Truth About September 11: Peace Now

By Adam Azeez

Let us get away from spending our energy and resources toward killing each other and creating hell here. We can convert this hell into heaven. Fortunately, the job is not as big as it seems. We do not have to make it beautiful. It already is. The only thing we have to do is to take time off our biases and hatred and look around with open eyes. We have to remove all layers of biases covering our eyes, and we will be able to see a picture we have never seen before. We will be able to see colors we have not seen before. There is beauty in the greens, in scenes, in lakes, in gardens and parks, in mountains, in seas, and in rivers. Imagine a lake surrounded by beautiful mountains and a full moon spreading milky moonlight all around. How magical it can be. We do not have to go to another world to experience this. Scenes like this exist in our planet, and there are thousands of them. If only we instill a desire in us to pay attention. There is beauty in peoplegood people, generous people, nice people, helpful people. These are people who look toward you with respect and love, the people who sacrifice their possessions to give happiness to others. There is beauty in smiles of small children and young kids and giggles of teenage girls. There is beauty in sitting together, talking to each other with no ill will, knowing that we all respect each other, love each other, and care for each other. There is beauty and pleasure all around us. Let us start paying attention to it and start enjoying it. Before we do that, we have to stop taking other peoples rights. That is what has caused all the problems to start with.

This new world will be a lot better than what we have now.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 26, 2009
• ISBN: 9781453565872

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Copyright © 2009 by Adam Azeez.

Library of Congress Control Number:  2009904162

ISBN:  Hardcover  978-1-4415-3252-7

ISBN:  Softcover  978-1-4415-3251-0

ISBN:  Ebook  978-1-4535-6587-2

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

WHY

Background

I       Preface

II       Introduction

III       September 11th

IV       Muslims of Today

WHAT HAPPENED

Causes of Terorism

I.       Inherited Hatred

II.       Hypocritical U.S. Foreign Policy

III.       Iran

IV.       India Versus Pakistan

V.       Kashmir

VI.       The Palestinian Problem

VII.       Interference in the Internal Affairs of The Muslim Countries

VIII.       Iraq

IX.       Lies, Lies, and More Lies

X.       The Role of the Press

XI.       The Role of Religion

WHAT NOW

Hope for the Future

I.       Anatomy of an International Conflict

II.       How to Eradicate Terrorism

III.       Culture of War

IV.       Culture of Peace

V.       Peace Movement

SOME OTHER THOUGHTS

I.       On the Constitution and Legislative Matters

II.       On President Obama

III.       On the United Nations

ME

I.       My Childhood

II.       Government College, Lahore

III.       National Refinery, Karachi

IV.       Coming to America

V.       My Marriage

VI.       Me

CONCLUSION

No More Wars

To my daughter, Kiran.

She is 23.

My hope is that she and the American children of her generation will be able to live their lives with freedom from fear that their blood someday might flow in the streets of Baghdad, Tehran, or somewhere else.

If the Americans want to avoid another 9/11, they need to know the actual reasons about why it happened. They need to see through the nonsense and lies that our Press and the politicians have been giving us since World War II.

If you are young or have young children, you need to read this book. Otherwise, the loss of your life or your child’s life could be only one blunder away by some dumb politician.

We need to take a step in the direction of peace and prosperity in the world. And we need to do it NOW.

This book has been written with this, and solely this purpose in mind.

