To find out the latest political, economic, and human aspects of the terrorist attack, we recommend that you visit CNN, MSNBC or similar news web sites.
Here, we will collect some of the off-beat developments that you otherwise may not have seen on regular news outlets.
Yep.com, a division of WebSideStory, monitors Internet traffic in dozens of categories; one of these is religion. They monitor the number of visitors to this site's most popular essays. During August, they rated our site, ReligiousTolerance.org as the most-visited religious web site on the Internet. We had averaged about 6,000 visitors per day.
After the terrorist attack, we sank to second place; the most-visited site was the Rapture Ready Message Board. 1 Apparently, a lot of people were interpreting the terrorist attack as a prelude to the end of the world. The rapture is a concept followed by many conservative Christians that Jesus will return towards the Earth. Born-again Christians, both dead and alive, will float through the air to meet him in the sky. We observed a remarkable change to our essays which dealt with end-time predictions. They rose from a position of relative obscurity to become our most popular essays.
A week after the attack, the British web site "About Islam and Muslims" has become the most popular religious site on the Internet according to Yep.com. 2 A lot of people appear to be curious about the religion of Islam. This site is second. The traffic to our most popular essays has doubled since August. The Rapture Ready site is third.
Eight days after the attack, some New York book stores, like Strand Bookstore Annex and Trinity Bookshop remain closed. 3 "Many are already putting up displays of titles that might help customers; others have memorialized the victims and their families and friends in touching ways. Sales have been erratic, and titles about the World Trade Center towers and terrorism have been popular." Barnes & Noble noted "that books with religious or spiritual content enjoyed the greatest sales increase in the days following the attack." 3 Operations manager Jonas Johnson at Powell's, in Portland, OR, noted that their "Middle Eastern section" He also observed that "at one point, half the customers in the store were clustered around the Nostradamus books." A sales associate in WaldenBooks in Watertown NY remarked that their entire stock of Nostradamus books dissapeared quickly on the day of the attack.
The Khalistan Affairs Centre issued a plea to the American media to educate the public about Sikhism. It was signed by 31 Sikh groups -- mostly by Gurdwaras (Sikh places of worship).
"American media's performance following last week's horrendous suicidal terrorist attacks in New York and Virginia has been excellent. But, as far as the half million strong law-abiding Sikh American community is concerned the September 15, 2001 cold-blooded murder - a hate-crime - of a fellow Sikh American, Balbir Singh Sodhi, 52, in Meza, Arizona, (and one hundred ninety other hatred-filled-crimes against Sikhs all across the U.S. in just one week) have proved that the great American journalist and editor, Walter Lippmann (1889-1974), was right. He had warned in his book 'The Public Philosophy' that; 'When distant and unfamiliar and complex things are communicated to great masses of people, the truth suffers a considerable and often a radical distortion.' "
The Khalistan Affairs Centre is an separatist organization which is promoting a separate country for Sikhs.
Two twin brothers torn apart by chaos.
"Two steel birds will fall from the sky on the Metropolis.
The undead will roam the earth for little time."
It is not in the quatrain format the Nostradamus wrote.
New York City lies at about 40° North Latitude, not the 45° mentioned in this passage.
Steel was not widely used until about two centuries after Nostradamus' death.
In one of President Bush's speeches, he called on a "crusade against terrorism." In North America, the term "crusade" simply means a program or organized effort. Billy Graham's evangelistic drives in many cities worldwide have been called "crusades" for many decades. But for Muslims, the term triggers memories of atrocities committed by Christian armies which roamed across Europe in the Middle Ages. They killed hundreds of thousands of defenseless Jews on their way to the Middle East. Once there, they slaughtered countless Muslims and Jews in acts of great barbarism. The memory is still strong.
Representative John Cooksey (R-LA) referred to Muslims on a Louisiana radio network: "If I see someone come in that's got a diaper on his head and a fan belt wrapped around the diaper on his head, that guy needs to be pulled over." 6 He later apologized for his statement.
Claude Vorilhon, 54, known as Rael to his followers, is the leader of a new religious movement, the Raelians. 7 It is a UFO related group with over 55,000 members in 84 countries. Their headquarters is near Montreal, Quebec. He suggests that DNA be recovered both from the victims and the perpetrators of the terrorist attack. He proposes that all be cloned. He said: "If we can bring back to life the victims, that will be wonderful for the families." Meanwhile, the terrorists can be "judged and punished like they deserve to be punished." 6 Unfortunately, clones of the victims might have bodies similar to the people who died, but not their personalities and memories. The concept of trying a clone in a court of law for a crime that was committed before his birth raises some troubling ethical issues.
The Religion Newswriters Association passed a resolution saying that it was "troubled" by extensive use of terms such as "Islamic terrorist." They also rejected "similar phrases that associate an entire religion with the action of a few." Reporters should "avoid stereotypes [and] be aware of the complexity of religious traditions and to use care in attempting to describe the motives of terrorists."
