PrintSeptember 11, 2007
Remembering the Unforgettable
It is said that "powerlessness frustrates and absolute powerlessness frustrates absolutely; absolute frustration is a dangerous emotion to run a world with."
Sometimes I wonder why I am so restless, why I cannot cease thinking! It seems like the world we live in reveals to us incessantly, at certain moments or in certain circumstances, just how little we are and how vast the universe is. This world of ours is a very complex world. The world we live in is a world of many brutal voices. It is a world of heavy blows and delirious trances, but it is the only world that we know.
As Americans remember and honor the victims of the Islamic terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, life reminds us all how vulnerable we really are. On that day, the world we live in appeared an obscure and dull place, filled with pockets of disasters where men are easily the victims.
The tragic and catastrophic events of September 11, 2001 affected me tremendously. I felt a temptation to scream and run to the end of the world and say my prayers with unusual earnestness and a heavy heart. I felt like screaming for the overflowing flood of human blood. I felt like screaming for the weary eyes and innocent moans of the victims' families. I felt apprehensive, anxious, and fearful. And now, as I take up my pen, my hand trembles and my head swims with horror and disbelief at the magnitude of the human devastation. Yet, the world will go on as usual.
During the events of September 11, 2001, Americans stood still and watched the most horrific events unfolding right in front of their eyes. They were traumatized by the events. Many people came and told the reporters of how they saw the flesh on dead people and they were so scared. Americans watched, prayed and hoped, searching for an answer, a comfort and strength to pass those tumultuous moments. September 11, 2001 proved, unlike anything else in recent American history, that everyday people do extraordinary caring things. September11 was the day that ordinary people became heroes. Heroes appear when circumstances call upon them. Heroes are those extraordinary people who make sacrifices and become agents of historical and social change.
When disasters occur, our minds pass through many stages of inner development. We sometimes speak of other forces that rule the world. The tragic event of September 11 left thousands dead and hundreds more wounded and plunged a nation into mourning. It was a heavy blow to humanity from the "religion of peace."
There is nothing inherently wrong with religion. Religion can be a tremendous force for good. However, when religion, this feeling-based belief, is filled with superstition, intolerance and hatred, then the beholder of that religion embodies those qualities and becomes a veritable menace to the self and to others. Feelings energize actions. Destructive feelings energize destructive actions.
Muslims living in theocratic states, in particular, tend to be victims of their religious brains. Their religious brains are indoctrinated, from the moment of birth, by an extensive ruthless in-power cadre of self-serving mullahs and imams who are intent on maintaining their stranglehold on the rank and file of the faithful-their very source of support and livelihood.
The mullahs and imams, as well as parents and others, envelop the receptive mind, feed it their dogma, and shield it from information that may undermine or falsify their version of belief.
For as long as there are bigoted, self-serving clergy and their collaborators with exclusive access to the blank slate of innocent children, the problem of supplying wave after wave of Islamofascists will persist. It is the brain/mind that assesses things, makes decisions, and orders actions. To the extent that the in-place software of the religious brain is exclusionary in nature, hateful in orientation, and violent in tendency, the individual is both the perpetrator and the victim of barbaric acts.
For as long as there are bigoted, self-serving clergy and their collaborators with exclusive access to the blank slate of innocent children, the problem of supplying wave after wave of Islamofascists will persist. It is the brain/mind that assesses things, makes decisions, and orders actions. To the extent that the in-place software of the religious brain is exclusionary in nature, hateful in orientation, and violent in tendency, the individual is both the perpetrator and the victim of barbaric acts.
What we need to do is to learn our lessons from the September 11 tragedy; learn more of the unethical depths to which human beings may fall and how we can prevent such tragedies from happening again. We need to educate ourselves about Islam, radical Islam and Islamofascism.
The surest way of dealing with Islamofascism is through the effective inculcation of religious software that promotes tolerance of diversity, freedom of faith and conscious goodwill to all, as well as the purging of all the vile and discriminatory dogma that permeates the out-dated primitive belief of some 1400 years. The best place to start is clearly the home, then schools, and mosques where the deeply-entrenched mullahs and imams of vested interest must be compelled by law to refrain from preaching messages of hate and violence against the unbelievers.
We, free Iranian-Americans, express our deepest sympathy to the families of the victims of the September 11 tragedy and we condemn, in the strongest terms, the new coalition of Islamofascists who are planning another attack on US soil under the disgusting and dangerous banner of Islamofascism.
Amil Imani is an Iranian-born American citizen and pro-democracy activist residing in the United States of America. He maintains a website at Amil Imani
