Letter: You Worry Me.....(religion and politics both)

[katlnhats]

Comments, anyone?

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A Letter By American Airlines Pilot Captain John Maniscalco

I've been trying to say this since 9-11 but you worry me. I wish you
didn't. I wish when I walked down the streets of this country that I
love, that your color and culture still blended with the beautiful human
landscape we enjoy in this country. But you don't blend in anymore. I
notice you, and it worries me. I notice you because I can't help it
anymore. People from your homelands, professing to be Muslims, have
been attacking and killing my fellow citizens and our friends for more
than 20 years now. I don't fully understand their grievances and hate
but I know that nothing can justify the inhumanity of their attacks.

On September 11, nineteen ARAB-MUSLIMS hijacked four jetliners in my
country. They cut the throats of women in front of children and
brutally stabbed to death others. They took control of those planes and
crashed them into buildings killing thousands of proud fathers, loving
sons, wise grandparents, elegant daughters, best friends, favorite
coaches, fearless public servants, and children's mothers. The
Palestinians celebrated, The Iraqis were overjoyed as was most of the
Arab world.

So I notice you now. I don't want to be worried. I don't want to be
consumed by the same rage and hate and prejudice that has destroyed the
soul of these terrorists. But I need your help. As a rational
American, trying to protect my country and family in an irrational and
unsafe world, I must know how to tell the difference between you, and
the Arab/Muslim terrorist.

How do I differentiate between the true Arab/Muslim-Americans and the
Arab/Muslims in our communities who are attending our schools, enjoying
our parks, and living in OUR communities under the protection of OUR
constitution, while they plot the next attack that will slaughter these
same good neighbors and children? The events of September 11th changed
the answer. It is not my responsibility to determine which of you
embraces our great country, with ALL of its religions, with ALL of its
different citizens, with all of its faults. It is time for every
Arab/Muslim in this country to determine it for me.

I want to know, I demand to know, and I have a right to know whether or
not you love America. Do you pledge allegiance to its flag? Do you
proudly display it in front of your house, or on your car? Do you pray
in your many daily prayers that Allah will bless this nation, that He
will protect and prosper it? Or do you pray that Allah with destroy it
in one of your "Jihads"? Are you thankful for the freedom that
only this nation affords? A freedom that was paid for by the blood of
hundreds of thousands of patriots who gave their lives for this country?
Are you willing to preserve this freedom by paying the ultimate
sacrifice? Do you love America? If this is your commitment, then I need
YOU to start letting ME know about it.

Your Muslim leaders in this nation should be flooding the media at this
time with hard facts on your faith, and what hard actions you are taking
as a community and as a religion to protect the United States of
America. Please, no more benign overtures of regret for the death of the
innocent because I worry about who you regard as innocent. No more
benign overtures of condemnation for the unprovoked attacks because I
worry about what is unprovoked to you. I am not interested in any more
sympathy...I am only interested in action. What will you do for America
- our great country -- at this time of crisis, at this time of war?

I want to see Arab-Muslims waving the AMERICAN flag in the streets. I
want to hear you chanting "Allah Bless America". I want to see
young Arab/Muslim men enlisting in the military. I want to see a commitment
of money, time, and emotion to the victims of this butchering and to
this nation as a whole. The FBI has a list of over 400 people they want
to talk to regarding the WTC attack. Many of these people live and
socialize in Muslim communities. You know them You know where they are.

Hand them over to us, now! But I have seen little even approaching this
sort of action. Instead I have seen an already closed and secretive
community close even tighter. You have disappeared from the streets.
You have posted armed security guards at your facilities. You have
threatened lawsuits. You have screamed for protection from reprisals.

The very few Arab/Muslim representatives that HAVE appeared in the media
were defensive and equivocating. They seemed more concerned with making
sure that the United States proves who was responsible before taking
action. They seemed more concerned with protecting their fellow Muslims
from violence directed towards them in the United States and abroad than
they did with supporting our country and denouncing "leaders"
like Khadafi, Hussein, Farrakhan, and Arafat. If the true teachings of Islam
proclaim tolerance and peace and love for all people then I want chapter
and verse from the Koran and statements from popular Muslim leaders to
back it up. What good is it if the teachings in the Koran are good and
pure and true when your "leaders" are teaching fanatical
interpretations, terrorism, and intolerance?

It matters little how good Islam SHOULD BE if large numbers of the
world's Muslims interpret the teachings of Mohammed incorrectly and
adhere to a degenerative form of the religion. A form that has been
demonstrated to us over and over again. A form whose structure is built
upon a foundation of violence, death, and suicide. A form whose members
are recruited from the prisons around the world. A form whose members
(some as young as five years old) are seen day after day, week in and
week out, year after year, marching in the streets around the world,
burning effigies of our presidents, burning the American flag, shooting
weapons into the air. A form whose members convert from a peaceful
religion, only to take up arms against the great United States of
America, the country of their birth. A form whose rules are so twisted,
that their traveling members refuse to show their faces at airport
security checkpoints, in the name of Islam.

I want to know where every Arab/ Muslim in this country stands and I
think it is my right and the right of every true citizen of this country
to demand it. A right paid for by the blood of thousands of my brothers
and sisters who died protecting the very constitution that is protecting
you and your family. I am pleading with you to let me know. I want you
here as my brother, my neighbor, my friend, as a fellow American. But
there can be no gray areas or ambivalence regarding your allegiance and
it is up to YOU to show ME where YOU stand. Until then, you worry me.
_________________________________________________________________
This letter was sent to me awhile back from a dear friend who I won't name.
And obviously it was written awhile back; I've saved it and re-read it many times. And I can understand why this pilot feels the way he does......

Kat

[Rainmaker]

Captain John Maniscalco has not declared scripting this letter. Almost the exact same piece had appeared in several "rag newspapers" under different names a few years ago. Until the true author is revealed, we must be careful not to falsely and hastily credit another for its making.

[katlnhats]

Originally Posted by Rainmaker

Captain John Maniscalco has not declared scripting this letter. Almost the exact same piece had appeared in several "rag newspapers" under different names a few years ago. Until the true author is revealed, we must be careful not to falsely and hastily credit another for its making.

Wow. Really? I don't read "rag newspapers". I didn't get this from a newspaper, rag or not. I got it from a career military person. Other than where it came from or who wrote it, what's your opinion? Just curious.... and that's the only reason I posted it.

Kat