sent me an interesting, article by an Arabic speaking lady. Here it is. If you have qualms about the source, as I first did, here's a critique from a hostile source, which basically says they are biased and report opinions not news. I should think, where facts are witnessed in a mosque and heard in Arabic by someone with an embassy background that we would all be interested enough to see what she says. Not all muslims are radical Islamists, we know.
Here is what a Muslim who probably agrees with her had to say:
Open Letter to Osama bin Laden (as quoted November 16, 2001 in the New York Times):” ''We Muslims cannot keep blaming the West for all our ills. . . . The embarrassment of wretchedness among us is beyond repair. It is not just the poverty, the illiteracy and the absence of any commonly accepted social contract that define our sense of wretchedness; it is, rather, the increasing awareness among us that we have failed as a civil society by not confronting the historical, social and political demons within us. . . . Without a reformation in the practice of Islam that makes it move forward and not backward, there is no hope for us Muslims anywhere. We have reduced Islam to the organized hypocrisy of state-sponsored mullahism. For more than a thousand years Islam has stood still because the mullahs, who became de facto clergy instead of genuine scholars, closed the door on 'ijtehad' [reinterpreting Islam in light of modernity] and no one came forward with an evolving application of the message of the Holy Quran. All that the mullahs tell you today is how to go back a millennium. We have not been able to evolve a dynamic practice to bring Islam to the people in the language of their own specific era. . . . Oxford and Cambridge were the 'madrasas' of Christendom in the 13th century. Look where they are today -- among the leading institutions of education in the world. Where are our institutions of learning?'' - Izzat Majeed (Pakistani writer and businessman, in Pakistani daily The Nation)
Progress Report: MATTHEW BARAKAT filed an AP report regarding Ali al-Timimi's conviction today in Virginia.
posted by Vigilis @ 4:25 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
there have been enough reports of active recruiting going on in the mosques around our country that this doesn't come as a surprise. i am not one to preach bias or hate, but of all the ethnic/religious groups in the world, "modern" radical islamism fulfills all of the prerequisites for me to watch them with a jaundiced eye. hell, it's nothing new. 8 or 10 years ago, there was a big to do over hammas and other terror groups touring the country, fund raising at mosques all over the u.s. i don't see any way to fix the problem, short of irreversible, and dire actions that no sane or reasonable human would take. it's been tried before, with different groups, and most famously got us into a world war. it's a real pickle, that's for sure.
when I was in theology school, one of my profs made the comment that the next world war would be fought between Islam and Christian. In other words, he was saying the next war would be between Islamic and non-Islamic people.
At the recent growth of Islam through out the world, this appears to have become a fifth column organization calling for recruits from other countries.
I agree with the comments made by the Pakistani business man that Islam has stayed the same due to the religious leaders. The evidence is seen in many Islamic countries, just on the tip of modernization and yet held back by some sort of control.
My fear is that a time will come when some Islamic fundementalist will spark the match that will light the fuse that will see mosques in western nations become more than just targets by non-Islamic people.
I thought that 9/11 would have been that spark, but it wasn't. I wonder what action will take place that would push Americans and Canadians over the edge to take violent action in their own countries.
Here is my opinion, Ed: Americans (most of us regardless of race, creed or origin) will defend our homeland despite our overabundance of weak-kneed lawyers and well-fed politicians, here.
Another attack on the order of a 9/11 (attempted or successfull) would be the likely trigger, because our populace requires a high degree of productivity.
Either our federal government will act as it did after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, or the state militias will act to "sequester" and "subdue" suspected, internal threats. Federal security interventions have been demonstrated more recently by actions at Waco and Ruby Ridge.
Personally, I am thankful Osama unleashed his rabid violence as soon as he did. That was very premature on Al-Qaeda's part. America was finally awakened, secretive defenses are up, and US-friendly informants have already penetrated terror cells both here and abroad. Recruits to radical Islam are being catalogued as I write (under all of their aliases). You see, we have a strategy that may seem slow and bumbling, but investigations take time and are proceeding as necessary.
Had Osama waited several years to build an un-stoppable base before unleashing a 9/11, our rebound would have been extremely painful. His premature attack marked him as a Tamerlane throwback, a blot upon Islam, not an intellectual capable of defining goals for which anyone should contemplate suicide bombing.
Now, Americans need not go "over the edge." Instead, we refined action plans and what our limits will look like. As to conjectures about Canadians, you or other Canadians will have to tell me.
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