Last
Updated
11/02/01

1. Responsibility:
Nothing can ever justify the tragedy that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001. If Osama Bin Laden is responsible for the attacks, he and any individuals involved deserve to be punished.

2. Reaction:
Chicago's Arab American community responded to the attacks with a strong statement denouncing the attacks. Arab Americans around the country have denounced the attacks. If there are people who have not read these denunciations, they should blame the biased American news media.

3. That infamous video:
Much has been said about a video that depicted a handful of Palestinians "celebrating" the bombing of the World Trade Center. These images were broadcast almost immediately and were carried on nearly every American TV station, and reported in every American newspaper.

What was not reported was the hundreds of statements of sympathy and support from Palestinian government leaders, community leaders, organizations and agencies. Those with a political agenda and axe to grind have tried to exploit the Sept. 11 tragedy to benefit their causes, including the pro-Israeli lobby which has pushed broadcast of the videos.

One video of 25 people cannot outweigh the multiple images of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have denounced these attacks.

The Question of Palestine is NOT related to the Sept. 11 attacks; the majority of Palestinians and Arabs DO NOT support Osama Bin Laden's bastardization of Islam and his pathetic pandering to the Just Cause of the Palestinian people.

4. Attacks against Arab Americans:
The number of attacks against Arab Americans continues to increase, exceeding 960 in the six weeks after the attacks. In Bridgeview, protestors there waved not only American Flags but also Confederate Flags, demonstrating the true motivation for many of these attacks. They have ranged from beatings, broken windows, arson and burning of Christian Arab churches and vandalism of Muslim Mosques, and including several deaths.

These are the acts of bigots and racists, not patriots.

5. How to respond?
The best response to this kind of hatred is with education. Facts. The truth.

Diversity is the antidote to racism.

Our nation must embrace, not reject, diversity. That means hiring more Arab Americans in your companies. Getting to know and better understand not only Islam as a religion, but the Arab American community and their culture. Half of the 2.5 million Arabs in the United States are Christian. The Muslim Arabs represent about 20 percent of the nation's growing Muslim community.

6. On the issue of Racial Profiling:
Racial profiling is nothing more than officially sanctioned racism and discrimination. To believe that you can identify a terrorist by the way he or she looks is not only ridiculous, it is an ineffective method.

Terrorism does not have an ethnic face.

Racial profiling does not account for people like Timothy McVeigh or Eric Rudolph, both terrorists who aspired to the kind of Carnage achieved by Osama Bin Laden.

The evidence of the failure of racial profiling is in the tragedy of Sept. 11 itself. Racial profiling has been in effect at airports for many years. All 19 of the terrorists walked through the racial profiling net and were not stopped. Several of the terrorists had invalid or expired visas.

Profiling can be effective if it is used properly: Profiling should include more important clues to terrorist activity or involvement: such as a person's travel itinerary, past criminal records, association with organizations identified as terrorist affiliates, and other factors. EVERYONE should be required to show a passport before traveling, even in cases of domestic travel. A passport allows the government or record movement. Matching Justice Department databases with this Passport identification system would help to track potential terrorists.

7. Role of the news media:
The American news media is the primary source of racial hatred, feeding stereotypes and inaccurate images of people.

Arab Americans have protested this bigotry and bias in the news media.

8. How is this media bias measured?
Count the number of pro-Israel Op-Eds and commentaries in a newspaper over any given span of time, and then count the number of pro-Arab Op-Eds and commentaries during the same period. The news media often filter or block essays and contributions written by Arab Americans and pro-Arab writers, and Americans are only getting one side of the story.

Arab Americans are NOT asking the media to become pro-Arab or anti-Israeli. We are NOT criticizing the right of any media to take a position critical of our views. We ARE demanding that the news media be fair, however.

Present BOTH SIDES fairly and allow the readers to make up their minds. The act of presenting one side of an issue, as many American newspaper do now, is not only unprofessional journalism. It is also a sign that those whose views dominate the media are insecure about the righteousness of their position. Why else would they be afraid to present their views next to the views of those who disagree with them?

9. What can you do about media bias?
Call up and complain. Refuse to buy or sell biased newspapers. Food newspapers with telephone calls. Bug them. Irritate them. Make your voices heard. Tell others about them. Expose their unprofessional journalism. It's easy to call a newspaper ands complain.

Always be polite. But be firm. Don't demand that the paper take your side. Demand that the newspaper be FAIR!

10. Is the Sept. 11 attack tied to the Arab-Israeli conflict?
It is being dragged in by people who are trying to exploit the event to bolster anti-Arab sentiment. But the truth is, that what Osama Bin Laden did has nothing to do with the Middle East conflict. It has to do with Bin Laden's distorted and disturbed fanatic ideology.

The issues of the Middle East have been dragged into this unfortunate tragedy, mainly by pro-Israeli activists who believe that they, not Americans, should control American Foreign policy.

