DIscussion of our perfect national unity on 9/11 make me crazy. I was at work on 9/11 and at work every day or just about thereafter, and while the TV news was covering heroic efforts to save the dying and recover the dead or sweet stuff about schoolkids writing letters to firefighters, all we were writing about wasthis kind of stuff:
On the afternoon of Saturday, 2001-SEP-15, a gunman killed the 49 year old owner of a gas station in Mesa, AZ. He was a Sikh. His family believes that he was killed because he “looked Middle Eastern.” Additional shots were fired at a Lebanese clerk and at the home of an Afghan family.
On the evening of Saturday, 2001-SEP-15, a gunman killed a Pakistani Muslim store owner in Dallas, TX.
Adel Karas, 48, an Egyptian-American grocer was shot and killed near his International Market store in San Gabriel, CA. He was a Copt — neither Muslim nor Arab. No money was taken. Police are investigating the murder as a possible hate crime.
A man drove his car through the front entrance of Parma Mosque in Cleveland OH.
Also on Saturday, a Christian of Egyptian origin was shot dead in California.
Near Chicago, IL, there was a march in which about 300 anti-Arab youths waved flags, shouted “USA, USA,” and attempted to march on a mosque in Bridgeview, IL — a suburb southwest of Chicago. Colin Zaremba, 19, said: “I’m proud to be American and I hate Arabs and I always have.” Three demonstrators were arrested.
In Chicago, a Molotov cocktail was thrown t an Arab-American community center. There were no injuries and little damage.
In Huntington, NY, Adam Lang, reportedly a drunken driver, 75, allegedly tried to kill a Pakistani woman with his car. He later followed the woman into a store and threatened to kill her for “destroying my country.”
In Gary, IN, a man wearing a mask pumped over 20 bullets from a high-powered assault rifle at a Muslim, Hassan Awdah. He survived. Hassan is a U.S. citizen, born in Yemen.
In Lynnwood, WA, a mosque was vandalized.
In Suffolk County, NY, a man allegedly made anti-Arab threats and pointed a handgun at the employee of a gas station. He was arrested.
In a prison in Washington state, two inmates fought over an anti-Muslim slur.
A gasoline bomb was thrown into the home of a Sikh family in California.
Two mosques were firebombed with Molotov cocktails during the weekend of OCT-20-21. They are located in Burlington and Mississauga, near Toronto ON Canada. Kendrich House, 35, from Oakville ON has allegedly been charged.
Yeah, Glenn Beck, let’s totally go back to the people we were immediately after 9/11. Let’s paint our bare chests red, white and blue and go beat the shit out of some brown people. Which ones? Doesn’t really matter. What matters is that we’re united as a country.
A.