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Islamic internet polemicist Osama Abdallah, web master of the Answering Christianity site, has become one of many Muslims on the net attempting to pin the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001 on the monolithic "Zionists." In his humorous, yet disgusting, article 4000 Jews didn't show up to work at the World Trade Center Building on 9/11/2001, Mr. Abdallah opens with the following (in his mind) rhetorical questions:
Could it be that the so called "deep penetration" of the US intelligence done by the so called "Terrorists" is all nothing but a big Jewish Zionist hoax?! Could it be that since the Zionist organization is strong world wide, that they have their grip held strong on the US intelligence, which enabled them to fool every one and to bomb the US under the name of Islam?!
[...] "The "reported absence" of Jewish fatalities suggests that "word had come down to them through some mysterious grapevine simply telling them not to go to work that day,"� (Israel painted as villain, by James Cox, Chicago Sun-Times, Sunday, September 30, 2001, page 6A)"
From Cairo to Kuwait and Damascus to Dushanbe, Muslims have singled out the Jewish state as the unseen hand behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that felled the World Trade Center towers, ripped a fiery gash in the Pentagon and shook the American psyche. In casual conversations, newspapers and Internet chat rooms, many in the Muslim world are endlessly chewing over and recycling unsubstantiated rumors that implicate Israel. They're saying, for example, that: * Four thousand Jews who worked at
the World Trade Center were mysteriously absent the day hijackers crashed
two airliners into the towers.
[...] Conspiracy theories have been ubiquitous in the Middle East and Central Asia for centuries. Wherever there are conflicts, enemies conjure up complicated scenarios blaming each other for evil deeds. Israel is a frequent villain. This month's attacks spurred conspiracy talk outside the Muslim world as well. Immediately after the attacks on New York and Washington, there were rumors in the USA that hundreds of Arab-Americans in New York had been warned and didn't go to work in Manhattan that day. [...] Within days of the attacks, rumors of Jewish involvement had sped from the Arab countries of North Africa and the Middle East to Muslim nations of Central and South Asia, even reaching the world's most populous Muslim country, Indonesia in the South Pacific. But Muslims in the USA clearly are generating much of the anti-Israeli vitriol on the Internet, says Rasul Bakhsh Rais, an economist at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad. "I'm getting these e-mails every day. Who are these people? I never gave them my e-mail address," he says, scrolling through the electronic bile. [...] An op-ed piece in the same edition repeated the rumor that 4,000 Jews escaped harm on Sept. 11. It quoted a Canadian "intelligence expert" as saying that U.S. intelligence agencies have found "links" between the attacks and the Mossad. The "reported absence" of Jewish fatalities
suggests "word had come down to them through some mysterious grapevine
simply telling them not to go to work that day," wrote Kaleem Omar, a commentator
for Pakistan's The News, a daily.
In a country of 141 million, it would suggest that millions subscribe to the most widely heard canard that also has spread across the Arab world and beyond: that 4,000 Jews, forewarned, stayed away from the World Trade Center on the day of the attacks and were spared. [...] Rumors that would be dismissed out of hand in a better-informed society have been wholeheartedly embraced by Pakistan's tabloid press and even by some semi-respectable newspapers. The stories then have been amplified by word of mouth until they have become in some cases accepted "truths." "When a news item is published in the paper about the disappearance of 4,000 Jews from their jobs that day, America should not ignore that," argued shopkeeper Mohammed Iqbal, 53, when told that the stories he had heard were not true. "I trust the newspaper. The newspeople are very intelligent, and if they are giving the story, it must be true." "Most of the people believe these stories because our major problem is illiteracy," said Mohammed Omar, 27, a finance manager for a Dutch consulting business here. "If anyone told them that fact, they believe it." That being said, it should be noted that this silly conspiracy theory
first hit the net on September 17th, only six days after the attack. At
that point there was still mass confusion as to the exact number of missing.
To this day, it is still quite difficult to determine who showed up for
work that day and who did not (did 4,000 blank punch-in sheets survive
the wreckage?). The rumor seems to find its origin with al-Manar
Television, which quoted some anonymous "Arab diplomatic sources."
Again, one wonders how these anonymous Arab diplomats got hold of the count
of Jews/Israelis absent for work that day.
That being said, can we use Osama's name game to make a mockery of his blame game? If there were Jews who died in the World Trade Center, could we find them by their name? If such Jewish names do turn up, can we ask why these "Zionists" were not notified by the rest of the monolithic Jewish community that stayed home on September 11th? Why didn't Mossad notify Michelle Goldstein, Monica Goldstein, or the countless other Jews who died on that tragic day?
If Osama's pogrom-inducing polemic were true, it would mean that the Israeli government had the phone numbers of 4,000 Jews, and called each one up telling them to stay home. "Hello Sol? Yeah, this is Mossad. We just wanted to let you know that we're about to destroy the twin towers and blame it on Ishmael, so don't go to work tommorrow." How is it that 4,000 people could be warned, and yet none of these "Zionists" told anyone? Hatred usually comes from ignorance, and only an ignorant person would believe that the Jewish community in New York is so isolated that such a warning could stay contained within their community (or any other community for that matter!). Finally, to clear up this whole "4,000 Jews" mess, let it be known that on the day of the attack certain concerned Israeli media outlets noted that it was believed that close to four thousand Israelis worked in New York city. This was a rough estimate, and nothing more. Unfortunately, within days certain Media outlets took that number and ran with it, putting the Israelis all in the World Trade Center, and claiming none of them showed up for work. No evidence has ever been cited, but those who are filled with nazi-like hatred for the group they consider to be the Banu Khanaazeer seem to have believed this absurd tale nonetheless. |
