AN AMERICAN AIRLINES PILOT SPEAKS HIS MIND

No name calling, no hatred, no political agenda.     CANADIAN COMMENT APPEARS AT THE END OF THE ARTICLE AND IS MEANINGFUL.THERE IS ALSO SOME RECENTLY ADDED BRITISH COMMENT.   This pilot hit the nail right on the head in his open letter.   A newspaper stated that a Muslim doctor is saying we are profiling  him because he has been checked three times while getting on an  airplane. The following is a letter from a pilot. This well - spoken  man, who is a pilot with American Airlines, says what is in his heart, beautifully.   By Captain John Maniscalco, American Airlines Pilot   I've been trying to say this since 911, but you worry me. I wish you  didn't.  I wish when I walked down the streets of this country that I love,  that your color and culture still blended with the beautiful human  landscape we enjoy in this country. But you don't blend in anymore.  I notice you, and it worries me.   I notice you because I can't help it anymore.  People from your homelands,  professing to be Muslims, have been attacking and killing my fellow citizens  and our friends for more than 20 years now.  I don't fully understand their grievances and hate, but I know that  nothing can justify the inhumanity of their attacks.    On September 11, ARAB-MUSLIMS hijacked four jetliners in my country.  They cut the throats of women in front of children and brutally  stabbed to death others, hacking their necks, over and over, with box  cutters. They took control of those planes and crashed them into  buildings, killing thousands of proud fathers, loving sons, wise  grandparents, elegant daughters, best friends, favorite coaches,  fearless public servants, and children's mothers.   The Palestinians celebrated, the Iraqis were overjoyed as was most of  the Arab world. So, I notice you now. I don't want to be worried. I don't  want to be consumed by the same rage, hate and prejudice that has destroyed the soul of these terrorists. But I need your help.  As a rational American, trying to protect my country and family in an  irrational and unsafe world, I must know how to tell the difference  between you, and the Arab/Muslim terrorist.   How do I differentiate between the true Arab/Muslim Americans and the  Arab/Muslim terrorists in our communities who are attending our schools, enjoying our parks, and living in OUR communities under the protection of  OUR constitution, while they plot the next attack that will slaughter MORE  of the same good neighbors and children?   The events of September 11 changed the answer..  It is not MY responsibility to determine which of you embraces our great  country, with ALL of its religions, with ALL of its different citizens, with  all of its faults. It is time for every Arab/Muslim in this country to  determine it for me.   I want to know, I DEMAND to know and I have a right to know, whether or not you love America ...... Do you pledge allegiance to its flag?  Do you proudly display it in front of your house, or on your car?  Do you pray in your many daily prayers that Allah will bless this nation;  that He will protect it and let it prosper? Or do you pray that Allah will  destroy it in one of your Jihads? Are you thankful for the freedom that this  nation affords? A freedom that was paid for by the blood of hundreds of  thousands of patriots, who have through our history, given their lives for  this country? Are you willing to preserve this freedom by also paying the  ultimate sacrifice? Do you love America?? If this is your commitment, then  I need YOU to start letting ME know about it.   Your Muslim leaders in this nation should be flooding the media at this time  with hard facts on your faith, and what hard actions YOU are taking as a  community and as a religion to protect the United States of America.  Please, no more benign overtures of regret for the death of the innocent,  because I worry about who you regard as innocent....  No more benign overtures of condemnation for the unprovoked attacks,  because I worry about what is unprovoked to you.  I am not interested in any more sympathy; I am interested only in action.  What will you do for America - our great country - at this time of continuing  crisis, at this time of war?   I want to see Arab-Muslims waving the AMERICAN flag in the streets..  I want to hear you chanting 'Allah Bless America'.  I want to see young Arab/Muslim men enlisting in the military.  I want to see a commitment of money, time and emotion to the victims of  this butchering and to our returning wounded and to this nation as a  whole.   The FBI has had a long list of people they’ve wanted to interact with  regarding the threats that they believe to be ongoing. Many of these  people live and socialize right now in Muslim communities. You know  them. You know where they are. Give the FBI a heads up as to where  they may be. Better yet, hand them over to us, NOW!  But I have seen little even approaching this sort of action.  