Arab Americans, like all Americans, are shocked and angered by such brutality...

September 11, 2001 1:55 PM

Arab Americans, like all Americans, are shocked and angered by such brutality... American Arab Anti Discrimination Committee posts press release about the attacks. Have you witnessed increased racism towards Arab appearing folks today? What have you done about it?
posted by daver (21 comments total)

What can I do? I try to remind the people around me with boiling blood that we have no idea who's to blame. But blind anger is almost impossible to fight. I want to tell people to wait for the facts, but that could take a long, long time. I'm sorry that all I can offer is more questions and no solutions.
posted by ColdChef at 2:14 PM on September 11, 2001 [1 favorite]

I think that during this time of crisis, people should be more focused on helping each other out. Obviously there is going to be much bitter sentiment, but to completely shun and impose a policy of interniment is absolutely ridiculous. Never again should there be the interniment of American citizens based on their ethnicity...
posted by dkhong at 2:16 PM on September 11, 2001 [1 favorite]

Remember the Okhlahoma bombing? :( And why do they have to show that same movie of soem Palestinians celebrating in one little corner of a street for? Excuse people for their rage today. What matters is how they feel tomorrow once their heads have cooled..

I'm sure hundreds of muslims died in the WTC as well..
posted by Mossy at 2:19 PM on September 11, 2001 [1 favorite]

during a smoke break here at work, someone said something about how we should just nuke afganistan once and for all.

i told him that doing that would make us no better than whomever did this.

i'm not sure if he really heard me though.
posted by jcterminal at 2:21 PM on September 11, 2001

I don't know about you, but I aim to intervene if I see that kind of shit go down around here. Any tips on folks on how to step in without getting too involved?
posted by daver at 2:23 PM on September 11, 2001

I, like many people are damn angry. I'm holding it in check but when we find out who is responsible, I expect justice to be done and done decisively. That being said we must make sure we get the right people and be absolutely sure of it. Something that may prove impossible the way things seem right now.
posted by madmanz123 at 2:50 PM on September 11, 2001

most people aren't calling for justice. they're calling for vengeance.
posted by tolkhan at 2:54 PM on September 11, 2001

It's natural that people go crazy after an attack of this magnitude, or any magnitude for that matter. It's when those feelings become ingrained that we have a serious problem.
posted by cell divide at 3:05 PM on September 11, 2001

I've seen a lot of anti-Arab sentiment today. I'd hate for Arabs and Islam to become the replacement for Communism as the US's all purpose enemy. That is what has been happening over the past few years.
posted by ddmmyyyy at 3:48 PM on September 11, 2001

The footage of Palestinians (if that is indeed what is being shown) cheering in the streets doesn't help matters much at all. I doubt any of those people would even recognize the US on a map.

I hate the media at times like this. All these clueless commentators they bring on the air to fill the gaps between footage of the plane careening into the tower just fuel the unease with their absolutely pointless speculation. And since when is Pat Robertson an authority on terrorism?

Hopefully we won't see a huge rise in anti-Arab hostility like we did during the Gulf War. That was bad enough. The world is a stupid place.
posted by scottandrew at 4:00 PM on September 11, 2001

Its easy to blame muslims as it is inherently a different culture and way of life - its easy to fear and stereotype those different to you.. Look at the treatment of the blacks for example, they were considered inferior just because of their skin..

Posted this in that manic 300+ thread:

Let me also make the point that if this was a fundamentalist attack by someone like bin Laden, this is not jihad, nor vaguely islamic. Once military jihad has been called, the muslim is barred from killing those that are scholars or part of the infrastructrue of the enemy (as according to the hadith (teachings) of Mohammad (pbuh)). That makes this murder.

If it was bin Laden, what he is doing will still be called jihad, and his actions related to the notion of "muslims". As always..
posted by Mossy at 4:04 PM on September 11, 2001

Tensions were high here in Metro Detroit during the Gulf War, as we have one of the highest Arab-American populations in the US. I remember stopping by a coney island joint, and seeing this handwritten sign on the front door:

"We are not Iraqui, we are Yemeni."

