I never thought about the fact that 9/11, and the subsequent political acts to avenge it, have caused more injury and death to Muslims throughout the world than the total number of victims in the Twin Towers.
I wonder how many other Muslims curse those terrorists for their heinous acts.
71
If the writer is a victim of 9/11, shouldn't he also be receiving compensation from the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund?
8
I am Jewish. I remember when I learned about the concentration camps, the Gestapo, how many people turned on the Jews, turned in Jews, murdered them even after WWII was over. I remember wondering when it would happen to me or to my family. I remember being afraid and not having anyone to tell because they wouldn't understand a young child's imagination.
Then 9/11/2001 dawned and it was a beautiful late summer day until I heard the news : first one airplane and then another had crashed into the Two Towers. Every one of my coworkers was stunned. We sat at our desks and murmured and tried to contact people we knew who worked in midtown. The date 9/11/2001 was a new Pearl Harbor date. Everything changed. It seemed as if people felt that it was permissible to hate all Muslims or anyone who looked like or sounded like one, or who had a name that might be Muslim.
Our president at the time used 9/11 as a pretext to march into Iraq, to let Rumsfeld and Cheney have a war they didn't know how to run or win, to put in place regulations that hurt the wrong people. We violated the Geneva Convention on purpose. And we threw away the friendship and solidarity we needed to curb this sort of terrorism.
Islam is a religion. Religions attract fanatics. In America Jews and Muslims have to worry more about fanatic Christian or white supremacist terrorists than anyone else. Tom Lehrer's song "National Brotherhood Week" is still appropriate.
9/11/2019 7:03pm
22
On 9/11/2001, Donald Trump said this:
"If you know anything about structure, it was one of the first building built from the outside...you had all this steel on the outside, and you had big heavy I-beams....I could't believe it because there was a hole in the steel...How could a plane, even a 767, or a 747, or whatever it might have been, how could it possible go through this heavy steel. I happen to think that they had not only a plane, but they had bombs that exploded almost simultaneously, because I just can't imagine anything being able to go through that wall...this was the strongest structure you can have, and it was almost like a can of soup..."
Donald Trump Calls Into WWOR/UPN 9 News on 9/11
https://youtu.be/PcKlPhFIE7w?t=334
2
The world Muslim terrorists took from us...to be accurate.
16
Firstly, on this day, I feel like this sort of of writing is inappropriate. People flocked to damn the "straight pride" counter to the gay pride parades, and this feels like very much of the same.
As to the article itself. Welcome to our world, as an African American in Americaa. You're just noticing the treatment of others lower on the totem pole. While you say your life was changed, be thankful you got to know the another way of living. Some of us learned we were different at a very young age, and it didn't take a national disaster to vilify us.
Whenever I see peices like this I have to shake my head, because you truly don't know how good you've got it. Sure, people will have some prejudices against you, and I'm sorry for that. Welcome to America. I will tell you what they tell us, grow thicker skin and work harder.
Today is a day to remember those we lost, not to shed light on the troubles you've had, or how the world views muslims. Be thankful you got to live a nice childhood, thinking you were the same as other children. It has taken centuries, and no change. So take a seat, relax, and enjoy the ride.
10
I read with amazement the overtones of most readers criticizing USA actions in response to 9/11.
What would they have said following 12/7/1941 Pearl Harbour?
Does anyone see the analogy?
Doubtful most of them have any idea of life in the USA pre and aft Dec. 7 1941
A footnote: post 9/11/ Afghanistan was invaded by NATO
9
Interested in 9/11 history? Here is a bit of it you are not likely to get from any U.S. historian. The passage that follows is from a book called “The Levant” by European historian Philip Mansel. First published in the US in 2011 by Yale University Press. From a chapter titled “The Dance of Death” about Beirut's decline into violence from 1975 on:
The invasion had one unexpected long-term consequence. Like many Arabs, the bin Laden family had often visited Beirut on holiday. Television ensured that they saw the Israeli bombardments of the city. They blamed Israel's ally, fund-reaiser and weapons-supplier, the United States.
August 1982 contributed to September 2011.
Osama bin Laden later claimed, “As I looked at those demolished towers in Lebanon, it entered my mind that we should punish the oppressors in kind and that we should destroy towers in America so that they taste some of what we tasted and so that they be deterred from killing our women and children.”
The bin Laden quote is from an interview in a Beirut newspaper, the Daily Star. It appeared on page 11 of the Nov. 4, 2004 issue.
Needless to say, his idea of deterrence did not pan out.
2
The reactions to the attacks by Al Qaeda struck at the heart of our liberal democracy, showing that fear and ignorance can easily turn a free people into a fearful and cowering crowd of sheep, easily manipulated by unscrupulous representatives of the people.
7
“These acts of violence against innocents violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith. And it’s important for my fellow Americans to understand that.
The English translation is not as eloquent as the original Arabic, but let me quote from the Koran, itself: In the long run, evil in the extreme will be the end of those who do evil. For that they rejected the signs of Allah and held them up to ridicule.
The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don’t represent peace. They represent evil and war.
When we think of Islam we think of a faith that brings comfort to a billion people around the world. Billions of people find comfort and solace and peace. And that’s made brothers and sisters out of every race—out of every race.”
President George W. Bush, speaking one week after 9/11
The US invasion of Afghanistan was the only reasonable response. Al Qaeda was embedded in the country with the support of the Taliban. More terror attacks around the world would follow.
But George Bush never lost sight of the fact that millions—billions—of Muslims were innocent and horrified by the brutal attacks carried out in the name of Islam,
5
Conflicting opinions whilst reading this article. Outrage. Understanding. Eye rolling. Dismay.
Two main takeaways:
1. Learned a lot about passport colors - https://brightside.me/wonder-curiosities/there-are-only-four-passport-colors-in-the-world-and-this-is-the-reason-why-315960/
2. FYI, Omer, scars do not "deepen over time." They fade. And *that* is why anniversaries are important.
6
It’s astonishing to read the apologists below attempting to justify 9/11 and/or shift the blame onto anyone other than the perpetrators and their ideological cheerleaders.
14
Thank you Omer. Just to clarify, there is no God. Unless human beings are slaves to this thought process which is tyranny for a great many and business for a lot others, some people somewhere will try to kill and maim in the name of their God.
3
Anniversaries also give a lot of jerks license to ratchet up their jerkhood.
Those who claim superior patriotism simply by being the loudest complainer about how everything is wrong, and not in compliance to how they think everyone and things in the US should be.
Virtue seekers. Like someone at work, complaining that there was no Company led moment of silence this morning. "Disgraceful!", says the always loud, white female Trump voter.
Disgracefull? Hardly. Enforced, systemic and false mourning...thats disgraceful, because it cheapens the tragedy, and denigrates the true losses. It serves the Virtue seekers, not the memory of those who died or those families. "Look at me! I had a moment of silence today! Im virtuous! I'm a real patriot." Poser!
5
I met a young man a few years after 9/11 happened. He was an immigrant. He was Tuareg and Muslim. He told me that before 9/11, he thought black people were treated the worst by white Americans but after 9/11, he said that it was Muslims who were treated the worst.
1
The author puts all "brown-skinned people", as he calls them, in one general category, as if Christians who happened to have brown skin are in the same category as Muslims who happened to have brown skin.
We have to be clear here.
We are in the midst of a new phenomenon of mass immigration of Muslims to Christian-majority countries. This has never happened before in the history of the two religions. In earlier times, we saw Christians try to take Muslim-occupied lands, as in the Crusades, and Muslims trying to take Christian-occupied lands, such as Spain and the Ottoman push in Eastern Europe in the 16th century. But never before have we seen mass migration of Muslims into Christian-majority lands.
Furthermore, this migration has been accepted (largely) in a peaceful manner by the host Christian-majority peoples. But there are potential problems looming. So long as Muslims believe that infidels - the term used by them to describe non-Muslims - should only be tolerated under certain conditions, such as paying the "dhimmi" tax, and so long as they believe that "blasphemy" as they define it, should not be tolerated, and so long as they do not allow their women to be able to freely convert to another religion if they so desire, then integration into a Western secular culture with staunch principles of free speech and freedom of conscience will be quite difficult.
15
To those who are bringing Ilhan Omar's poorly worded comments into the mix:
Omar's statement expressed the same sentiment as Aziz eloquently expresses--how all too many Americans painted the entire Muslim community with the broad brush of collective guilt, and innocent Muslims have been paying a price for a crime they abhorred ever since (remember Trump's assertion that Muslims in New Jersey celebrated?). Put Omar's statement in its proper context, and put the blame for 9/11 where it belongs--on the criminals who planned and carried out the outrage, and on our "friends" in the region nurtured and protected them.
7
Your words are so powerful and so sad. Our world was forever changed that day and certainly not for the better. Not being Muslim, I can only try to empathize with your plight, but I do belong to a couple of other minority groups so I have a clue. Be well, my friend.
6
Mr. Aziz tells the story of one person - his story. His story is important to him.
The real story of 9/11/2001 is the story of the 3000 men and women murdered on that awful day. That story is important to all of us on 9/11/2019.
That story will be remembered on every anniversary as long as Americans remember the horror of 9/11.......and that will be for centuries.
10
Osama bin Laden was once quoted as saying, "God willing, America will become a shadow of itself." What he meant by that we can only speculate. However the country unfortunately has become a shadow of what it once was.
8
This commentary is utter perfection.
I struggle to understand the confusion, shame, horror and ultimately the rage that resulted from the variety of groups using 9/11 to chase their agendas all the while victimizing an entire segment of our population whose only misfortune was being born Muslim in a time that even the word “Muslim” had become profane.
Your description of the post 9/11 world for Muslim Americans is jarring. I knew in the abstract that life was never the same for our Muslim friends and neighbors but to read how the events impacted children of those days is devastating.
Thank you for such an honest and searing account of how your life and the lives of all American Muslims changed on 9/11. Thank you for honestly calling out the government for the part it took in destroying countless more lives while enriching the few who could make the rules and profit greatly be invading innocent countries while allowing the guilty party (SA) to walk away without consequence.
What I would give to return to the world of September 10, 2001 when we would have never accepted the invasion of a sovereign nation for profit, never accepted putting brown children in cages, and a world where Muslim children could go to school and feel as much a part of the great melting pot as the child seated next to them. The reality is that this country was never a shining city on a hill, but rather an extremely fragile fragment of our collective imagination.
13
I hope at some point we would explore whether the event, horrible that it was, amounts to the cause or should be seen as the effect of much that came before. Was it the cause or was it the effect?
7
In the 1980's I was a research analyst for NYS Social Services working on a survey regarding staff relocation from the WTO to Queens. The Staff was decidedly NOT happy a sentiment I conveyed to senior management who had already decided on the move. Despite being from the metropolitan area it was only then I realized what a important hub of the city the downtown area was. Glad to see it back.
1
America usually makes the wrong foreign policy choices, and so the 9/11 attacks were a simple retribution for decades of ill conceived ME policy choices.
8
In the past few years, I've noticed an odd shift about the 9/11 anniversaries: they seem to draw fanatical reverence from large swathes of the conservative population, all rife with white nationalist undertones.
For a lot such people, 9/11 makes the perfect tragedy. Innocent hard-working white Americans were killed en masse by foreign, muslim, brown-skinned terrorist. In a country with rapidly changing demographics, 9/11 has almost been a rallying call: American values are under attack, Americans have been attacked before, and if we let our guard down, we will be attacked again. That's a big part of what got Trump to be president.
12
@Clem Yeah, except a lot of them weren't white, and many of them weren't American to boot! Even the lesson in American diversity that 9/11 offers is lost on them.
9
@Clem
I wondered how many comments I would need to read before someone pointed at Trump. Fanatical reverence, such as being proud to be an American? Fanatical reverence by standing up to Antifa? Fanatical reverence to stop America to be fundamentally transformed? Fantatical reverence to stop America sliding into socialism?