Instead I have seen an already closed and secretive community close  even tighter. You have disappeared from the streets. You have posted armed security guards at your facilities. You have threatened lawsuits.  You have screamed for protection from reprisals.   The very few Arab/Muslim representatives, like CARE, that HAVE appeared  in the media were defensive and equivocating. They seemed more concerned  with making sure that the United States apologize and take responsibility for  actions defending our own people. They seemed more concerned with  protecting their fellow Muslims from violence directed towards them in the  United States and abroad than they did with supporting our country and  denouncing 'leaders' like the late Khadafy, the late Hussein, Farrakhan, and  the late Arafat.   If the true teachings of Islam proclaim tolerance and peace and love  for all people, then I want chapter and  verse from the Koran and  statements from popular Muslim leaders to back it up.  What good is it if the teachings in the Koran are good, pure, and  true,  when your 'leaders' ARE teaching fanatical interpretations, terrorism, and  intolerance? It matters little how good Islam SHOULD BE if huge numbers  of the world's Muslims interpret the teachings of Mohammed incorrectly  and adhere to a degenerative form of the religion.   A form that has been demonstrated to us over and over again.   A form whose structure is built upon a foundation of violence, death, and suicide.   A form whose members are recruited from the prisons around the world.   A form whose members (some as young as five years old) are seen day  after day, week in and week out, year after year, marching in the streets around  the world, burning effigies of our presidents, burning the American flag, shooting  weapons into the air.  A form whose members convert from a peaceful religion, only to take up arms  against the great United States of America, the country of their birth.  A form whose rules are so twisted, that their traveling members refuse to  show their faces at airport security checkpoints, in the name of Islam.   We will NEVER allow the attacks of September 11, or any others for that matter,  to take away that which is so precious to us -- our rights under the greatest constitution in the world.  I want to know where every Arab Muslim in this country stands and I think it is my  right and the right of every true citizen of this country to DEMAND it.  A right paid for by the blood of thousands of my brothers and sisters who died  protecting the very constitution that is protecting you and your family.    I am pleading with you to let me know. I want you here as my brother,  my neighbor, my friend, as a fellow American...... But there can be no grey areas  or ambivalence regarding your allegiance,  and it is up to YOU, to show ME,  where YOU stand. Until then, " YOU  WORRY ME!"   CANADIAN  COMMENTS:    We Canadians totally agree with this sentiment. I hope you will forget all about  the 'political correctness' mandate we've had rammed down our throats  by so many on the left, and see if this doesn't ring true in your heart  and mind.  For Canada, with all the multiculturalism we've been told is so important....  why should we not, as Canadians, expect that the millions of new people  immigrating to our country will show their love for our country, their  allegiance to our country, their willingness to obey the laws of our country,  and acceptance that we are a Christian country?  Just because they are able to enjoy exercising their own religion, they  should NOT expect us to be ashamed of ours.  They knew Canada was a Christian country when they came here.  Why are we erasing Christianity because immigrants who are unwilling  to adopt our way of life expect us to? There is just too much insanity  in the world, and we have to start taking a stand.  I hope you will forward this, so that others will feel they are not alone if  they are starting to feel the same.   BRITISH COMMENTS:   At last a clear non - racist example of the concerns that the vast  majority of our Nations population probably share.  The pilot's letter encapsulates all that is fair and just about national  pride and protection of one's national culture. I fear it may be too  late here in UK, BUT we too want our country back in the form  that attracted all these different cultures to come here in the first  place!! In all our conversations with a wide range of friends and  acquaintances we have not met one that disagrees with our own views.  If only we all had the courage of our convictions to pass this on, it  is a statement that should be accepted as the heart-felt feelings of  someone with honest commendable national pride.    Not all Muslims are terrorists but all terrorists to date have been  Muslims.  Stand up and be counted!   AUSTRALIAN COMMENT :  Best email I have had in years it needs to be in every paper every day until we get some answers.