WHY

Background

I    PREFACE

Some time ago, the movie star, Brad Pitt, appeared on The Larry King Show, and Larry asked him what he thought about the recent murderous events in Mumbai. Brad’s answer was that whatever happened did not make sense to him. A few years ago, my auto mechanic, Rod Tate, started discussing September 11th with me and asked me, What could we have done so bad to you people that caused you to do to us what you did on 9/11? I tried to explain but felt very inadequate to give a satisfactory answer. Not that I did not know the answer. The actual reason was I knew so much that I did not know where to start. I said, Rod, the American people have not done anything to deserve this, but your leaders in Washington have done a lot. The American people did not suffer because of any faults of their own. They paid the price for the deeds of their leaders. But I do not have enough time to explain the whole thing to you, so I am going to write a book to explain this for you and for the benefit of the American people who want to know the correct reason for this tragedy. I am going to write a book that will give a complete and satisfactory answer. Brad Pitt and Rod Tate are not the only people in America who do not know the causes of Muslim terrorism. Hardly any American does. The reason is that the American nation has been purposely kept ignorant about the reasons of terrorism. That is when and why I decided to write this book.

No, let me take that back. I did not decide to write this book then. I decided to write a book of this kind in 1975 when I came to the USA from Pakistan. That book would have been exactly the same to what I am writing now, except about terrorism, which is a later phenomenon. I thought I will be able to write a good book for the Americans to read because I have seen both worlds now and will be able to present the points of view of both cultures. When I came to the USA, I was thirty-three years old, and now I have been here for another thirty-three years. I think I am qualified now to say that I can offer a fair and balanced opinion. My laziness combined with my responsibilities of my job and family and my fear that no one will read my book did not allow me to start on this book sooner. Every time something important happened in this regard, I renewed my resolve to start writing, only to see it fizzle down again. But when Rod asked me that question, I decided to really do something about it, and here I am.

I did not come to the USA because of its wonderful values, as I had not seen or even heard about them. I did not come to the USA for a good economic future because I had a wonderful job in Pakistan, and there was a good possibility that I would have been a chairman or managing director of a company by now. In 1975, when I left Pakistan, I was a technical manager in a petroleum refinery, and a couple of my friends and colleagues I left there have reached those high positions. I came to the USA because I was obsessed with the technological achievements of this great country. Sending man to the moon just overwhelmed me. I used to read Reader’s Digest, Newsweek, and Time magazines there. I used to watch Elvis Presley, Rock Hudson, and Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood movies. I used to look at American people with envy not hatred. I thought in Pakistan I was living in the fourteenth century and not in the twentieth century. I got bored there. Luckily for me, a few of my close friends came to the USA, and they persuaded me and helped me to come here for which I am eternally grateful to them.

What I am a lot more grateful for is this. When I came here what impressed me even more was the American people. I said to myself, What a wonderful group of people. No wonder they are so far advanced, and they are so blessed. I started liking them and slowly (not very slowly either) started loving them. While I was here, one of the luckiest things that happened to me was that in the early part of my life here, I was able to travel around the world and was able to see many cultures and people. By the time I returned, one thing was cast in my heart, my brain, and my psyche: not only are the American people one of the best in the world, they are by far the best people in the world. Over the period of thirty-three years here, the nature of my relationship with the American people has significantly changed. I do not only love them, I am in love with them now. They are decent people, they are nice, honest, straightforward people to deal with, they are generous beyond anything I have seen anywhere, and above all, they are just and fair people. I feel so proud and grateful to be part of them and this great nation and country.

I feel so grateful to the American people that I was able to come here and enjoy the benefits of centuries of hard work and the amazing foresight of our forefathers. When I get up in the morning and count my blessings, this one is on top of the list.

If I did not feel that the American people were just and fair people, I will not be writing this book. I am not a full-time writer. I am an engineer by profession. I do not get time to write articles, let alone books. I started writing this book in 2006. It was pretty hard for me to write a few pages every weekend. I was able to do this because of two reasons only:

1.    I trust the American people that I will get a fair hearing from them even if they disagree with everything I say.

2.    The Iraq War left a deep impact on me. The American people, and non-Americans too, did not need to die for such useless and senseless causes. More than 4,200 handsome kids of ours have lost their lives. Tens of thousands of them have come home without limbs. Who will take care of them for the rest of their lives? And how about the thousands of innocent Iraqis who have lost their lives? Isn’t it time to stop this madness? Isn’t it time we should stop using war and killing as one of the instruments to solve the problems? If we do not change our policies towards Muslims, we might be in for a never ending war.