4
Until we squarely face the lies and deceptions that enabled a malleable and vainglorious president and his handlers to launch an unnecessary war that is unquestionably the worst American foreign policy disaster in our history, we won't find peace as a nation. The willful collective denial of the catastrophe we launched in Iraq, institutionalized in most conservative circles, is not shared beyond our borders. The world knows us by our actions, and all our high-minded words -- once an inspiration to people most everywhere -- can't erase a global awareness of what we can't admit to ourselves.
151
@Mhmllr
You’re 100% right. George W. Bush and all of his war criminal co-conspirators, including but not limited to Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and Condoleezza Rice, need to be sent to The Hague!
22
Honestly, I wasn’t going to read this. I’ve read so many articles and editorials over the years since 9-11 that I couldn’t fathom how this particular article could say anything that hadn’t already been said. But THIS?? Profound and sad and beautiful. As humans, I think we see the world through the prisms of our own experiences and even though we can empathize with Black and Brown people, we cannot truly know what they experience until they tell us. And until we listen without prejudice or preconceived notions. For this brave, articulate young man and so many others, 9-11 and its aftermath was in many ways more tragic, more brutal and more terrifying than for many Americans. And that’s really saying something.
15
A beautifully written and poignant essay. I will seek out the book.
10
I am a longtime member of Jewish Voice for Peace. I am humbled by this powerful recollection and hope for our future that Omer Aziz has written.
Speaking truth to power will set us free as many prophets have proclaimed. We simply can't hate anyone, especially those who hate us. We have to find ways of countering any hate we feel for anyone, even ourselves. It is the problem of evil in us all as prophets have indicated.
The Taoist Lao Tzu said some 2,500 years ago: "If you see something you dislike in someone, look within. In meditation, go deep. No fight. No blame. Don't take things to the hilt." He was speaking of his own people.
Jung showed from our dreams how we tend to project onto others things we've yet to realize about ourselves. In getting to know ourselves and others, there is hope of coexistence if not love. The Golden Rule has always been The Golden Path in treating others properly by watching for what can get in the way, like hate and not understanding why.
7
Great piece.
I was finishing my undergrad Fall of 2001 . Now I work at a university where the majority of the students were probably toddlers on 9/11. It is sad that they have no recollection of the world before 9/11. Before the unjust wars, increased surveillance, the xenophobia, etc. It was a very different world then.
5
I commend Mr. Aziz for his insight and candid observations regarding the aftermath of 9/11. Great article.
I am saddened that many commenters portray this essay as unwarranted and self-perceived victimization when the REAL victims were those who perished in the twin towers, and the brave souls of the NYFD, NYPD, and all the first-responders who lost their lives in the aftermath, as well as those who lost their lives years later.
Let’s not forget that there were additional victims in the aftermath of 9/11 due to the ignorance and hatred of gun toting white male Americans, namely:
1. Balbir Singh Sodhi - a Sikh gas station owner in Mesa Arizona on 9/15/01.
2. Srinivas Kuchibhotla - a Hindu software engineer in Olathe, Kansas on 02/23/17.
These men paid with their lives.
Countless brown skinned people are harassed everywhere in the USA at TSA checkpoints and Ports of Entry every day because of the pervasive fear as a result of 9/11.
These brown skinned folks are not even Muslim!
14
I'm so thankful to Mr. Aziz for this piece.
It's a great testament of the American spirit that he found the time to be sorry for himself on the anniversary of the slaughter of thousands of people.
We really needed a reminder that the true victims of Muslim' murders were the people sharing the beliefs of the perpetrators.
12
@Sped. They most definitely are not the “true victims”.
2
I told my wife the day after 9/11/2001 that this was truly a moment of reckoning for the United States.
Would we recognize the role that our self-absorbed greed had played in wreaking economic and political chaos in the world, in creating the ugliness that had come home to roost, and respond with some measure of control and intelligence?
Or, would we allow ourselves to be inflated with patriotic rage, and blindly follow our 'leaders', who had waited for years for an opportunity like the catastrophe of 9/11 - an opportunity to overturn our hard-won freedoms and rule of law, and impose a creeping dictatorship to benefit them and their class?
The answer came in the days and years that followed. On the very day of the attack, the only non-military planes allowed off the ground flew to Saudi Arabia, and no one seemed to question it. In the following year we did what had once been unthinkable for Americans - we started to torture prisoners. The drumbeat of war was cranked up, not toward the Saudis who were the prime culprits for 9/11, but against our former ally Iraq, and in 2003 Colin Powell presented his evidence before the UN that Iraq had created weapons of mass destruction - this consisted of a cartoon drawing of a mobile weapons lab, and the press (including the NYT) said nothing. What followed was not a war, but a war crime.
It has been 18 years, and in every year the answer to the question - Will we go UP or DOWN? - has been predictably the same.
22
I usually only comment here when I have something critical to write, but I’m breaking the habit here only to say this was perfect. You hit every important point and said it beautifully.
12
“Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd.” — Bertrand Russell
4
Cry havoc and let loose the dogs of war, the warmongers and profiteers unfortunately will never disappear and war itself makes all other forms of human endeavor insignificant. The law that is unleashed as the author here notes is the law of unintended consequences and we all have to live it in one way or another. As a species we have never been able to do better. I don't suspect we ever will.
32
This is an honest, thoughtful and moving piece -- an undeniable part of the legacy of the horrible day that needs to be acknowledged
218
Omer Aziz does what he objects to: politicizing 9/11.
13
The attacks on the U.S. on September 11 resulted in 3,000 deaths, as well as many more subsequent health related deaths. the u.s response in it's fraudulent invasion of Iraq resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, including thousands of Americans but hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. that is what many in the res of the world will see.
8
@Robert J. Bailey. Hundreds of thousands of Americans? You might want to check your “facts”.
18 years after the Event that "changed everything," some things are clear: We have sacrificed dollars, lives, and values to the War on Terror. Like the War on Drugs, it is inherently unwinnable, even though a few well-connected "winners" have profited enormously.
The Bush administration seized the opportunity the attacks provided to realize their ideological dream of a Unitary Executive unconstrained by law or constitution. They invaded Iraq, a country unconnected to the attacks, for purely ideological reasons. They began a continuing quagmire in Afghanistan that has killed and maimed so many young people, but has achieved nothing useful. And with the PATRIOT Act, their torture gulag, and secret surveillance programs that operate under secret memos overseen by secret (biased) courts, they repudiated much of what formerly defined our country. We lost an important part of America not because terrorists destroyed it, but because our Leaders decided surrender would best advance their interests.
We have spent countless billions of dollars on "enhanced security," including the inept and maligned TSA, which has succeeded only in conditioning Americans who once valued freedom to sheepishly surrender their liberty and privacy at the arbitrary command of uniformed "officers."
Our response to 9/11 has clearly impoverished us and our nation in many ways. We are more fearful, less tolerant, and less free. But it's not clear whether that hefty cost has bought us any real security.
9
This is a beautifully written piece and I am grateful for a different perspective on 9/11. It indeed changed America and not for the better. Fear of people who are different has become common place and it threatens the good possibilities that our country could present to the world. American politicians have not helped the situation nor has the media, for they have exploited that fear for gain-politicians in using it to win office and the media in an attempt to win viewers or readers. I, too am angry that the Saudis have not been made to pay for what I believe they had a hand in!
6
9/11 didn't take this world away - it was George Bush's failure to heed warnings and act, his failure to protect us, along with the failure of the CIA, the FBI, and the entire National Security-military state, and then the panicky American over-reaction afterward. Even to this, 9 out of 10 Americans could not say why the U.S. was attacked (it was because of our military bases, our peculiar form of empire, around the globe. Specifically, the base in Saudi Arabia).
The history books will eventually say, and what the author noticed as a kid, is that after 9/11 the U.S. lost its mind.
14
@Jon Chinn
George Bush took office on January 20, 2001.
You can hold him responsible for the CIA, the FBI, and the National Security Agency for the 234 days after he took office.
But do you think it's fair to share the responsibility with Bill Clinton, who was responsible for the CIA, the FBI, and the National Security agency for the 2922 days prior to the vile attack on 9/11/2001?
Simply put, the attack on the United States on 9/11 was planned for quite a long time before that awful day.
2
The sensitivity, awareness, perception, subtlety and brilliance of your words leave me breathless. Among the many thoughtful remembrances about one of the most horrible days in American history, yours stands out. Finally, as precious as your words are, would that they never needed to be written. May we all find a peace on this sad anniversary and carry it forward.
5
But it is the very title of this piece that reveals the vast delta that fosters the distrust Aziz resents. He titled this piece, "The World 9/11 Took from Us." Was 9/11 some time based catastrophe like Y2K? Is a date in time a sentient being that can bring down an airplane? NO! This piece should read, "The World 19 Arab Muslims Took from Us." But to name the perpetrators, to name their religious and ethnic categorizations would mean to foster some uncomfortable reflections on the evil that was done by those who look like the author and share his religion.
This article is the equivalent of white people complaining about how slavery is so hard for them because now black people look at us resentfully. This man was not the real victim of 9/11. Nor was he the victim of the truck terrorist on the West Side highway or the Pulse Massacre in Orlando.
I do not subscribe to collective guilt in either the case of 9/11 or slavery. BUT that does not mean there is not some collective responsibility to think critically about how we all contribute to unjust systems. For the Muslim world that starts with accepting that 9/11 wasn't just "somebody did something." It was a murderous attack on a scale never before seen committed with the express intent of bringing fear to a free and open nation that dared to live outside the tenets of hardcore Islam. There is nothing Mr. Aziz has ever experienced that will compare with what happened to the victims of 9/11 and their families. Period.
28
@Jon P
Yes. What you said.
4
I was 10 years old in 1972 and getting ready for a pick-up baseball game at the town park when a 12 year old neighbor said that terrorists had attacked the Olympics. "What's a terrorist?" I asked. He didn't know, and neither did anybody else. But we learned.
Nearly 29 years to the day after, terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing people I knew. I was called in to the Pentagon to help with recovery operations and then mobilized back to active duty.
A lot of things changed on 9/11, but Mid-East terrorism had not. Along with oil, it seems to be the region's number one export. Suicide bombings have been a stock-and-trade of jihadists.
While I feel incredible empathy for the author, and know that Muslims are good people, I find it hard to not be on guard around Muslims because of the 50-year history of terrorism, and the fact that the terrorists have been harbored by a fearful community.
I look both ways before crossing the street. I do not walk down certain streets after dark. And yes, I give a second look to women in burka or young Arab men. Does a survival instinct really equate to prejudice?
105
@Liberty hound
Liberty hound, does your survival instinct only manifest itself around "women in burka or young Arab men" or others as well?
It's meant as a sincere question and not an indictment of anything.
I mean, if you look at history, even the "50-year history of terrorism" do you only see "women in burka or young Arab men" as terrorists?
Really?
35
@Liberty hound
Most of those commenting, the author was too young at the time but should know better now, just never looked around before to see that terrorism of this type was a long timeline from the 1972 event through bombings of embassies around the world and also the first world trade center attack, but people continues to naively believe that radical islamic terrorism was someone else's problem.
Mistakes made in Iraq aside, although there is increased security at airports and public buildings, most Americans are going about their daily lives much like they did before 9/11.
It's only because the government finally began sharing information and becoming more vigilent that we have not had another attack, as we have seen multiple attacks in Europe since 9/11.
Other countries have fought against this terrorism longer than we have and as much as there are innocent muslims there are many who have tried to play both sides of the fence, so unfortunately everyone looks guilty until proven innocent.
15
@Bacco Fair question. I mentioned a couple instances of a survival instinct--looking both ways, etc.
As a young man near Boston, I was advised not to give to anybody "collecting for the cause" in the Eire Pub in Dorchester. I also learned to avoid bikers--even though I knew some nice ones--and young men with what appears to be gang tats and colors.
