The sustained outcry against the Islamic Community Center two blocks from Ground Zero in New York City is not the first time U.S. Muslims have been on the defensive. During the 1990s, long before 9/1l, they were suffering discrimination in the workplace and often the target of physical threat and attack. Places of worship were the target of vandalism and crude graffiti, and sometimes arson.
While lecturing across America during those years, I became convinced that anti-Muslim passions based on false stereotypes are a cancer that threatens the well-being of all Americans, not just followers of Islam. At home, they nurture bigotry and fear. In the Middle East, they are a massive roadblock to balanced, fair U.S. policies.
Hoping to ease these dangerous passions I wrote Silent No More: Confronting America’s False Images of Islam,” a book inspired by personal acquaintance with hundreds of Muslims here and abroad.
It was published one month before 9/11, the day professed Muslims carried out the horrible suicide bombings in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., that killed nearly 3,000 innocent Americans. The bombings were a gross violation of Islamic doctrine, which condemns suicide and injury to innocent people, but they left millions of misinformed Americans convinced Muslims approved the massacre.
Three years later, a Cornell University poll disclosed 44 percent of those surveyed were so apprehensive about Islam they wanted the civil liberties of all U.S. Muslims curtailed. This year, Gallup polls reported nearly half our citizens fearful of Islamic intentions.
At the same time, anti-American passions have risen worldwide, especially in Muslim countries. Our government makes no effort to explain why foreigners protest our policies. Nor does it lift a finger to correct legitimate Muslim grievances.
Nine-eleven was payback by a few people infuriated over our pro-Israel bias. Anti-American protests rise mainly from the same bias: U.S. complicity in Israel’s brutal treatment of mostly-Muslim Palestinians and its illegal seizure of their land. Wars initiated by the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan, both Muslim countries, magnified the outrage.
Although Israel’s daily conduct clearly violates international law, massive, unconditional U.S. aid keeps flowing to Tel Aviv.
The chief planner of 9/11, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, plainly and publicly stated his motivation. It was his “violent disagreement with U.S. policies that favored Israel.” This significant revelation was buried in the report of the 9/11 Commission but mentioned nowhere else. The commission twice voted against holding hearings on motivation.
Nothing could justify 9/11, but the American people deserve to know why it happened and why our government made no serious effort to stop Israel’s criminal policies.
If our government had refused to help Israel when it decided to destroy Palestine and brutalize its people, 9/11 would not have happened, our government would not have started wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Israel would not have been able to carry out its illegal takeover of Arab land. The main motivations for anti-Muslim passions in the United States and anti-American passions would not exist.
The revelation by the chief planner of 9/11 should have served as a wake up call for every American, but the members of the president-appointed 9/11Commission, like most other Americans, tip-toed in silent retreat rather than embarrass Israel and risk being called anti-Semitic.
It is never too late to do the right thing. Our president should suspend all aid until Israeli forces withdraw from all Arab territory seized in June 1967. Barack Obama—any president—will win massive public support for this showdown if he explains the crisis in clear language directly to the American people. Based on my years in Congress, where I was a close witness of presidents in crisis, I know Obama could prevail. Congress is populated with puppets for Israel, but enlightened public opinion will change their behavior overnight.
Future historians will be amazed at the utter stupidity of our government. Rather than end bias in Middle East policy, our officials keep our nation in the black hole of war, fear, hate and bankruptcy.