Obviously this is not true, but for many analytically-challenged Americans, denying Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, access to Ground Zero is an implication that Iran had something to do with September 11. This implication comes on the heel of the Bush's implication that Iraq was responsible for 9/11 through association.
What is frightening is many Americans do not know the difference between implication and truth, or even Iraq and Iran (and Afghanistan and Syria and Jordan and Lebanon).
Ahmadinejad requested permission to lay a wreath at the World Trade Center, but was denied for "security issues" surrounding the construction at the site. If we claim America is a great democracy, why are we denying a man a chance to grieve for the victims and their families (even if he did deny the Holocaust existed)? I'm sure there's something else here at play that we don't know about, but denying him access is just going to strengthen the rest of the world's resolve against the US.
And make our citizens, well, dumber-er.
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6 comments:
HOLY SHITT!! i dont know if i can say anything else!!!
_AJF
these just keep getting better tho ur good..
AJ
so true, sadly I don't know if Bush even knows the difference between those two nations, I think he prefers not to say Iranians or Iraqis but evildoers!
Remember How Iran Responded to the 9/11 Attacks?
With all the ruckus over the request of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's request to visit “Ground Zero” during his visit to New York to lay a wreath [1], it is somewhat worth remembering how Iran responded to the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
Knowing how short American memories are and knowing how many Americans share President Bush’s habit of conflating all U.S. opponents and enemies into some sort of utterly fictional “united front,” like the now famous “Axis of Evil” (none of whom had anything whatsoever to do with the 9/11 attacks); I began preparing in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. It was fully predictable that there would be an Islamaphobic backlash in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and that people with a vested interest in promoting anti-Muslim hatred would later try to equate the entire Islamic world with the attacks in New York and Washington DC. So, beginning on September 12, 2001, I began compiling the actual responses to the attacks by all the countries of the world with a Muslim majority regardless of their political standing or relationship with the United States. Visiting and saving snippets from official government outlets for these states (embassy websites, Ministries of Foreign Affairs, &c.) as well as searching the media for relevant articles discussing the reactions of these states, I saved all this data for the fifty-two states in question and put it online in the “International Islamic Response” website. After several moves to different hosts, I kept all this data and it can now be found online at: http://iir.internetactivist.org/
So what was Iran’s reaction to the 9/11 attacks?
"On behalf of the Iranian government and the nation, I condemn the hijacking attempts and terrorist attacks on public centers in American cities which have killed a large number of innocent people," President Khatami said in reaction to the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor. ... "My deep sympathy goes out to the American nation, particularly those who have suffered from the attacks and also the families of the victims," he said, noting, "terrorism is doomed and the international community should stem it and take effective measures in a bid to eradicate it." Khatami added that the Islamic Republic of Iran is treading a road to uproot terrorism and to this end, he noted, it will spare no efforts.
And related news stories included:
“Iranians Honor U.S. with Moment of Silence” (NY Post)
“Khatami Condemns ‘Terrorist’ Attacks on U.S. Targets (People’s Daily, Iran)
“US calls Iran’s response ‘positive’” (Economic Times)
“Terror attacks transform U.S. image in Iran’s media” (Gulf News)
“Powell sees hope in Iran, Syria response to attack” (Reuters)
“'Iran News’ deplores attacks on major US landmarks” (Iran News)
“Iran expresses rare sympathy for U.S. over attacks” (Reuters)
“Iran ayatollah says he is heart-broke over U.S. attack” (Gulf News)
“Iran seals Afghanistan border” (AP)
All of this was saved in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 at http://iir.internetactivist.org/020.html though of course many of the links are no longer valid, being six years old.
The point was – and remains – to show that contrary to whatever the Islamaphobic hate-mongers might say today, the vast majority of the Islamic world, even including states that the US has had difficult relations with, were sympathetic and supportive in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The whole supposition that there should be any problem with President Ahmadinejad laying a wreath at “Ground Zero” is just a statement of American ignorance, bigotry, and hated completely unjustified by anything Iran has done.
Anyway, to learn more about the response of the world’s majority Muslim countries in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, visit the International Islamic Response website at: http://iir.internetactivist.org/ Just click on any of the countries listed on the left to see how they responded. Just to save you some time, the ONLY majority Muslim states that were not sympathetic was Iraq (at the time under Saddam Hussein and suffering from US imposed sanctions that resulted in the death of over a million Iraqis [2]) and Afghanistan (then under the Taliban).
John S.
Notes:
[1] Pat Milton, "New York bans 'photo op' visit to Ground Zero by Iran's president," The Scotsman, 21 September 2007, http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1509712007
[2] Peace Action, “End Sanctions on Iraq,” Peace Action Education Fund, undated, http://www.peace-action.org/camp/justice/iraqfs.pdf
Wow, thanks John! I think it's really important for Americans not to lose perspective just because our "president" implies that Iran or Iraq or wherever had something to do with with the 9/11 attacks. Perspective can quickly be lost because we have such a hard time remembering what actually happened, and I'm glad someone like you had the foresight to record it. Thanks again!
Didn't Iran support some of the hijackers travel with unnoticed by not stamping passports.
And wasn't it reported that Iran was trying to strengthen its' relations with Al Qaeda less than a year before the 9-11, but got rejected because Bin Laden didn't want to alienate Saudi Arabian supporters.
Or that Iran is a major supporter of the Hezbollah, who supposedly helped train Al Qaeda.
Okay I know I should find a more reliable source than the 9-11 commission report, but isn't the whole Hezbollah issue reason enough. I mean the Hezbollah is like the biggest terror orginaization in the world, other than the US, of course.
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