September 11, 2001… It's a date etched forever in our national memory… a date it would be shameful not to honor. So many people died that day, people of all nationalities… of all races… of all faiths. We forget that. We remember the day, but only for a select group of victims… only the ones that matter, the Remembered. We conveniently omit those "others," even the heroes. They are the Forgotten.
We mourn the losses of 9/11 and try to comfort each other and the those who lost loved ones. We assure them and each other of the validity of our grief, of our right to mourn. Who mourns for the Muslim dead? Who comforts the Muslim mourners in their grief? Muslim mourners have become the silent, forgotten victims of 9/11, dehumanized and victimized daily by a rhetoric that makes them inconvenient at best, vilifies them as somehow responsible at worst, in all ways ignoring their loss… denying their right to mourn.
From CNN
From CNN
You won't find Mohammed Hamdan among the names of the first responders that etched in a wall at the 9/11 memorial in New York. But on the day of the 9/11 attacks, the 23-year-old certified EMT and onetime NYPD police cadet skipped his job at a university research lab to rush to the World Trade Center. Not long after, his family posted Hamdan's picture on a wall of the missing. Six months later, his remains were found in - 34 parts. "He did not stop to wonder are they Christian or Muslims or are they Jews or their ethnicity or their color." Mrs. Talat says of her son's actions on 9/11. "It's just humanity."
From NY Times
From NY Times
"A Nation Challenged: Portraits of Grief: The Victims…" comes the small story of another forgotten hero, a Muslim from Yemen, Abdu Malahi. "On Sept. 11, Mr. Malahi ignored warnings to flee the building and stayed to help evacuate the hotel guests."
The Muslims who marched in DC are Muslims in AMERICA. It was the WORLD Trade Center. Many Muslims died that day too. The tragedy of 9/11 happened to them too.
From USA TodayYet 9/11 had more Muslim victims (about 60 of nearly 3,000 killed) than terrorist hijackers (19).
They included an assistant bank vice president and a cook, a commodities trader and a waiter, an insurance executive, a security guard and an IT guy.
They included immigrants from all over: Sarah Khan, a cafeteria manager from Guyana; Syed Abdul Fatha, a copy machine operator from India; Zuhtu Ibis, a computer technician from Turkey. There was Michael Baksh, a Pakistani immigrant on his first day of work at the insurance firm Marsh & McLennan, and Abdoul Karim Traore, who had risen at 3 a.m. that day to deliver USA TODAY before reporting to work as a cook at Windows on the World restaurant. Karamo Trerra, a computer tech, was ready to celebrate his fourth wedding anniversary on Sept. 12.
The Muslims who marched in DC are Muslims in AMERICA. It was the WORLD Trade Center. Many Muslims died that day too. The tragedy of 9/11 happened to them too.
From USA TodayYet 9/11 had more Muslim victims (about 60 of nearly 3,000 killed) than terrorist hijackers (19).
They included an assistant bank vice president and a cook, a commodities trader and a waiter, an insurance executive, a security guard and an IT guy.
They included immigrants from all over: Sarah Khan, a cafeteria manager from Guyana; Syed Abdul Fatha, a copy machine operator from India; Zuhtu Ibis, a computer technician from Turkey. There was Michael Baksh, a Pakistani immigrant on his first day of work at the insurance firm Marsh & McLennan, and Abdoul Karim Traore, who had risen at 3 a.m. that day to deliver USA TODAY before reporting to work as a cook at Windows on the World restaurant. Karamo Trerra, a computer tech, was ready to celebrate his fourth wedding anniversary on Sept. 12.
No comments:
Post a Comment