A comment on Eid — Muslims' day of celebration

Muslims are toning down Eid festivities in honor of September 11 writes Tara Bahrampour in the Washington Post. We agree. Eid observances should recognize that Muslims' day of celebration happens to coincide with a tragic day for Americans — Muslims included. But with the news media focused on 9/11, Muslims should use this opportunity to respectfully combat the Islamophobia that is raging across parts of the United States and Europe.

The facts speak for themselves. The 9/11 Commission Report is fatally flawed.

Just minutes after the alleged attack, standing in front of the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, Jamie McIntyre, CNN's senior Pentagon correspondent since November 1992, reported: "From my close up inspection there's no evidence of a plane having crashed anywhere near the Pentagon. . . . . The only pieces left that you can see are small enough that you could pick up in your hand. There are no large tail sections, wing sections, fuselage — nothing like that anywhere around which would indicate that the entire plane crashed into the side of the Pentagon."

At the September 12, 2001, Dept. of Defense (DoD) News Briefing by Assistant Secretary of Defense, Victoria Clarke, Ed Plaugher (fire chief of Arlington County), and others, "American Airlines", "Flight 77", "Boeing 757" were not even mentioned. Reporters on the scene were denied access, "handcuffed and dragged away".

In a front page article on September 12, 2001 -- On Flight 77: 'Our Plane Is Being Hijacked' — Marc Fisher and Don Phillips of the Washington Post reported that Barbara K. Olson called her husband twice in the final minutes before the crash of Flight 77. FBI exhibit P200054 from the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui contradicts the Solicitor General's account. It shows that Barbara Olson made only one phone call — it did not connect, and it lasted for 0 seconds.

The FBI's "Most Wanted Terrorists" web page does not state that Bin Laden is wanted for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. When asked why there is no mention of 9/11 on the FBI's web page, Rex Tomb, the FBI's Chief of Investigative Publicity, is reported to have said, "The reason why 9/11 is not mentioned on Usama Bin Laden's Most Wanted page is because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11."

It’s past time that Muslims joined with the millions of Americans working to expose the false account of that tragic day in September 2001. Instead of being on the defensive, Muslims should be asking the news media and Congress why it’s not investigating 9/11.


Enver Masud
Founder, The Wisdom Fund