"One Arab's Apology"

Via LGF.

Emilio Karim Dabul, in the New York Post: One Arab’s Apology.

September 12, 2006 — 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.

I often wrestle with this notion that President Bush is just another apologist for the "great and noble religion" of Islam.

We've heard mixed messages many times before from the administration.

First, the POTUS will say something along the lines of Islam being a "religion hijacked by extremists" (not a direct quote) but then he'll mention in one of his more recent speeches that these Islamicfascists want to restore the global caliphate.

I favor more emphasis on the second description, however, I believe many people are asking to him to do (rather, say) something that is not quite...well...prudent for a POTUS to say directly.

Is the GWOT a war FOR civilization (as opposed to "between" civilizations)?

Heck, yes.

But it's also less broadly defined as a war between a Christianized (yes, all y'all agnostics, athiests, etc. out there have to recognize this) Western civilization and a... well... barbaric, backwards, UNcivilized Islamic "civilization" (term used loosely).

With all this being said, with however many Muslims of varying degrees of devotion --- moderate, modern, hardcore, whatever --- residing in the States, some of which have no desire to engage in terrorism --- do we honestly want the POTUS to come right out and say, "This is a war against those who follow a hateful, depraved, murderous RELIGION"???

Whether we choose to recognize this possible reality as such, people, there would definitely be repercussions for such outright clarity.

I may be wrong, but I have trouble labeling President Bush as definitive apologist. This isn't a matter of President Bush being needlessly P.C.... As much as I (and many of us) would prefer otherwise, there has to be a balanced restraint, here, I'm afraid.

Posted by Kyer at September 12, 2006 04:30 PM | TrackBack