Good people,

We are all very angry and upset right now, but we need to channel that rage into constructively helping our nation deal with this crisis.  If we blame the Muslims and Arabs among us, then the scum who organized this massacre win in two ways:
We will get distracted from our real target, which is THEM.
They will gain converts among the innocent people who are being abused.

When McVeigh blew up the Murrah building, we were horribly scapegoated.  Let’s not turn around and repeat the same behavior.

From the Dallas Morning News at:
[url]www.dallasnews.com/attack_on_america/stories2/470750_muslims_14met..html[/url]


[center][b]Denton mosque is third to be attacked[/b][/center]
Community donates resources, offers reward in latest incidents
09/14/2001
By SELWYN CRAWFORD / The Dallas Morning News
The attempted firebombing of a Denton mosque – the third attack on an area mosque in two days – increased fears that anger about Tuesday's terrorist attacks would be taken out on local Muslims.
Federal authorities and Denton fire and police officials are looking for whoever tossed a Molotov cocktail into the Islamic Society of Denton mosque about 2:30 a.m. Thursday. No one was inside at the time, and the fire caused only minor damage.
No one was injured or killed, but Muslim leaders said they are bracing for more incidents.
"As the death toll mounts [from the terrorist attacks], anger mounts," said Mohammed Elmougy, president of the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "But we're just as American as everybody else."
After the mosque attacks, people of all faiths have reached out to area Muslims with prayers, comforting e-mail, financial support and donations of materials for repairs. North Texas religious leaders denounced the attacks.
"I think people are angry in response to what happened in New York and Washington," said the Rev. Larry D. Spencer, a Presbyterian minister and former executive director of the Greater Dallas Community of Churches. "It's appropriate to be angry, but it's not appropriate to scapegoat against people who had nothing to do with that just because of ethnicity."
Mr. Spencer was among 20 Dallas-area clergy members who issued a statement expressing sorrow for Tuesday's assaults in New York and calling for restraint on the part of those who wanted to seek revenge. The Tarrant Area Community of Churches issued a similar statement Thursday.
The Dallas Central Mosque will have an interfaith community meeting Friday morning to discuss ways to build unity. And the Dallas regional office of the Anti-Defamation League has set up a $2,500 reward for information leading to the capture and conviction of any perpetrators of the mosque attacks.
Despite those obvious shows of concern, Muslims in North Texas said that fear has become a part of their lives.
The Brighter Horizons Islamic school in Richardson closed its doors at least until Monday. The school at the Irving Islamic Center – where one of the mosque attacks occurred – also canceled classes.
"We are concerned about the safety of the children and the safety of the families," said Dr. Nabil Sadoun, a spokesman for Brighter Horizons. "Time is a healing factor, and we canceled classes today and tomorrow."

(contd...)
Abdul Raouf Alkawaldeh, project manager for the Irving Islamic Center, said finding bullet holes in the mosque Wednesday was shocking.
"We're trying to cope, we're trying to understand what is going on around us," Mr. Alkawaldeh said. "It's a real deep hurt."
But Mr. Alkawaldeh said that many non-Muslim North Texans had been overwhelming in their support. He said people had donated plywood and money for repairs. Others left flowers or sympathetic voice-mail messages.
"We are very impressed with the people around North Texas," Mr. Alkawaldeh said. "That tells us that there are plenty of good people here."
Other Muslims said that they are concerned about Friday, the Muslim sabbath. Fort Worth Muslim leaders canceled prayers, but mosque leaders in Dallas County say the afternoon prayers would take place as scheduled.
"Everybody is very much concerned," said Aamir Askari, a Muslim and the editor of a weekly newspaper, The News. "They want to come out, but a lot of people may stay home."
Mr. Elmougy said some Muslim women have stopped going out in public.
"Women who wear the head cover have not been out of their houses in two days because they are afraid," he said. "There are doctors and teachers who are afraid to leave their homes. Our children are scared. They're asking, 'Why are the schools closed?' "

I hope none of the people involved are members of this board.  That would really be sad.  After being persecuted by the news media, "criminals have guns, therefore people with guns are criminals" mentality we should know better.

Yes, this is certainly regrettable. It does indeed give all of us, especially Texans, a bad name.

However, this is truly something that Bin Laden, or whoever was responsible for the recent terroristic actions against the United States, should have thought about [b]before[/b] they carried out their evil actions!

Just think about the innocent civilians sitting somewhere in another part of the world who are destined to be the 'collateral damage' during any retaliatory strikes by the US and its(?) allies.

They, too, should have gone into the scales when the terrorists were making their carefully laid plans!

Eric The(HeWhoLivesByTheSword...)Hun[>]:)]

Why the hell would you even think that anyone on this board would be involved with this?

Don't worry Warlord, I won't be using you for my alibi! [>]:)]

To the extent that Bin Laden gives a rat's ass about innocent human beings, reprisals against innocents actually are a GOOD THING!  They divert energy and resources, making it more difficult to get to him.  And they provide a new pool of freshly abused converts to his cause.

We can help him along, or we can deny him that small pleasure.  The choice is ours.  ("Ours" in a rhetorical sense, not used personally).

What you are asking is equivilant of doing nothing. The only way to get him is to get states to stop hiding him. The only way to do that is to hurt them and that can only be done by hurting their population. Just like we leveled the Cities of Germany and Japan.

Well, ckapsl, in one of my many forays into the web this evening, I found an article that was saying that the average Ahmed Mohammad (or Joe SixPack) was getting awfully tired of the whole intifada b.s., and was eager to get his life back together, and go back to work in Israel!

If the actions of Bin Laden & Company cause even more misery in Ahmed's life, the break between the fanatic and the working stiff might come about indeed!

Eric The(PleaseDon'tAskForLinksToSite,IAlreadyEditedForLinksOnOtherThread!)Hun[>]:)]

i hear the mosque back at my away from college home has had near round the clock police protection due to threats and such.

Far from doing nothing, I demand revenge.  But on the people who are responsible, and those who knowingly shelter them.  And while we are at it, we ought to make sure that we systematically and comprehensively eradicate terrorists and their supporters from everywhere on the planet.  But innocent people in [b]this[/b] country should be left alone.

In WWII, the [b]nations[/b] of Germany and Japan, enthusiastically backed by their populations, declared total war on us.  We did what we needed to do to end the war.  I will not lose any sleep over what we did to them and their cities and their people.  This situation is at least a little different.  In fact, we still don't know for sure who has declared war on us. although we have some pretty good suspicions.

ckapsl:  really good point about us being scapegoated in the OKC bombing!  You could also add Columbine HS, etc. to that.  Ironically, a few folks in this forum have become their own worst enemy.

Incidentally, while there is truly great anger in this country, we also have our share of opportunistic thugs who will seize on any excuse to commit violent or illegal acts.  

How many riots have we seen where individuals - allegedly protesting some injustice – also looted stores?

Such individuals might be committing some of these attacks.

I can't even say anything about this except BTT for the ones who were already asleep last night when this was posted who might be able to gain something by reading this.

Bin Laden has no respect towards the Arab community here.  They are not part of HIS Islam.  The U.S. arabs have as much to fear as we do, and many arabs died in the recent WTC bombing.  

I'm betting Bin Laden wants the U.S. Mosques burned to the ground and all U.S. arabs killed.  He would prefer us to do it, making his job easier.