fossil_digger Report This Comment Date: March 10, 2006 07:34PM
A Letter From An American Airlines Pilot
This is the same question that many of us have been asking for the past
several years....this well spoken man says what is on his heart
beautifully....read, absorb and pass on....it's time to get answers from
those
who claim their terrorist members do not represent them...why are their
leaders
not LOUDLY AND FIERCELY AND CONTINUOUSLY condemning their visible murderous
brethren.
By American Airlines Pilot - Captain John Maniscalco
"I've been trying to say this since 9-11 but you worry me. I wish
you
didn't. I wish when I walked down the streets of this country that I love,
that
your color and culture still blended with the beautiful human landscape we
enjoy
in this country. But you don't blend in anymore. I notice you, and it
worries
me. I notice you because I can't help it anymore. People from your
homelands,
professing to be Muslims, have been attacking and killing my fellow citizens
and
our friends for more than 20 years now. I don't fully understand their
grievances and hate but I know that nothing can justify the inhumanity of
their
attacks.
On September 11, nineteen ARAB-MUSLIMS hijacked four jetliners in my
country. They cut the throats of women in front of children and brutally
stabbed to death others. They took control of those planes and crashed them
into buildings killing thousands of proud fathers, loving sons, wise
grandparents, elegant daughters, best friends, favorite coaches, fearless
public
servants, and children's mothers. The Palestinians Celebrated, The Iraqis
were
overjoyed as was most of the Arab world.
So I notice you now. I don't want to be worried. I don't want to be
consumed by the same rage and hate and prejudice that has destroyed the soul
of
these terrorists. But I need your help. As a rational American, trying to
protect my country and family in an irrational and unsafe world, I must know
how
to tell the difference between you, and the Arab/Muslim terrorist.
How do I differentiate between the true Arab/Muslim-Americans and the
Arab/Muslims in our communities who are attending our schools, enjoying our
parks, and living in OUR communities under the protection of OUR
constitution,
while they plot the next attack that will slaughter these same good
neighbors
and children? The events of September 11th changed the answer. It is not my
responsibility to determine which of you embraces our great country, with ALL
of
its religions, with ALL of its different citizens, with all of its faults.
It
is time for every Arab/Muslim in this country to determine it for me.
I want to know, I demand to know, and I have a right to know whether or
not
you love America. Do you pledge allegiance to its flag? Do you proudly
display
it in front of your house, or on your car?
Do you pray in your many daily prayers that Allah will bless this
nation,
that He will protect and prosper it? Or do you pray that Allah with destroy
it
in one of your "Jihads"? Are you thankful for the freedom that only
this nation
affords? A freedom that was paid for by the blood of hundreds of thousands
of
patriots who gave their lives for this country? Are you willing to preserve
this freedom by paying the ultimate sacrifice? Do you love America? If this
is
your commitment, then I need YOU to start letting ME know about it.
Your Muslim leaders in this nation should be flooding the media at this
time
with hard facts on your faith, and what hard actions you are taking as a
community and as a religion to protect the United States of America. Please,
no
more benign overtures of regret for the death of the innocent because I
worry
about who you regard as innocent. No more benign overtures of condemnation
for
the unprovoked attacks because I worry about what is unprovoked to you. I
am
not interested in any more sympathy...I am only interested in action. What
will
you do for America - our great country -- at this time of crisis, at this
time
of war?
I want to see Arab-Muslims waving the AMERICAN flag in the streets. I
want
to hear you chanting "Allah Bless America". I want to see young
Arab/Muslim men
enlisting in the military. I want to see a commitment of money, time, and
emotion to the victims of this butchering and to this nation as a whole The
FBI
has a list of over 400 people they want to talk to regarding the WTC attack.
Many of these people live and socialize in Muslim communities. You know them
You know where they are.
Hand them over to us, now! But I have seen little even approaching this
sort of action. Instead I have seen an already closed and secretive
community
close even tighter. You have disappeared from the streets. You have posted
armed security guards at your facilities. You have threatened lawsuits. You
have screamed for protection from reprisals.
The very few Arab/Muslim representatives that HAVE appeared in the media
were defensive and equivocating. They seemed more concerned with making
sure
that the United States proves who was responsible before taking action.
They
seemed more concerned with protecting their fellow Muslims from violence
directed towards them in the United States and abroad than they did with
supporting our country and denouncing "leaders" like Khadafi,
Hussein,
Farrakhan, and Arafat. If the true teachings of Islam proclaim tolerance
and
peace and love for all people then I want chapter and verse from the Koran
and
statements from popular Muslim leaders to back it up. What good is it if
the
teachings in the Koran are good and pure and true when your "leaders"
are
teaching fanatical interpretations, terrorism, and intolerance?
It matters little how good Islam SHOULD BE if large numbers of the
world's
Muslims interpret the teachings of Mohammed incorrectly and adhere to a
degenerative form of the religion. A form that has been demonstrated to us
over
and over again. A form whose structure is built upon a foundation of
violence,
death, and suicide. A form whose members are recruited from the prisons
around
the world. A form whose members (some as young as five years old) are seen
day
after day, week in and week out, year after year, marching in the streets
around
the world, burning effigies of our presidents, burning the American flag,
shooting weapons into the air. A form whose members convert from a peaceful
religion, only to take up arms against the great United States of America,
the
country of their birth. A form whose rules are so twisted, that their
traveling
members refuse to show their faces at airport security checkpoints, in the
name
of Islam.
Do you and your fellow Muslims hate us because our women proudly show
their
faces in public rather than cover up like a shameful whore? Do you and your
fellow Muslims hate us because we drink wine with dinner, or celebrate
Christmas? Do you and you fellow Muslims hate us because we have befriended
Israel, the ONLY civilized democratic nation in the entire Middle East?
And if you and your fellow Muslims hate us, then why in the world are
you
even here? Are you here to take our money? Are you here to undermine our
peace
and stability? Are you here to destroy us? If so, I want you to leave I
want
you to go back to your desert sandpit where women are treated like rats and
dogs. I want you to take your religion, your friends, and your family back
to
your Islamic extremists, and STAY THERE! We will NEVER give in to your
influence, your retarded mentality, your twisted, violent, intolerant religion.
We will NEVER allow the attacks of September 11, or any others for that
matter,
to take away that which is so precious to us: Our rights under the greatest
constitution in the world.I want to know where every Arab/ Muslim in this
country stands and I think it is my right and the right of every true citizen
of
this country to demand it. A right paid for by the blood of thousands of my
brothers and! sisters who died protecting the very constitution that is
protecting you and your family. I am pleading with you to let me know. I
want
you here as my brother, my neighbor, my friend, as a fellow American. But
there
can be no gray areas or ambivalence regarding your allegiance and it is up
to
YOU, to show ME, where YOU stand." "Until then ... you worry me"