Similarly, in the context of the article that I commented on, I certainly do give a second look to Muslims--like Irish collectors, bikers, and gang-bangers. Sadly, the 50 year history of Arab terrorism against civilians (both in their home countries and in the West) has raised that group's threat profile.
That's a survival instinct. It may be misplaced, but you can't afford to be wrong once.
31
I was standing on the roof of the Brooklyn Academy of Music watching Tower One burn. Around us you could hear the sirens of the responding units. We saw the 2d plane go in to Tower Two and then both of the collapses. In a few hours we just witnessed thousands of homicides. Office paper soon rained down upon us. Then someone said, "I wonder our many of those guys are coming back." He meant the the fire companies and others. Many did not come back Always remember those that run into danger so others can run out. Never Forget.
11
@Mike B
Well said. Those incredibly brave men ran into the buildings to save others, people they did not know.......and so many of them did not come out of the buildings.
Heroes. True heroes.
Never Forget.
3
A profound, compelling and moving expression of the horror and tragedy of 911.
4
Foreign terrorists attacked the United States. But it was the American people who then turned the country into a police state.
To Make America Great Again, the American people need to make America free again.
9
@TD
America is free. But America has to spend enormous amounts of money to remain free, to remain safe because some of those same terrorist groups still try to board our planes, enter our buildings, draw the support features of our bridges to determine placement of explosives, and track the movement and communication of those who live in our country and seek to destroy it.
So America spends billions to try to stay safe and free from terrorists, just as Germany, the UK, France and other free countries spend multi-millions to billions to overcome those who live in our free societies but seek to destroy us.
5
I am so sorry for the way Mr. Aziz and the Muslim community was treated after 911. And his essay speaks eloquently of the dangers of assigning collective guilt to an entire group, of saying "everyone" in a group is responsible for the actions of a few of its members.
5
It would not be wrong to say that rise of religious fundamentalism in secular democracies started with 9/11. Previously, it was all politics by Govt. Western powers (including USA, Brits) played it to cajole various Islamic dictators who basically eliminated all pretense of human rights. Religious minorities in those countries. That include Turkey & Pakistan, the self-imposed political custodian of Islam in the world armed with Saudi financed "Islamic Nuke" (China, North Korea, Iran gave tech/materiel support) while Saudi & Iran remained spiritual boss. Politicians & general public in Western democracies started learning about Islam- "Islamic brotherhood" & extremism that many countries in Asia & Africa were complaining about for decades.
Previously, it's mostly the rich elites & few working class/academics from such Islamic countries used to come/settle in western countries. They bahave(d) very differently here than they generally do in their native places, particularly against minorities, women included. Pakistani PM Imran Khan or any Saudi Prince or Iranian Shah would be good examples. That distorted western public perception about Islam & Muslims. After 9/11, intense scrutiny of Islam & Muslims started, which was long overdue as it was/is a major religion & the fastest growing one too.
Since 9/11, Christian fundamentalism in Western world (including USA), Hindu fundamentalism in India, Buddhist in Myanmar actually started & now became a major problem.
2
Western powers turned a blind eye to the gross violation of human rights in Muslim majority/Islamic countries. Even nuclear proliferation by countries like Pakistan were tolerated by the US & other western democracies.
UN is notoriously political & religion is a huge issue there while dealing with many serious global crisis, including refugee or ethnic cleansing- particularly when those two dominant religions perpetrate such crimes on other people not having much voice in the UN. https://is.gd/j72FBB
Many ethnic cleansing of religious minorities by Muslim majority countries (& regions in non-Muslim majority nations) where religious minorities are basically wiped out (that include allegedly the "most progressive" among Muslim majority countries- Turkey) and Muslim majority protected regions in non-Muslim majority countries (as in Kashmir in India) hardly make even a flutter in UN. That's how Pakistan gets away with routinely raising Kashmir issue in UN , Israel is routinely castigated.
All the countries that give death penalty for LGBTQ, atheists or simply accusing anyone of blasphemy are Islamic countries. No one- neither Muslim diplomats in Western countries nor others, care to apply the same standard for Saudi or Iran or Pakistan.
All religious people & countries where majority of such people live must start introspection. Otherwise, many of thier own kind would suffer in other places where they are not majority, even if Govt wants to prevent such discrimination.
4
The most dangerous people in the world are those who would use religion to achieve political ends. One could argue that politicians who use patriotism, a secular form of religion, to justify endless war are no better.
7
"We were told that America would make no distinction between terrorists and the nations that harbored them. But 15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, and there is credible evidence that at least parts of the Saudi government — business partners of both the Bush and Trump families — were aware of the coming attacks. Nothing but more business deals were done."
This is the part that makes me so angry. WE blamed Iraq, we blamed Iran and let the real offender get off scot free. And yet again after the brutal murder of a journalist. The U.S. has not had the backbone or moral courage to condemn those truly responsible.
9
A sobering and sad statement about collateral damage that escapes most American eyes.
Unfortunately, 9/11 remains to many of us an abject lesson in refusing to see the world as it is instead of what you want it to be. Americans continued to believe that the country that won WWII could not or would not be successfully assaulted, despite the 1993 bombing, the attacks on our embassies and the deaths of 17 sailors on the USS Cole. When combined with the ineptitude of the most failed administration in our history, you had all the ingredients for a day of disaster and all the calamities that have followed in its wake.
5
The whole world is mourning the life that used to be, and could still be, but for the actions of a bunch of uneducated, misguided ideologues, and then by a further trove of uneducated, misguided ideologues on the other side. Basically, the world as we now know it, is beholden to abject ignorance and complacency from all quarters. History foretold all of this. If people don't believe it, then they haven't read enough of it.
2
@James Devlin Sorry, James, but you are wrong to call the 9/11 terrorists uneducated. With the except of a few, they were all formally educated from middle class homes.
1
Thanks Mr. Aziz. This piece is very well written and insightful.
4
I would like to read an OP-Ed from Ilhan Omar. I would like to know how she feels today. I wonder if she would title it: "Some people did something."
21
I think she’s already said that.
2
@Mike Clarke
Omar's statement expressed the same sentiment as Aziz expresses--how all too many Americans painted the entire Muslim community with the broad brush of collective guilt, and innocent Muslims have been paying a price for a crime they abhorred ever since (remember Trump's assertion that Muslims in New Jersey celebrated?). Put Omar's statement in its proper context, and put the blame for 9/11 where it belongs--on the criminals who planned and carried out the outrage.
3
Sorry sir, but the real victims were all those killed on 9/11 and their families. It is counterproductive and really arrogant to speak of one’s suffering because of one’s religion, when we know that the wounds from that fateful day have not healed.
Adhering to a religion is a choice. Being killed because others viewing their religion as a reason for carnage is hardly one.
What we must do on this tragic anniversary is pray for those who lost loved ones, and for all those brave first responders who showed that the number one duty is to help fellow human beings.
30
I sense Mr. Aziz is missing an understanding of how complex the world is when he is allocating blame. His idealogical beliefs are assigning blame and analysis of the aftermath should be much more nuanced. The same occurs when people blame Bill Clinton for not killing Osama Bin Laden when he had the chance as President. Just hours before the first plane crashed Clinton admitted in Australia that he chose not to kill Bin Laden when he had the chance because it would have resulted in 300 additional deaths. The attacks on 9/11 by those evil people 18 years ago was a historical tragedy. Mr Aziz's essay trivializes the second derivative events and decisions without depth.
21
Uncomfortable truths abound in this telling and deeply personal piece.
“This is the world Sept. 11 gave us.”
In reflection it may well be said that in the moment of terrible anguish and in the face of an unprecedented threat the choice America was led to was more destructive than the horrendous act of terrorism that so profoundly distorted so much that followed.
4
Sorry, this strikes me as a particularly off key piece for 9/11. The author’s inconveniences pale in comparison to the suffering of others. In addition the author seems to be under the misapprehension that the sole right American response should have been sanctioning Saudi Arabia. One can agree that too should have happened but the general distain for the United States is misplaced on 9/11.
142
@MFM Doc
It is frustrating to see the denial, from within and without, to admitting that one religion in particular, today, responsible for the sick ideology of terrorists, has a major problem with apostasy, blasphemy, superstition, and reform and by lumping all religions together, one loses sight of current realities that inform our geo political realities.
50
@Rhporter The fact that criticism of US policy can be construed as "general disdain for the United States" only serves to validate Mr. Aziz's point.
129
@Rhporter
There are 3.3 million muslims living in the US. How many have a story like his? How many are afraid just to ride the bus to work in the morning? They do not deserve this and it's shameful that our country reacted to a tragedy by creating several much larger scale tragedies. I am certain it will be remembered as a mistake and uncomfortable articles like this will become a standard part of remembering 9/11.
110
I commend Mr Aziz for an article that at the same time points to his sadness as a Muslem and to the sadness of us all without regard to our religion.
He was only eleven; I was 49. I remember all too well the first 9/11, that is, the 9th of November 1989, when the Berlin Wall came down after nearly thirty years.
Between the two 9/11s was a period--at least for me--of great hope that the world had turned a corner. The second 9/11 dashed those hopes, perhaps unnecessarily had our foreign policy been better, as Mr. Aziz notes.
Still, Mr. Aziz shows an appreciation for time and history. May we hope for a return to optimism? Perhaps so. I think he does. I know a young woman, who like Mr. Aziz, was eleven on 9/11/01. She is not Muslim, but she made Islamic studies the focus of here college and graduate education. She, Mr. Aziz and others like them are my hope.
123
In my opinion the period between November 1989 and 9/11/2001 can be regarded as the „long 1990‘s“, just like the period between the revolutions of the late 18th century and WW1 is known as the long 19th century among historians.
12
The 9/11 attacks mark a paradigm shift in a myriad of ways. Mr. Aziz’s essay reflects a significant one. For me, the most profound shift has been the one our nation has taken. There is a straight line that can be drawn from that morning to this morning. Our country became permanently embittered and we have lost our way. Greed, xenophobia, bigotry, pettiness and tribalism have replaced generosity of spirit, tolerance, acceptance, aspiration and unity. In other words, the attacks were successful. And that is the ultimate tragedy.
259
agree. we lost our hope that day. not sure it will ever shine again.
25
@Brother Shuyun
That disastrous overreaction was wholeheartedly supported by many Democrats,
Biden among them.
To have any change in the overly militaristic foreign policy, we have to recognize that those Establishment Democrats are part of the problem.
The wrecking of Libya and Syria happened
during Obama's presidency.
The Washington foreign policy establishment flaunts that US foreign policy IS non partisan, supported by Democrats and Republicans...
The crude, lying, racist Trump is actually banging his head against the wall of the Washington foreign policy consensus and the military industrial complex, trying to "bring our troops home", and trying to resolve some issues and talk with "enemies" of the US,
but "the powers that be" like the foreign policy/militarism/status quo.
Citizens should wonder about that.
10
Tim, you are right and, sadly, that means the terrorists won. Their purpose was to make us and our values pay a price for opposing their values, and in that they succeeded.
7
Thank you for this beautiful & honest essay.
While I certainly share the writer’s anger toward the 9-11 murderers, it was not they or those who planned their crimes who took away the world we miss. They were only criminals, and all we owe ourselves regarding them is to lock them safely away. Most importantly, they should be denied the political relevance it was their purpose to advance.
It is not condemnation of the hijackers that is missing, among Muslims or Christians or anyone else; it is condemnation of President Bush and his cowardly followers in the media & in politics, who exploited the 9-11 crimes & the public’s fears to advance their political agenda. It was they who elevated criminals to enemies, perpetuating the terrorism & the fear that they continue to exploit to this day. If, on 9-11, we had had a leader, instead of a partisan political operative, in the White House, the trauma might have made us stronger instead of weaker. It might have led us to recommit to, instead of abandoning, our opposition to intolerance, cruelty & illegal violence.
334
@Martin, Thank you for saying this. You're absolutely right.
