September 11 and its devastating effects

The 14th anniversary of the September 11 attack on the United States was mourned this week by many Americans in the world who remember the 3,000 victims. But Muslims should mourn it even more since it led to catastrophic retaliation.

More than one million Muslims were killed in Afghanistan and nearly one million and a half in Iraq. The two countries were militarily occupied by the American forces, their economic infrastructure demolished, the populations starved and their national resources wasted.

But the worst outcome was the creation of Daesh, which was a natural offspring of the sectarian policies of new Iraqi decision makers.

I was surprised to read recently some French authors explaining that the whole attack was part of a conspiracy, that the Arabs had no role whatsoever in it, and that there were some ulterior sinister motives.

The September 11 attacks on the twin towers in New York need to be better researched and investigated by the Arabs, since the damage done to the image of Islam in the United States and Europe outweighs that inflicted on innocent Americans that day. 

Professor James Shaheen of Chicago University sent me answers to some of the questions I asked him. 

One of the most prevalent and unanswered issues is that Al Qaeda was not responsible for the September 11 attacks.

Al Qaeda leaders, including Osama Bin Laden, repeatedly confirmed that they planned and carried out the September 11 attacks. In an audiotape released on May 23, 2006, Bin Laden stated: “I was responsible for entrusting the 19 brothers… with those raids…”

In a November 2001 tape, Bin Laden said: “We calculated in advance the number of casualties… who would be killed... I was the most optimistic of them all… due to my experience in this field, I was thinking that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and all the floors above.”

Another unanswered issue is that of the 4,000 Jews who allegedly failed to show up for work at the World Trade Centre on September 11.

It appears from media reports that some 10-15 per cent of WTC victims were Jewish, indicating there were no mass absences. 

The “4,000” figure apparently came from an early statement by the Israeli foreign ministry that some “4,000 Israelis” were believed to have been in the New York and Washington areas where the attacks occurred.

The conclusion is that Al Qaeda actions boomeranged and culminated in the death of two- and-a-half million Iraqis and Afghans.