 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Searching for the Roots of 9/11 is a documentary which aired on the Discovery Channel on March 26, 2003. It is hosted by New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman.
 | This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed.(November 2012) |
Searching for the Roots of 9/11 analyzes Arab and Muslim sentiment towards Americans and seeks to explain the factors that contributed and ultimately caused the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 in an effort to help Americans better understand the tragedy and prevent similar events from occurring in the future. He feels that civilization cannot truly be safe until we understand the roots of 9/11, because if we don't fix the problems within civilization ("a war between the good guys and the bad guys"), we are going to continue to have a war between civilizations. At a time of war, he is searching for the answers to two fundamental questions: (1) what motivated the 19 young men to board planes to kill 3,000 of our American brothers and sisters, and (2) why did so many Arabs and Muslims applaud their actions?
Since 1981, Friedman has traveled widely covering Middle Eastern Affairs (including the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the First Palestinian Intifada, and the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian Conflict) and has specialized in U.S. domestic politics and foreign policy, international economics, and the worldwide impact of the terrorist threat. By immersing himself in the Islamic culture, Friedman attempts to locate and articulate the source of the Muslims' intense anger towards Americans.
In this film, he explains the mixed feelings that Muslims had in response to 9/11 through a series of group and individual interviews. Many media outlets showed them dancing in the streets in response to the reports of the Twin Towers falling, and Dyab Abou Jahjah, a Muslim political leader residing in Belgium, explained his own perspective and what he believed was that of the others. He states that while it was disturbing for Muslims to see people jumping out of the windows to their deaths, Muslims instead chose to focus on the notion that America finally got punched in the nose. The passive support of 9/11 by Muslims can be attributed to the fact that America had been "kicking our butts for 50 years" and that America itself educated the Muslims on the credence of killing. The bombing of Iraq killed Iraqi civilians, yet the Americans justified this with the viewpoint that accidental civilian casualties were regrettable, yet acceptable. In cheering 9/11, Muslims felt the same way about American civilians-their deaths were regrettable, but acceptable. Dyab Abou Jahjah makes clear that he abhors this logic but feels that it was Americans who encouraged Muslims to adopt it.
In a conversation with Rami Khouri, the editor of The Daily Star , a regional English-language newspaper published in Beirut and other Arab cities, Khouri eloquently expresses the biggest complaint that Arabs have against the United States. He stated in the documentary that the "overarching feeling is that the US practices a double standard, promoting liberty, equality and justice at home but supporting autocracy, oligarchy, occupation and oppression in the Arab world." The Arabs feel that the US tries to boss around the world, and they resent Americans for their stance on foreign policy.
Friedman interviews Arab students at the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, which is the first American medical school ever set up overseas. Lama Oreibi, a student, scolds the astonishment of the Americans in the aftermath of September 11. She agrees that the attacks that occurred on 9/11 were undoubtedly tragic, as everyone is against the killing of the innocent; however she argues that similar attacks are taking place daily in Palestine and previously in Lebanon. American acquiescence to these attacks on humanity is abhorrent. The only element that made 9/11 special is that it happened in the states, which propelled this event to an arguably unfair worldwide prominence. Suhaim Al-thani, a 16-year-old student at the same school, also feels as though Americans think that their blood is superior to Arabs. When asked what motivated 9/11, he responded, "Well I think seriously 9/11 is all about you see the blood of Arab people being spilled as if we were sheep. And you think that these people sitting in these big buildings and ruling the world think that their blood is expensive and that we are just animals. Palestinian blood isn't any cheaper than any other kind of blood. Whereas I've heard of an Arab empire, and I've never really heard of a Jewish empire and America is only 300 years old… so how is the Arab world backward and how is our blood cheap? In what sense?"
