25 June 2006
How George W Bush feeds Muslim cynicism
A survey in 15 countries found wide differences in perceptions and attitudes between Muslims and Westerners. Particularly notable was that a majority in 4 Muslim countries surveyed did not believe that Arabs carried out the September 11th al-Qaeda attacks. They just won't believe anything from the West. Yet the Bush administration feeds this high degree of cynicism by some of its own actions. Full essay.
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If there is indeed little to no evidence that this group in the US committed any crime, then the American judicial system, with its independence and jury trials, is highly likely to free them and embarrass the Bush administration for having arrested them in the first place. I'm not sure I would have the same kind of faith in the judicial system of Singapore if a similar situation were to arise here. In America, the government regularly loses in court. How often has that happened in Singapore? Although criticising the US is trendy, in some cases it only reinforces propaganda that the Singaporean system is superior in every way.
You imply that they weren't Muslim because you don't think their names sound Muslim. They pledged their lives to Allah.
You imply that they were not really an Islamic terrorist group because they were never in contact with al Qaeda. They thought they had contacted al Qaeda, they wanted to attend an al Qaeda terrorist camp, and they pledged allegiance to bin Laden. Besides, the group that conducted the London bombings last year never had contact with al Qaeda.
You imply that they weren't really a threat because they didn't have dynamite. They were trying to obtain weapons at the time of their arrest.
How can we trust that you have honest motives when you twist the facts and make wild conjectures to support your point?
Is it just a coincidence that the Muslim countries involved in this survey are either allies of Washington or its puppets?
As for the “neutral facts” about 9/11, let me assure you that it’s not just Muslims who have doubts about 19 Arabs having carried out the attack. Many non-Muslims in Europe and in the States have similar doubts. One has to be extremely naïve to accept that 19 Arabs could have carried out such a sophisticated operation under the nose of the FBI, the CIA and the NSA. And you don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to reject the official explanation. Eyes wide shut, brother.
(The above comment was deleted because it was a duplicate post)
I find the 2nd and 3rd comments (both by an "anonymous") fascinatingly contrapuntal.
The point I wanted to make in the essay was that while the "Seas of David" might have been up to some serious mischief, it was stretching things to associate their plans with any kind of Islamic extremism. The prejudice against Muslims that such political spin reinforces in people's minds is unfair.
If I am reading the comments correctly, 2nd Anonymous is insisting that they represented Islam and Islamic extremism.
On the other hand, 3rd anonymous is suggesting that even the attacks of 11 September 2001 didn't represent acts of Islamic (al-Qaeda) extremism because he didn't believe the 19 Muslim Arabs were involved.
See what I mean by unbridgeable differences?
Unbridgeable differences? No doubt. But do we accept something as true simply because the State or the mainstream media (usually nothing more than a tool of the State) say that it is so? Have we become like children that will accept everything their parents say as the gospel truth? Just because the Bush crowd claims that 9/11 was a Muslim terrorist operation does it mean that it is so? And we know how reliable these people are; remember Bush and Saddam’s WMDs? But what the hell! I suppose, after all, that Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy with his “magic” bullet. Oh wait, did I just say that? Jesus! I’m going bonkers; I’m turning into a wacky conspiracy theorist! All those pesky Muslims…
Anonymous 2,
There is no doubt that the 9/11 conspirators were Muslim. There were thousands of pages of evidence released by the US government in the 9/11 report. The only people that don't believe the evidence are either conspiracy nuts or have ulterior motives.
Yawning Bread,
I am not insisting that they represent Islam or Islamic terrorism becase no one group can do that. Islam is a religion with hundreds of millions of followers. My point is that you make statements that are ridiculous, which weakens your point. Please explain to me why a Muslim has to have a Muslim-sounding name, whatever that means. How can you assume that the group wasn't Muslim because they have the name David in their name? These statements make you sound naive and/or ignorant. If you want to say the group isn't Muslim, come up with some better reasons than this.
They are plenty of other examples of US government policy that you could have used to make your point. Why choose this case in which we know the Miami 7 are Muslim followers of bin Laden who wanted to kill Americans?
“There is no doubt that the 9/11 conspirators were Muslim. There were thousands of pages of evidence released by the US government in the 9/11 report.”
Really? There were also thousands of pages of evidence that Saddam had Weapons of Mass Destruction. Have they been found yet? If so, then it must be somewhere out of the range of my reading. If I remember correctly, the attack on Iraq in 2003 was based on the thousand page evidence that Saddam was hiding those lethal wdms somewhere in his territory. When they were not found, the reason for the illegal occupation of Iraq was magically transformed into bringing democracy to the hapless Iraqis, an American-style system that the Iraqis had not asked for. And now that they are valiantly resisting, the reason for the war has yet again been magically transformed into something else; ferreting out Muslim “terrorists”.
Oh, and by the way, American soldiers are also in Haiti doing God knows what, something that the media never talk about. Funny thing, though, there are no Muslims in Haiti. Isn’t that weird? But, of course, what does it matter what I say? I’m just a conspiracy nut.
Point me to where there are thousands of pages evidence that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. But you won't be able to because THEY DON'T EXIST. This is how it went: government claims something is true, claims were investigated, we now know government lied.
In the case of 9/11, this is how it went: investigators claim the conspirators were Muslim. Lots of evidence is collected that supports this claim. Crackpot theorists and others try to disprove the evidence. No one was able to. Therefore, we know that the 9/11 conspirators were Muslim.
It's not very hard to follow if you have an open mind.
“…we now know government lied.”
Right. So, if the government lied in this instance what makes you think that it didn’t lie about 9/11 as well?
“…investigators claim the conspirators were Muslim. Lots of evidence is collected that supports this claim.”
Investigators claim? Claiming is evidence? Can you identify some of the “lots of evidence?” And who are these investigators? From the government itself? In other words, the govt. investigating itself! That makes sense to you?
You are no doubt aware that other investigators have revealed that seven of the so-called suicide pilots are alive and well and that they were never in the States on the day of the attacks?
Perhaps you could explain to a jack-ass like me why the black boxes of the crashed planes were never publicly “investigated”, why WTC 7 collapsed without being hit by any projectile, and why, even though Osama bin Laden was alleged to be the mastermind, members of his family were allowed to leave the States immediately after 9/11 on a special plane?
Maybe I’m being naïve here, but more and more Americans are beginning to consider the official 9/11 explanation as a myth; are they just crackpot conspiracy junkies? It is so easy to accuse people of being conspiracy nuts but how many have the courage that comes from a healthy scepticism, that says, let’s not accept everything the officials tell us, let us investigate the investigators?
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour in 1941, there were those who claimed that Roosevelt knew of the attack in advance but refused to prevent it in order to use it as a pretext to get America into the war. Those conspiracy nuts are now being vindicated, just as the 9/11 “nuts” will one day be. But, of course, it will be too late by then. It’s always too late. History repeats itself but we never learn, thanks to “common-sense” people like you.
Au revoir, brother.
I'm going to close comments for this. I think all that needs to be said has been said.
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