Come on Mr.Pipes - Don't mislead us.

Submitted by Jimmy (United States), May 14, 2007 at 02:49

Mr Pipes:

I don't mind you having a voice and putting your opinion out in the public sphere. In fact, it's great. Keep it up.

What isn't great, especially when you complain about a lack of balance or fairness or bias or however you view it, is how you misrepresent the following.

You say:

Second, Almontaser denies that Arab Muslims carried out the 9/11 atrocities, telling sixth-graders she taught: "I don't recognize the people who committed the attacks as either Arabs or Muslims."

The actual article says:

"Almontaser's responses to the children's concerns were always clear. "I don't recognize the people who committed the attacks as either Arabs or Muslims," she told them. "Those people who did it have stolen my identity as an Arab and have stolen my religion."

Come on Mr. Pipes . . . . She does NOT deny "that Arab Muslims carried out the 9/11 atrocities" but says that they blotted out her sense of identity. You imply some more evil scheme is at play. Hannah Arendt spoke about how evils committed by her own people grieve her own heart more than evils committed upon her people. When I see Americans committing terrible atrocities, it is difficult because it cuts against the America I know and love. Granted, Ms. Alomotaser is a tad dramatic about it - but the Arab Muslims I know all say that the crazy, evil, Arab Muslims who carried out the 9/11 attacks aren't the Arab Muslims they know or see themselves as.

Again, it's cool to disagree with people based upon the merits of their argument. Plenty of people you are opposed to say absurd things that ought to be called out and attacked as 1. Inaccurate 2. Illogical 3. Or both.

HOWEVER. It is uncool and perhaps dishonest to present half-arguments framed as conspiracy theories when they are nothing of the sort.

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