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Immoral few are at heart of hurtBy JAMAL THALJI
© St. Petersburg Times, I do not know how to properly express how I feel. Overwhelmed. Confused. Depressed. And one more thing. I feel responsible. We don't know exactly who carried out Tuesday's attacks. But the likely culprits are from the Middle East -- the same place my parents came from. You see, I am an American of Palestinian descent. As a child, my parents taught me the tenets of the Muslim religion. But what I know of the Islamic faith, at its best peaceful and tolerant, has nothing to do with Tuesday. I have worked in Pasco County for four years, and neither here nor anywhere else in America has my ethnicity been an issue other than curiosity of my name. Oh, I've heard the jokes, of course, about "towel heads" and "terrorists," but all were made in jest by friends. I never minded, and always returned ethnic jokes in kind. Here, I live the life of the typical American male, consumed by football, material gain and my career, in selfish pursuit of the pleasures and distractions this peaceful land affords us. I once thought I could live apart from the tragedies of the Middle East. But experience has taught me that what happens there affects me here. Before, it was personal: my family and their friends. Now, it affects all of us. Thus, I feel a sense of responsibility. Because I could have done more. I could have done more to help make the Middle East a better place. But I didn't, and now I see how badly I have failed, and the world has failed, the people of the Arab world. There are no true democracies in the Middle East. No respect for everyday life and dignity. No semblance of human rights. No freedom of speech, of assembly, of thought. Economic prosperity is enjoyed by a lucky few; the rest are at the mercies of corrupt, brutal, incompetent and ignorant regimes. The lives of Arabs, of Israelis, of Muslims, Jews and Christians, of everybody, are taken all too cheaply in the Middle East. Which is why an immoral few have no qualms about taking the lives of tens of thousands of Americans. In this time of dangerous uncertainty, I know today that I am fortunate to be alive. But then, my good fortune started at birth, when my parents emigrated separately and met in Chicago more than three decades ago. Thus I was born in Champaign, Ill., and not in a Middle Eastern refugee camp. Which is why I feel responsible. It could have been me over there. I have no doubt that the overwhelmingly vast majority of Arabs and Muslims living across the world live peaceful lives. I don't doubt that they condemn this murderous tragedy as fervently and as freely as I do, and that they should not be singled out in any way. But then, it only takes a handful to hurt us all, and they have. Time and again, they have hurt us all. Make no mistake. I believe the Palestinian cause is legitimate, often fought by the illegitimate using immoral means. I don't want to see anyone kill or be killed for this cause or any other cause. As a Palestinian, I do not believe the cause should suffer because of Tuesday's attacks. But no longer can I, or anyone else who cares about the Middle East, stand silently by while Islamic extremists seize the minds and hearts of the hopeless and the powerless in the Arab world. No longer can we just watch while extremists wage a meaningless, senseless and ineffective war of terror against Israelis and Jews, against Arabs and Muslims, against Americans and against people the world over. It is in no way a revelation to me that their way always was and always will be the wrong way. It is no revelation to me that their cowardly war has produced no victories, just death. It is no revelation to me that their war has not improved the tragic lot of the Arab world. It is no revelation to me that those who care so little for the lives of others have no compunction about murdering their own as well. I have no answers or explanations for you. Just my unending remorse. I cannot explain the mindset of those who murder so freely and with such conviction. I cannot explain what has reduced people to such a state that they care little for their own lives, and even less for others they have never known. All I can say is that I have never shared such violent and immoral enmity, neither does my family, and neither does any other Arab or Muslim I have met. Before, I never would have had to write that. Maybe I shouldn't have to at all. But before Tuesday, we all lived in a different world. I want to make a better one. I hope I am not alone.
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