Held to answer

Every year we unknowingly pass the anniversary of what will be the date of our own death. Except for W.S. Merwin, who wrote a poem on the subject, most people don’t think about this.

Melissa Doi’s anniversary was Sept. 11, trapped in the South Tower, the victim of religious terrorists. But her final minutes live on in a 9-1-1 tape where a dispatcher tries to console her: “Say your prayers … Say your prayers.”

Now 10 years on, we have celebrity journalist Katie Couric lecturing us on the need to open our hearts and minds to Muslims through the power of laughter. We need a Muslim “Cosby Show,” she said, or something like the Canadian sitcom called, “Little Mosque on the Prairie” about Muslims and Christians trying to get along.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has praised the show for fostering “cross-cultural unity and understanding through comedy.”

The show’s American/Canadian executive producer, Mary Darling, explained on the BBC this week, “At the end of the day we’re talking about the oneness of humanity, normalizing the ‘other.’”

Would these three women have ever dared to tell blacks that they needed to become one with whites? Of course not. If they were as open-minded as they think they are, they would consider that some of the presumed hatred being directed at Muslims is, in fact, a justifiable reaction to religious fanatics (whether they’re Christian, Muslim or Jewish).

The problem in the U.S. isn’t hatred or fear of the “other.” It’s complacency towards people we underestimate.

“Terrorists are undergoing a dangerous metamorphosis – from technological clods relying on fanaticism to skilled tacticians. The Reagan administration and its successor should prepare themselves and the public for devastating attacks.” That was the warning in a 1988 New York Times essay by Robert Kupperman, an expert on terrorism. As his obituary in 2006 noted, no one at the White House paid any attention.

While terrorists were putting down roots in America and learning to commandeer our technology, we were getting a head start on cultural and religious sensitivity.

Almost two years before 9/11, the relief first officer of EgyptAir 990 heading from New York to Cairo disconnected the autopilot and forced the plane into a nosedive, plunging it into the Atlantic Ocean south of Nantucket. All 217 persons on board died.

“Tawakkalt ala Allah (I rely on God),” Gameel al-Batouti was heard saying calmly on the cockpit voice recorder while the captain was in the restroom. “Tawakkalt ala Allah,” he repeated six times in quick succession. “I rely on God.” Six times, as the plane dived downward, eventually hitting the speed of sound. “I rely on God.”

In their initial findings, investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) attributed the cause of the crash to “pilot error.” There had been leaks in the media about the cockpit voice recorder, so at a press conference NTSB chairman Jim Hall chose his words carefully. The crash “might, and I emphasize might, be the result of a deliberate act.”  He never used the words “suicide,” “Arab,” or “Muslim.”

Nevertheless, the Egyptian government (then led by Hosni Mubarak) was outraged and demanded more, and costlier, tests to prove another cause.

“The problem was that so many of the scenarios the Egyptians posited were patently absurd – stray missiles, ghost airplanes, strange weather, and the like,” wrote William Langewiesche in The Atlantic.

Langewiesche, a former professional pilot, brought an engineer’s respect for objective facts to his journalism. He wrote in unsentimental prose, never resorting to melodramatic words like “horrific.”

Langewiesche described how the NTSB investigators repeatedly backed down in their dealings with the Egyptians. By May 2001, Shaker Kelada, who led the Egyptian delegation, was gloating when he recalled how the NTSB’s Hall told him that he had learned a lesson from the Egyptians: Before investigating the crash of EgyptAir 990, he should have studied the history and culture of Egypt.

When the NTSB’s final report was issued in March 2002, the agency stopped short of saying Gameel al-Batouti intentionally crashed the plane, simply stating that the accident occurred “as a result of the relief first officer’s flight control inputs.”

The Egyptians still disagreed with the NTSB’s final report, but their outrage was starting to subside. By then 9/11 had occurred.

Perhaps Egyptians felt they no longer had to prove their superiority over the U.S.

On the 10th anniversary of 9/11 we are still proving our cultural and religious sensitivity.

And the tape of the 9-1-1 operator is still consoling Melissa Doi: “Say your prayers.”

– Pamela Fitzsimmons