So Brad Pitt, Rod Tate, and all other fellow Americans, if you really want to know the causes of Muslim terrorism in the world and want to do something about it, this book is for you.

I promise you one thing. I will write my views with utmost honesty without any religious, cultural, national, and any other kind of bias. I have quoted a few people in this book from my memory. These quotations might not be correct verbatim, but the person who said these meant exactly what I have written. If I ever find out that any of these quotations actually had a different meaning than the way I have interpreted, I will respectfully apologize and take that quotation out of the book.

I have indiscriminately criticized those who are destroying the peace in the world and are a hindrance to the progress toward peace and prosperity no matter whether they are Muslims, Christians, Jews, Arabs, Hindus, Israelis, Americans, Indians, Pakistanis, or anybody else. It is time we should start talking about these things. The objective of this criticism is not at all to create any negative feeling about any particular group. The actual objective of this criticism is to define the problem so that the world can work to solve this problem. It is my earnest hope that it will start a healthy dialogue and discussion in the USA and in the world in the long run. If I criticize Muslims, that will not be a criticism of Islam. Similarly, if I criticize the policies of Israel, that will not be criticism of Judaism or Jews. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are great religions and should not be tarnished by the wrongful actions of their followers at this time.

I have been warned that I will be hurt by fundamentalists, or the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will come after me. I do not worry about fundamentalists, whether Muslims, Jews, or Christians; but I am very concerned with the FBI or the IRS coming after me. There is less chance of the IRS coming after me because I never made so much money that they will waste their time on me. To be fair, there has to be some advantage of being poor. If the FBI comes after me, that will destroy me because in the last thirty-three years I have started believing in America. It is a country that constitutionally gave the concept of freedom of speech to the modern world, and it is a nation that is completely on the opposite side of fascism. I do not want anything to happen that can hurt my belief in this country. If something like that does happen, I will be devastated. I will be like a person who lost everything he had earned in his life. I have also been warned that I will get killed because of writing so much truth against very strong special interests. However, even if I become a target of hurt and hate to try to bring peace in the world, so be it. Somebody has to do this job. I have decided that I am going to take that chance.

I have my fears and hopes about my book. My fear is that no one will read this book, and it will be just a wasted effort. My best hope is that this book will change the way we think about our fellow human beings. I think that is going too far. I am ready to settle for less. Only if a few well-intentioned people in Hollywood, some journalists, and Oprah Winfrey read it, I will be a happy man. Being an optimist by nature, let me add Mr. Obama to this list also.

Mr. President, you can make my day.

II    INTRODUCTION

Hatred for America in the world is not a new phenomenon. When I was in college, the burning an American flag by protesters in the third world countries, both Islamic and non-Islamic, was a common and frequent sight. Then this got worse, and people started burning the US embassies too. Recently, this practice has faded away in non-Islamic countries, but this hatred has multiplied many-fold in Muslim countries. There are reasons for this, and it is up to the USA and the Western civilization to work to remove these reasons. To my great disappointment, not only did the US government keep on doing more of the same, but it also decided to cover the reasons of the hatred of the Muslims by hiding these reasons from the American people. Instead of taking genuine steps to change the situation, the American government tried the approach of killing Muslims. This is not going to work. Not only is their approach counterproductive but it also threatens to create a lifelong conflict that will result in thousands of causalities on both sides.

Americans have always been told again and again what happened on September 11th, but they have never been told why it happened. To make a right decision on any problem, one basic requirement is to have correct information and knowledge of the facts. This is particularly true about US foreign policy because the lives of American citizens depend on it. The American people have to know about the causes and facts about nine-eleven if they want to avoid more of the same. To cure a disease, you have to first find out its cause. Religious and political hatred is a cancer that can result in thousands of deaths if not cured. To hide from the truth will be like hiding your head in the sand and hoping things will get better. They will not.

