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Third attempt to send this to the list since this morning. My profoundest
apologies if it ends up appearing more than once. I have added some new
material at the end.
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Both as a former [moved within the last year and a half] resident of New
York City and a Muslim, I would like to thank everybody for their wishes,
support, and understanding. Would also like to say that I understand the
anger and outrage. It really is time the silent majority of the Muslim
population of the world did some introspection and stopped letting people
that think girls getting an education [a religious obligation] is less
important than a dress code [a recommendation] control not just how the
religion is viewed, but, more importantly, how it is practised in the 21st
Century.
Like everybody else, I spent a major part of yesterday tracking down family
members and friends. Got my last confirmation of safety this morning. Up
till last July my wife was a doctor at St. Vincents', the closest hospital
to the WTC. She was there when people were brought in after an unstable
person fired on tourist at the top of the Empire State Building. Muslims
make up about 2% or so of the US Population and the percentage in New York
City must be higher. There were at least 500 Pakistanis working in the
WTC.
Other thoughts:
> There are very few real consequences I can think of
> for the tech writing industry from the disaster. Some
> observations:
> Online usage spiked, and probably there was, or will
> shortly be, a surge in new signups for online
> services.
It really is true that those of us looking for friends and family found
the Internet most useful. Besides e-mail, I think yesterday was the
moment Internet "Instant Messaging" came of age.
> Lots of people of Middle Eastern extraction work in
> high-tech. They may have trouble from prejudiced,
> vengeful idiots. Those of us from other backgrounds
> may need to stand up for our perfectly innocent
> co-workers who may happen to share an ethnic
> background with suspected terrorists. As a Southerner
> and a Texan I know what it is like to have people
> think my entire region is represented by some backward
> killer.
Thank you for saying that. It means a lot.
Sabahat.
PS: Since I first tried to send that mail, I have had reason to say the
following on another list:
As a practising Muslim, I was brought up to believe that comitting suicide
was one way of settling once and for all that you would *NOT* go to heaven.
Suicide and murder are equal. You are taking a life.
Suicide bombing is *very* controversial in the Muslim World. People that
subscribe to it as acceptable in *any* circumstances used to be a *very*
small minority till very recently, but they still remain that, a minority.
A landmark hotel, one of America's most beautiful cities, and
three and a half days of immersion in the state of the art:
IPCC 01, Oct. 24-27 in Santa Fe. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/
+++ Miramo -- Database/XML publishing automation. See us at +++
+++ Seybold SFO, Sept. 25-27, in the Adobe Partners Pavilion +++
+++ More info: http://www.axialinfo.comhttp://www.miramo.com +++
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