A friend just sent me a link to page where a guy made up shirts that say "I am not a terrorist" in Arabic. It seems silly at first, but it has a serious point.
I saw this story on the news about Raed Jarrar being forced to remove his shirt that had Arabic writing on it before being allowed to board a plane at JFK. I was really struck when Mr. Jarrar said something to the effect of I wouldn't have been surprised if it happened in Iraq or Saudi Arabia, but never would I have expected it to happen in the U.S.
The shirt page also noted an interesting quote that I've placed below:
The point of terrorism is to cause terror, sometimes to further a political goal and sometimes out of sheer hatred. The people terrorists kill are not the targets; they are collateral damage. And blowing up planes, trains, markets or buses is not the goal; those are just tactics. The real targets of terrorism are the rest of us: the billions of us who are not killed but are terrorized because of the killing. The real point of terrorism is not the act itself, but our reaction to the act."
— What the Terrorists Want
posted @ Wednesday, September 06, 2006 11:00 AM