I started this thread several days ago with the post below which focused on a Muslin family who had lost a family member on 9/11. I felt it was necessary to remind people that many different groups of people died that day and the current attempt by some to "Christianize" 9/11 should make wonder why such a thing was occurring. The contributors to this thread has taken the discussion in curious directions and I decided not to respond until now. On Saturday, 09/11/2010, the NY Times had an article in its "On Religion" section that pointed out that there were two prayer areas in the Twin Towers that were used by Muslims who had worked in the World Trade Center; see: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/11/nyregion/11religion.html?_r=1&sq=wtc%20mosques%209/11&st=cse&scp=1&pagewanted=all
Quoting from the article: |Opponents of the Park51 project say the presence of a Muslim |center dishonors the victims of the Islamic extremists who flew |two jets into the towers. Yet not only were Muslims peacefully |worshiping in the twin towers long before the attacks, but even |after the 1993 bombing of one tower by a Muslim radical, Ramzi |Yousef, their religious observance generated no opposition | |“We weren’t aliens,” Mr. Abdus-Salaam, 60, said in a telephone |interview from Florida, where he moved in retirement. “We had a |foothold there. You’d walk into the elevator in the morning and |say, ‘Salaam aleikum,’ to one construction worker and five more |guys in suits would answer, ‘Aleikum salaam.’ ” | |One of those men in suits could have been Zafar Sareshwala, a |financial executive for the Parsoli Corporation, who went to the prayer |room while on business trips from his London office. He was introduced |to it, he recently recalled, by a Manhattan investment banker who |happened to be Jewish. | |“It was so freeing and so calm,” Mr. Sareshwala, 47, said in a phone |conversation from Mumbai, where he is now based. “It had the feel |of a real mosque. And the best part is that you are in the epicenter of |capitalism — New York City, the World Trade Center — and you |had this island of spiritualism. I don’t think you could have that combination |anywhere in the world.” A cynical political prediction one could make is that the people who are promoting the attack against the Park Place Islamic Center will disappear after the November elections though the 9/11 families they used as pawns will be left with their personal pain as welll as thinking that Muslims were not part of the life at the World Trade Cetner, that they were not the only ones to suffer but many, many people suffered. They are not the only stakeholders and they don't get to decide for the rest of us. -Mike Palij New York University m...@nyu.edu On Fri, 10 Sep 2010 06:08:43 -0700, Mike Palij wrote: >An article in the NY Times focuses on one family that deals with >their grief over the loss of a father and husband in the 9/11 attack >on the World Trade Center. How they have dealth with the attack >and the aftermath should give us and, if we share with our students, >pause. See: > http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/nyregion/10muslim.html?_r=1&th=&emc=th&pagewanted=all > > >The fact that the family is Muslim would be incidental except for >the recent madness manifesting itself in U.S. religious and political >circles. I wonder what critical thinking lessons psychologists will >teach about this madness? --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=4785 or send a blank email to leave-4785-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
