Dear Ms.Prevost:

I am surprised that you were impressed with Tamin's statement:A Voice from
Afghanistan.  What does he mean?  We should not do anything about
Muslim/Mohammadan terrorism that killed thousands of innocent and the most
capable persons of our country.  Tamin's statements have a neutralizing
impact on you and on certain other readers of your Email.  It is only one
side of the coin and the other side is, let me say, that America cannot but
do something about this type of terrorism threatening us and the
world.Islam/Mohammadanism, as one of my missionary professors correctly
labeled it, is the most violent of all religions.  It is not a religion of
peace as some of its leaders claim. Peace among themselves as Mohammadans
is emphazised, but when it comes to others, they used and still use, as
some of them did in New York, the worst kind of violence.  You should know
that I know what I am saying or you should study the history of religions.
Do you know how violently they murdered millions of innocent Hindus in
their attempt to convert them to Mohammadanism?  Do you remember anything
about the Crusades?  So, don't be naive to believe anything any
Mohammadan/Muslim says about peace!

Now, the question is: What should we do to stop such terrorist activities
as those led by persons such as Bin Laden? America is predominantly
Christian and what approach should we take?  Jesus taught us: "Love your
enemies....that you may be sons of your Father in heaven."  Bin Laden is
our enemy and how can we love him?  We can love him!  Our goal should be to
transform him and his followers, and not to kill them.  How can we do this?
 First, while we prepare for military action, we should offer millions of
dollars or even a billion or more dollars to those who will turn Bin Laden
and as many of his followers as possible into the hands of America within a
specified number of days, the time that we need for military preparation.
Next, confiscate as much of Bin Laden's financial and other resources as
possible with the help of our Arab and other friends.  If this did not work
or happen, declare to the Talabans and all their collaborators that our
military would be coming in and thus allow all the innocent civilians who
want to escape, go to Pakistan or other neighboring countries for shelter
until Talabans are invaded and disarmed and Bin Laden is caught alive.  If
he tries to escape, it is likely somebody might turn him in for the high
monetary reward!  Then, Bin Laden could be isolated and sociological
techniques could be applied to transform him to become humane and then with
his help we should be able to trace all terrorists related to him far and
near, and gather all of them and then isolate them until they also become
humane and give up their terrorist intensions and activities. If they are
transformed,  then  we would love them as we did with the Japanese!  If
this is not possible, then military action should be taken after all the
innocent civilians are allowed to leave temporarily the areas of military
action.

The above idea is not a simple one but highly complex.  However, we should
remember that we can do it and we must do it.  Disobedient and careless
civilians or those who do not listen to warnings and our thought of their
casualties should not prevent us from making sure that what happened in New
York and the surrounding areas will not happen again in this great country
of ours.  Remember that America is the greatest country ever existed on
this planet and we can do it and make our country better in spite of our
great loss.  If you do not understand it, we can discuss it, but don't be
persuaded by half truth that neutralizes your feelings for justice and the
whole truth and thus make you question our mission!  Goodluck!

