(Original recording made in 2002)
Tuesday, September 11, 2001 was a perfectly gorgeous day. Late summer,
blue skies, ideal temperatures in SW Ohio. We were in our regular
Tuesday staff meeting that morning at WYSO when we heard the news; a jet
had just crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. Then
everything changed. By the end of that day our regular programming was
being pre-empted for special news coverage. For the next couple of weeks
my weekday afternoon music program was getting pre-empted to present
call-in programs to discuss the impact of these historic events.
President George W. Bush instantly declared that a War on Terror was now
underway. Across America thousands of cars and trucks displayed American
flags fluttering on their antennas. With this surge of patriotism and
anger in full force several weeks later we began bombing Afghanistan.
You see that was the country where Osama Bin Laden, the Saudi who was
said to have been the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks was supposedly
hiding. Almost all the hijackers were also Saudis but Saudi Arabia was
our ally then, as they are now, and attacking that country was
apparently never even considered.The hunt for Osama Bin Laden had begun.
As'ad AbuKhalil was a scholar living and teaching in California. A
native of Lebanon, As'ad AbuKhalil was asked to write a book about these
events and the impact that they were having on Muslims and in
particular, Arab-Americans like him. He rushed to complete this book-it
was a published just a few months after 9/11, in February, 2002.
This interview is a snapshot of that time and that history. The War on
Terror is endless. Today our current government is quickly declaring
that if you oppose what they are doing then you must be a terrorist.
Think about that as you listen to this program we recorded 24 years ago.
The Book Nook airs Saturdays at 7 a.m. and Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on WYSO 91.3 FM and streams at WYSO.org or wherever you get your podcasts.
The Book Nook on WYSO is presented by the Greene County Public Library with additional support from Washington-Centerville Public Library, Clark County Public Library, Dayton Metro Library, Wright Memorial Public Library, and Tipp City Public Library.