Friedman appears on Al Jazeera, a Qatar-based news network which gained worldwide notoriety following the attacks on September 11 when it broadcast videos made by Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders decrying the United States and praising the attacks. Friedman also converses with Ali Salem, an Egyptian businessman who was compelled to write "An Apology From An Arab" to the American public, which appeared in Time magazine on the first anniversary of September 11. He explains that in the Middle East, art, education and the economy have been leveled to a ground zero. One of the causes of Arab resentment towards Americans is rooted in their own poverty of dignity. Their civilization, once the great Arab Empire, is lagging behind the rest of the world, and has regressed into a largely poor area devoid of real opportunity. This is illustrated by the Arab Human Development Report of 2002 which was issued by the US. It was reported that the combined GDP of all Arab Countries is less than that of Spain. More than half of Arab women are illiterate, and more than 51% of the Arab youth polled expressed a desire to emigrate outside of the Middle East if they had the opportunity. Coupled with that, there is a river of rage toward their own regime whose rampant corruption and repression has left them powerless and voiceless, and a growing animosity towards the US as they blame the American government for keeping their leaders in power.
Humiliation is referred to as "the single most underrated force in international relations." As Salem explain, the majority of Muslim extremists don't become radical religious zealots until they move to European host societies. The vast majority of Arabs living abroad are peaceful people. However, some young Arab and Muslim adults feel unwelcome by their host society. Freidman focuses on the current radical groups of Arabs who have felt frustrated by the discrimination they have faced after moving to Belgium. He speaks with Fauzaya Talhaoui, a member of the Belgian Parliament, and Nordin Maloujahmoum, the head of the National Organization of Belgian Muslims. Maloujahmoum states that to have dignity in Belgium, you need to have a job and your worth as a person needs to be recognized by society. The discrimination that sometimes occurs against the Arab youth (preventing them from acquiring such jobs) puts them in a vulnerable position. Both Talhaoui and Maloujahmoum indicate that this feeling of inferiority and humiliation causes some Arab youth in these areas to harbor hate in their hearts, and propels them towards a more radical religious position. In reality, as Salem stated, "these extremists are pathologically jealous. They feel like dwarfs, which is why they search for towers and all those who tower mightily. Extremism may claim God as its redeemer, but it's really the selfish product of lunacy." Freidman links the experiences of the young Arabs in Belgium to the experiences of Mohamad Atta, one of the key leaders in the attacks of September 11. These attacks couldn't have happened if there hadn't been radical leaders who exploited the anger of the hijackers. These hijackers felt injustice, and were bound, like a cult, by a utopian ideology developed by a charismatic leader.
Later, Friedman observes the ritual of Friday noon prayer at an important mosque in Cairo. He is struck by the strong sense of spirituality, but soon after the prayer ends, the mosque is taken over by a group of young men who are political activists spreading an anti-American message to those who remained. Friedman observes that this mosque "instantly went from prayer to politics."
Yousuf Al Shirawi, the former Minister of Development and Industry for the country of Bahrain, allows Friedman to join him to cast his vote in Bahrain's first truly free election. He comments on how excited Bahrainis are to vote and on the monumental achievement of this election. This is their first election where women can both vote and run for office. Though this one parliament election won't suddenly change this country, Friedman comments that, "everything starts with one step".
Friedman wraps up the documentary by making the assertion that "9/11 just might change the Arab and Muslim world even more than the United States. People in the Arab world have gone from shock that their sons could have perpetrated 9/11, to denial, to at least the beginning of introspection. The Arab world is facing a heightened struggle over what their relationship to America should be, and how to define themselves and their own societies." Friedman spent an evening with a group of contemporary young Egyptian business people who want their country to move towards prosperity and political openness, which has been largely rejected in the past. One of the men in this group, Basil El Baz, an Oil and Gas Executive commented that, "any change that takes place if it is to take place has to take place from within, it can't be induced, forced from abroad…not to force us but to support us. If you'll take a look, the friendliest Middle Eastern politicians have been educated in the United States and they've learned the American system and they've come home and they've wanted to try to implement that where they are. And what have you done after September 11th for 15 or 19 people? You've essentially put a wall around the United States by not allowing us entrance into the US to educate ourselves to maybe one day even build these institutions in our countries. How can we build a Harvard if we don't go to Harvard." While Arabs may at times reject American foreign policy with vigor, they also admire many aspects of American culture, including their education system. Omar Islam Shalaby recognizes that poverty, ignorance, and oppression may have been the causes of 9/11, but Arabs all want peace now. Arabs want to reach the stage where the battleground over Israel between the Arabs and the Jews ceases to exists, as Arabs want a better future for themselves and for their kids. Many Arabs are also learning to embrace democratic ideals. Since it has worked for many other civilized nations, many of these progressive thinkers feel it is in their best interest to make an attempt at democracy, and they feel that America should support them in this quest.