Unfortunately, there is so much misinformation and propaganda out there that it has become almost impossible for the general public to find the truth. The games politicians play and the way they twist words are mind-boggling. There is a deafening and sinful silence in USA about our treatment of Muslims. Previously, the US foreign policies only affected the lives of other people in the world. Now the war has hit home, and innocent American kids are losing their lives and limbs, not to mention the financial resources we are wasting abroad. These resources can be so gainfully used in-house to improve the lives of the people here in so many areas. By getting involved in unnecessary wars and trouble spots in the world, not only are we depriving the American public of these resources, we are also mortgaging the future of our children and grandchildren by piling up huge amounts of unnecessary debts.

The American people must be wondering that if they are the best people in the world, then why is there so much hatred against them in the world, especially in the Muslim world? The answer is simple. The US foreign policy in the world does not represent an iota of the values of the American people. The American foreign policy has been hijacked and has become a slave to the lobbies and the special interest groups in Washington. These special interest groups have contacts in the news media and make sure that the American people get the news suited to their interest. A curtain ([1]) of misinformation and propaganda has fallen between the American people and the truth. If the American people are guilty of anything, that would be that they take no interest in the policies of their representatives in the world, especially toward Muslims. If this situation does not change, the price the Americans pay for the mistakes of their leaders will become a lot higher. The American people need to become more knowledgeable about the politics and the politicians. In Europe, about 90 percent of the people vote during elections, in the USA, only 50 percent go to the polls.

The impression given to the general public by these politicians and the media is that we are so innocent and had done nothing to these Muslims, and these Muslims are just like mad dogs looking to kill us for no fault of our own. These Muslims just hate us because we are prosperous and enjoy a wonderful lifestyle, and they want to destroy our lifestyle and our freedom. Nothing can be further from the truth. A few gangsters sitting in the caves of Afghanistan cannot even think of changing our lifestyle that has developed based on solid values and centuries of hard work. This idea that they want to change our lifestyle is the invention of the press who wants to hide the real reasons of this war that was started by us decades ago. The American people have just found out about this war now because after decades of frustration and anger, the Muslims have finally reacted, and it showed up in the form of September 11th. The fact is that for decades we have clearly adopted anti-Muslim policies and hurt Muslims in all possible ways. Our foreign policy toward the Muslims has been racial and immoral. We have consistently and continuously worked against the interests of the Muslim world.

We take so much pride in our American values. However, these Muslims have not seen any of our wonderful values. As far as our policy toward Muslims is concerned, we have always been on the wrong side of the moral divide, with very few exceptions. One was when President Eisenhower did not support the invasion of the Suez Canal by England, France, and Israel. Another one was when President Clinton took steps to stop the massacre of Muslims in Bosnia, though quite late, after thousands of Muslims had already been killed by the Serbian Christians there.

If the American people are in any way responsible for nine-eleven, it is because of their prosperity at home, they do not take interest in what is going on in the world. Americans are probably one of the most ignorant people in the world. They are so absorbed in their beer, baseball, and boats; they do not care what is happening to the rest of the world and what our politicians have been doing to Muslims. Actually, even uneducated people in third world countries take more interest in international affairs than most Americans do. When it comes to voting, in electing their representatives, a vast number of Americans are one-issue voters. Abortion is one such issue. So many people vote one way or the other just because of this issue, they do not know or care where their candidate stands on other issues and what l he or she will do to the rest of the world when this person goes to Washington. The US foreign policy is the least important issue in any election here at home. I am such an ardent believer in the goodness of the American people, and I am so sure that if the Americans knew what we have been doing to the Muslim world, they would never let their leaders continue their policies. Now is the time the folks here start paying attention to the actions of their leaders and start taking interest in world affairs because now the war has hit home. We have already lost three thousand people in the World Trade Center and more than 4,200 brave men and women in Iraq. This is just the beginning of a war that will last for a long time