(In a conference on the GWOT, 9/11 and "Islamic ideology", I was in the speaking panel)
Young British man in the crowd asks me: Are you apologetic about 9/11?
Me: No. I don't apologize for 9/11. Why should I? I had nothing to do with it. I'm only sorry about the lives lost - regardless of who they were. But I am NOT a spokesperson for Al-Qaeda. No sensible Muslim is. Do I ask British people to apologize to me for colonizing my country back then, taking the rights of the masses away, ending freedom of speech, creating problematic borders that led to bloodshed, sexually assaulting the women of my land, westernizing the entire pedagogues in the subcontinent, turning my culture and my identity into a mystical subject for orientalist authors to go capitalize on? Have I asked you to say sorry to me?
Him: (remains silent)
Young British man in the crowd asks me: Are you apologetic about 9/11?
Me: No. I don't apologize for 9/11. Why should I? I had nothing to do with it. I'm only sorry about the lives lost - regardless of who they were. But I am NOT a spokesperson for Al-Qaeda. No sensible Muslim is. Do I ask British people to apologize to me for colonizing my country back then, taking the rights of the masses away, ending freedom of speech, creating problematic borders that led to bloodshed, sexually assaulting the women of my land, westernizing the entire pedagogues in the subcontinent, turning my culture and my identity into a mystical subject for orientalist authors to go capitalize on? Have I asked you to say sorry to me?
Him: (remains silent)