An Arabic "Je ne regrette rien "

Many self-described moderate Muslims are asking why they should apologise for or collectively condemn the acts of 9/11 because they were not personally involved in the actual attacks? Perhaps I can help. The 9/11 terrorist attack was committed by Muslims, who were provided material support by other Muslims and their dastardly plans were not revealed by family, friends, mosque co-worshippers and co-religionists who were aware of the plot. Even subsequent to the attack, there was not a lot of voluntary help provided to the authorities in tracking down the evil-doers. All of these people justified their behaviour by reference to their faith. It may be an incorrect understanding of what Mohammed prophesized as the message of Allah, but the fact remains that the terrorists and enablers were inspired by his reported message.

The only regret I have ever heard expressed by Arabs, both Muslim and Christian, is that the terrorists’ acts impacted on their lives personally. The first words I heard on the day of 9/11 from a Christian Arab were simply “how could those bastards do this to me?” The bastards had hurt his business because he had just opened up a new store in an airport that day and the attack would affect air travel (in spite of him being told not to open another store by his bank, who were not prepared to continue funding a guy who ignored covenants, diverted funds due to the bank away from them and generated losses whilst paying himself and family large amounts). There was not a word about the deaths of thousands, or the extent of the horror unfolding that day for so many families.

Further reports from everyday Muslims to world class squash players have only ever concentrated on the fact that they now need visas to visit certain countries. Yet there is no profiling allowed as we recently saw from footage at Montreal airport even though the probable ladies were in full burka. I regularly get stopped for additional screening and I presume it is because middle-aged, Caucasian accountants are a big threat group. On one trip to the UK about 3 years ago, 4 male Arabs in big headdresses covering most of their face were allowed to walk through customs before me with a joke and a smile from the customs lady. I thought that Muslim men could uncover their faces without affecting their modesty. On my turn, I was told by the customs lady to remove my baseball cap in a very curt manner as I should not turn up at her desk with a hat on. She was not impressed when I asked her why she just allowed the 4 non-UK citizen gentlemen in front of me to go through without removing their headdresses. I was lucky to get back into my country of birth after that comment.

So, to return directly to the issue of regrets or apologies. If a member of my family or community were to commit a terrible crime, I would denounce the crime and the person. I would be personally embarrassed, and to the extent that I am able, I would apologise to society on behalf of my community and admonish the criminal. I would try to ensure that the criminal would never do such a thing again, nor that their act encourages others to follow. I would not justify their crime nor blame society as a whole for the crime committed against it. Meanwhile, we see an unrepentant ummah and vicious supremacist hate being spread to the next generation of Muslims.