31
@Martin
I wholeheartedly concur with your condemnation of President Bush. If, (instead of the quickie report from NIST) he and others of his ilk had allowed a thorough, scientifically-grounded evaluation of the crime scene and all its evidence before it was so promptly destroyed there would today be fewer, pilots, first responders, architects, and surviving relatives still asking questions.
13
@Martin
What is it about the US that we do not have wise leaders?
Relevant to the stupid and horrific military actions that followed 9/11, I suggest that Bernie Sanders has the wisest foreign policy ideas.
But can wise get elected?
The US society seems not to encourage wisdom in its leaders.
Is it because wise leaders would rail against the totally profit aligned values of US capitalism and the necessary materialism that feeds it?
The US is desperately in need of wise leaders.
As is the world.
Where are the Mandelas, Gorbachevs, MLKs, and maybe, JFK... ?
20
I spent many years in South Asia & have many of Muslim friends. The world changed for all of us since 9/11. That day I was in an lab in Zurich. I had 2 Muslim colleagues. One a graduate student from Pakistan (a major American allay since ages, mainly during cold war era) and the other one was born in Morocco but raised in France (Paris), completed his PhD there, and spent ~2 yrs in UC Berkeley. Both of them were visibly happy, congratulated each other. They both supported the attack! I was working in the office with a French guy and that Moroccan colleague and the Muslim guy tried to convince us why that attack was so justified.
Later, I met with so many Muslims. Many work as scientists. I never found a single Muslim among them who denounce religion/God or admit that everything written in Quran is not right and/or cannot be the basis to live one's life, even though many might be eating pork or drink alcohol and not any pious Muslim. That's so surprising to me. Just remember that about 93% of American scientists (members of US National Academy of Sciences) don't believe in God and ~87% of British colleagues & do the same.
We are yet to understand why so many Muslims in non-Muslim majority countries think they should be allowed to follow Islamic Sharia law, in totality or selectively. About 51% Muslims in USA, 62% in Canada, 40% in UK, 42% in Russia, 77% in Thailand.
Religious minorities are always prosecuted in Muslim majority/Islamic countries & its number declines.
22
It is suggested that a hindsight/evaluation of post 9/11 ought to be void of personal sentiments similar to Mr. Aziz's and, have a wider scope than post 9/11, since the miseries of the wider Muslim region go back some decades prior to that.
Than again, as a devout Muslim, if he has reflected enough on the religion's tenets that has made 9/11 possible, he's certain to find many attentive listeners .
3
Which one of humanities two oldest institutions will corrupt and destroy our journey, money or religion?
Which one can save us from our selfish interests?
1
On this most dreadful of anniversaries, I feel I would be remiss if I did not remind myself and others that NOT ONE SINGLE hijacker who participated that day hailed from either Iraq or Afghanistan.
9
@Maurice S. Thompson
So what? OBL was binding in Afghanistan and was protected by them.
5
In addition to the author's eloquent essay and some of the reader comments:
Consider the ever present security paranoia, cameras at traffic lights, utter devastation we inflicted on Iraq and Afghanistan, several hundred thousand documented civilian deaths there, rising up of ISIS, refugee crisis in Europe .. bin laden might be having a death grin on, in his watery grave.
2
Omer Aziz highlights a deeply troubling trend in our country, the tendency to demonize or at the least to distrust brown people —at a time when prejudice against black people is finally beginning to wane. Do we require to hate and fear a group of fellow human beings, judging only by the most immediately noticeable feature, skin tone? By seeing Middle-Easterners, Hispanics, and Near- and Far Easterners or Moslems, Hindus, Jews, and Buddhists, (brown people) all as untrustworthy, potential enemies, we participate in the Trumpian destruction of our beloved country and take a giant step towards the creation of a world guaranteed to rip itself apart. Brown people aren’t the enemy; the enemy is our fear of the unknown and our unwillingness to extend even a simple “Good morning” to a stranger. It’s amazing how quickly a few kind words or a smile can turn a stranger into someone who matters. Extending oneself to a stranger gets easier the more you do it and the benefits are incalculable.
2
Very unfortunately the terrorists won. Their purpose was to make us and our values pay a price for opposing their values, and in that they succeeded. For the price of a dozen or so suicidal people, they baited us into changing who we were. Our leadership, media, and many people were so focused on the trees, that they couldn't see the forest.
6
@Steve Fankuchen
No they wanted to kill Americans.
7
Mr. Aziz's writing, and our respective responses to it, gives each of us a chance to recognize whom we include, and whom we exclude, when we use the word "us." For this, I am grateful.
3
"Because these children will hold blue passports..." is no longer the blanket guarantee of protection that it has been for generations, as the government is denying automatic citizenship to select American offspring born outside the US, and Trump is threatening to do the same to those born within the US.
1
in my neighborhood, on 9/11, there was an arab grocery store owner. after the announcement that "islamic (arab) terrorists" were responsible for the attacks, my father and i were concerned about our grocery store owners. we walked down to the corner where the store was, only to find several people with chairs and stools sitting outside the store. many of them were older people and a few of their adult children. they said to us they were there to make sure no trouble makers from the neighborhood or from outside would bother the grocery store owner or his family. this happened outside several other arab owned or operated businesses in our neighborhood. as far as i know, not one was bothered or harassed. our neighbors came together to defend, protect and preserve the american dreams of all in that area.
19
I thank Omar for giving us a glimpse into the hearts of the majority of muslims and all citizens that are "different" and has caused us to increase discrimination contrary to our ideals We should look into the hearts of people not at the colour of their skin
4
This piece and the comments around it show me just how much we've morphed as a country, but not in the way the author intended. There seems to be no concern about the people who died that day or their families. I don't understand why the only opinion piece the NYT chooses to run on this tragic anniversary is a lament about being marginalized. What about those who died or lost a spouse or a sibling or a child? Instead, it's more of this tired, self-centered identity politics. I don't think Omer Aziz is a victim. He apparently can make a living as a writer, that's a huge privilege, and he's getting his work published in the most prominent paper in the land. The real victims, today of all days, are being ignored.
34
@Chris There are several other pieces appearing today covering and honoring victims and survivors of 9/11. But to ignore or refuse to acknowledge the impact that day had on whole segments of the population is to fail to do justice to what that day meant for America.
21
@Chris - Thank you; well said. Today is not about Omer Aziz and it never will be. Shame on you, NYT.
14
@Chris
Good grief, guess you missed the other op-ed today, by Jacob Campbell?
And 9/11 did in fact create other victims besides those who lost loved ones. To be made a pariah and have people question your motives in life simply because you were born to a Muslim family, is a form of daily oppression.
12
The Crusades, the siege of Vienna (9/11/1683) and the new 9/11 - by accident or by design?
How easily humans take the Lords name in vain to justify the hatred and murder of innocents. Religious War??? Please...
On this anniversary, we can only pray for those innocent families who's lives were changed by these acts of pure hatred done in the Lords name..
5
Why does the empire call its enemies terrorists? They're just enemies, like any others.
@Nadir we'll keep that in mind the next time Europe needs us to bail it out of a war
5
Excellent piece. Encapsulates some of what we lost. I'm glad that the author is angry at people 'weaponizing Islam'. He might also mention the fact that most of the Muslim world is still in denial about the fact that 9-11 was perpetrated in the name of Islam by people yelling 'Allah Akhbar'. It is accepted in the Muslim world that it was either the CIA or the Mossad who took down the twin towers. Cong. Omar said 'some people did something', indicating she buys into this conspiracy theory.
Most of what we did after 9-11, invading Iraq, Guantanamo bay, etc., won't prevent another terrorist attack. The Muslim world also needs to ensure that this never happens again and promoting conspiracy theories doesn't help.
8
@Chazak
The Clinton era sanctions against Iraq were cited by Osama bin Laden as one of the reasons for the 9/11 attacks.
Perhaps you remember Clinton's Secretary of State Madeleine Albright after being asked about the 567,000 Iraqi children who died as a result of the sanctions, she responded, "We think the price is worth it".
The US needs to do serious rethinking about the consequences of its use of sanctions and its extraordinarily militarized foreign policy actions.
If the US set a better example, the world, the Muslim world included, would have a better chance at a thriving more sustainable future
4
Bin Laden will go down in history as the one who with 15 men brought down an empire. The empire is self destructing as we speak. And no amount of protestation to the contrary will convince me that religion is an instrument of peace.
14
Hear, hear.
I would ask people to move away from the fear and its ugly consequences that Mr. Aziz describes so well, but I have lost hope; fear always seems to win out.
"I and the public know
What all school children learn:
Those to whom evil is done,
Do evil in return."
---W. H. Auden
10
It seems like the terrorists got what they wanted: a much diminished if not outright self destructive and nearly bankrupt United States surrendering to many of its worst impulses, a generally weakened and declining Western Europe also surrendering to its worst impulses, liberal values and liberal democracy in retreat, xenophobia and religious fervor on the rise. Taking the long view, they won, at least for now.
8
@ambient kestrel (lovely handle):
Yes, Saudi Arabia. Khashoggi. A sickening tolerance on the part of the U.S. and the world.
Many thanks to Mr Aziz for his moving article. One point he does not make clear is why he, at 11 years old, thought upon being told on the morning of 9/11 what hijacking terrorists had done, immediately thought it had something to do with his ethnic identity?
7
The early 00's marked the beginning of the end of Empire.
4
History will never forgive those who orchestrated 9/11, and those who killed millions in Afghanistan to eliminate a few terrorists. The end result: America is in search of peace with terrorists.
1
More than 30,000 stranded American travelers found welcome in Canada when US airspace was closed down and some 200 aircraft set down on Canadian strips all over the country after the terror attacks, 7,000 of them in one small city, Gander, N.L.Schools and halls quickly became emergency shelters. Residents invited people into their homes for showers, beds and meals. People stripped their houses bare of sheets and towels, and offered the use of their vehicles. Pharmacists filled prescriptions from all over the word at no cost. Local businesses emptied their shelves of food, clothing, toys and toiletries.
These acts of spontaneous individual kindness went unmentioned in the president’s speech. Canadians who had opened their homes and hearts. Nine days after the attacks, president George W. Bush addressed both houses of Congress. The president opened with thanks to nations around the world: “America will never forget the sounds of our national anthem playing at Buckingham Palace, on the streets of Paris and at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate.” The president singled out South Korea, Egypt, Australia, Africa, Latin America, Pakistan, Israel, India, El Salvador, Iran, Mexico, Japan, and Britain for thanks, commendation or remembrance. As Canadians watched, many wondered why their effort was never mentioned for to this day most Americans know nothing of that effort from the Great White North
9
@sjag37
We hear you, and truth will out. O Canada: Everyone, go see the musical "Come From Away" and celebrate the essence of what it is to be a proud, dignified human being.
2
@MDDo you remember the Iranian hostage crisis when the Canadian embassy got several Americans out by passing them off as Canadians on rotation "home"? The US made a movie called ARGO which depicted the Canadian embassy staff as meekly taking orders from the CIA who it claimed, masterminded the whole thing? It was booed off the screen in Toronto but it won an Oscar. Pres Carter later admitted was a 99% Canadian run caper.
4
Aziz says "When I think of Islamists monopolizing and weaponizing a great religion, I am filled with rage"
The problem for those of us who are atheists is that statements like these skirt the fact that this is at its very core a religious war fueled by a religion that still sees women as utterly subservient and with little to no civil rights wherever that religion is dominant. The world would be a calmer less violent and deadly place if no one believed in gods of any sort and everyone stopped calling any religion "great."
23
Thank you for this brilliant essay, for your clarity and your still luminous heart.
2
I don't believe it was 9/11 that took away from your world. It's humankinds tendency to hate/fear those who are different and the politics that drove (and are driving even stronger today) the promulgation of division.
2
@Lexington
Political correctness has destroyed common sense and is slowly taking away our world.
5
I have asked my college aged children to read this incredible piece of writing. It should be placed in a time capsule as perhaps the finest summation of a tragic era. As a displaced New Yorker, I brought my young kids to NYC as soon as possible after the attacks, in some meager attempt to show solidarity. They have never known a world other than the one described here, a fact that leaves me in tears.
