Letters: Muslims and 9/11 commemoration

I have no doubt that omitting Muslim leaders from the speakers at Nassau County's Sept. 11 commemoration ceremony was influenced by the organizers not wanting to deal with those who would take offense at such inclusion ["Muslims: Sidelined at 9/11 function," News, Sept. 9].

County Executive Edward Mangano's spokeswoman responded to the Muslim leaders who lodged complaints about being omitted that "we will not dignify this with a response." There is simply nothing dignified about a public Sept. 11 ceremony that panders to the ignorant mindset of holding an entire ethnic/religious people responsible for the abhorrent actions of a few.

Unfortunately, that's politics these days: allowing the ignorant, misinformed and fearful to inform decisions.

But what is the excuse for the two clerics who did appear and spoke? As community leaders who are supposed to raise the bar of civility and human relationships, why didn't they insist on including their Muslim colleagues, who not only lost people in those terrorist attacks, but whose people have suffered terrible acts of bias and hatred merely for being Muslim?

Surely Rabbi Marc Gellman understands the danger of painting an entire people with the broad brush of hate. And Bishop William Murphy, as a religious leader, knows that fear and ignorance diminish us all.

Apparently, we've learned nothing about the dangers of group hate. Those terrorists who murdered nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11 and those terrorists who have murdered people all over this challenged world of ours, do so to rid the Earth of anyone not like themselves.

How can we possibly protect ourselves from the targeted hate, bias and intolerance from outside our country when we don't work to rid ourselves of those threats from inside?

If the horrific events of Sept. 11 haven't taught us anything about the insidious danger of hate and ignorance, what in heaven's name will it take to do so?

Abby G. Burton, Plainview
 

Habeeb Ahmed, chairman of the Islamic Center of Long Island in Westbury, states, "some right-wing extremists blame Muslims for the event of 9/11." Thank you for the clarification.

Perhaps it was Southern Baptists, Roman Catholics or Jews who flew the planes into the Twin Towers. And all along I thought it was perpetrated by Muslims who invoked the name of Allah. How foolish of me!

Paul Paoli, Farmingdale