Representative Press Blog

Sharon makes the claim that a quote from any Muslim is proof that the motives of the 9/11 terrorists are different than the ones they have been stating for years. She wants people to believe that if we "stop doing things which make them hate us" it won't stop them hating us. She claims this because someone somewhere made a comment about a goal they desire which has not been stated by al-Qeada.

Sharon, that is such specious logic. You once again post a contrived argument, obviously to serve as a means to keep the foreign policies from being focused on. There are millions of Muslims in the world, it is dishonest of you to try to deny the 911 motives by claiming that something said by any Muslim is what determines the motivation of the terrorists.

It makes no more sense than to quote Ann Coulter as proof of the real motives for the US attack on Iraq. Ann Coulter said, "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity", is this what Christian Conservatives actually want? Bush declared “This crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take awhile.” Will anything less than forcing Muslims to convert to Christianity satisfy the Christian Conservatives? Would it be honest of me to insist this is what attacking Iraq was really about? You cannot take comments from just anyone and make the claim that that is the motive of the participants on either side of the so called "War on Terrorism."

What motivates the terrorists is the grievances. I listed several quotes from terrorists who were responsible for attacks going back to 1993. What motivates them are the grievances that have been stated by those running the terrorist organizations. What motivates them is what the terrorists themselves have said, not the nonsence you quote. Ralph Bodenstein, who traveled, worked and talked a lot with Mohamed Atta, is quoted as describing Mohamed Atta as "most imbued actually about Israeli politics in the region and about US protection of these Israeli politics in the region. And he was to a degree personally suffering from that."

It is the grievances that are used to recruit the terrorists, not the nonsense you quote. A former member of an extremist Islamic organization which is part of al-Qaeda explained how the organization's recruiters operate on susceptible young men. "Someone approached me in the mosque as I was praying, and started to talk to me about injustice in the Middle East, the poverty, our impotence in the face of Israel. He made me want to listen to him - to find a solution. At first these people don't talk about violence. They concentrate on how much injustice America has caused in the world and how to get rid of this unfairness. They mention Palestine, they call on you to uphold your national dignity, to defend people, and suggest for that you must sacrifice yourself. Then your people will live after you and will always remember you." The young man, himself an Egyptian, speaking in the privacy of a quite courtyard in Cairo, believed this was the way Mohamed Atta was approached. "Al-Qaeda" by Jane Corbin p125