Dhimmitude of the US

Unfortunately, the US is celebrating the opening of a $16 million Arab-American Museum in Michigan. If you scroll down, you will notice an Arab World Map. Interesting, that Israel seems to have been designated as Arab. I am sure, that the museum will record the complicity of Arabs in the destruction of several office towers and the murder of several thousand workers in New York on September 11, 2001. Oops, no....it seems they are complaining about the violation of their rights after the attack.

Right now 9/11 is the subject of just a single panel at the museum, on which is reproduced a November 2001 letter from a United States attorney in Michigan, requesting that the recipient come in for an interview, emphasizing that while "we have no reason to believe" the recipient has any association with terrorist activities, some information might turn out to be helpful. The museum comments that after 9/11 "Arab Americans were unfairly held responsible, yet not a single Arab American was found guilty of any connection to September 11th."

But how were Arab-Americans "unfairly held responsible" for 9/11, except by bigots? Some unfairness undoubtedly manifested itself in the quest for information, but who held Arab-Americans responsible as a group? The second assertion is also phrased so narrowly that it misses the point: some Arab-Americans have indeed been found guilty of financing terrorism, and reasonable doubts have been raised about some others.

Think of the NYTimes reporting of this museum as you will.

Dhimmitude of the US

Unfortunately, the US is celebrating the opening of a $16 million Arab-American Museum in Michigan. If you scroll down, you will notice an Arab World Map. Interesting, that Israel seems to have been designated as Arab. I am sure, that the museum will record the complicity of Arabs in the destruction of several office towers and the murder of several thousand workers in New York on September 11, 2001. Oops, no....it seems they are complaining about the violation of their rights after the attack.

Right now 9/11 is the subject of just a single panel at the museum, on which is reproduced a November 2001 letter from a United States attorney in Michigan, requesting that the recipient come in for an interview, emphasizing that while "we have no reason to believe" the recipient has any association with terrorist activities, some information might turn out to be helpful. The museum comments that after 9/11 "Arab Americans were unfairly held responsible, yet not a single Arab American was found guilty of any connection to September 11th."

But how were Arab-Americans "unfairly held responsible" for 9/11, except by bigots? Some unfairness undoubtedly manifested itself in the quest for information, but who held Arab-Americans responsible as a group? The second assertion is also phrased so narrowly that it misses the point: some Arab-Americans have indeed been found guilty of financing terrorism, and reasonable doubts have been raised about some others.

Think of the NYTimes reporting of this museum as you will.