Mark S. Blackburn, Veteran USA
The below letter from a Muslim explores why so many overseas Muslims hate the USA. Do you know why?
-Mark
Posted on Friday, September 14 @ 20:45:30 EDT
Why do they hate America?
By: Tariq Colvin* www.Islamway.com
A glimpse of the horror that took place Tuesday morning. A day of fear,
loss, grief and anger. A tragedy for our entire community Muslim and non-
Muslim.
We found ourselves trying to understand, to reason, to come to grips with
sights and sounds coming in over the airwaves. But how could a disaster so
immense, so unexpected, so grave - be understood ?! ........
Who could have committed such evil? What kind of soul could perpetrate such
hatred?
As news came out it was clear. The blame would be placed squarely at the
feet of America's Great Satan: Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden.
Calls for restraint and care were drowned out by the lust, though
understandable, for revenge. The bearded, sweaty terrorists of every
Americans worst nightmare were brought to the fore. It was simple, the
enemy was one, the enemy was us (Muslims).
But whoever the perpetrator, whoever is ultimately responsible, we must ask
ourselves, "Where in the human soul lay the source of such hatred?" "What
could produce such utter desperation and disregard for life?"
Without doubt. Tuesday's events didn't appear out of a vacuum. We can never
justify or rationalize such a tragedy, but we must attempt to understand
WHY !
Yesterday, I discussed this with a teacher. She also though that obscuring
the lessons of this tragedy with labels and oversimplifications would only
increase the loss.
The reality is that Tuesday's tragedy, a reprehensible crime against
humanity, is an expressions of years of pent up frustration, despair, anger
and resentment against the United States.
To call the attackers 'crazy', 'senseless', or 'mindless' is to miss the
point. The attackers must have been anything but. To lose sight of the
context out of which such hatred could flow is to only set the stage for
greater tragedies.
If we allow ourselves the easy option of dehumanizing the attackers in our
minds, as they must have dehumanized their victims before they ended their
lives, then we aid and escalate the cycle of reciprocal violence and lead
humanity to darkness beyond imagination.
Were the attackers really so much different than the average American?
Retired General Norman Schwartzkopf seemed to think so.
In a recent televised interview he said, "In Iraq we went to great length
to avoid civilian casualties .. but these bastards went after civilians.
That's the difference between us and them."
But is this the truth, or is this what we'd like be believe about
ourselves? In a mid-1990s interview, CBS Reporter Lesley Stahl
questioned the then US Ambassador to the UN, Madeleine Albright, on the
post-war sanctions against Iraq :
"We have heard that a HALF MILLION CHILDREN HAVE DIED. I mean, That's more
children that died in HIROSHIMA. And -and you know, is the price worth it?"
Albright's reply, "I think this is very hard choice, BUT THAT PRICE - WE
THINK THE PRICE IS WORTH IT."
Stahl won both an Emmy and a Dupont-Columbia journalism award for this
report, but Albright's comment went virtually unnoticed in the U.S. (Though it
received considerable attention in the Middle East). Within six
months, Madeleine Albright was unanimously approved by the Senate as U.S.
Secretary of State.
Price? Price? A heavy and grave price indeed that lives of FIVE HUNDRED
THOUSAND INNOCENT CHILDREN each with dreams and hopes of their own.
Aspirations for their young lives. Laughing and loving sweet things and
comfort. Loving play and being naughty just like American children.
How could we (as Americans) allow ourselves to be silent while they died?
Did we turn our eyes from their humanity and worth? Did we not indeed
commit an unimaginable atrocity? ARE WE REALLY ANY DIFFERENT THAN THE
PERPETRATOR OF TUESDAYS ATTACK?
THEY CRIED TO THEIR MOTHERS FOR FOOD AND COMFORT. Mothers who could do
nothing but tell them who had done this to them. Telling them WHO HAD BEEN
RESPONSIBLE for the pains in their stomachs.
What would you do if this was how your little one had died? What would you
be capable of?
