The Ahmadinejad Hysteria
Somewhere amidst the hysterical media/politicos outrage at Iran's Ahmadinejad's request to lay a wreath at ground zero during his UN visit this next week, I heard one reminder that the Iranians had marched in sympathy with us in response to the 9/11 atrocity.
Ahmadinejad is a notorious publicity seeker -- the denial of the Holocaust routine that he sponsored for such speakers as David Duke, former Klan head who got 65% of the Jena vote when he ran for office -- but let us not forget that al Qaeda is a Sunni outfit and an enemy of Iran as well as us. But there are some common interests upon which we might be able to build if we stopped threatening bombing of Iran.
I can buy the NYPD's denial of access for Ahmadinejad to ground zero which would have been a security nightmare with all the hatred of him -- and particularly at a time when the UN and all those arriving here for its meetings need full security protection. However, I hope that the Columbia University visit will not be blown away as well (as one who lives just down the street). Here is an opportunity to talk as opposed to firing weapons at each other and the next generation deserves the opportunity to do that talking. Need one constantly repeat Churchill's admonition that "jaw, jaw" is far preferable to "wah, wah"? Here we have a chance for some face to face and I hope all with access will take advantage of it.
.......................
President of Iran Says He’ll Avoid Ground Zero
By THOMAS J. LUECK and KAREN W. ARENSON
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, said he would abide by a decision not to allow him to go to ground zero during
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/21/nyregion/21visit.html?ref=nyregion
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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Ahmadinejad is a notorious publicity seeker -- the denial of the Holocaust routine that he sponsored for such speakers as David Duke, former Klan head who got 65% of the Jena vote when he ran for office -- but let us not forget that al Qaeda is a Sunni outfit and an enemy of Iran as well as us. But there are some common interests upon which we might be able to build if we stopped threatening bombing of Iran.
I can buy the NYPD's denial of access for Ahmadinejad to ground zero which would have been a security nightmare with all the hatred of him -- and particularly at a time when the UN and all those arriving here for its meetings need full security protection. However, I hope that the Columbia University visit will not be blown away as well (as one who lives just down the street). Here is an opportunity to talk as opposed to firing weapons at each other and the next generation deserves the opportunity to do that talking. Need one constantly repeat Churchill's admonition that "jaw, jaw" is far preferable to "wah, wah"? Here we have a chance for some face to face and I hope all with access will take advantage of it.
.......................
President of Iran Says He’ll Avoid Ground Zero
By THOMAS J. LUECK and KAREN W. ARENSON
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, said he would abide by a decision not to allow him to go to ground zero during
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/21/nyregion/21visit.html?ref=nyregion
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/440neighborhood
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudentConcerns
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AcademicFreedom
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PrivacyRights
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Israel_Palestine
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FindingHumaneJobs
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
posted by Ed Kent at 7:05 AM
1 Comments:
Remember How Iran Responded to the 9/11 Attacks?
With all the ruckus over the request of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's request to visit “Ground Zero” during his visit to New York to lay a wreath [1], it is somewhat worth remembering how Iran responded to the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
Knowing how short American memories are and knowing how many Americans share President Bush’s habit of conflating all U.S. opponents and enemies into some sort of utterly fictional “united front,” like the now famous “Axis of Evil” (none of whom had anything whatsoever to do with the 9/11 attacks); I began preparing in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. It was fully predictable that there would be an Islamaphobic backlash in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and that people with a vested interest in promoting anti-Muslim hatred would later try to equate the entire Islamic world with the attacks in New York and Washington DC. So, beginning on September 12, 2001, I began compiling the actual responses to the attacks by all the countries of the world with a Muslim majority regardless of their political standing or relationship with the United States. Visiting and saving snippets from official government outlets for these states (embassy websites, Ministries of Foreign Affairs, &c.) as well as searching the media for relevant articles discussing the reactions of these states, I saved all this data for the fifty-two states in question and put it online in the “International Islamic Response” website. After several moves to different hosts, I kept all this data and it can now be found online at: http://iir.internetactivist.org/
So what was Iran’s reaction to the 9/11 attacks?
"On behalf of the Iranian government and the nation, I condemn the hijacking attempts and terrorist attacks on public centers in American cities which have killed a large number of innocent people," President Khatami said in reaction to the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor. ... "My deep sympathy goes out to the American nation, particularly those who have suffered from the attacks and also the families of the victims," he said, noting, "terrorism is doomed and the international community should stem it and take effective measures in a bid to eradicate it." Khatami added that the Islamic Republic of Iran is treading a road to uproot terrorism and to this end, he noted, it will spare no efforts.
And related news stories included:
“Iranians Honor U.S. with Moment of Silence” (NY Post)
“Khatami Condemns ‘Terrorist’ Attacks on U.S. Targets (People’s Daily, Iran)
“US calls Iran’s response ‘positive’” (Economic Times)
“Terror attacks transform U.S. image in Iran’s media” (Gulf News)
“Powell sees hope in Iran, Syria response to attack” (Reuters)
“'Iran News’ deplores attacks on major US landmarks” (Iran News)
“Iran expresses rare sympathy for U.S. over attacks” (Reuters)
“Iran ayatollah says he is heart-broke over U.S. attack” (Gulf News)
“Iran seals Afghanistan border” (AP)
All of this was saved in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 at http://iir.internetactivist.org/020.html though of course many of the links are no longer valid, being six years old.
The point was – and remains – to show that contrary to whatever the Islamaphobic hate-mongers might say today, the vast majority of the Islamic world, even including states that the US has had difficult relations with, were sympathetic and supportive in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The whole supposition that there should be any problem with President Ahmadinejad laying a wreath at “Ground Zero” is just a statement of American ignorance, bigotry, and hated completely unjustified by anything Iran has done.
Anyway, to learn more about the response of the world’s majority Muslim countries in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, visit the International Islamic Response website at: http://iir.internetactivist.org/ Just click on any of the countries listed on the left to see how they responded. Just to save you some time, the ONLY majority Muslim states that were not sympathetic was Iraq (at the time under Saddam Hussein and suffering from US imposed sanctions that resulted in the death of over a million Iraqis [2]) and Afghanistan (then under the Taliban).
John S.
Notes:
[1] Pat Milton, "New York bans 'photo op' visit to Ground Zero by Iran's president," The Scotsman, 21 September 2007, http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1509712007
[2] Peace Action, “End Sanctions on Iraq,” Peace Action Education Fund, undated, http://www.peace-action.org/camp/justice/iraqfs.pdf
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