Allahu Akbar and Ho Ho Ho
By Daniel Greenfield
SultanKnish.Blogspot.com
"A flag bearing a crescent and star flies from a flagpole in front of the World Trade Center, next to a Christmas tree and a menorah."
New York Times, 1997
In 1997, Mohammed T. Mehdi, the head of the
Arab-American Committee and the National Council
on Islamic Affairs, lobbied to have a crescent
and star
put up at the World Trade Center during the
holiday season. His wish was granted, despite
the fact that he had been an adviser to Sheik
Omar Abdel-Rahman also known as the Blind
Sheikh.
In the name of diversity and political
correctness, an adviser to the religious leader
behind the World Trade Center bombing, was
allowed to plant an Islamic symbol of conquest
in the very place that had been bombed.
Long before the Ground Zero Mosque was even a
twinkle in the eye of a
violent ex-waiter and a
slumlord Imam, the World Trade Center
allowed Mohammed T. Mehdi to bully it into
flying the symbol of Islam.
By 1997, Mohammed T. Mehdi had become an
unambiguously ugly public figure. He had been
fired by Mayor Dinkins in 1992 for anti-Semitic
remarks. The year before he had proclaimed that,
"Millions of Arabs believe Saddam stands tall
having defied Western colonialism".
In 1995, the US Attorney's Office in New York
had listed Mehdi as an
unindicted co-conspirator in the trial of
Sheikh Rahman. Mehdi had already published a
book titled "Kennedy and Sirhan: Why?", which
contended that Robert Kennedy's assassin had
been
acting in self-defense.
Because of Mehdi's role in
actively working on behalf of the Sheikh
behind the wave of terrorism that included the
original attack on the World Trade Center,
turning down his request should have been a
no-brainer. Instead in the winter of 1997 there
was an Islamic star and crescent at the World
Trade Center. And another one at the park in
front of the White House.
Four years before the September 11 attacks; both
targets had already been marked.
The previous year had marked the first annual Ramadan dinner at the State Department, integrating the Islamic celebration into the Clinton Administration's schedule of events. Bill Clinton had not visited the World Trade Center after the bombing, but he did make time for Ramadan.
A month after 9/11, Bush went Clinton one better when he became the first president to host a Ramadan dinner at the White House. Many of the Muslim ambassadors at the event were representing countries that helped finance Al Qaeda. Little more than a month after September 11, the President of the United States sat down to break bread with the money men behind the attacks.
The Star and Crescent flying at the World Trade
Center did not prevent it from being targeted in
a second greater attack four years later. Nor
did the Ramadan dinners keep the plane headed
for the White House at bay. It took the
self-sacrifice of its American passengers to do
that. Instead every gesture of appeasement only
seemed to make it worse.
Before the star and crescent flew at the World
Trade Center, the site suffered only a few dead.
After it, thousands dead. The more Ramadan
dinners Bush hosted, the more Americans died,
because the Star and Crescent and the Ramadan
dinners both expressed a deliberate blindness to
the threat of Islamic terrorism.
No one who understood what had happened at the
World Trade Center in 1993, would have permitted
a banner associated with its attackers to be
flown there. But while the Port Authority of New
York and New Jersey, let Mehdi have his way with
the World Trade Center, other Muslims were
working to carry out Sheikh Abdel-Rahman's
agenda for a war on America and the free world.
"Cut the transportation of their countries," the
blind Sheik had commanded, "tear it apart,
destroy their economy, burn their companies,
eliminate their interests, sink their ships,
shoot down their planes, kill them on the sea,
air, or land."
While the Star and Crescent was blowing in
the cold December wind coming off the Hudson
River, an even colder wind was blowing out of
Hamburg, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. A year
earlier Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had come up with
the idea and presented it to Osama bin Laden. A
year later the operation began to move forward.
While Secretary of State Albright was holding
her Ramadan dinners, other Ramadan dinners were
being held out of sight at which more
substantive events were being discussed.
While the US was busy bombing Yugoslavian
civilians in order to create a separatist Muslim
state for KLA terrorists; Osama bin Laden and
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed were recruiting the first
of the 9/11 hijackers. While the United States
tried to appease Muslims, Muslims plotted to
murder Americans.
In 1997, the New York Daily News wrote an upbeat
story about Mehdi's Star and Crescent, which
envisioned Islam
blending merrily into the holiday season.
New York may seem a little brighter this holiday season as the glowing Muslim crescent and star symbol nudges its way onto a seasonal landscape of Christmas trees, menorahs and Kwanzaa candles.
Watch out, ho, ho, ho-ing Santas you might get drowned out by cheery folks yelling, "Allahu akbar!"
Four years later, cheery folks yelling "Allahu Akbar" had filled downtown Manhattan with ashen snow and brightened it with the flames of the burning towers of the World Trade Center.
The 9/11 hijackers left behind notes which
said among other things, "Shout, 'Allahu Akbar,'
because this strikes fear in the hearts of the
non-believers".
If there were any Santas on those planes, they
were certainly drowned out by the cries of
"Allah Akbar". And if that didn't drown them
out, having their throats being slit by the
cheery folks with box cutters surely did.
On the Christmas of 2001, New York City was a
city with an open wound. Muslims had finally
made their impact on the holiday season in a
truly unforgettable way. At Ground Zero, workers
were still searching through the remains,
looking for bodies or parts of them.
"It would be like a gift for somebody," a police
officer said, who was spending his holiday
searching through the debris. A gift for the
infidels from Islam.
While Muslims were stuffing their faces in
November of 2001, Americans were mourning their
dead. While Abdul, Mohammed and Raisa were
picking through their lamb stew, Americans were
picking up the pieces of their loved ones. But
it was they who were told to be sensitive to
Muslim concerns.
From Pakistan, Musharraf urged the US to
suspend bombing his Taliban allies during
Ramadan. In the name of sensitivity. New York
City schools were
making arrangements for Muslim prayers out
of "heightened sensitivity to Muslim concerns
after the Sept. 11 attack". Instead of Americans
being on the receiving end of "heightened
sensitivity", the ideology that had conspired to
murder them was.
On the 9th anniversary of 9/11, Islam had
another gift for New Yorkers. Having bought up a
building damaged in their own attack, they
plotted to set up a grand mosque near Ground
Zero. Another gift to New Yorkers from the
religion that kept on giving. Another Crescent
and Star.
The same people who did not learn the lesson in
1997, and allowed the Crescent and Star to fly
at the World Trade Center, were eager to let the
Ground Zero Mosque go forward in the name of
tolerance. But despite the Crescent and Star,
appeasement proved to be no defense.
3,000 died on 9/11 because American leaders
preferred to appease, rather than confront. And
we are still busy appeasing, like never before.