Thank you for your writing.
8
Be sure they read the comments.
Thank you for sharing this Mr. Aziz. It is beautifully written and I think captures the frustrations of many. Well done.
7
Many nations have faced adverse events and wars. But the way the U.S reacted and continue to react - by constantly seeking seeking retribution has changed the world. It has turned every nation into a us vs them.
Why can’t we learn to forgive and move on?
4
@Momof2boyz I think it's actually less about retribution and more about preventing something like this from ever happening again. Prior to 9/11, there were some missed opportunities and a lot less influence and insight into places like Afghanistan, where OBL was based.
Granted, it was done in a very stupid and counter-productive way (we've probably recruited more terrorists than killed them, and we let ISIS rise up), but I disagree with the take that this was about retribution. Maybe to the everyday soldier signing up in small town America it was, but not to the brass.
3
@Momof2boyz - I will never forgive those evil murderous men who so altered the world in a bad way 18 years ago today. Especially as long as there are hundreds of thousands of like-minded, twisted muslims who wish to do similar harm to those innocent millions of people who do not believe as they do. The war against evil muslim extremism is real, and continues to this day. Thank God for our military men and women.
9
@Momof2boyz. Name one war where there hasn’t been retribution.
3
Splendid essay. Thank you, NyTimes for printing it, and many thanks to Mr. Aziz for so competently writing it. Not only the USA but the entire world was changed for the worse, by the evil and opportunistic response of the president and government of the USA to an isolated criminal event that frightened many people but most certainly didn't require such draconian measures to be taken in response. Two useless, expensive, and deadly (well, to the host countries, i.e.) wars launched against countries that weren't involved in the attack; Muslims as a group were targeted and labelled; xenophobia, a strong and persistent characteristic of the USA in general, was inflamed and encouraged, civil rights were slashed; air travel became nightmarish, and the monster which is "American Exceptionalism" was fed and petted and given free reign to roam the land at will. The ugliness of soooo many kinds that resulted from this reflexive, knee-jerk and not thought over at all (well, except in terms of profits for the many tentacles of the Military-Industrial Complex... think Cheney and the gang) response to an event which could have been treated with wisdom, courage and with an eye towards not making the situation worse... well, it has culminated in Trump and many other ruthless semi-dictators being vaunted into positions of power and influence, further feeding the cycles of fear, deliberate ignorance and hatred. Hopefully the pendulum will now start to swing in the opposite direction again.
12
Thank you for your heartfelt honest writing.Please know there were many of us "white" Americans appalled by the backlash. I was so incredulous when Bush and Cheney announced their phony war, but could not freely speak about it with my family,friends or at work.I'm sickened by the continued relationship our country has with Saudi Arabia.They even got away with hacking a reporter to death.Follow the money.
The best of luck to you. I'm looking forward to reading your book.
19
Fear, and the hatred, anger and tribalism which are its evil stepchildren, have always been with us. Now, though, we can more easily identify and, critically, target those whom we hate, and do so with all sorts of 21st century weapons. We can create cyber-lists of the "threatening" ones and then scan faces to assure they remain if not pariahs, then at least second class citizens. Soon, AI will be able to unveil any person's secrets and, undoubtedly, it will be used against those which some human-created (hence, biased) algorithm identifies as a potential threat. Heck, even the world of Twitter-verse outrage has the power to destroy individuals.
Perhaps the only cure for this ravenous disease will be the realization, prodded by AI which will know us better than we know ourselves, that we are ALL flawed, ALL potential threats and so should ALL do what the great religious traditions have taught for millenia. It would be a delicious irony that teachings we thought were designed to appeal to our better angels were actually a very practical guide on how we can avoid destroying ourselves.
3
Dear Mr. Aziz, I am so grateful that you put into words the way that 9/11 changed your life and how people treat you. It isn't fair to you how that heinous act affected your childhood, and how it changed the American psyche allowing the racism against Middle Eastern people to come to the surface as if justified by the 9/11 tragedy. I remember that day like it was yesterday. The change in America was like flipping a switch, and we all have to recognize there's no going back. We will never again live in pre-9/11 times of meeting strangers without suspicion. But I can be glad that we have come far enough that you can write your truth and the NYTimes will publish it and I will read it with gratitude.
6
I was in 9th grade on Long Island that morning, my father working in the tallest building left in NYC after 10am.
For years when I saw the “never forget” phrase everywhere, I was pained. How could I ever forget? How could anyone who saw or experienced the personal and national anguish? Now I am starting to understand what exactly we are ordered not to forget: don’t forget when we were united in blind lust for revenge. Don’t forget the feeling of an insecurity and fear so profound we would give away our rights with the PATRIOT act. Don’t forget that “freedom freedom buzzword freedom patriotism liberty freedom America” or something like that.
12
It seems to rarely if ever mentioned, but New York really has never recovered from 9/11...at least not spiritually and culturally. I moved to New York (lower Manhattan) in June of 1979. It was a wild, crazy, vibrant time there in those years. The art scene in SoHo and Tribeca was still very much alive with actual, real artists, and writers. In fact, all of New York had that edginess that made it such a great world-class city. There were a lot of things, of course, that killed that, not least of which was the obscene gentrification of the city, thanks to an out of control financial world. But 9/11 was the final nail in the coffin. The party was over. I still love New York like no other city, but it more and more feels like a city that is play-acting at being New York, almost a parody of itself. That, for me, is what 9/11 irrevocably changed.
16
the "9/11" incident was an horrific event in the lives of many new yorkers(and others). it brought home to americans how unpleasant the effects of war can be and the disruption that it causes in simple family life. on the morning of 9/11 folks went out to work and never came home again. sad. but did their experience and the experience of all americans unite them to demand an end to the war games that their government plays on their behalf? america has been at war since 1941 and in the that time has been responsible for millions of deaths - yes millions. do you hear an outcry to bring all of this militarism to an end. it was nice to see bolton, the war monger, being removed from high office. that was a step in the right direction. but we need a lot more of the same - can you help?
8
9/11 happened when I was 18, 2 months after my brother committed suicide by jumping. It felt like the whole world was falling apart. The imagery of the people jumping from the buildings... I remember physically averting my head so I couldn't see and wondering why anyone would put such a thing on television.
None of it at the time felt like it had anything to do with Muslims, or religion, or anything. It just felt like a dark, dark void roaring in my face. The politics came later, and were as intentional as the act itself.
13
The Patriot Act.....Not very Patriotic. I remember flying before 9/11. I won't fly anywhere now. I refuse to give my American rights away, just to fly.
8
I, a European (Irish) immigrant to the US, was in Cambridge, MA on the morning of 9/11. So was my (English) husband. We had both traveled up from NYC the day before - he on the last flight, delayed by a thunderstorm, as his meeting in the WTC 7 on 9/11 was canceled at the last minute.
I was horrified and shocked on the morning of 9/11 - as was he- but we were both perplexed by the hysteria that followed. It took us a while to understand that mainland Americans had never really experienced war and terror (since 1861-5) and that modern US culture must always seek someone to blame and to punish (an attitude much amplified by American media). Sadly, the target of blame and retribution has been the American Muslim community.
The roots of the 9/11 terrorists' anger lay in the aftermath of WW2 and the last acts of the British Empire in India/Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq/Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Palestine/Israel and Egypt , the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 by the USSR, and the dictatorship of Mubarak in Egypt and suppression of the Muslim Brotherhood. Attacking the USA was the focus of Bin Laden, who gathered the disgruntled young men from the aforementioned countries to carry out his mission. Now a whole set of races (Arab, Persian, Afghani, Pakistani, Yemeni, Ethiopian...) are harassed by the US - government and people - who are fed a black and white (or brown and white) narrative of 'us-vs-them' by the dumbed-down American broadcast media.
40
@Mari, absolutely spot on analysis.
5
@Freestyler-I agree. Many Americans want to portray ourselves as victims who had no idea an attack like this could happen-since we're so squeaky clean. The truth is that we stick our nose into other peoples' business every day, then feign surprise when others retaliate. Plus, we have paid "them" back, many times over (including other innocents) . I don't see much honor in that.
11
@Mari "It took us a while to understand that mainland Americans had never really experienced war and terror."
This struck me as an odd observation from an Irish person to make -- 9/11 dwarfs any single day of the Troubles (and America has some history of violent outbreaks itself)... the US had a larger role in the World Wars than the Irish, too, so how could it be that that lends you such cold objectivity?
10
PRAYING ON 9/11: Sadly, the 9/11 tragedy not only killed 3000 innocent people, it produced a world of non-stop war, living in fear of all others, hatred of immigrants and putting everyone in some sort of a prison in the name of safety. We are all living in this negatively transformed world. We have to pray not only for the dead of 9/11, but for all of us and our children who are suffering from the legacy of this negative transformation of the world.
9
Mr. Aziz points out an irrefutable truth. That Bush and Cheney brought about the worst disaster our country has known because of their friends in Saudi Arabia.
The result of their lies is that million of Muslims continue to suffer for the acts of 19 men, 15 from Saudi Arabia. And multi thousands of young American men and women lost their lives because of the Bush Administration.
The Bush Administrations lies have led to more persecution of non-white people since the Civil War.
My heart aches for Mr. Aziz and his fellow Muslims. Bush and Cheney have unleashed a horrid atmosphere in our country that has resulted in the Trump Administration trying to destroy not only the Muslim citizens in this country but also all citizens freedoms by their continued efforts to take away all of our freedoms as we have known them.
15
Excellent essay and absolutely accurate. I can still remember that morning as if it were yesterday, down to which direction I was facing at what time. It changed everything, threw the world into a whole different light, and gave me and millions of others PTSD echoes that are still with us.
But eighteen years later, thankfully, it doesn't hurt me as much as it once did, and I have to thank Trump for that. His continual horrible errors and ridiculous lies have focused all my anxiety and anger upon him. He's the threat we have to deal with now, not Osama "Fish Food" bin Laden.
So I agree that 9/11 changed things permanently, but the awful day Trump got elected changed things too, and in a more pressing, relevant way. Undoubtedly in the next decade something else will come along and horribly alter the social landscape too, but things keep improving between the calamities, and I believe the world as a whole is actually better now than it was in 2000.
8
We must never forget the damage that was wrought on our country by one Egyptian, one Lebanese, two from the United Arab Emirates, and fifteen (yes, 15) Saudis.
I say it again, fifteen Saudis. Our "allies"?
After which we invaded countries in the middle east that had nothing to do with the 9/11 attack.
No wonder there are millions that do not trust the U.S., who currently sells billions worth of high tech weaponry to - you guessed it - Saudi Arabia.
26
Eighteen years later, and Usama bin Laden would seem to have had our number from the very beginning. Which does stand to reason, assuming he had been among the Mujahideen that we armed, and trained, during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
The thing I’m still curious about, though, is why the heir to one of the largest construction firms in the world would commit to a path of martyrdom, which was almost certainly designed to kickstart the next Crusades (if they ever ended).
It would be nice to hear the Department of Defense explain how quickly they designated the site of the Twin Towers as, “Ground Zero,” given that the monicker had previously applied to the Pentagon’s central courtyard.
1
Omer-
I am so, so sorry for what has happened to you. Perhaps my own story could be of help.
I grew up as the only Jew in a Catholic neighborhood. It was the baby boom and there were tons of kids around to play with. It was fun. When it came time to go to school I went to PS9 and my playmates went to St. John the Apostle Catholic School. We still played after school every day.
Then one day my playmates confronted me. They said I was a Jew and that I had killed Christ. They said that they would no longer play with me. I told them that I didn’t do it. I said I never killed anybody. I pleaded them to keep on playing with me but they refused.
I went home crying to my parents and told them what had happened. I asked my parents to talk to my playmates and to tell them that I didn’t kill Christ, to ask them to play with me after school. I can still see the extreme pain in their faces 65 years later. With great sadness they told me that I would find other friends. I eventually did.
