Yes, because mass murderers have feelings and families too.

The dead hijackers included 4 connected with Bin Laden, Waleed Alshehri, Ahmed Alghamdi, Hamza Alghamdi, Saeed Alghamdi and Khalid Al-Midhar, probably connected to Zein al-Abidine al-Midhar, the former head of the Islamic Army of Aden in Yemen who was executed a few years ago in connection with a kidnapping. The group was one of three to claim credit for last fall's bombing of the USS Cole. Among the 19 was Mohamed Atta, who flew an airliner into the World Trade Center killing thousands, Marwan Al-Shehhi, who helped hijack United Flight 175 out of Boston and Ziad Jarrahi, who flew on United Flight 93 out of Newark, N.J., which crashed in a field 80 miles from Pittsburgh killing all passengers on board, Hani Hajour, who was on the flight that crashed into the Pentagon, Majed Moqed, who flew on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon.

But any reference to the fact that these killers were Arabs would be an insult to Arabs, any reference to the fact that they killed in the name of their religion would be an insult to that religion, and such insults would be as wicked, as evil as the mass murders of the thousands of innocent folks in the World Trade Center, Pentagon and the passengers on the 4 airliners. I thank Baked for explaining this to me.

So, it's important that we forget who killed the thousands who are burried under millions of tons of the debris of the former twin towers, and we certainly should not discuss why these killers did what they did, because it will offend so many.

So, let us empty our minds and bow our heads in a confused tribute to the thousands of people who lie dead in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

 

If you guys feel I am to be the brunt of your frustration, critisim, and sarcasim, then so be it.

The moderators need not take the heat because they are not the one's who made this decision.

I have emails from people who will remain nameless, who have received emails from our members regarding this issue. They were concerned and in disbelief of what was said to them.

S2000 International can not tolerate these tactics.

 

I don't think Shelley is saying you don't have the right to say what you feel about whoever you want and whatever religion they follow. What is being said is that you don't have the right to say it HERE. Let's assume you have a brother-in-law who was originally from Afghanistan but had moved here years ago, yet still had feelings for his home country and knew people there. Obviously he is worried about them. If your family gets together tonight to pay tribute to those who lost their lives from this terrible tragedy, would you go off on his religion and his brethren from his home country? Of course not. You'd show compassion. And this board has members from all races, religions, and parts of the world. I can understand how some of them might be defensive about this topic and while I have my opinions about what has transpired this week I am more than willing to keep those comments to myself while I visit this board, which is dedicated to a Japanese car which is about as non-political of a topic as I know of. Please leave Shelley alone. She doesn't deserve this type of abuse.

 

Those are sensible comments Strike,. There are plenty of other places for people to take out their long term hangups and neuroses without going overboard here.

 

here is an except from a PM I sent to a fellow community member. I will edit some out of respect for names...

I hear what you are saying, and this tragedy has affected international people.. world wide, Americans, Germans, Canadians, Japanese.

We did let things slide for a while, because I truly believe our friends needed a place to talk and vent.

Today, I had a 1/2 dozen emails from people concerned about what was being posted, as well as one member received a very harsh email. This has the potential to get out of hand. We do not know of the affect this has had on each member on the board. I know someone who has been lost (a friend of a friend) you likely do to. It is important to realize everyone's needs and thoughts. I don't want the politics issue to affect our community. My mistake for easing up on this. It was out of full compassion for everyone. People enjoy the board, and many feel comfortable coming here to talk about their sadness and happyness. This is a time where everyone is grieving. I am not taking sides for what has happened. ****edit*** But, I am not in a position to let my feelings go on our board. We need to stay focused to what our goal is for s2000 international.

I will take the brunt of all attacks because it is not c3 or the moderators who made this decision, it was I.

Strike, thank you! but not necessary

 

It's plain and simple. It's THEIR board and we must follow their rules, no more no less. What has recently happened is tragic and affects many more than just Americans. All they're asking is that we follow their rules and keep politics to a minimum. This is an international board/community and they don't want to risk offending other countries from the views of a handful of posters. If you want to vent and be as political and nasty as you want, simply use the internet newsgroups. This is a great place to hang out, and I for one would hate to see some company or country sue this board for allowing someone to express their opinionated views.

 

I also began to see some pretty sad disagreements between members who are otherwise perfectly friendly to each other on here for as long as I have been a member. I hated to see this, and while I appreciated the sense of support and community I got by following along the WTC threads, I am very very very glad that HondaGal has reinstated S2Ki's No Politics rule.

Thank you for everything!!

 

None of the above has addressed the issue of why positive, uplifting posts are being deleted. To simply say "it's political" because a post has encouraging things to say about my President is silly - half of the threads in this area right now talk about world leaders.
If there is a fear that I may have possibly offended someone by simply supporting my President, then I just don't understand - anyone who was offended by what I said needs more sensitivity shown to them than humanly possible. If you fear that someone may respond to a supportive post about our President with something negative, I guess we just have different expectations about the maturity of the people here.
And I understand you trying to pass this off as someone else's decision - but you draw the line as to what's political and what's not, not us. I defy you to share one single e-mail from someone who was offended or upset by what I posted. You won't, you can't.
Understand people, we are not talking about negative threads or posts that were being removed, it was a simple, benign, patriotic statement, intending to comfort others on this board that have been affected as I have.
Since there has been no attempt on anyone's part to address this issue, I'm going to have to take a break from this board. I can't be a part of a community that suppresses positive thoughts for fear of a negative reaction - it's just not American.

PS - I hope my sig doesn't offend anyone, because there's 400 places on this board to see it.

 

The ACTUAL flaming, rabid, ignorant bigots are pretty obvious to even those among us who are amongst the most visibly angry. Don't confuse the two camps by the similiarity in buzzwords.

However, I think it is clear to anyone with a modicum of education that the Islamic fundamentalists we speak of, the Arabs who we have identified and otherwise vilify are not 1:1 with every person who happens to be Arab, Muslim, Islamic, etc.

Its the same kind of stupid reaction when one talks about their philosophy for modifying or not modifying -- every reactionary or bleeding-heart liberal gets scared and insecure that perhaps its a personal attack on them.

Well, to all of our Muslim friends on this board, you have nothing to fear. No reprisals are directed at you. Your religion is being twisted by barbarians in a distant land to explain their ill founded policies.

I don't care what color your skin is, what religion you are -- as long as you are not one of the ones who routinely pulls a trigger against the West, you have no reprisal, bigotry, offense to fear here.

I am clear about who I do and do not speak about or implicate. If you are unsure, then just ask. If its too close to home, then don't participate.

 

Darren, hey man....

I honestly can't speak for what happened with this thread that you say got deleted -- I don't know anything about this and I believe 100% of what you're saying.

Your sig doesn't offend me, I can't imagine it offending anyone.

I think that HondaGal is obligated to respond to what you're saying here and perhaps offer an explanation as to why your post was deleted. HondaGal?

Darren, I hope you will stick around as I personally value your presence here on these forums, and I'm sure others do as well.


On an aside (not directed AT you, Darren, but to anyone reading this), I would like to reiterate the the whole point of the No Politics rule (if I understand correctly) is that we need to remind ourselves to be more open-minded in situations like this, so as to avoid getting into conflicts and differences of opinion that would cause these S2000 forums to be overriden by drama between individuals. These forums should always be full of posters with positive attitudes so that discussions can come and go freely on a lighter note. Just my two cents.



[QUOTE]Originally posted by drogers
[B]None of the above has addressed the issue of why positive, uplifting posts are being deleted.