9/11 - 9 years later (part two)

1) Where was I when the 9/11 attacks happened?

I was at University of Hawaii that time, living at the dorms!

Because of the time difference between NY and Hawaii, I was asleep when the attacks happened!

I first found out about it when my mom called me at 5:45. She mentioned that the World Trade Center blew up. At the moment, I was thinking it would've been similar to the bombing that occurred in the World Trade Center in 1993.

Only when I listened to the radio (the TV in my dorm room was screwed up at the time), when I found out it was actually airplanes that hit the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.

Later that morning, I was in the cafeteria, when a student was concerned that a class I had with him was going to be cancelled. He also fear that Pearl Harbor might get hit again.

I had 2 classes that day. In the 1st class, the professor mentioned about the 9/11 attacks, then went on with the lesson of the day. I think it was the appropriate way to deal with it.

Acknowledge what happen, but don't let it stop everything.The 2nd class that day, the teacher just cut it short.

In that semester, I was working at the UH dorms, both the Lokelani and Lehua buildings. Coincidentally, 9/11/2001 was the 1st day I was working at the Lehua building. Hectic circumstances.

3 days after the 9/11 attacks, I was hanging out with a long-time friend. We were talking about the week's events, plus all the racist hate crimes committed against Arab Americans occurring in the mainland. Then the friend said that I better shave (at that point I didn't shave for a whole week) or someone might look at me the wrong way. (Though I am Latino, some have said I look like I'm from the Middle East, especially if I didn't shave) Needless to say, I shaved my face that night (though I kept my infamous mustache).

2) More on this "having a mosque near Ground Zero is an insult to the victims" bull nonsense!

There already was a mini-mosque INSIDE the World Trade Center!

Read that sentence again people!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/11/nyregion/11religion.html

In that article, a Muslim electrician named Sinclair Hejazi Abdus-Salaam mentioned about his experiences working in the World Trade Center!

Over the next few days, noticing some fellow Muslims on the job, Mr. Abdus-Salaam voiced an equally essential question: “So where do you pray at?” And so he learned about the Muslim prayer room on the 17th floor of the south tower.

He went there regularly in the months to come, first doing the ablution known as wudu in a washroom fitted for cleansing hands, face and feet, and then facing toward Mecca to intone the salat prayer.

On any given day, Mr. Abdus-Salaam’s companions in the prayer room might include financial analysts, carpenters, receptionists, secretaries and ironworkers. There were American natives, immigrants who had earned citizenship, visitors conducting international business — the whole Muslim spectrum of nationality and race.

(skipped paragraphs)

Given the vitriolic opposition now to the proposal to build a Muslim community center two blocks from ground zero, one might say something else has been destroyed: the realization that Muslim people and the Muslim religion were part of the life of the World Trade Center.

Opponents of the Park51 project say the presence of a Muslim center dishonors the victims of the Islamic extremists who flew two jets into the towers. Yet not only were Muslims peacefully worshiping in the twin towers long before the attacks, but even after the 1993 bombing of one tower by a Muslim radical, Ramzi Yousef, their religious observance generated no opposition

My comments: Does any of this information surprise you? If you're over 18 years old and those italicized paragraphs surprise you, then you are an EXTREMELY ignorant person!

A mosque near Ground Zero is only an insult to extremely ignorant people who think in stereotypes!

It is NOT an insult to the victims! The people who were working and visiting the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001 were of many faiths! There were Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, and yes, Muslims!

If that shocks you, you are mega-ignorant! Are you really that lacking in brains that you didn't know there were employees within World Trade Center that are from Islamic cultures? Are you really that lacking in brains that you really thought only Christians, Jews and atheists were employed in the World Trade Center?

New York is an immigrant city, where people come from all over the world! Even Muslim countries! Get over it already!

9/11 - 9 years later

Tommorrow would be 9 years after the 9/11 attacks.

While there's a whole new generation of kids who were either too young to remember 9/11/2001 or born after 9/11/2001, it is still painful for millions here in the USA, and worldwide.

Even 9 years later, there are new controversies involving the 9/11 attacks!

I already went over the so-called "Ground Zero mosque" in my previous blog posts

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2010_08_01_archive.html#3796073365359224117

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2010_08_01_archive.html#9063910843393117198

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2010_08_01_archive.html#5830602967227993055

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Another new controversy has come up!

A fringe Christian minister in Gainesville, Florida named Terry Jones proposed a "Burn a Koran" day tommorrow, on the 9th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/10/AR2010091007428.html?hpid=topnews

Obviously, this has caused international outrage, with protests worldwide.

President Obama has pleaded with Pastor Jones to not go forward with this.

http://www.salon.com/news/2010/09/09/obama_implores_minister_to_call_off_quran_burning/index.html

Said Obama: "Look, this is a recruitment bonanza for Al Qaida. You could have serious violence in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan." The president also said Jones' plan, if carried out, could serve as an incentive for terrorist-minded individuals "to blow themselves up" to kill others.

"I hope he listens to those better angels and understands that this is a destructive act that he's engaging in," the president said of Jones.

(skipped paragraphs)

Also, Army Gen. David Petraeus, the ground commander in Afghanistan, has said the act of burning the Quran could endanger troops fighting there.

On Wedneday, the State Department has ordered U.S. embassies around the world to assess their security ahead of the planned weekend demonstration in Florida.

Officials said U.S. diplomatic posts have been instructed to convene "emergency action committees" to determine the potential for protests over the congregation's plans to burn the Quran to commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The posts are to warn American citizens in countries where protests may occur.

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As I mentioned earlier in the posts about the "Ground Zero mosque", that anti-Muslim biogtry in the USA & Europe MAKES IT A WHOLE LOT EASIER for Islamic Fascists to promote anti-American hatred and anti-American terrorism!

The Koran burners and the anti-mosque fanatics may think they're so "heroic" and love to have the image of "hey, look at us everyone, we're politically incorrect" but they just end up looking ridiculous! It shows them to be uneducated, close-minded people who only think in terms of stereotypes. In other words, they're just the Judeo-Christian version of the Islamic Fascists!

Not only do the Koran burners and anti-mosque fanatics alienate reasonable people, and they also make people of Islamic cultures defensive! It gives those of Islamic cultures feel "under siege"! That makes it easier for the Islamic Fascists to recruit young, naive, gullible, insecure minds to join their cause!

Meanwhile, the Islamic Fascists are blaming Obama for the "Burn a Koran Day"! Or they're angry at Obama for not using law enforcement to stop the "Burn a Koran Day"

In many Muslim countries, percieved insults to Islam are punished by law.

But in the USA and many democratic countries, there is Freedom of Speech. You can offend whoever you want!

Let's remember, even though the USA is a Christian-majority country, people have gotten away with insulting Christianity! People have put the cross in a jar of urine, painted a picture of the Virgin Mary with elephant feces, TV shows and movies mock Christians as "narrow-minded followers", Ted Turner referred to Christians as "Jesus Freaks" and underground rockers also insult Christianity in their songs!

So those Muslims who expect Obama or any other North American or European politician to ban "insults to Muslims" are fighting the wrong battle! North Americans and Europeans cherish the "right to offend" and even the dominant Christian religion isn't safe from insults!

So the Koran burners and anti-mosque fanatics can speak all they want!

And the best weapon against Bad Speech is Good Speech! No laws, No bans, just Debates, Debates and more Debates!