Just two days after the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks themselves, writer Michael Luongo's piece, “Ground Zero as Dark Tourist Site,” was honored with a gold medal in the Cultural Tourism category as part of the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition sponsored by the Society of American Travel Writers. Said the judges: On the edge of darkness is where Luongo masterfully informs us of what is rising from the ashes of our memories. He takes us to the Tribute WTC Visitor Center and offers glimpses into the National September 11 Memorial and Museum scheduled to open in 2012. How ... Read More
A Spotlight on the 9/11 Anti-Muslim Backlash
September 9, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
In the days following Sept. 11, 2001, reactions to the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and inside United Flight 93 ranged from grief to rage. As it became clear the culprits were a band of 19 fundamentalist Muslims working for a terrorist group that draped itself in a violent version of Islam, some Americans blamed all Muslims. Within days, several individuals were killed in the U.S. solely because of they were Muslim or perceived to be Muslim. One Sikh man died apparently for the suspect activity of wearing a turban; a Coptic Christian storekeeper died because he was Egyptian. ... Read More
A Legacy of 9/11: Years of Increased Illness
September 9, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
To most Americans, the 9/11 terrorist attacks were shocking, frightening, enraging. Newly published research suggests they were also, quite literally, sickening. Two University of California, Irvine, researchers report the tragedy triggered a large and lingering rise in self-reported health problems, as well as visits to medical professionals, across the nation. Among a nationally representative sample of about 2,000 American adults, reports of physical ailments increased 18 percent over the three years following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. This story originally posted on July ... Read More
9/11 Memorial: Ground Zero as Dark Tourist Site
September 5, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
New York's ground zero, where the World Trade Center's Twin Towers once stood, is a place of what was and what will be. Ten years after terrorists flew planes into the buildings, the memories of what had been are fading into the dust of time and new construction. Chaos mixes with normality, pilings are driven into the ground, steel clatters as new structures rise. Bicyclists whiz past briefcase-toting commuters, both groups oblivious to curious onlookers straining to see through slits in the construction fences. These are the ground zero pilgrims, numbering daily in the thousands, many ... Read More
Sept. 11 Mood Study Based on Texting Is Flawed
May 19, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Last September, we reported on an imaginatively designed study that attempted to document how the mood of the nation shifted in the wake of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. German researchers analyzed the content of text messages sent to more than 85,000 American pagers on that day, and found indications of anger — that is, the use of words such as “hate” or “annoyed” — rose steadily as the hours went by. In contrast, the number of words indicating sadness or anxiety stayed relatively steady. As a way of gauging the public mood, the study was groundbreaking. However, ... Read More
Europe’s Muslims Get to be the Continent’s New Jews
December 12, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
In part two of the Miller-McCune interview with Islamic scholar Reza Aslan, we explore the various manifestations of Islamophobia in Europe, from the banning of minarets and religious clothing to the rise of ultra-right wing anti-Islam parties. Aslan — the author of No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam and Tablet and Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East, published this month — addresses the mythos surrounding Europe's Muslim population while offering some positive alternatives to the negative rhetoric and fear-mongering perpetrated both in Europe and ... Read More
Is Islam ‘Worse’ Than Any Other Religion?
December 3, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
A recent Pew Center poll reports that 18 percent of Americans think President Obama is a Muslim, thanks largely to a politicized misinformation campaign. The attitude behind the numbers—the notion that Obama’s purported Islamic faith makes him untrustworthy and a threat to our national security—underlies a troubling pattern. Consider Pastor Terry Jones' aborted "Bonfire of Korans," Newt Gingrich's remarks comparing organizers of lower Manhattan's Islamic cultural center to Nazis, and Oklahoma's pre-emptive strike against Shariah law and you can see why the term "Islamophobia," so in ... Read More
A Banner Year for Islam Bashing
November 24, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
It's been a bad year for Muslims in the West. The ground zero mosque uproar, the worry over halal burgers in France, Geert Wilders' parliamentary gain in the Netherlands, an apparent anti-immigrant sniper in Sweden, a preacher in Florida planning to burn the Quran, the advance of a stridently anti-immigrant party into Sweden's national parliament, and a bestselling polemic by a German banker, Thilo Sarrazin — who thinks Muslim immigrants are worse for his country than any other — amount to a backlash in Europe and the United States unprecedented since 2001. In fact, it would have made ... Read More
An Emotional Timeline of Sept. 11, 2001
September 1, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
The morning of Sept. 11, 2001 remains crystal clear in most of our memories. Tragedy has a way of imprinting itself in the mind, making it easy to recall both the horrifying events and the jumble of intense feelings that followed. A unique new research study finds a definite trajectory to the emotions we experienced that day. Fear, grief, rage: All were present, but only one — anger — rose steadily as the hours passed by. That’s the conclusion of an analysis just published in the journal Psychological Science. By no means definitive, but undeniably fascinating, it analyzes the ... Read More
Flying Past the Stepford Stewardess
August 16, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
When fed-up Jet Blue flight attendant Steven Slater slid down the emergency slide at JFK last week he activated a conversation among his peers and the traveling public over the propriety of sparring with customers who may, or may not, have had it coming. The first take from the public was a big thumbs up for his take on Howard Beale (if less so for his unorthodox exit). Subsequent information — he might have been drinking, he has had enormous family traumas of late, he might just be a jerk, maybe he'll get a reality TV show — are keeping his story alive, even if the follow-ups provide ... Read More
