Photo taken a couple weeks ago at ground zero.By EMILIO KARIM DABUL
September 12, 2006
Hat tip LGF
WELL, here it is, five years late, but here just the same: an apology from an Arab-American for 9/11. No, I didn't help organize the killers or contribute in any way to their terrible cause. However, I was one of millions of Arab-Americans who did the unspeakable on 9/11: nothing.The only time I raised my voice in protest against these men who killed thousands of innocents in the name of Allah was behind closed doors, among the safety of friends and family. I did at one point write a very vitriolic essay condemning their actions, but fear of becoming another Salman Rushdie kept me from ever trying to publish it.
Well, I'm sick of saying the truth only in private - that Arabs around the world, including Arab-Americans like myself, need to start holding our own culture accountable for the insane, violent actions that our extremists have perpetrated on the world at large.
Yes, our extremists and our culture.
Every single 9/11 hijacker was Arab and a Muslim. The apologists (including President Bush) tried to reassure us that 9/11 had nothing to do with Islam, but was a twisting of a great and noble religion. With all due respect, read the Koran, Mr. President. There's enough there for someone of extreme tendencies to find their way to a global jihad... Read it all.
Emilio Karim Dabul, New Jersey, freelance writer and PR consultant.Thank you Emilio Karim Dabul.
Hopefully others will be inspired by your courage and integrity.
When will we awake? - Canada, September 11, 2006
Colin Nelson
The Price of Freedom
Journalism in Iraq: The New York Times: Ali Fadhil and a letter from Lisa Ramaci-Vincent.
4 comments:
Okay, it may be five years late, but I respect Dabul for making a public stand. For an arab and a muslim to speak publicly against arab/muslim dysfunctionality, is a courageous thing.
It's hard to imagine a reformed Islam that can peacefully coexist with the secular west, but more people like Dabul speaking out in this way would make it easier to visualize.
There won't be any reform if it does not come from within.
It appears 5 years late, it may even be decades late. I think it takes a lot of blood and pain for people to rebel massively against "absolute" authority and to reject what they were brought up with. In any case it takes leaders to start something so important.
If one can do it, others may follow.
I hope al fin that Dabul will keep speaking out.
In some ways, Muslims in this country are in the same position that decent whites were in during the days of the Jim Crow South; that non-Jews were in during America's "Gentleman's Agreement" days; and that German-Americans were in during World War 2. Most of those who had the courage of their convictions made it a point to publically declare were they stood. They didn't draw the wagons. Accordingly, it's difficult to understand the frequent complaint from many Muslims who contend they have no obligation to publically apologize for or condemn the misdeeds of members of their own group and religion. Doing so would appear to be an American tradition, part of the assimilation process. This essay is a breath of fresh air.
David,
You make good points.
"Accordingly, it's difficult to understand the frequent complaint from many Muslims who contend they have no obligation to publically apologize for or condemn the misdeeds of members of their own group and religion."
They probably fear that by doing so that they would admit to a personal guilt and or they will attract the attention of the wrong people, be rejected by their peers... It is not in the tradition to stand up against the opinions of other Muslims in favor of infidels, especially against the "enemies of Islam" such as Jews and Americans now. Even non Muslims are afraid to admit that Islam is a highly dysfunctional family with huge power.
They have a real big problem, 10 % of 1.2 billion are ready to kill. Brain washed from infancy, they can't utter a word against the Prophet or any Islamic government and the Koran "can't" be amended. As children of Islam and even more so if they are from an Islamic nation, they are not free to take responsibility of their destiny and they are trained to double think, so how could they stand up as courageous adults with a clear mind?
This is why those few who speak out are so important, they break with the traditions by proposing new models and new attitude. I heard often in privacy how they hate terrorism, but very few ever have anything good to say about Israel.
What is puzzling to me is that the ordinary folks in the East are convinced that they are massively abused and killed by the West and Israel. Yet we all know that terror, torture and murder are almost exclusively sanctioned today by authoritarian governments and practiced by armies of jihadis and mad fanatics who believe in honour killing.
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