What Was She Thinking?!

The horrific sight of burning buildings might have been a new vista for Americans on September 11, 2001, but it was certainly nothing new to the rest of the world.

World Trade Center, 2001


Tehran Apartment Building, 2003


Burning Office Building, Belgrade, former Republic of Yugoslavia, 1999

But there's nothing that I could say that Robert Jensen, University of Texas at Austin Professor of Journalism, hasn't said better. This text, republished at CommonDreams.org, is from a speech he gave at an anti-war rally on September 11, 2005, in Austin, Texas. I agree wholeheartedly.

There was nothing special about the pain of Americans on September 11, 2001. And there is no hope for this world until we in the United States -- the most powerful and affluent country in the history of the world -- understand that.

The deaths of 3,000 people in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania mattered, but no more and no less than the thousands of other deaths in the world that day, and the day before, and the day before that. Or the deaths since, as the United States has used the grief of Americans to justify two illegal wars of aggression, wars to consolidate the power and control of the few, wars accepted by the many out of moral laziness and fear.

All over the country today, people will be speaking about the nobility of the United States, the barbarism of the attacks on us, the deep suffering of Americans. I will do none of that.

I will not mark September 11 as a day of special grief until all of us mark every day as a day of special grief for those killed by the callous and cruel exercise of power. I am through indulging the grief of Americans. I will not be part of it. I will not contribute to it any longer.

Indeed.

Are the Muslims starting to catch on that it's okay to poke fun a bit, because we Westerners enjoy free speech and freedom of the press? Do they now understand that such things can be done in the name of freedom of expression and that no one's embassy is going to be torched because someone Photoshopped (and badly I might add) this?

One can only hope. Unfortunately, I don't think the noble explanation is the correct one. Instead, it's more likely that they are just baiting, for the sake of it. That the whole time these fundamentalist Muslim clerics have been loudly complaining¹ that an apology is not enough for the "heinous" and "vicious" crime that was perpetrated on the Muslim people and their (not MY) Prophet, but that **blood** -- anyone's -- must be shed and now, these Muslims can do what amounts to the same thing and get away with it.

They will "get away with it" because the Western way works and this insanity² does not, because it doesn't have a logical leg to stand on. Does anyone know what the Islam (?) word is for "tolerance"? Anyone? Anyone?

^[1] I'm not providing links; that's what Google is for; use it.
^[2] When I say "insanity," I'm referring to the outrageous acts of the radical Muslims, not Islam as a whole.

Cross posted to my WordPress blog.

This is not news. It's been going on for years. Quit fanning the flames!

Cross-posted to my WordPress blog.

Britain Convicts Imam of Fomenting Hatred.

The judge, Anthony Hughes, sentenced al-Masri to seven years in jail, saying that he had "created an atmosphere" in which murder was perceived by some as "not only a legitimate course but a moral and religious duty in pursuit of perceived justice."

So much for the peaceful religion of Islam, eh, folks?

Families of Egyptian Ferry Victims Set Fire to Company Offices. Sheesh. And now some Islam clerics are calling for an International Day of Anger. As opposed to what? The everyday tranquility and love for humanity that is in abundance?