TOW #1 "I Hate Them Too."

It’s that time of the year again, when the whole nation is mourning. Americans and people all around the world remember the tragedy that occurred on September 11th, 2001. The well known terror group, Al-Qaeda, committed 3 terrorist attacks. One on the Pentagon in Washington D.C., the second crashed in Pennsylvania, and the third at the World Trade Center in New York City, New York. Just 5 days after 9/11 MSNBC’s Daryl Cagle released this cartoon to the American public. In the cartoon above, we see two children. They both carry a sack lunch in an identical bag and wear the same shoes, but one child is different than the other. All though they don’t look the same, they are the same on the inside. One of which is dressed as the “typical american boy.” The other child is seen in traditional Islamic apparel. Because the attacks were committed by an islamic extremist group, it made many Americans have a prejudice against muslims. This political cartoon in a prime example. The little boy is giving the girl a disgusted stare while she says simply, “I hate them too.” Americans always say “Never Forget” when speaking about 9/11. I believe that Americans haven’t forgotten but they certainly haven’t forgiven. I’m not saying that what Al-Qaeda did wasn’t completely awful, but I am saying that not all muslims are bad. Islam is a religion that revolves around peace. “In Arabic, the word ‘Islam’ means submission or surrender – however, it was derived from the root word ‘salam’. From this root word, you can also derive the words peace and safety.” (muslimvoice.org) I think the author's purpose for drawing this political cartoon was to show that after September 11th 2001, all Americans were grieving. All races, religions, and ethnicities were mourning. From my point of view I believe that Daryl Cagle achieved his purpose. He did make me and others realize that all Americans were affected by this brutal terror attack, including Muslim Americans. Some Americans do not realize the prejudices and dilemmas that Muslims and Muslim Americans face everyday just because Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups put the islamic faith in a bad light; but if more people around the world would see this cartoons and cartoons similar to this one, then maybe islamophobia would not be such a problem in the world.