I am sure that you are a good person. Let’s all try to be kind to one another. I hope this is helpful.
37
The FBI Uniform Crime Report shows that in 2017 there were 1,564 hate crimes directed at religious groups. Of these, 273, or 17 percent, were anti-Islamic while 928, or 59 percent were anti-Jewish.
Pew Research Center estimates that Muslims make up about 0.9 of the total U.S. population while Jews make up about 1.9 percent.
https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2017/topic-pages/tables/table-1.xls
https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/#religions
22
I lost friends that day and have seen their children grow up without the father or mother they had on September 10th, 2001. I was fully prepared to say, today is not the day for this opinion piece. After reading it, I feel differently. Clearly, many folks lost a great deal as a result of what happened that day and the actions that followed. Only a small number of them had loved ones and relatives directly involved in the tragedy. We should remember their losses as well.
12
This is an important viewpoint on this day. We must broaden our empathies and consider the tragedies America created.
8
@Ron- Curious why "WE" are always encouraged to do the heavy lifting. I suggest "THEY" meet us halfway.
8
@Fighting Sioux Doing the heavy lifting is worthwhile because it is the right thing to do, and it leads to a place of better wisdom and compassion. What "THEY" do is beside the point.
5
@Heliotrophic It was self-reflective, but in my opinion honest, and certainly not “whiny”.
1
Please read the article today in NYT by Amanda Taub and Max Fisher. "Trumps Refugee Cuts Threaten Deep Consequences at Home and Abroad". Highly relevant to future prospects for terrorist attacks worldwide.
6
While many of the comments here laud the brilliance of the writer and carry just the proper amount of American guilt, I am happy to be the guy who reminds us there are millions of folks all over the world who would be elated to see a 9/11 repeat as soon as possible. I might re-read the piece while listening to some of the phone recordings made that day or watch some video of the jumpers to ease my guilt over what the writer "lost"
30
@Fighting Sioux
1. Really? Millions? What is your evidence for this?
2. If it is indeed millions, why is that? What could the U.S. possibly have done wrong in the world that so many people would have such anger at a nation's government and ways of doing business? Unchecked, unregulated capitalism, war-mongering by our elites who continue to pad their bank accounts and lower taxes without regard to how it is impacting our people and the rest of the world...is sickening.
I am American, and I do not feel guilty at all after reading Omer Aziz's essay. I feel moved by the depth of insight and the terrific writing. And we should get on with repairing the world now.
17
@MJB- Really? Please share your plan to help us "get on with repairing the world now" And Islam has 1.8 billion adherents. I'm comfortable with my estimate.
1
And don’t forget, many Muslims, foreigners and Americans, were in the towers that day, and in the armed forces, sent to find the enemy thereafter, and continue to serve, today.
21
I am stunned that The NY Times has not allowed even one comment to be posted calling out the author of this essay. We all— even those who look and pray differently than the hijackers— lost some freedoms that day, but none of us is acting like a “victim” because we now have to take our shoes and belts off at the airport and get special “real ID” drivers licenses due to the 9/11 terrorist aftermath. The only victims today are the innocent people who died and were wounded in the 9/11 hijackings. Period.
55
@Conservative Democrat Your comment alone is proof that you have been able to call out the author. That is what free speech is about. So you can take your stunned feelings back. Your comment is also proof of what the author is talking about. The author never called himself a victim, it is you that is putting those words into his mouth. The author of the article talks about the loss of innocence in the world today. You don't need to be brown to appreciate what the article is about. The victims were not only the people who died on that day. What about the people who died in Iraq as a result of America going to war in a country that had nothing to do with the attacks? What about the people who were tortured and imprisoned illegally? Why was no justice meted down on the country that was responsible for the attacks(that's Saudi Arabia for your information)? No, no. Lets call them our ally's and sell them weapons and continue to sell them weapons whilst they murder oppress and mutilate whoever they want. That day was a shocking terrible day for everyone in the world. May the 3000 souls who lost their lives on that day AND the innocent children and families who died in Iraq as a result of the US and the UK's irresponsible behaviour, rest in peace.
21
There is a vast difference between being inconvenienced by our admittedly overwrought airport security measures and being murdered. Yes, there were more victims than those who died in the flames, but let's not lose all perspective. All those who died trying desperately to make it out of the towers in time, the young firefighters who ran into danger, the passengers who literally fought for their lives on a doomed airplane -- they are the ones who lost it all on 9/11, and they are the people we think about today. Of course other suffering came out of that tragedy, too, but the dead paid an inconceivable price, and we can take a few moments to remember their names before we move on to virtue signaling. I'm genuinely sorry the author has suffered racial/religious discrimination in the aftermath of 9/11 -- that's unfair and wrong. But he is still breathing and thinking and writing, still in this troubled world able to do something about it, and that is not true of the victims of 9/11.
17
@Conservative Democrat
It is naive and jingoistic to suggest that only the direct victims of the attacks that day have suffered. We *are* all victims of security theater and paranoia, and hundreds of thousands of civilians in the middle east as well.
Today is to remember the whole event.
28
Thank you Omer Aziz for such a powerful and moving essay.
11
Thank you, Omar. As a fellow New York child in those days, I can relate to so much of this - and empathize with your experience as a person subject to profiling.
8
A very moving essay and a sense of all that was lost after 9/11. Here we are 18 years later and fighting the same wars, even the same battles over and over.
11
“…the paranoid and terrorized world that the Sept. 11 attacks gave us…getting onto an airplane as a hellish experience. The hyper-militarized borders and selective detentions and enhanced interrogations, all to be taken [now] as ordinary. The constant surveillance of the national security state. The endless secret wars, waged in the cover of night, in distant places where the victims are invisible.”
This whole essay is so powerful. Incredible reflection of our experience as a nation and world after 9-11!
The U.S. was once becoming a great experiment in diversity when people were able to walk down the street without fear of being judged for their “different” appearance, and the great variety of cultures and talents interacted and were a source of renewal and vibrancy.
The only way out of our current, ugly, degraded state of being is to learn how to be neighbors again, and to raise our children and grandchildren in interactive, fun communities that potluck together, dance together, sing together, play together, festival together, drum together.
We have to move beyond the deep anger about identity targeting soon before we lose our opportunity to save the ecological systems on which we ALL completely depend.
One of the best essays I have read in my lifetime. 18 years after the attacks, time to launch into a new era of possibility.
Thank you.
23
Shortly after the events of 9/11 we watched the security measures suddenly in place at the airport as some of our family departed on vacation. It was then that we all understood that our lives, our country, our freedoms, had forever changed.
The world was very unlucky in that the USA had, at that time, an incompetent Republican president who was advised by a corrupt vice-president and other rapacious Republicans into acting hastily. Now, as then, Saudi Arabia is NOT a friendly nation, but the Republicans conveniently ignore that in favor of enriching themselves.
Mr Aziz continues to suffer the fallout of 9/11, along with the rest of the world, because of the actions of a small group of criminals, aided by the incompetence and connivance of politicians in leadership positions.
28
A brilliant essay and a moving one. I was struck by these lines especially: "All the policy focus on war meant there was too little time spent on the cataclysmic challenges of the 21st century: climate change and wealth inequality, both of which will plague our generation long after the warmongers have disappeared."
These concerns, desperately important, lurk in the background and threaten our future, yet the populace is anesthesized by consumerism and frivolous distractions. It would be comforting to see "a great awakening," but, tragically, that that may not come.
25
I know it is trite to comment on the brilliance of Mr. Aziz' writing, and I apologize. But I do think that voices like his are crucial to an understanding of what happened that day and since. I asked my own children, 3rd and 4th grade, to sit down that same afternoon 18 years ago and write something, anything, about their feelings. Again, it is trite in context, but I have always believed that particular writing exercise began their process of critical thinking. From Mr. Aziz' reflections, I think I am right at least about that.
13
I appreciate this essay, but I can't help but sense a touch of naivete about what the world was like before 9/11. I have close to a decade on the author; I was a 20-year-old senior in college when the attacks happened. I was sitting in a class called The History of Islam. As a (nonreligious) Muslim woman, I knew enough to be devastated but also to whisper to myself "please don't be Islamist terrorists; please don't be Arabs; please not us". These were the same thoughts in the back of my head as a freshman in high school when Oklahoma City happened.
Well before 9/11, my life had been peppered with questions about why I didn't eat pork, why I didn't cover my hair and if my parents would stone me if I had a boyfriend (seriously). I was often ashamed to explain Ramadan or why I had to go to Islamic school. Don't get me started on the slurs. I grew up under the shadow of True Lies and Not Without My Daughter. I cried when I watched The Siege even if I didn't know why. In college, again, pre-9/11, I tried to write a paper on the Taliban only to find we didn't have adequate library resources. I later wrote a published piece on the legal extrajudicial detainment of Arabs and Muslims in July 2001, well before the PATRIOT Act was passed.
Yes, the world changed after 9/11. It changed in many ways for many, many people. But the most extreme impact was probably not felt by us "brown" American Muslims because being a minority here has never been easy.
25
Dear Omar Aziz, yes, I remember this as the day when the collegiality between Muslims and non-Muslims shifted and like you, I mourn this. I was working in midtown and went through the horror along with everyone else. I saw the shift happen immediately.
I was also studying international relations at the New School and we knew about the unlawful detentions of Muslim students. I wrote in a rage about this to my government and raged in the classroom as well.
And as a business professional and a Canadian working in New York I also felt the acrimony of my clients and some of my colleagues for the fact that Canada refused to enter with the coalition in the invasion or Iraq, a senseless and stupid war.
These scars take time to heal but we all rise above this, collectively, and refuse to let the divisiveness of government policy dictate how we handle our relations now.
It's a new world.
8
Thanks for a thoughtful piece with a perspective we too often do not hear - especially at this time of year. The truth is, innocent Muslims (& members of other faith groups) also died in those towers. Sadly, the attackers' distortion of Islam is the version of Islam too many Americans have come to view as the religion. It is not unlike confusing the sick theology of David Koresh with true Christianity.
9
“But 15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, and there is credible evidence that at least parts of the Saudi government — business partners of both the Bush and Trump families — were aware of the coming attacks. Nothing but more business deals were done.”
This needs to be repeated. The Al Qaeda hijackers were Sunni Muslims and none were Iranians who are Shia Muslim. The Saudis a since 9/11 have led us into wars on the side of Al Qaeda affiliates in Libya, Yemen and Syria. And now Iran a Shia country is in our crosshair. How many more people have to die because of the Saudis, who are the largest fanciers of terrorists in the world?
38
This piece is ultimately self-serving to Mr Aziz's own personal discomfort, as opposed to understanding the roles that organized members of his own "other" created in this anarchy.
Only at the end of the article does he call out the jihadists who committed this crime- without calling out the LOCAL communal and religious structures that assisted them in this endeavor.
Please recall, Mr Aziz, that 8 years prior- February 1993- was the first attack by this group on the towers. Want to point a finger? Please look inside your own mosques, local Islamic American organizations, and tell me what preventative measures were enacted between that time and 9/11 to address this issue.
The answer is none.
39
We need to explain how that would have helped. The criminal conspiracy did not begin in the religious establishments in the United States.
8
After the flight embargo was in place, President Bush permitted jets to depart from the US (at least one from Logan) to carry the families of rich and well-connected Saudis, and maybe other Arab countries, safely across the sea to their homes. I, for one, would like to know more about why this happened before questions were answered about this mass tragedy.
19
Omer,
Thank you for this very fine and important piece.
You're correct about the political evils of the United States that appeared after the attacks.
You're right about the tragedy of right-wing politics of hate.
You're right about the warmongers of the US.
As a European-American descended from people who immigrated to North America long before the US even existed, I'm telling you:
You are NOT different (any more than every individual person is unique).
You ARE an important part of the wonderful, powerful diversity that is the US.
