September 11 : The Story of an Arab Neighborhood

One thing that heavily bothers me to this day about how Americans reacted to 9/11 is that most most Americans don't know that the site of the World Trade Centers used to be Little Syria, a thriving, predominantly Arab neighborhood. (I will hesitate to use the term "Muslim" here, simply because most of the immigrants to this area were Arab Christian, and only about 5% were Muslim). It was essentially the Arab equivalent of Little Italy and Chinatown. In the 1940's the area around the Brooklyn Bridge was evicted by Eminent Domain to make way for the bridge. In the 1960's the rest of Little Syria was evicted by Eminent Domain to make way for the World Trade Centers.

This is actually one of the primary reasons for the September 11 attacks on the WTC. Not only were the Twin Towers a symbol for American Capitalism and free enterprise (therefore, an attack on our way of life), but they were the cause of displacing an entire immigrant culture throughout the city. Of course, none of this justifies the actions of Al Qaeda, but it certainly sheds some light on their reasons for targeting these towers (even though most of Little Syria was Christian, but the Muslims did occupy the north side of the WTC site).

If they wanted death an destruction while strictly targeting Capitalism, they could have just as easily targeted the CitiCorp tower. The CitiCorp tower had a structural issue back in late 1970's shortly after its completion. With its peculiar column arrangement, the building was threatened to be blown over by a heavy wind. The building endured major strengthening while NYC prepared to the worst case scenario. Considering CitiCorp is a major banking enterprise, its in one of the densest areas of Midtown, and its still probably fairly easy to knock over, then it is obvious the WTC was target more a more retaliative purpose : for those displaced.

9/11 taught Americans many thing. It taught us to get along, work together, stay strong, be proud of being an American, and that these kind of horrors can happen to us. But the most important lesson of 9/11 goes unnoticed, simply because we hide the fact Little Syria existed there before. That lesson is : we must be conscious of our actions, no matter how great they may seem to us. Razing Little Syria was an abomination in the eyes of Al Qaeda, and further contributed to their hatred for Americans. While, on the other hand, Americans thought it was a great idea. We figured since the Arabs weren't integrating well into our culture, and that was prime real estate, we should just evict them so we can build some awesomely huge buildings. Because of these actions, great horrors befell us. (May I stress again, none of this is justified, on Al Qaeda's side nor America's side).

We need to be conscious of our actions, no matter how benign they seem us (who knows who we can piss off). We have learned from experience that failure to do so can have consequences of the greatest horrors and atrocities the human race is capable of.

For all those who died ten years ago.