The conflict in Palestine is about allowing a people to become free from oppression. It is about ending Israel's 34 year long occupation of Palestinian homes and lands. The conflict in Palestine is about forcing Israel to recognize that it MUST surrender land it occupied in 1967 in order to achieve peace. Just as Bin Laden is a fanatic, many in the government of Ariel Sharon are fanatics, too.

11. Why is there violence in the Middle East conflict?
The main reason for violence has several aspects.

First, there are terrorists and extremists among the Arab community who are using suicide bombings and murder as a means of preventing the Palestinians and Israelis from achieving a peaceful compromise.

Many Palestinians have publicly denounced these acts of terrorism, like the suicide bombing of the Sbarro's restaurant in Jerusalem, and the suicide bombing of the Disco in Tel Aviv where innocent civilians were killed.

But, the Palestinians have also denounced the violence by the Israelis against them. Israeli settler fanatics have murdered and attacked hundreds of Palestinian civilians, also because they are seeking to prevent peace and block compromises that would return the lands taken by Israel in 1967.

And, the Sharon government has used government sponsored terrorism to assassinate more than 67 Palestinian political leaders making allegations without facts that they are criminals. If the Israelis have evidence to prove accusations against even one of these 67 Palestinians leaders who have been murdered, they have never presented that evidence publicly. The Israelis call this "extra-judicial killings."

Finally, there is also resistance to oppression, a principle of justice established during the American Revolution in which American Patriots resisted with force the violence and murder of American settlers in the 13 Colonies. The Palestinians, much like these American pioneers, are fighting back against Israeli military provocations.

12. Is the conflict Arabs versus Israelis?
No! The conflict is not about Arabs against Israelis. That is how the extremists on both sides continue to try and make this conflict.

Instead, the conflict is really about those Arabs and Israelis who support peaceful compromise, and those Arabs and Israelis who oppose peaceful compromise and who want everything.

There are many Israelis and many Palestinians who support compromise and are willing to look to the future rather than to dwell in the pain and suffering of the past. If you want to help achieve this goal, you must demand that both sides stop the violence, not just demand that one side stop. BOTH sides must stop. Israeli soldiers that have entered Palestinian areas are provoking violence and these Israeli soldiers MUST withdraw.

If the Israeli soldiers were to withdraw, and if Israel were to return to the peace negotiations which they ended last year, the Palestinians would be able to curb civilian resistance, and assist in fighting those who use terrorism to derail the peace process.

13. Can we ever prevent violence completely?
No. Unfortunately, no matter what happens, you can not end all acts of terrorism immediately. It will require the efforts of both the Palestinians and the Israelis to work together?

If a peace accord is signed, terrorists on BOTH SIDES, will try to upset the process by using acts of terrorism and suicide bombings.

But, once both sides commit themselves to peace and refuse to allow the terrorists on both sides to derail the peace process, the violence will eventually end and the terrorists will be either jailed, imprisoned or face a worse fate.

14. What is the role of religion?
The Middle East is the home and origin of three religions that are related by ancestry Biblical, Judaism, Christianity and Islam in that chronological sequence.

When we speak of so-called "Islamic fundamentalists," we are referring to Muslims who are very dedicated to their religion. You might compare them to the Born-Again Christians or the Christian Evangelists who live their lives by their religious teachings.

There are also so-called "Islamic extremists." These would be compared to the Christian anti-Abortion groups that believe that the use of violence in justified to prevent abortion murders. Or, to the Ku Klux Klan, which is a racially and religious-based group that used violence to target people of color, Catholics and Jews. These "Islamic Extremists" also believe that Religions is politics!

While "Islamic fundamentalists" may be sizeable, the so-called "Islamic Extremists" represent a very small fraction of the Arab World.

A third point is that most Arabs are not religious fanatics or extremists at all and are just like you and me, Christians who worship according to their faith but separate religion from politics. Most Arabs are secular but belief in God -- the word "Allah" is not a reference to a different God, but the same God of Christians and Jews. Allah is merely the Arabic word for God.

There are just as many "extremists" among the Jews and the Christians as there are among the Muslims. But Western stereotypes accentuate the Muslim activists above all others, mainly because they are the newest religious group and they are only recently increasing in size and presence in the United States.

15. What can you do?
The most effective way to stop terrorism is to become educated about the issues, to reject racism and bigotry, to speak out against media bias, and to demand that conflicts be resolved fairly and peacefully.

It is not that hard to do. It only takes people who are willing to set aside their pre-conceived stereotypes of other people. It takes people who are willing to recognize that they are not educated about people or events that anger them. It takes people to reach across cultural gaps and differences and respect each other.

Peace is a powerful force. Friendship and kindness and understanding are powerful messages. Combining these together can inspire a change. And, maybe, just maybe, we might be able, by working together, to prevent future acts of terrorism.

RAY HANANIA