But America told the world that deformities the disease and death were
'WORTH THE PRICE'. No, these children were raised not on milk, BUT ON THE
BREAST OF BURNING HATE. Waiting to express itself in an unthinkable
explosion of revenge and vindication.
But let there be no question in the minds of our neighbors, coworkers and
friends - The Muslim community STANDS WITH YOU IN CONDEMNATION OF THIS
OFFENSE against you. AS WE STAND WITH THE CHILDREN OF IRAQ. AS WE STAND
WITH THE DISPOSSESSED OF PALESTINE. As we stand with all who have been
wronged.
Many of us know all too well the taste of lives lost. Ones whom we loved.
Ones for whom we cried tears. Ones whose joy and laughter we miss so
dearly.
Robert Fisk, a well known reporter in the Independent wrote a report
towards understanding this tragedy. He said :
" ... And yes, Osama bin Ladin comes to mind, his money, his theology, his
frightening dedication to destroy American power. I have sat in front of
bin Laden as he described how his men helped to destroy the Russian army in
Afghanistan and thus the Soviet Union. Their boundless confidence allowed
them to declare war on America. BUT THIS IS NOT THE WAR OF DEMOCRACY VERSES
TERROR THAT THE WORLD WILL BE ASKED TO BELIEVE IN THE COMING DAYS. It is
also about American missiles smashing into Palestinian homes and US
helicopters firing missiles into a Lebanese ambulance in 1996 and AMERICAN
SHELLS CRASHING IN VILLAGE CALLED QANA and about a Lebanese militia paid
and uniformed by America's Israeli ally hacking and raping and murdering
their way through refugee camps ...
... And there will be, inevitably, and quite immorally, an attempt to
obscure the historical wrongs and the injustices that lie behind
yesterday's firestorms. We will be told about "mindless terrorism", the
"mindless" bit being essential if we are not to realize how hated America
has become in the land of the birth of three great religions.
Ask an Arab how he responds to 20,000 or 30,000 innocent deaths and he or
she will respond as decent people should, that it is an unspeakable crime.
But they will ask why WE DID NOT USE SUCH WORDS ABOUT THE SANCTIONS THAT
HAVE DESTROYED THE LIVES PERHAPS HALF A MILLION CHILDREN IN IRAQ, WHY WE DID NOT RAGE ABOUT THE SEVENTEEN THOUSANDS CIVILIANS KILLED IN ISRAEL'S
1982 INVASION OF LEBANON. And those basic reasons why the Middle East
caught fire last September the Israeli occupation of Arab land, the
dispossession of Palestinians, the bombardments and state-sponsored
executions .. all these must be obscured lest they provide the smallest
fractional reason for yesterday's mass savagery.
Eight years ago, I helped to make a television series that tried to explain
why so many Muslims had come to hate the West. Last night, I remembered
some of those Muslims in that film, their families burnt by American-made
bombs and weapons. They talked about how no one would help them but God.
Theology versus technology, the suicide bomber against the nuclear power.
Now we have learnt what this means."
So what are the lessons to be learned from this great disaster?
We must work towards greater mutual understanding. We must listen to each
other. We must humanize one another, and this cannot be done at a distance.
We cannot afford let bombs teach this moment.
Are we not all God's creatures? Do we not all have stomachs, feel cold,
feel pain, and need comfort?
Do we not all deserve to be secure from harm and dispossession?
It is imperative that the Muslims join together as one, for it is through
this joining that the Almighty and Wise shall make us strong. It's them
imperative that we set our course unto spreading understanding and Mercy.
And neutralizing enmity, hate and ignorance.
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Tariq Colvin is a Computer Science Student at University of Michigan, Tariq
is an American who converted to Islam more than 9 years ago.
If you think this Article has stimulated any sense of reality. Please send
it to everybody you know.
Mark Blackburn
Mark S. Blackburn, MBA
1310 E Street Victorian
Sacramento, CA 95814
916.444.6500
Write to Mark: Mark_Blackburn@Yahoo.com