The God you worship is either the same one worshipped by all Muslims, Christians, and Jews worldwide, or different because there is a different god for every individual worshipper. Don't worry about any similarities between you and the 9/11 attackers, and don't tolerate it from anybody else, either.
The tragedies of that day are not your fault or your responsibility in any way.
7
While to some you are different. To many many more you are not. The many more must work every single day to overcome the false perception of “difference” for the betterment of all. Every day.
3
"A spiritual pallor descended…" Yes.
4
An irony in that close up picture is the name of my mother's cousin's son-in-law who perished that day. Years later they found his wedding ring and gave it back to his wife.
Aside from this "relative" who I spent a short amount of time with on two occasions, a friend of my sister's lost her husband that day also, and a long time friend of my mother's lost her brother-in-law and his son in the twin towers.
9/11 changed the course of history for the worse for all people, Christians, Catholics, Muslims and Jews all over the world.
And perhaps if this event never occurred a lot of innocent people all over the world would still be alive (Afghanistan and Iraq.
And as the writer states, I believe some Saudi's whether in government or in "high society" there, provided the terrorists with real 757 and 767 airplanes to practice in. Simulators alone could not have trained the hijackers to fly those planes so precisely. They had to have access to the actual planes and made test flights in the air, especially when they flew at very low altitudes and at very fast speeds (500 mph).
7
Thank you. It was the tragedy of my lifetime, and for that I blame not you or “them” but us.
2
"... an 'axis of evil'prefaced wars that killed hundreds of thousands of Arabs and brown people, human beings tabulated as mere casualties, the sanctity of their lives incinerated just like the twin towers."
This has long bothered me more than anything else in regard to 9/11. According to Iraq Body Count, some 200,000 _civilians_ in Iraq have died as a result of the U.S. wars against Iraq and Afghanistan. That's more than 66 Sept. 11 attacks against innocents. Unconscionable.
10
The cynical use of the attacks by Neoconservatives in the Bush era to callously fan the flames of tribalism and fear is the mother of this age of trump.
It makes me wonder, do conservatives ever wake up and realize they’ve been completely gaslighted by osama bin laden and dick Cheney and continue to be to this day?
9
@In The Belly Of The Beast
Bam. Another incredible insight we need to read, again and again.
5
Another child comes up to him and says...”the border’s closed...” That sounds a little strange for a child to be saying in a school yard in 2001. Injecting some pseudo-relevancy to fit today’s narrative, perhaps?
11
@John No, the border between the US and Canada was closed. Vehicular traffic was backed up for miles, as you can imagine, as well as American airspace being closed for the first time and airplanes having to land in Canada (or the closest American airport depending on the flight). Mr. Aziz is from Toronto. I can see this comment being made there, no pseudo-relevancy needed. Sixth grade is young, but not that young.
4
There are many truths in Mr. Aziz's oped but the one that still strikes me as the most blatant and hypocritical, is the one that 15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia and yet that one country never suffered any consequences of their citizen's actions on us.
The blame for this failure falls on us citizens. We have never demanded from our elected leaders a need to confront Saudi Arabia. We (our politicians) cajole, arm and treat them as our "friends". As the old saying goes, with friends like these who needs enemies? Unless we the people elect politicians who will confront our enemies and call them out on it, we will never resolve the pain of 9/11.
11
We must never forget and I speak as an old citizen of this country born before WW2 the horror what could be when we learned just after the creation of the Atomic Bomb and then actually using it twice against the Japanese civilian population
With hindsight and many years gone by since Japan is no longer our enemy, we can now debate the moral ethics of such a past war time device being used ,back then the rationale was it shortened the war and allies live shad we invaded Japan by land and sea. In time the moral ethics of this still ongoing almost publicly unseen war in the middle east from both sides will be debated and among that debate will be the reasons and consequences that led up to 9-11 and why it came to be ,so silently in it's panned murderous scenario and why even today we are worried about another country Iran getting that A bomb that might be used against us.
Have we not learned from Hiroshima & Nagasaki how to eliminate the thought and possibility to really eliminate these weapons ( not humans) off the face of this Earth?
4
Powerfully and beautifully written. Thank you, Omer Aziz, for your keen and personally felt insights into 9/11’s impact at home and abroad.
4
A reflective day for a native of NYC.
On my rotation today The Rising from the Boss and An Open Letter to NYC by The Beastie Boys.
3
There are many things I could say in response to this - but the most important is thank you, Omer. I am so sorry for the profound impact this has had on your life as an American and am so grateful to you for writing this. At 24 I am one of the last of this generation to have a strong memory of this event and even I feel vastly distanced from the world before it.
9
Everybody in the United States needs to read Douglas Murray’s excellent book “The Strange Death of Europe”. A better choice of editorial would have been one far more focused upon the impact that the 9-11 tragedy had on the lives of people that lost loved ones. If Mr. Aziz’s life has become more difficult, it pales in comparison to the experiences of children that lost mothers and fathers, and others that lost husbands and wives. But this is precisely the approach that the European media is using to trivialize the catastrophe that those countries have imposed upon their citizens. This focus needs to change.
12
The idea that America was some kind of innocent that was defiled and changed forever is breathtaking, if anyone has read American history.
Our hysterical reaction to 9-11 led us into a pointless war against Iraq, which didn't attack us, it bears repeating. Fear became the new norm, which was then exploited by odious people.
We also gave up our privacy and permitted innocent Americans to be searched and patted down for no real reasons.
I empathize with this writer's anxiety, but historical accuracy matters.
9
The author's right not just to curse 9/11, but also to condemn the west's response to it.
I wish, though, he had said at least something about the genuine fear that the terrorists spread, and continue to spread. Those of us who live in major cities that have been struck since by Islamist bombings - numerous times in the cases of London and Paris - are not wrong to include being attacked by terrorists among our fears. I've personally been near enough to the site of three attacks to feel "There but for the grace of God...". And the problem hasn't disappeared. Just yesterday, more extremists were arrested with weapons in Coventry. I know I'm more likely to be hit by a car than killed by a terrorist, but I worry about that too and can at least take care. Terrorism means I can't help but feel anxious in crowds, and I hate the fact we need an obvious armed presence among us for protection. The country doesn't feel free. And, like the author, every time I am detained or have my belongings searched at an airport — it happens to all of us, not just non-white people — I silently curse the jihadists who brought down those towers,
15
My son was 14 and my other son 10 when 9/11 ocurred. I sat that morning in Austin with my freshman in high school son and tried to tell my son that it was an accident that some dumb plane hit the tower, then he says 'look another plane mom' and I say 'probably a fire engine type plane to put out the fire' then boom.. My son changed that day, a white boy in Texas forever changed, I saw it in him then and I see it today. Omar, I'm sorry you have to live your best life with this sword of Damocles you feel over you. In the end I know your generation was forever changed in a way my boomer generation was not, but my parents was also. I'm sorry you feel the way you do or rather the way you have to feel after 9/11. Took guts to write this and I thank you.
18
What 9/11 took from us: freedom of movement within and out of the country, freedom to speak without fear of being accused of one microaggression or another, complex vs. either/or thinking. "Either you're with us, or agin' us," a la George W Bush. Over 3,000 American lives.
What it gave us: war without end, fear without end. How many New Yorkers look up at the sky in fear when you hear a plane that sounds like it's flying a little too close to the ground? Copycat jihadi terrorists around the world. ISIS.
May the victims of 9/11 rest in peace, now and forever.
31
Mr Aziz
I applaud you for your honesty.
7
Great piece. In the shadow of 9/11, fear grasped the US to a level it hadn't seen since Pearl Harbor. This fear has continued to allow false news brokers and right-wing extremists on social media to hijack American politics.
14
Well written piece, but always remember that rage you feel towards those terrorists, and then multiply it by one thousand, and then you can begin to understand the rage everyone else feels. All our lives were changed that day.
17
Nothing in this piece implies that Mr. Aziz feels only 1/1000th of the rage "the rest of us" feel.
11
I hope this beautifully written piece makes it into many history classes and history books, as it completely captures not only so many human feelings but also the obscene politicization of that human tragedy by the Cheney/Bush administration and the hypocrisy of letting the Saudis completely off the hook.
I look forward to reading your book. Keep up the good work!
201
@Ambient Kestrel
All flights were grounded, except for flights from FL loaded with Saudis leaving before the pictures and I.D.'s were in the newspapers and on T.V. The real, and permanent, damage was the cynicism a war on an innocent country left us with. The lack of trust in government leaders was almost corrected by President Obama, but not quite. We will never listen to a government spokesperson the way we did before 9/11. Those of on the East Coast knew the identities of those boarding planes in Newark; there were rental car records, and pictures of the hijackers in real time. That is why Trump is tolerated, and ignored. He is just another government person who tells lies, grabs a lot of air time, and threatens other countries with devastation. Remember, we did not attack Saudi Arabia; we attacked Iraq; there were no Iraqis on board the planes in Newark.
25
Degrees of our common trust, our sense of safety, security, sane politics, honesty-"Mission Accomplished!," hope, honesty, compassion, and sense of unity. While what right-minded American could possibly not be devastated by the horror of 9/11/01, being united by horror is not the same as being united in other ways that have made this country succeed. Very, very sad. And we're still in a number of aftermath wars.
5
Similar story, Pakistani name and face, but I was 26 when the attack happened. There were probably differences for being a bit older. There was status-shift that was perhaps more pronounced, like being kicked out of a club I had belonged to for a long time - from birth through college and into grad school. It’s an odd (funny?) reference, but I felt a little like Winthrop in Trading Places dropping down the social ladder. (E tu, Penelope?)
Being older, but young, the adjustment required aligning a more fully formed identity with this new thing of “being identified.” Americans quickly became adept at identifying our type in the days after 9/11, and the gaze, especially from males, was intense. Then there was a sense of not knowing what to do with your own patriotic feelings of what just happened the country you've been part of and rooting for through childhood and into emerging adulthood. Basically, more of an understanding of what was lost, and also possibly more sadness as a result. But thank you for your account, I really do sometimes wonder what it’s like for you younger guys...
11
Yes, the writing is a heartfelt reckoning, but I would suggest that the attacks were not a crime. It was an act of war by a non-state although likely sponsored or not prevented, and hence forgiveness is not an option. You can only forgive when the actors ask for forgivenesses, offer contrition, and changes. I am waiting. Until then we continue to fight these people, mistrust each other, and suffer the consequences, no matter how unjust.
10
@Paul Sounds moronically bound by an unachievable goal.
2
@Paul
Who said anything about forgiveness? And who exactly are "these people"?
5
9-11 did not shape only the history of the United States, of course. It increased the attractiveness of terrorism as a political means worldwide, but also the ability of states to use fear as a method of asserting control. I remember feeling so at odds with most of the people around me then: it was taboo to say a single word against the US government; it was taboo to question whether this was the greatest tragedy in the history of humanity. As the writer points out, we are still living out the consequences of an act which worsened the lives of the vast majority but produced rewards for people like Bin Laden and George Bush.
16
"The outright manipulation of the people... coarsened the country, turning a once proud and optimistic nation into a cynical and polarized place. A spiritual pallor descended over America."
That spiritual sickliness continues to fester over a nation divided by deep fissures of race, color, creed,and social injustice in the years after 9/11. Can the country be healed by the passage of time and by the activism of new generations of Americans who were yet to be born on that fateful day? Time will tell and 9/11 may be recorded in the annals of history as a black period which led to a profound awakening back to a healthy nation. Or then again, 9/11 may well continue to be defined as the moment when a a "spiritual pallor" irrevocably descended upon and darkened the story our great American experiment in democracy.. and found it beyond healing.
20
This is a stunningly beautiful, deftly conceived and written piece. What a gifted person. I hope this article is shared far and wide. We are at a kaleidoscopic moment, with patterns falling into place: Bolton, Saudi/America dealings, Trump administration crippling every paltry effort on global warming, the compromising of the future of the last generation to remember 9/11 as a lived experience....all of it. This year's anniversary feels particularly heart-wrenching.
