"YOU WORRY ME!" By American Airlines Pilot - Captain John Maniscalco

 

        I've been trying to say this since 9-11, but you worry me. I

        wish you didn't. I wish when I walked down the streets of this

        country that I love, that your color and culture still blended

        with the beautiful human landscape we enjoy in this country.

 

        But you don't blend in anymore. I notice you, and it worries me.

        I notice you because I can't help it anymore. People from your

        homelands, professing to be Muslims, have been attacking and

        killing my fellow citizens and our friends for more than 20

        years now. I don't fully understand their grievances and hate,

        but I know that nothing can justify the inhumanity of their attacks.

 

        On September 11, nineteen ARAB-MUSLIMS hijacked four jetliners

        in my country. They cut the throats of women in front of

        children and brutally stabbed to death others. They took control

        of those planes and crashed them into buildings killing

        thousands of proud fathers, loving sons, wise grandparents,

        elegant daughters, best friends, favorite coaches, fearless

        public servants, and children's mothers.

 

        The Palestinians Celebrated, the Iraqis were overjoyed as was

        most of the Arab world. So, I notice you now. I don't want to be

        worried. I don't want to be consumed by the same rage and hate

        and prejudice that have destroyed the soul of these terrorists.

        But I need your help. As a rational American, trying to protect

        my country and family in an irrational and unsafe world, I must

        know how to tell the difference between you, and the Arab/Muslim

        terrorist.

 

        How do I differentiate between the true Arab / Muslim-Americans

        and the Arab Muslim terrorists in our communities who are

        attending our schools, enjoying our parks, and living in OUR

        communities under the protection of OUR constitution, while they

        plot the next attack that will slaughter these same good

        neighbors and children?

 

        The events of September 11th changed the answer. It is not my

        responsibility to determine which of you embraces our great

        country, with ALL of its religions, with ALL of its different

        citizens, with all of its faults. It is time for every

        Arab/Muslim in this country to determine it for me.

 

        I want to know, I demand to know, and I have a right to know,

        whether or not you love America? Do you pledge allegiance to its

        flag? Do you proudly display it in front of your house, or on

        your car? Do you pray in your many daily prayers that Allah

        will bless this nation, that He will protect and prosper it? Or

        do you pray that Allah will destroy it in one of your Jihads?

        Are you thankful for the freedom that only this nation affords?

        A freedom that was paid for by the blood of hundreds of

        thousands of patriots who gave their lives for this country? Are

        you willing to preserve this freedom by also paying the ultimate

        sacrifice? Do you love America?

 

        If this is your commitment, then I need YOU to start letting ME

        know about it.

        Your Muslim leaders in this nation should be flooding the media

        at this time with hard facts on your faith, and what hard

        actions you are taking as a community and as a religion to

        protect the United States of America .

 

        Please, no more benign overtures of regret for the death of the

        innocent because I worry about who you regard as innocent. No

        more benign overtures of condemnation for the unprovoked attacks

        because I worry about what is unprovoked to you. I am not

        interested in any more sympathy. I am only interested in action.

 

        What will you do for America - our great country - at this time

        of crisis, at this time of war?

 

        I want to see Arab-Muslims waving the AMERICAN flag in the

        streets. I want to hear you chanting "Allah Bless America " I

        want to see young Arab/Muslim men enlisting in the military. I

        want to see a commitment of money, time, and emotion to the victims

          of this butchering and to this nation as a whole.

 

        The FBI has a list of over 400 people they want to talk to

        regarding the WTC attack. Many of these people live and

        socialize right now in Muslim communities. You know them. You

        know where they are. Hand them over to us, now! But I have seen

        little even approaching this sort of action. Instead I have seen

        an already closed and secretive community close even tighter.

        You have disappeared from the streets. You have posted armed

        security guards at your facilities. You have threatened

        lawsuits. You have screamed for protection from reprisals. The

        very few Arab/Muslim representatives that HAVE appeared in the

        media were defensive and equivocating.

 

        They seemed more concerned with making sure that the United

        States proves who was responsible before taking action. They

        seemed more concerned with protecting their fellow Muslims from

        violence directed towards them in the United States and abroad

        than they did with supporting our country and denouncing

        "leaders" like Khadafi, Hussein, Farrakhan, and Arafat.

 

        If the true teachings of Islam proclaim tolerance and peace and

        love for all people, then I want chapter and verse from the

        Koran and statements from popular Muslim leaders to back it up.

        What good is it if the teachings in the Koran are good, and

        pure, and true, when your "leaders" are teaching fanatical

        interpretations, terrorism, and intolerance?

 

        It matters little how good Islam SHOULD BE if huge numbers of

        the world's Muslims interpret the teachings of Mohammed

        incorrectly and adhere to a degenerative form of the religion. A

        form that has been demonstrated to us over and over again. A

        form whose structure is built upon a foundation of violence,

        death, and suicide. A form whose members are recruited from the

        prisons around the world. A form whose members (some as young as

        five years old) are seen day after day, week in and week out,

        year after a year, marching in the streets around the world,

        burning effigies of our presidents, burning the American flag,

        shooting weapons into the air. A form whose members convert from

        a peaceful religion, only to take up arms against the great

        United States of America< /SPAN> , the country of their birth. A

        form whose rules are so twisted, that their traveling members

        refuse to show their faces at airport security checkpoints, in

        the name of Islam.

 

        We will NEVER allow the attacks of September 11, or any others

        for that matter, to take away that which is so precious to us:

        Our rights under the greatest constitution in the world.

 

        I want to know where every Arab Muslim in this country stands

        and I think it is my right and the right of every true citizen

        of this country to demand it. A right paid for by the blood of

        thousands of my brothers and sisters who died protecting the

        very constitution that is protecting you and your family. I am

        pleading with you to let me know.

 

        I want you here as my brother, my neighbor, my friend, as a

        fellow American.

 

        But there can be no gray areas or ambivalence regarding your

        allegiance and it is up to YOU, to show ME, where YOU stand.

        Until then. "YOU WORRY ME!"