* *
* *
After finishing the exams, it was time for the December trip to Saudi Arabia.
As usual, on the flight to Saudi Arabia, the passengers are provided Saudi
customs cards. So, I started to fill one out.
“First Name. Second Name. Third Name. Family Name.” I filled out the
entries.
“Nationality.” Pakistani.
Further along, checkboxes for “Single” and “Married.” Single.
“Religion.” I stopped.
“Religion.” I had mindlessly filled out those forms on countless
occasions.
“Religion.” Why was it so hard to write the same thing I had written so
many times before?
“Religion.” Finally, I wrote down the usual answer: Islam.
The days that followed were unreal.
“The planes were remote controlled by the Americans. That’s why it was
easy for them to be slammed into the buildings.”
“They want to start a war to go after Afghanistan.”
“How could Osama pull off 9/11? He is thousands of kilometers away in
Afghanistan.”
“The US is the superpower, isn’t it? So, how could supposedly 19 Arabs
cause such havoc to such a super country?”
“The US wants to subjugate Muslims.”
That’s just what I heard from my family. The situation was not much
different in the newspapers and magazines. Every time the media mentioned Osama
in a story, the “who is blamed for 9/11 by Washington” was not far behind.
I was reading through a Pakistani magazine where in the letters section was
this gem. “The attacks on 9/11, which we all know were caused by Mossad,...”
It was mind-numbing. The Muslim world simply couldn't agree as to who was behind
the 9/11 attacks when the plain truth was staring them in the face.
Though, what they could all agree on was a sense of uninhibited joy. Whether
it was Americans, Israelis or the tooth fairy that was behind 9/11, they didn't
mind the auspicious atrocity.
My dad told us of a blue Saudi in his office.
“He was distressed because he wanted the twin towers to topple sideways for
more death and carnage.”
I felt sick. The US, just a decade before, had sent half a million of her
finest to save the Saudis from imminent danger. On 9/11, the citadel of the US
was attacked, thousands of innocents were murdered, and the ingrate citizens of
Arabia were delighted.
Many went a step further and defended the "innocent" Muslims of
Afghanistan. Saudi Arabia was one of three countries which not only recognized
the Taliban regime but also sympathized with it. The attack on the pure Islamic
state of Afghanistan was considered an attack on Islam itself.
It seemed that with a few exceptions the entire Muslim world had gone stark
raving mad. Instead of opposing the evil regime of Afghanistan, they openly
supported it. There were women in Pakistan who publicly supported the Taliban.
That made about as much sense as blacks in favor of the KKK. It felt like being
in a lunatic asylum where the US was attacking Muslims and the Taliban were
gentle and sinless creatures.
Many Muslims had supported Saddam against the US, more than a decade before
9/11. Why? Because he's a Muslim! Again, the same horrid logic was being used to
defend the most wretched and wanted man in the world.
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