@thabet1979 took serious issue with my 9-11 tenth anniversary post, commenting:
I have to say I am quite disappointed by this post. It seems you just want to sweep the horrors of the last decade under the carpet, so long as the victims are not American.
I must say, it’s exactly this sort of demand for ritualized condemnation that I had in mind when I wrote the post. Whether it comes from the left or right, the insistence that American Muslims apologize for this or condemn that is a game I won’t play anymore. Especially things that we really have absolutely nothing to do with, and utterly opposed, like terrorism, or the Iraq War.
What the critics really want is for me to condemn an apologize for Islam/America itself and that I will never do, and wear my refusal to do so with pride.
shams, 
Arwi, 
thabet 4:39 am on September 17, 2011 Permalink
I’m not demanding any “apology”, though I know many who would like one.
I’m pointing out there has been no attempt to correct the injustices of the last decade, and now you’d like to sweep all the torture and war and ‘move on’.
Aziz 9:57 am on September 17, 2011 Permalink
OK, you’re not demanding an apology, you’re demanding a condemnation instead.
Really, though, if you draw the conclusion that I don’t care about the policies of the past ten years, or stand by the especially risible accusation about non-Americans, or your persist in your assumption about my attitude towards torture, then either you’ve been reading someone else the past ten years with teh same name, or you’re guilty of a rare lapse of good sense.
I’m not going to defend my position on any of the things you are on about here. But neither will I accept yoru lazy characterization of my views, especially when you should know better. I think you’re as guilty as the Islamophobes here of making unique demands on American muslims.
Basically, you dismissed my earlier affirmation of my citizen identity as a “loyalty test” but now you’re demanding I subscribe to another loyalty test all the same.
Willow 10:14 am on September 17, 2011 Permalink
Aziz, I think you’re being unfair and defensive. For us to say as Americans that it’s time to move on comes off as deeply arrogant, as there are millions of innocents in 2 countries who are still suffering the direct effects of 9/11. It’s not our place to say it’s time to move on, because they are an intrinsic part of this narrative whether it’s convenient to your conscience or not. Only when they are ready to move on will we be able to say so without sounding like brutes. For an American to say it’s time to move on from the fallout of 9/11 is like a white person declaring the end of racism.
Aziz 11:16 am on September 17, 2011 Permalink
Of course I will be defensive, if I’m accused of not caring about deaths of non-Americans.
However, there are two narratives to 9-11, the American one for muslim Americans – which is about Islamophobia, civil rights, and citizenship ideals. The other narrative is a foreign policy one which to be blunt is basically the same narrative as in the 80s under Reagan, in the 90s under Clinton, in the 70s, the 60s, etc. It’s Great Game Geopolitics where wise white men make life and death decisions about lines on a map. I reject the notion that 9-11 was a cause for the foreign policy under Bush, because evidence abounds that the invasion of Iraq was being planned well before September 11, 2001.
I wrote my post as an American Muslim affected by 9-11 which lest we forget, was actually a bad thing that happened right here in America. Am I forbidden from observing the tragedy and impact on my home, just because there were also bad things done by people I didnt support and by policies I advocated against? For failure to Mention, I’m condemned?
Thabet wants me to condemn American policy. I wont play that game, as I said, and thats teh game I am looking forward. (I never used the words “move on”. I dont know how you “move on” from something. Do you “move on” when a parent dies? Do you “move on” from cancer? I don’t know what that entails. I hope I never “move on”.)
But neither will I continually frame my approach to my identity in the false narrative of Islam vs America. I will not play the “you’re with us or against us” game either. I’m proud of being who I am. And i have nothing to apologize for, for my religion or my nation.
This particular critique coming from an English citizen is especially ironic
shams 9:46 am on September 21, 2011 Permalink
oh my habbibi.
it ISAmerica vs. Islam…its always been America vs. Islam….. the GWOT was always a global war on al-Islam.
Its the coming Demographic Singularity.
Arwi 5:46 pm on September 25, 2011 Permalink
it’s time to finally reclaim our confidence and our resolve about who we are as a nation and as a people
In what sense did “we” as a “nation and as a people” lose our confidence and resolve and what would it mean to “reclaim” it?
shams 7:35 am on October 17, 2011 Permalink
“In what sense did “we” as a “nation and as a people” lose our confidence and resolve and what would it mean to “reclaim” it?we have succumbed to paranioa induction.”
and Julian says we are going to become a police state on the way to non-linear system collapse.