I received this letter by chain email. I thought we might enjoy debating it point by point. My take on it is that it is a thinly veiled call-to-arms for bigots across America. But I’d like to know if anyone here will stand behind it:
This is just racial bigotry and not even thinly veiled. It scares me more that this prick is driving an airplane I might be on more than any muslim I have ever met (assuming it really is a pilot who wrote this).
I thought this country learned something about this sort of thing after tossing Japanese descended American citizens into concentration camps in WWII. Note we didn’t toss German descended or Italian descended Americans in there. The ethnic Japanese were just conveniently easy to spot. I guess it is the Arab/Muslim’s turn now.
TBH…our own, homegrown brand of christian religious extremists worry me more than any Mullah in the United States.
Well, maybe it’s because they don’t consider the terrorists “bretheren.” I don’t think wvery Christian felt an affinity with Timothy McVeigh and thus a need to loudly denounce them. I guess they assumed people would have more sense than to figure that sharing one thing in common with a terrorist made you “bretheren.”
My husband works in a prison. He told me when he came home on the evening of September 11th that some of the inmates cheered, clapped and laughed at the footage of the WTC. Were they Muslim? No-- they were just assholes.
“Gee, all you people look alike. So I guess I’d be better off declaring you guilty until proven innocent.”
I answered “no” to all of the above questions. Nor do I think any of those activities truly designate patriotism.
Sure, I love America. I don’t love THIS guy’s version of it, though-- the kind where patriotism seems to mean buying a $1.99 sticker at Wal-Mart. I’m proud of the America which opens its arms to all faiths, creeds and colors, and of the people who gave their lives so we could live free, not huddled beneath a flag in xenophobic paranoia.
I would like to take ahold of the guy who wrote this dreck and say, “No, asshole, YOU prove it. Prove it by eschewing racism.”
Hmm. I seem to recall them doing just that, but I admit I don’t watch FOX News.
Saw it.
Saw that, too. Funny how that works. I’d like to ask the guy who wrote this e-mail if he’s aware of the WWII internment camps for Japanese people, and if he’s aware of the fact that a significant number of sons of the people in those camps went and fought for the country unjustly detaining their families? Amazing-- you can treat good people like shit, and they’ll still do good stuff.
You know, they used to have this practice in the early-to-mid1900s. If a white woman accused a black man of rape, they’d just round up all the black men and beat or lynch them. Yep, all them a-rabs know each other.
Christ on the crapper, who can blame them for that? If I were faced with similar threats and discrimination, you’re damn tootin’ I’d hire security, and sue the living shit out of anyone who harmed me simply because of my faith.
No, usually they don’t care. What worries them are “advocates” who go to their homes and try to convince their women that they’re oppressed.
I guess this guy never heard of the American Dream, or doesn’t think it applies to anyone who doesn’t pray the same way he does.
Yeah, every Muslim man is a brute with an abused wife, and the kids all have bombs strapped to them.
I must have missed that part in the Constitution.
I don’t know about ya’ll but the writer of this e-mail worries me. What’s particularly saddening is that others are sending this on, nodding their heads in agreement.
Uh… so you help the cause by propogating it here? 
It’s just some 56 year-old idiot sitting in his underwear banging out some silly internet missive and sending it to all 22 of his “friends” on his AOL Buddy List: RightWingNuts. Because the internet is the perfect host for any viral contagion, this one somehow got through to you.
Sounds about right to me. I must be one of the lucky ones…I only get anti-Bush rants from my ‘friends’.
-XT
Although scopes branded it “undetermined” I’ll go out on a limb and declare shenanigans on the letter.
It reads like the typical bogus letter that gets bounced around the planet for years on-end. It sounds even nuttier coming from an airline pilot.
Sheesh, I know for a fact that there are many Muslim Americans serving in the military. They usually don’t care to state their affiliation, but that doesn’t change that they’re there and serving.
I didn’t really think this was seriously in question. Hell, even bigots should know it…there have been muslims in the military (various branches) in the news several times that I recall.
-XT
Unfortunatley, bigots can ignore anything they want to, unless you grab them by the neck and rub their noses in it. Usually for several hours.
Naw, all you have to do is marry their daughters (inside joke). 
-XT
What’s to verify? The letter should stand or fall on it’s own. Who cares whether it’s an airline pilot or a janitor?
Everyone should denounce terrorism. I don’t care if you’re the same ethnic group or religion or whatever as the terrorists. But demanding that certain individuals overexpress that denunciation is just bigotry. There are quite a few Muslims living in the SF bay area. I don’t feel any more danger around them then I do around other group. They may not be out every day denouncing the terrorists, but I don’t see them supporting them, either. That’s all that matters to me.
Why would we feel affinity with a non-Christian? McVeigh was an agnostic.
Regards,
Shodan
A more apt anology for christian extremeism and terrorism might be here. You will find plenty of people who even if they would not ever bomb a clinic themselves that would cheer at the thought of one burning to the ground, or people being scared to go to one because of violent events taking place there.
Why doesn’t the writer tell truthfully who he is? He’s not an American Airlines pilot, and versions of the letter began in 2001 (Snopes).
I’ll dismiss it as bigoted propoganda, with a false air of authority.
McVeigh described himself as an agnostic in a letter shortly before his death.
He did receive the last rites before his death.
Regards,
Shodan
Whoever wrote that is a racist, a religious bigot, and an asshole. He should therefore, by his own standards, be publicly condemning every bad thing that’s ever been done by racists, religious bigots, and assholes.
Some of my best friends are…
oh. forget it.