At 02:06 PM 9/17/01 -0400, Verbie Prevost wrote:
>No solutions, but some food for thought in an email that was passed along
>to me.
>
>
>Dear Friends,
>
>The following was sent to me by my friend Tamim Ansary. Tamim is an
>Afghani-American writer. He is also one of the most brilliant people I
>know in this life. When he writes, I read. When he talks, I listen.
>Here is his take on Afghanistan and the whole mess we are in.
>
>-Gary T.
>
>Dear Gary and whoever else is on this email thread:
>
>I've been hearing a lot of talk about "bombing Afghanistan back to the
>Stone Age." Ronn Owens, on KGO Talk Radio today, allowed that this would
>mean killing innocent people, people who had nothing to do with this
>atrocity, but "we're at war, we have to accept collateral damage. What
>else can we do?" Minutes later I heard some TV pundit discussing
>whether we "have the belly to do what must be done."
>
>And I thought about the issues being raised especially hard because I am
>from Afghanistan, and even though I've lived here for 35 years I've
>never lost track of what's going on there. So I want to tell anyone who
>will listen how it all looks from where I'm standing.
>
>I speak as one who hates the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. There is no
>doubt in my mind that these people were responsible for the atrocity in
>New York. I agree that something must be done about those monsters.
>But the Taliban and Ben Laden are not Afghanistan. They're not even the
>government of Afghanistan. The Taliban are a cult of ignorant
>psychotics who took over Afghanistan in 1997. Bin Laden is a political
>criminal with a plan. When you think Taliban, think Nazis. When you
>think Bin Laden, think Hitler. And when you think "the people of
>Afghanistan" think "the Jews in the concentration camps." It's not
>only that the Afghan people had nothing to do with this atrocity. They
>were the first victims of the perpetrators. They would exult if someone
>would come in there, take out the Taliban and clear out the rats nest of
>international thugs holed up in their country.
>
>Some say, why don't the Afghans rise up and overthrow the Taliban? The
>answer is, they're starved, exhausted, hurt, incapacitated, suffering.
>A few years ago, the United Nations estimated that there are 500,000
>disabled orphans in Afghanistan--a country with no economy, no food.
>There are millions of widows. And the Taliban has been burying these
>widows alive in mass graves. The soil is littered with land mines, the
>farms were all destroyed by the Soviets. These are a few of the reasons
>why the Afghan people have not overthrown the Taliban.
>
>We come now to the question of bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone
>Age. Trouble is, that's been done. The Soviets took care of it already.
>Make the Afghans suffer? They're already suffering. Level their houses?
>Done. Turn their schools into piles of rubble? Done. Eradicate their
>hospitals? Done. Destroy their infrastructure? Cut them off from
>medicine and health care? Too late. Someone already did all that.
>
>New bombs would only stir the rubble of earlier bombs. Would they at
>least get the Taliban? Not likely. In today's Afghanistan, only the
>Taliban eat, only they have the means to move around. They'd slip away
>and hide. Maybe the bombs would get some of those disabled orphans, they
>don't move too fast, they don't even have wheelchairs. But flying over
>Kabul and dropping bombs wouldn't really be a strike against the
>criminals who did this horrific thing. Actually it would only be making
>common cause with the Taliban--by raping once again the people they've
>been raping all this time
>
>So what else is there? What can be done, then? Let me now speak with
>true fear and trembling. The only way to get Bin Laden is to go in there
>with ground troops. When people speak of "having the belly to do what
>needs to be done" they're thinking in terms of having the belly to kill
>as many as needed. Having the belly to overcome any moral qualms about
>killing innocent people. Let's pull our heads out of the sand. What's
>actually on the table is Americans dying. And not just because some
>Americans would die fighting their way through Afghanistan to Bin
>Laden's hideout. It's much bigger than that folks. Because to get any
>troops to Afghanistan, we'd have to go through Pakistan. Would they let
>us? Not likely. The conquest of Pakistan would have to be first. Will
>other Muslim nations just stand by? You see where I'm going. We're
>flirting with a world war between Islam and the West.
>
>And guess what: that's Bin Laden's program. That's exactly what he
>wants. That's why he did this. Read his speeches and statements. It's
>all right there. He really believes Islam would beat the west. It might
>seem ridiculous, but he figures if he can polarize the world into Islam
>and the West, he's got a billion soldiers. If the west wreaks a
>holocaust in those lands, that's a billion people with nothing left to
>lose, that's even better from Bin Laden's point of view. He's probably
>wrong, in the end the west would win, whatever that would mean, but the
>war would last for years and millions would die, not just theirs but
>ours. Who has the belly for that? Bin Laden does. Anyone else?
>
>Tamim Ansary
>
>Verbie Lovorn Prevost
>Katharine Pryor Professor of English
>Director of English Graduate Studies
>University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
>615 McCallie Ave
>Chattanooga, TN  37403
>Phone: 423-755-4627
>Fax: 423-785-2282
>email: [log in to unmask]
>