Friedman concludes: "How we manage the aftermath of the Iraq story and what kind of peace we try to construct out there will determine who wins: the mountains of suspicious, the rivers of rage, or the voices of moderation who really do want to partner with us [the Americans]." Ali Salem observes that "God didn't create us to die, but to live. In order to survive and thrive as a civilization, we must live in accordance with others. We cannot live alone". In "An Apology from an Arab," Salem concedes that Arab society may be temporarily backwards, but they are no different from the Americans. They too love freedom, and want a chance at a decent life."
The Society of the Muslim Brothers, better known as the Muslim Brotherhood, is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings spread far beyond Egypt, influencing today various Islamist movements from charitable organizations to political parties—not all using the same name.
Islamophobia is the fear of, hatred of, or prejudice against the religion of Islam or Muslims in general, especially when seen as a geopolitical force or a source of terrorism.
Thomas Loren Friedman is an American political commentator and author. He is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner who is a weekly columnist for The New York Times. He has written extensively on foreign affairs, global trade, the Middle East, globalization, and environmental issues.
The Middle East Media Research Institute is a nonprofit press monitoring and analysis organization co-founded by former Israeli military intelligence officer Yigal Carmon and Israeli-American political scientist Meyrav Wurmser. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., MEMRI publishes and distributes free English-language translations of Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Pashto, and Turkish media reports.
The Arab European League is a Pan-Arabist political organisation active in Belgium and the Netherlands.
The Siege is a 1998 American action thriller film directed by Edward Zwick. The film is about a fictional situation in which terrorist cells have made several attacks in New York City. The film stars Denzel Washington, Annette Bening, Tony Shalhoub, and Bruce Willis.
"Islamofascism", first described as "Islamic fascism" in 1933, is a term popularized in the 1990s drawing an analogical comparison between the ideological characteristics of specific Islamist or Islamic fundamentalist movements and short-lived European fascist movements of the early 20th century, neo-fascist movements, or totalitarianism.
Tareq Mohammed Al-Suwaidan is a Kuwaiti Islamic author and speaker, and businessman. He has been among the 500 Most Influential Muslims in 2022. Al-Suwaidan is considered to adopt a moderate ideology amongst Muslim thinkers.
Dyab Abou Jahjah is an Arab political activist and writer who was active in Europe between 2001 and 2007. He is the founder and former leader of the Arab European League (AEL), a Pan-Arabist movement that supports the interests of Muslim immigrants in Europe. Since then, Abou Jahjah has distanced himself from identity politics and holds a non-ethnic, secular, and leftist framework.
Bloed, Bodem, Eer en Trouw was a Flemish neo-Nazi group, created in 2004 from a splinter of the Flemish branch of the international Nazi skinhead organization Blood & Honour.
The Arab Peace Initiative, also known as the Saudi Initiative, is a 10 sentence proposal for an end to the Arab–Israeli conflict that was endorsed by the Arab League in 2002 at the Beirut Summit and re-endorsed at the 2007 and at the 2017 Arab League summits. The initiative offers normalisation of relations by the Arab world with Israel, in return for a full withdrawal by Israel from the occupied territories, a "just settlement" of the Palestinian refugee problem based on UN Resolution 194, and the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. The Initiative was initially overshadowed by the Passover massacre, a major Palestinian attack that took place on 27 March 2002, the day before the Initiative was published.
