By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Banner of Liberty (www.bannerofliberty.com)
September 25, 2001
In his executive order freezing assets of known terrorists, President Bush listed 26 individuals or groups:
Al Qaida/Islamic Army
Abu Sayyaf Group
Armed Islamic Group (GIA)
Harakat ul-Mujahidin (HUM)
Al-Jihad (Egyptian Islamic Jihad)
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU)
Asbat al-Ansar
Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC)
Libyan Islamic Fighting Group
Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya (AIAI)
Islamic Army of Aden
Usama bin Laden
Muhammad Atif (aka, Subhi Abu Sitta,
Abu Hafs Al Masri)
Sayf al-Adl
Shaykh Sai'id (aka, Mustafa Muhammad Ahmad)
Abu Hafs the Mauritanian (aka, Mahfouz Ould al-Walid, Khalid Al-
Shanqiti)
Ibn Al-Shaykh al-Libi
Abu Zubaydah (aka, Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn, Tariq)
Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi (aka, Abu Abdallah)
Ayman al-Zawahiri
Thirwat Salah Shihata
Tariq Anwar al-Sayyid Ahmad (aka, Fathi, Amr al-Fatih)
Muhammad Salah (aka, Nasr Fahmi Nasr Hasanayn)
Makhtab Al-Khidamat/Al Kifah
Wafa Humanitarian Organization
Al Rashid Trust
Mamoun Darkazanli Import-Export Company
I was hoping that there would be a few names on there that were NOT obviously Muslim names. The other day I hear on TV a Muslim say, "The media never talks about "Catholic" terrorists or "Protestant" terrorists when writing about terrorism in Ireland."
That's a good point. And, certainly we can all talk about the horrors that took place in the Christian world when the best known terrorist around was Adolph Hitler.
Unfortunately, when people are worried about their families and their country, it rarely boils down to logic. Contrary to what we like to tell ourselves, prejudice is quite often a natural self-protection reaction to personal experiences. I have a nephew who was for many years the only white kid in his school classes while his father, determined to be a moral example to the world, stayed put as all the rest of the white people in the neighborhood moved to areas they felt were safer for their children. Almost every day, my nephew was beat-up by black kids.
Eventually they did move out but not before my nephew developed his own opinion on the value of the black culture around him based on his own personal experiences.
We now have a politically correct view that, while it is "understandable" that black people have negative feelings towards whites, it is despicable prejudice when white people have negative feelings towards blacks. Often, of course, in today's world, the people in the predominately black areas are not white European people. They are more apt to be Asian or Middle-Eastern or Hispanic. And, quite often this has meant that the people fighting are not blacks and whites but blacks and some other minority group. They can't say their Hispanic and Asian neighbors are "responsible" for their condition.
None of the groups and individuals on the President's list has the word "Terrorist" in them. They all SOUND harmless enough. As John Leo notes in his column entitled
"Muslims Must Shoulder their Responsibilities as Citizens:"The media stress on bias crimes is important. Sikhs, who are neither Arabs nor Muslims, have been attacked simply for wearing turbans. As Mayor Giuliani said, cowardly attacks based on hate are exactly what we are supposed to be opposing now. Still, there is something unbalanced and one-sided about the anti-bias rhetoric. I have noticed no comparable stress on the heightened responsibilities of Muslim Americans."
So, with over 10 million Muslims in the United States, where exactly IS the outcry from them about anti-American rhetoric and even parties celebrating the killing of over 6000 people in the World Trade Center? Right now, the concern must be for those who died and who lost loved ones - and they were not all white Americas. We need to hear less whining from Muslims and more tolerance. A news story which reported a group of four Middle-Eastern passengers traveling together were detained and questioned by Airport Security made the point that the men had been detained due to "prejudice" in a new form of "racial profiling." The men clearly made the point that they had been unfairly detained.
We are in a vastly new era, folks. The old thinking and the old tolerance for intolerance towards people because they are white Americans are no longer in style. Patriotism is in. 1960s rebellion against God, Country and Parents is out. The President has expressed the feeling of most Americans very well: "If you are not with us in helping to root out terrorism, you are with the terrorists." If you are with us, whether you are black or white, rich or poor, Muslim or Jew, Christian or Agnostic, act like it. Right now there is an extremely low tolerance level for people who gloat over the destruction of the World Trade Center and try to blame white America.
White people also find themselves in situations where they are stopped by the police or suspected of being criminals. I had that experience many years ago when riding in my Volkswagen bus with my husband and six young children. Three police cars surrounded us, and my husband was ordered out of the bus at gunpoint. I don't know who they were looking for, but assumed whoever it was must have been driving a similar vehicle. After checking us out and peering at the kids, they returned our identification and released us.
I didn't run to the nearest attorney or reporter and cry "discrimination!" because they stopped us. I asked one of the police, "Who are you looking for, and what did they DO?" He said he couldn't tell me. So, I shrugged my shoulders and we drove off, thankful they were out there doing their job.
I suggest that the four Muslim, middle-Eastern men who were detained at an airport just assume that they are probably GOING to be viewed with suspicion if they continue to travel together on airplanes. The entire law enforcement community right now is looking for some Muslim, middle-Eastern men who have a habit of flying or riding on airplanes who a part of a group that just killed over 6000 people.
It's a jolting experience to be suddenly pulled over by policemen with their guns drawn, but if you happen to fit a description on someone's roster, that will happen. However, that is not prejudice. That is normal police work.
To Comment: mmostert@bannerofliberty.com