I hadn't really thought of the local effect of that War until then.
posted by Oriole Adams at 4:05 PM on September 11, 2001

I hold no animosity toward Arab-Americans, and I am Jewish. But in Egypt and in the West Bank, the people were celebrating and saying God was Good for this act etc etc. Now, I can understand how Arab peoples might dislike America for the suypport it has given Israel (we give much support to Egypt too), but the deaths of so many (thousands) of innocent people is hardly a thing to celebrate. It indicates to me that whatever religious beliefs are professed seem at variance with actions expressed. I am glad that we dropped the A bomb on two Japanaese cities to end the war but I did not get ecstatic that so many civilians were killed.
Finally, those not responsible but who are cheering on the devestation should not be surprised if there is a backlash for the glee and hatred expressed.
posted by Postroad at 5:11 PM on September 11, 2001

How do you imagine backlash would find those people? Or do you mean that the backlash would not actually happen against those people expressing glee over what we see to be a tragedy -- more that it would happen to people in those general locations, or people who happened to originate from those countries? Or what?

Wow, Postroad. Do the celebrators make me sad? You bet. But you make me sadder.
posted by daver at 5:30 PM on September 11, 2001

Its pretty much similar to the situation the US faced in WW2. The Supreme Court upheld the need to intern ethnic japanese in camps.

Lets assume there are enemies among us. Its your call. Whatcha gonna do?
posted by BentPenguin at 8:04 PM on September 11, 2001

I try to remind the people around me with boiling blood that we have no idea who's to blame.

That isn't the point, of course. Any more than we should deport all of the white people in this country because of McVeigh. I'm just gonna stop arguing with my mother in law about this because she's taking years off of my life with her illogical knee jerky racist bullshit (do I sound irritated?)

It's just human nature, methinks - to categorize, demonize. clearly, many kind Palestinian folks are making equally pleasant generalizations about Americans as they jump for joy at today's 'victory'.
posted by glenwood at 8:31 PM on September 11, 2001

Someone else quoted in the "manic 300+" thread, and I'm paraphrasing:

"An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind."

And I posted in one other manic thread something like this:

All war acts are terrorism. Including those perpetrated by the United States government, which perpetually defends the necessity for "casualties of war," while playing "policeman to the world." We need to stop living under our own damn double standards, or else shut up when our own karma comes back to bite us in the ass.

I attended a vigil for peace tonight. It was not only candlelit and beautiful, it was right on. Understanding will overcome. Vengeance will perpetuate.
posted by mirla at 8:57 PM on September 11, 2001

Please,

Justice != Revenge.
posted by DragonBoy at 9:10 PM on September 11, 2001

I'm just gonna stop arguing with my mother in law about this because she's taking years off of my life with her illogical knee jerky racist bullshit (do I sound irritated?)

Yes, and rightfully so. I've heard the phrase (if I may speak frankly) "sand nigger" used to refer to arabic people enough today to piss me the fuck off! One of my best friends is a devout Muslim with the name Khirschid who is probably happy that most people around here know him as "Chris" right now!

It's just human nature, methinks - to categorize, demonize. clearly, many kind Palestinian folks are making equally pleasant generalizations about Americans as they jump for joy at today's 'victory'.

We need to weigh that these people probably get precious little news which shows the fact that although we support Israel as a state, we do NOT support their acts of violence against the Palestinian people. When I see people in this country focusing on a few Palestinians celebrating and ignoring the rest of them who are just as shocked as we are, it sickens me that freedom of the press seems to make so little of a difference with much of the masses. So many that I've spoken with today are ready and willing to see our country debase itself to the level of those who struck today. Yes, I feel that retribution is neccessary but it must be done with care. This attack has given us an unprecidented chance to improve our standing on the world stage or to destroy it completely - which one we will accomplish is the only question left...
posted by RevGreg at 12:33 AM on September 12, 2001

From what I saw, there were very few Palestinians celebrating. I don't understand how it suddenly became a major story.
posted by chaz at 1:20 AM on September 12, 2001 [1 favorite]

From what I saw, there were very few Palestinians celebrating. I don't understand how it suddenly became a major story

The desire for pictures. Watching at 3am, I saw the BBC's Jerusalem correspondent say that she was actually surprised by the mutedness of the response in places other than Ramallah. That might be due to what Steven noted -- that even vaguely to attribute the Palestinian cause to this assault gives Israel tremendous licence to act in the name of "global anti-terrorism". But I also think that anyone who saw, or heard from the scene itself could hardly be unmoved.
posted by holgate at 4:13 AM on September 12, 2001