A sad side-effect of Tuesday's events

[Memnoch]

Innocent people getting caught in the crossfire yet again. This is also happening in Australia where a schoolbus of Muslim children was stoned in Brisbane. Muslim women wearing veils are being spat on in the street. They are fellow innocents made to suffer.


NEW YORK (CNN) -- By Friday, many of the city's schools, offices and businesses had reopened. But Rabyaah Al-Thaibani says her family isn't opening its grocery store on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn for now.

Rabyaah says her uncle was threatened with violence by one of his suppliers on Thursday. The supplier was angered by Tuesday's terrorist strikes, suspected to have been carried out by people of Arabic origin.

"He said he would kill my uncle and the whole family if we didn't watch out," Rabyaah says. "We are all pretty terrified to walk out right now."

Hussein Ibish, communications director for the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee in Washington, says the Arab-American community "is keeping its head down for the moment."

"People from the community just don't want to be conspicuous right now."

Being inconspicuous for most members of the community means staying home, not going to work, not even going out to shop.

But Rabyaah does come out, to volunteer at the Arab-American Family Support Center in Brooklyn, where she works as a counselor.

Since Tuesday, the support center has received hundreds of calls from Arab-Americans who have been threatened by people who blame the community for the attacks. The center also has documented reports of physical assault in the Atlantic Avenue area, which has a large population of Americans from Yemen, Lebanon and other Arab nations.

Brooklyn police say they have made a note of several complaints and are doing their best to keep Arab-Americans safe.

Ibish says he has lost count of the number of death threats and other hate messages he has received personally since Tuesday. Local police now guard his office and walk him to and from work every day.

Ibish says that is heartening -- and he also is grateful to policemen in Illinois, who stopped an angry mob from attacking a mosque in Bridgefield, Illinois, on Wednesday night.

It's a problem that prompted President Bush to make a strong statement during a conference call with New York Gov. George Pataki and New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

"Our nation must be mindful that there are thousands of Arab-Americans who live in New York City," he said, "who love their flag just as much as the three of us do, and we must be mindful that as we seek to win the war that we treat Arab-Americans and Muslims with the respect they deserve."

It's a message that 17-year-old Roula Abu Hassan says her teacher at school missed today. She says her health teacher told her class at a high school in Brooklyn that "Palestinian children all want to become terrorists."

Both Roula and her mother Saud Abu Hassan, who moved to the United States from the Palestinian territories, are visibly upset by the statement and want the teacher to apologize.

And as the U.S. Justice Department releases the name of 19 suspected hijackers, all of whom are Muslims with Middle Eastern backgrounds, members of the community say they worry that attacks against anyone bearing similar names may now increase.



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[Kaz]

Oh no. I suppose it proves that there are idiots in every culture and country, but the poor people! I mean, they didn't do anything to deserve this! At least the government is actively working against this.

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Kazara

Sapphire Dragoness of ALSB
Waitress at Cloudy's Cafe

[Sazerac]

I had posted this in my "Mosque attacks" thread, but on Thursday, the mosque here in Denton was "Molotov-cocktailed", resulting in thousands of dollars of damage. No one, fortunately, was hurt, as it occurred in the wee hours of the morning.

It is a sad state of affairs. The members of that mosque mainly include university professors, students, and their families who are of African or Middle-Eastern descent. They consider themselves Americans as well as anyone else. I am glad for one that the Denton paper condemned that bombing act as an act of terrorism, for it surely is, just as much as the one in NYC and Washington DC on Tuesday, albeit on a much smaller scale.



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[Sigmar]

I thought this might happen. Some people can be so thick, people are individuals!

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"If complete and utter chaos was lightning,then he'd be the sort to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm wearing wet copper armour and shouting "All gods are bastards"."-Rincewind
Sigmar, proud warrior of clan HADB.

[John D Harris]

It is a sad side effect. We should instead get the help of the VAST MAJORITY of law abidding and loyal citzens of the muslim faith to help root out the small terrorist cells in their comunities. Talk about human-intel, they are allready there and are willing to help.

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"the memories of a man in his old age,
are deeds of a man in his prime"

[J.J.]

The smaller and narrower the mind, the bigger and broader the ignorance of the reaction. Unfortunately, people are like that world-wide, it is a human thing, not political. I remember some of my research reviews that showed the critical mass required to effectively lower it's participant's intelligence by a degree of classification is minimum number of people 3, max required 5 for mob psychology to effectively take over individual rational thought. Sad but true statement of the human condition.

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Unstinting Gaurdian of Children
Defender of Those Unable To

[adam warlock]

it's going get worse! it's becoming similar to the treatment that American-Japanese people received in WW2.... what's next?

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bad homepage

[Sazerac]

Originally posted by J.J.: The smaller and narrower the mind, the bigger and broader the ignorance of the reaction. Unfortunately, people are like that world-wide, it is a human thing, not political. I remember some of my research reviews that showed the critical mass required to effectively lower it's participant's intelligence by a degree of classification is minimum number of people 3, max required 5 for mob psychology to effectively take over individual rational thought. Sad but true statement of the human condition.

I understand that fully, J.J. It's something they call the "hivemind" effect, where rational thought completely gives way to this "hivemind" of bigotry, paranoia, and terrorism. It's the same concept as that of a Lynch mob.



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[Istaron]

Man, thats sick... by doing such things, people show that they are no better than the terrorists that hit WTC! Of course, it is ok to be upset for the attack, and maybe even a bit angry at muslims... but couldn't it stay there, must it lead to such acions as this?

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We call him Bobby Corwen

[Memnoch]

Originally posted by Sazerac: I understand that fully, J.J. It's something they call the "hivemind" effect, where rational thought completely gives way to this "hivemind" of bigotry, paranoia, and terrorism. It's the same concept as that of a Lynch mob.

It's tragic, but proves that all countries have their "people dancing in the streets".

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