59
Very well written article. Everyone around the world lost something that day.
18
Thank you for this reflection, Mr Aziz. It is a powerful comment on how childhood, devastation, and memory can conspire to shape an adult's entire perspective.
I could not bring myself to watch or listen to our "president's" talk this morning about 9-11. Somehow, the anniversary of that event being spoken about by that man -- way, way too much to imagine.
It seems humankind needs enemies to feel safe within the tribe. When threatened, the tribe is willing to do anything to protect itself, despite the toll.
Someday, maybe we will evolve into a species more capable of acceptance and understanding -- we need to hurry.
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Thank you Mr. Aziz, for this piece. Beautifully written and heartfelt. Ill look forward to reading your book.💕
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I too mourn not only the world that was but the world that could have been. With a better more courageous leadership this attack could have been the catalyst for a better world.
The blue lights are a nice tribute but a better tribute to those who died would have been a better world for those that they loved. Instead the Republican president and Republican leadership seized on the moment to betray America and its values.
The Republican response was a tax cut for the wealthy. That was how they used the political capital that the deaths of 3000 Americans brought them. That and an illegal and unjust war. The Republican response to 9/11 was final proof to me that there is no God at least no God that watches over us.
I have been unpopular since the day of the attacks. I said on that very day that the best response would be to reach out to the rest of the world - especially impoverished Muslims - and to seek neither punishment nor vengeance.
I said that the U.S. could use this as a moment to become a better nation. To take a look at ourselves and to say not "did we deserve this attack" of course we did not. But "could America become a better place and a better leader in this world." But this is not what happened.
America is a worse place than it was before 9/11. Worse in almost every single way. And the thing that did the most damage was not the attack itself but the Republican response to that attack. I weep for what we were and what we could have been.
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@Brother Shuyun There is that saying about learning from history. Twice US victors planned to reach out to the vanquished. The first time, Lincoln didn't live to carry out that plan. The second time, the Marshall Plan was the result. But we didn't learn from the success of the Marshall Plan or have the generosity of heart and mind which Lincoln had. There is another saying about reaping the whirlwind. And another about reaping what you sow.
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@meh Also, had Albert Gore ascended to the presidency, would this country have invaded Iraq? Doubtful. And the course of history would have been altered. This is another example of a lost opportunity to learn from history. Perhaps not about reaching out to the vanquished. But, President Bush never served in Vietnam; VP Gore had. I think Gore would have had the insight as a Vietnam veteran to know that an invasion of Iraq would have resulted in a disastrous war without a strategy to win. It's speculation; perhaps he still would have invaded Afghanistan. One will never know now, of course. But, I think now is the time for a new leader to help us to move on from these wars.
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@meh First you have to vanquish the vanquished. There is a direct line from Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima. When you start a war, you may not be happy with the way it ends. When you knock down a building and kill 3,000+ people in a direct attack on the largest military power on earth, you are sowing the wind, and you will reap the whirlwind. Whirlwinds are unpredictable, uncontrollable, and destructive. That's why the circle of victims spreads like ripples on water as a result of the monstrous act of these murderers.
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Mr Aziz, Thank you for sharing your experience and emotions.
That day shattered my world, and as I watched the Towers burn every day for months, my heart broke.
Peace to you and all who mourn.
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What I remember of this day was having to go to the school where I worked and having to discuss and explain the unthinkable to 7 year olds. Why, they wanted to know would somebody do that? I tried to explain that for much of the world that United States was a symbol, not of freedom, but of power and wealth that others did not have. It didn't seem fair to the children, though they themselves had brown skins and spoke a different language. One such little boy was inconsolable. A plane had crashed in Pennsylvania. I told him not to worry, his family was safe. Pennsylvania was the same of a street near his house. We called his mother and they talked for a while. But that question, "Why?" never really went away. Finally, I sat them down and told them, "I don't know why, but I do know that they all began as children, just like you, and somewhere, somehow they got hold of a bad idea that allow this to happen." May we all be careful in the ideas we pick up along the way. May we never allow ourselves to become the equal of those who flew those planes, vilifying others to justify our least honorable deeds. These are choices we make, and we create the world we have to live in. What kind of a world do you want?
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@Marmylady
9/11/01 was my daughter's second day of kindergarten. As I dropped her off for her afternoon half day, I saw the look of devestation on her teacher's face as she had to remain calm and present a strong front to these precious babies. Some of those babies had parents who worked in NY, and likely the Trade Center. And she had to act like everything was normal. To this day I feel she was incredibly brave and selfless. Thank you to the teachers who on that day tried to protect our children from feeling the terror around them, and who continue to do so under unimaginable pressure. You are heroes even if you aren't treated that way.
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What a beautifully written memorial. Thank you for speaking your truth and allowing us to understand the tragedy of 9-11 through your eyes. God bless. May we overcome this spiritual pallor and find the best of our nature again.
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After all these years I still can not watch or read any coverage of that day or of the memorial services that have occured each year. It is just still too painful. The one thing I have learned from that day is that there are far more good people than bad people in this world. And that I will not allow anyone to steal my sense of peace and my belief that our whole purpose in life is to do good for others, even if it something small. Be that peace for someone, today and every day.
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I deeply need people like Mr. Aziz to know that there are some of us who were called names, threatened, lost friends, etc... for defending what we are supposed to hold as values in this nation, in the modern parlance: all people equal.
In a truly American sense: we have yet to properly reflect on any of this.
I don't think we will, because America likes to pretend we will do the hard work, but we don't.
15
When the attacks happened - I saw the buildings collapse from the relative safety of the Brooklyn Promenade - I knew deep down that the world change for everyone in that moment.
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Even after all this time, I have a minimal understanding of what happened inside our country. My experience has been that of an outsider, a small person looking at a big world influenced by misguided leaders, contentious hatred directed at us, and popular narrow mindedness in response.
Little has changed.
I appreciate this account very much.
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The impact is broader and deeper - it spilled over to include all brown skinned people, all people regardless of faith who might wear a turban. My country of birth has a complicated history with Muslims and the prejudice and mistrust is instinctive. For the first time we were clubbed together because to a different culture we all “ look” the same- brown skinned, black haired, black eyed, and probably with a name that sounded weird. I totally share the authors fury maybe more so when I am detained in the security line at the airport despite having a blue passport.
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Mr. Aziz: Thank you for writing this account.
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The author describes the same feelings that Japanese and Germans, whites and blacks, Christians and Jews, Russians and Americans, and even men and women have to deal with when contemplating the crimes that members of their nationality or race or religion or gender have committed. For most people, it's easy to ignore these crimes as they occurred long ago and far away.
But I sympathize with the author and other Muslims whose noses are rubbed in this particular crime again and again, whose culture is tarred with the same brush, and whose activities and entire lives are circumscribed and defined by their names or appearance. It's tragic that the tragedy we remember today is only compounded by the tragedy of lingering prejudice and discrimination.
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I was 16. Three weeks before, I had entered the US on a student visa. A student visa that was valid for 5 years, even though I only planned on staying for my junior year of highschool („you may change your mind and reapplying is a hassle“, they said). A student visa that I had been granted without even having to show my face at the American embassy. My family walked me to the gate in Berlin. My host family picked me up at the gate in San Francisco. There was no security.
All of that seemed normal and unremarkable at the time, but this last pre-9/11 trip has since burned itself into my mind as the quiet before the storm - the last vestiges of an era about to be obliterated. The terrorists and the politicians saw to that in equal measures.
In hindsight, the summer of 2001 had a lot in common with the summer of 1914 Europe.
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@Julia
"The terrorists and the politicians saw to that in equal measures."
Thank you for sharing your own experience and for echoing a key point in the author's piece: The act was horrific and damnable, but those in power here made everything worse by exploiting it in the worst way possible, primarily to further their own selfish agendas.
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@Julia
At the time of the September 11th, 2001 attacks, I was at work in a building within walking distance of Capitol Hill. Before that day was over, I was compelled to evacuate from that building and make my way home as best I could. So much of what I had taken for granted about life was forever altered.
Four months earlier, I had travelled to San Francisco for a brief holiday vacation. It was my first visit to that city, and the flight to and from there was largely stress-free and routine. Contrast that with 7 months later (December 2001), when I travelled to Brazil from Miami International Airport, where there were members of the Florida National Guard providing additional security (armed with automatic weapons).
What happened to the 'peace dividend' we were promised in the spring of 1991 after the victorious outcome to Operation Desert Storm and the definitive end to the Cold War that occurred on Christmas Day of that year? Compared to what we're going through now, the 1990s was a benign decade.
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@Wes
I was a child in the 90‘s, but I think you’re right. The 90‘s were an unusually calm and secure decade, at least for the US and Europe. It’s crazy to think that mine is the last generation to have experienced that sense of security.
6
One of our best friends and his family were rounded up like cattle and shipped off to an internment camp for Japanese Americans in Idaho after Pearl Harbor. The camp was surrounded in barb wire and it was more like a prison camp with sentry towers and machine guns pointed at them. They lost their home and possessions.
Our friend was only 9 at the time but old enough to never forget the fear of when he and his family were removed from the only life he had ever known. He didn’t understand why or how come they were being treated so badly with such hatred, distrust and hostility. They were American citizens, not Japanese citizens.
After the war ended, his family had difficulties and struggles, financially as well as medically. He said one day he was a happy little boy, and then suddenly, the only safe, happy and wonderful world he knew ceased to exist.
The events and tragedies of 9/11 have similarities to what occurred on 12/7/41. Innocent lives were taken and many, many families were changed forever. What compounded those horrific acts were innocent people who were/are American citizens who just happened to share the same nationality as those responsible, were made to feel as if they were somehow responsible resulting in additional unwarranted fear and distrust being instilled in their lives.
I am sorry that you felt the need to guard so much of what you said or did or wrote because of the heightened fear and anxiety so many in this country felt.
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@Marge Keller
There are consequences to war and if the US could have seen the future maybe they would not have rounded these people up. But had that been the case there would have been a different outcome for Pearl Harbor. My point being the US is not perfect but the powers that be did what was necessary at the time and I for one do not think that I have the right to question those who made these decisions. Your friends came back, millions of soldiers and civilians never did so maybe you could feel the same compassion for them that you do for those who survived
1
Even after the war ended, his family had difficulties and struggles, financially as well as medically. He said one day he was a happy little boy, and then suddenly, the only safe, happy and wonderful world he knew ceased to exist.
The events and tragedies of 9/11 have similarities to what occurred on 12/7/41. Innocent lives were taken and many, many families were changed forever. What compounded those horrific acts were innocent people who were/are American citizens who just happened to share the same nationality as those responsible, were made to feel as if they were somehow responsible resulting in additional unwarranted fear and distrust being instilled in their lives.
I am sorry that you felt the need to guard so much of what you said or did or wrote because of the heightened fear and anxiety so many in this country felt.
Profound and deep condolences to all who lost a loved one due to 9/11. May their memory and love live in our hearts and souls forever.
11
@Marge Keller
I was told by an old timer that lived through WW2 that the Japanese internment camps (our concentration camps) were as much to protect the Japanese citizenry from our own Kristalnacht retribution as to keep watch on them. I bet that's a bit of rationalization, but maybe a bit true.
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@larkspur
I grew up in the Central Valley, CA. Japanese disappeared from school; neighbors disappeared, their homes looted. Years later, in an East Coast law firm, I worked with a man whose family were taken from SoCal to a camp in Montana. He was a little boy then; he never forgot the camp, or the fear his parents showed him. He was still bitter about what was done to his parents, because it was a monumental injustice to Japanese Americans. FDR tried to mitigate some of the damage with offers of financial restitution, many of which were refused by the victims. A friend who taught in China said his young students were taught about the Nanking Massacre by grandparents. A Dutch housemother in Berkeley remembered the German occupation of her town by German soldiers. Catastrophic historical events are remembered and memories shared, becoming part of a collective folklore. WW2 was such an event; 9/11 was such an event.
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