People remember 9/11 with fear. At 3 p.m. on April 15, 2013, events evoked memories of the horror 12 years ago. This time it was an attack at the finishing line of one of the world’s most prestigious sporting events in modern-day history.
It happened during a marathon in a city many people around the world don’t hear about quite often in media reports. Many people outside the US don’t know that this city was the most influential city in world politics and social events. This city shaped the geopolitical and international events that took place in last three centuries. Simply put, the city of Boston is the one that changed the history of the United States and consequently, it changed the history of the whole world.
Because of the city of Boston, the center of influence and political gravity had shifted for the first time in history to the newly discovered land. Boston saw the birth of the youngest and most powerful country in the world — the United States of America. It became the land of the free, the world’s melting pot and a land where anyone from any corner of the globe can settle in and become the president of the No. 1 superpower.
So the question is: Why America and Americans are the most attacked either inside or outside their soil and why these attacks are committed either by foreign terrorists, like the ones in the 9/11 attack or an attack committed by an average American Joe, like the Oklahoma bombing convict in 1995? The answer is not easy and terrorist attacks are not easy to be predicted or stopped. A bad guy or a terrorist doesn’t have little horns on his head with a red painted face. Just look at the photos of the American young man who masterminded the Oklahoma bombing, Timothy McVeigh, or the Boston marathon bomber, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarneav. Both these faces look innocent.
I have been to Boston many times during my college years in the 1970s and was a spectator in one of these marathons. It is one of the most interesting sports events. You see the world’s unity at its best. The city of Boston and its people wielded significant influence on the world’s democracy, right to representation and human rights. Boston was the place where many events took place that changed the course of American and world history.
The American Revolution was shaped by what happened in Boston with events such as the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill and the Siege of Boston. In another word, the history of the United States is the history of the city of Boston. So, what would a coward terrorist do to an American city like Boston? Simply put, he will make the United States more united. The American power will be more powerful and the Americans will unleash their military firepower on the enemy. And of course, let us not forget the American media power.
Immediately after the attack and later on after the world came to know about who did it, I had many questions going through my mind. Why do many people around the world always talk about a conspiracy theory after each terrorist attack on America and what makes them think American intelligence agencies like the FBI mastermind a terrorist attack on its soil and frame someone? Everybody knows America can’t keep a secret.
I wonder why did these two young men, who came from a war-torn region in Chechnya and given asylum, good education and American welfare money, attack the country that hosted them and stood by them during their struggle against the Russian forces in the 1990s? The two terrorist attackers — Tamerlan and Dzhkhar Tsarnaev had a chance to be world stars. One of them could have been a member of one of the American Olympic boxing teams. So, the question is what did they really want? If they didn’t like their host country, then why didn’t they both leave and live with their parents back home. Terrorists have no excuse what so ever. This is why different countries and people should put their hands together to fight it. And this brings me to a very important point with regard to the media handling of the many news reports and analyses.
People in Saudi Arabia and Saudis in the United Sates were hurt by some of these media reports about Saudis who had nothing to do with this horrible attack. And as a humble human being, I would like to express my deepest sympathy for the families of the dead and injured in the terrorist bombings that took place in the peaceful city of Boston. And no matter how sympathetic we feel for the families of the victims, we will never be able to realize their pain and agony.
Two of the injured were innocent Saudi spectators, who among the hundreds of thousands of people, simply wanted to enjoy the event. One of the injured was a Saudi young lady who as far as I know is a dentist doing her advanced studies in the US on the Custodian of The Two Holy Mosques Scholarship Program. And this young lady whose name is Nourah Al-Ajaji almost had one of her feet amputated. The other victim was a young man whose name is Abdulrahman Al-Harbi, also studying in the US and he wasn’t only hurt physically, but was also under the tremendous media spotlight when he was a suspect and was accused wrongly. To this day, I ask myself if someone named Erik Rush ever heard of the words, “innocent until proven guilty.”
In times like this, people around the world must put their hands together to fight terrorism because seeing the media spread hate and racism does not help bring people from different faiths and colors together. The world can fight terrorism if more love is spread not hate. As for the terrorist, you failed and will continue to fail.
