One Arab’s Apology
Just as I scorn the Islamic world that refuses to condemn evil, I must elevate an Arab Muslim that speaks out. We need more people like this. They must take back their faith from within, and we need to encourage these people to speak while protecting them from harm.
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.
Filed under: Islam
I hope this opens a groundswell of Arabs who stand up against the actions of their brethren.
Note that this is from someone who would seem to be “in the know.” And, he was afraid of what would become of him. Doesn’t this address the issue of things being committed by “individuals”? Okay, maybe they are. But these individuals are rallied by a deep underlying philosophy that allows them to disregard their own lives as well as those of any outside their faith. Hitler was an individual. His cause was littered with individuals. Yet, we still took him to task and fought against his country in war.