EdHusain is a British author and academic. He is also a professor in the Walsh School of Foreign Service in Georgetown University. As a political advisor he has worked with leaders and governments across the world. He has held senior fellowships at think tanks in London and New York, including at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) at the height of the Arab uprisings (2010–2015). While at CFR, his policy innovation memo led to the US-led creation of a Geneva-based global fund to help counter terrorism. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of the Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering research on terrorism and insurgency.
There have been several videos released showing Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Muslim supporters of Israel refers to both Muslims and cultural Muslims who support the right to self-determination of the Jewish people and the likewise existence of a Jewish homeland in the Southern Levant, traditionally known as the Land of Israel and corresponding to the modern polity known as the State of Israel. Muslim supporters of the Israeli state are widely considered to be a rare phenomenon in light of the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the larger Arab–Israeli conflict. Within the Muslim world, the legitimacy of the State of Israel has been challenged since its inception, and support for Israel's right to exist is a minority orientation. Pro-Israel Muslims have faced opposition from both moderate Muslims and Islamists, with many being subjected to harassment, threats and violence.
Reactions to the September 11 attacks included condemnation from world leaders, other political and religious representatives and the international media, as well as numerous memorials and services all over the world. The attacks were widely condemned by the governments of the world, including those traditionally considered hostile to the United States, such as Cuba, Iran, Libya, and North Korea. However, in a few cases celebrations of the attacks were also reported, and some groups and individuals accused the United States in effect of bringing the attacks on itself. These reports have largely been uncorroborated and many have been linked to unsubstantiated conspiracy theories.
"A New Beginning" is the name of a speech delivered by United States President Barack Obama on 4 June 2009, from the Major Reception Hall at Cairo University in Egypt. Al-Azhar University co-hosted the event. The speech honors a promise Obama made during his 2008 presidential campaign to give a major address to Muslims from a Muslim capital during his first few months as president.
The September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001 were carried out by 19 hijackers of the militant Islamist terrorist organization al-Qaeda. In the 1990s, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden declared a holy war against the United States, and issued two fatāwā in 1996 and 1998. In these fatāwā, bin Laden sharply criticized the financial contributions of the American government to the Saudi royal family as well as American military intervention in the Arab world.
Conspiracy theories are a prevalent feature of Arab culture and politics, according to a 1994 paper in the journal Political Psychology. Prof. Matthew Gray writes they "are a common and popular phenomenon." "Conspiracism is an important phenomenon in understanding Arab Middle Eastern politics ..." Variants include conspiracies involving Western colonialism, Islamic anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, superpowers, oil, and the war on terrorism, which is often referred to in Arab media as a "War against Islam". Roger Cohen theorizes that the popularity of conspiracy theories in the Arab world is "the ultimate refuge of the powerless", and Al-Mumin Said noted the danger of such theories in that they "keep us not only from the truth but also from confronting our faults and problems..." The spread of anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist conspiracism in the Arab world and the Middle East has seen an extraordinary proliferation since the beginning of the Internet Era.
Islamophobia in the United States can be described as the affective feelings of distrust and hostility which some Americans have towards Muslims, Islam, and those persons who adhere to the religion and/or those persons who appear to adhere to it as well as members of groups which are associated with it. In the United States today, there are numerous attempts to mislead Islamic teachings, degrade and slander Islamic groups, and undermine and discredit the faith itself. American Muslims are often racialized and face discrimination due to stereotypes and generalizations ascribed to them. Due to this, Islamophobia is both a product of and a contributor to the United States' racial ideology, which is founded on socially constructed categories of profiled features, or how people seem.
On 7 January 2015, at about 11:30 a.m. CET local time, two French Muslim terrorists and brothers, Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, forced their way into the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Armed with rifles and other weapons, they murdered 12 people and injured 11 others. The gunmen identified themselves as belonging to the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which took responsibility for the attack. Several related attacks followed in the Île-de-France region on 7–9 January 2015, including the Hypercacher kosher supermarket siege, where a terrorist murdered four Jewish people.