Ingrid Mattson, vice president of the Islamic Society of North America, said that "Terrorism is a tactic, a strategy. It's not an ideology." She notes that terrorists themselves use the term "Islamic terrorist," and that news organizations need simple terms for their headlines and stories. She recommends that Muslims and the U.S. media Americanize certain Muslim terms, by using the name God instead of Allah and scarf instead of hijab. She also agrees with many Muslim scholars that "jihad" means defensive war.
Ann Coulter was a National Review columnist. On National Review Online, she suggested that because of the terrorist attacks, "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." The editor of the web site later refused to run a follow-up column in which Coulter suggested: "We should require passports to fly domestically. Passports can be forged, but they can also be checked with the home country in case of any suspicious-looking swarthy males." National Review Online Editor Jonah Goldberg said: "We didn't feel we wanted to be associated with the comments expressed in those two columns. We got a lot of complaints from sponsors and a lot of complaints from readers left, right and center. We've decided for editorial reasons we think are sound that we're no longer going to run Ann Coulter's syndicated column."
She linked herself to Rev. Jerry Falwell and Bill Maher. Falwell blamed the attack on Pagans, abortion providers, civil libertarians and homosexuals seeking equality; he later apologized. Maher was host of the TV program "Politically Incorrect." He called U.S. troops "cowards" for bombing from afar. He also later apologized.
Frank Rich, a columnist for the New York Times said she was fueling "hysteria on the right." Alex Beam, of the Boston Globe, called her a "right-wing telebimbo." Columnist Tom Brazaitis of the Cleveland Plain Dealer accused her of "bloodthirsty rhetoric."
"Terrorism is a crime against humanity. It is a brutal attack on innocent people. Islam is a religion that means "peace". In the Koran, the Holy Book of Islam, God commands believers to bring peace and security to the world. Terrorism and all other mischief on Earth are the very acts that Muslims are commanded by God to stand against.
The Islamic morality is the cure for terrorism, not the source of it. Those who resort to or support terrorism in the name of Islam are in a great error. They are committing a crime which God has cursed in the Koran. All true Muslims denounce terrorism of any kind, and share the sorrows of its victims."
Kate Wachs, director of the Relationship Center in Chicago, and author of "Relationships for Dummies," reports that her dating service has seen a 30% increase in applications since the terrorist attacks. She commented: "People are thinking, 'if the world is going to blow up, I'd rather have a partner than be alone.' "
Members of the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns visited the Islamic Center of Southern California on OCT-12. The staff of the Muslim Public Affairs Council was also involved.
Salam Al-Marayati, the Muslim Public Affairs Council director, called it a "historic day" and expressed appreciation for the support ... The two faith groups noted their common roots, along with the Jews, in the faith of Abraham.
They issued a statement in which they expressed grief over the events of Sept.
Pagan priestess Deborah Lipp has widely distributed a note to Witches, Druids, and [ceremonial] Magicians. It comments on the terrorist attack. "They made a blood sacrifice in the name of their deity, sacrificing their own lives and murdering thousands to achieve a 'religious' goal of extreme evil. We know that physically, they achieved many of their goals -- the World Trade Center was destroyed. I believe that they succeeded magically as well."
"This immense blood sacrifice, this outpouring of evil and death, has opened a gate, and negative energies have poured through that gate. Forces that you might call 'demonic' have been drawn to us. They must be sent back!" She recommends that on Samhain, 2001-OCT-31, that Neopagans send "the energies of negativity and destruction" back to the other side.
On 2001-OCT-12, after Friday prayers by Muslims, a quiet demonstration against the U.S. action in Afghanistan turned violent. One to two hundred people are believed to have been killed; many hundreds were injured; four churches and four mosques were gutted; 16,000 have been made homeless.
Previously, in 2000-FEB, 2000-MAY, and 2001-SEP, a total of 1,700 people were killed during riots that were sparked by the decision in Northern Nigeria to implement full Islamic Shari'ah law in this country which has a large Christian minority.
Many nervous Middle-Eastern students at American Universities quickly returned to their countries of origin after the 9-11 attack. They feared a violent backlash from fellow students and other Americans. This included many students from Washington State University. But, starting in 2002-JAN, most have quietly returned to their studies, meshing in quietly with fellow students.
77% said that U.S. military actions in Afghanistan were not morally justified.
61% believe that Arab terrorists were not responsible for the 9-11 attacks.
Large majorities in all countries polled harbored an unfavorable opinion of the U.S.
"Attackers Torch Arab-Owned Store," Associated Press, 2001-OCT-13.
"Culture Facts 12/7/01: Justice Department Considers Lax Definition of Family for Victim Assistance," Family Research Council.