Personal Statements of Jewish and
Muslim Members of the Board
(in alphabetical order)
Statement of Steve Cohen, M.D.
As a physician and eye doctor, my professional life is devoted to the healing of my patients' vision so that they may more clearly see reality. My eyes have been opened to the possibility that the "official story" of 9/11 may not be faithful to the truth of the actual events or to who was responsible.
In addition to being a physician, I am also an American Jew. Recalling Jewish history and the Holocaust, I am painfully aware of what happens when we avert our eyes from the horrors of human history. While, I have been troubled by the fact that the official story of 9/11 does not seem to add up scientifically, I have also been troubled by the terrible condemnation of Muslims. Unfortunately, is seems that Muslims are now all somehow responsible for the atrocities of 9/11. As a caring and intelligent Jew, I am particularly sensitive to blind prejudice, to scapegoating, to intolerance, and to bigotry. I see this persecution as unjust.
Because the official story of 9/11 leaves many questions unanswered, should we not re-examine the events, and those responsible as well as the official verdict against the alleged perpetrators? Were Muslims the only ones involved in 9/11? Were they used as scapegoats? While not right, certainly blaming them would make an attack on Muslims justified in the eyes of many. Are Muslims now being persecuted like the Jewish people?
For these reasons, I am compelled to act as an advisory member of JMACSI 9/11, Jews and Muslims Asking for a Credible Scientific Investigation of 9/11, started by Moji Agha - a patient and friend.
Please visit and share your thoughts, feelings, and guidance.
Love of peace and justice.
Steve Cohen, M.D.
Statement of Yehuda Littmann
Tractate Mishna Avot (Fathers) 1:18 says, "Rabbi Shimon says the world stands on three things: Justice, Truth, and Peace." So, I sincerely thank all those who gather for the cause of true peace and justice.
I am an Orthodox Jew and a grandson of Holocaust survivors who lost relatives in the gas chambers. This is my statement of conscience, berifly explaining why I believe it is a religious duty for me to join my Muslim brothers and sisters, who also yearn for truth, in our common-ground initiative, Jews and Muslims Asking for a Credible Scientific Investigation of 9/11 (JMACSI 9/11). It is precisely because I am a faithful Jew that I believe it is especially incumbent on all Jews to come forward and demand a real investigation into what actually happened on 9/11 and the events surrounding it.
Why? Because about 3,000 people perished that dreadful day, and millions of people have been killed since--their deaths directly or indirectly related to 9/11. The BBC reported, however, that some of the alleged hijackers of 9/11 are apparently still alive, and Newsweek reported that three of them were trained in US military bases. Therefore, because the official story of 9/11 appears to be contrary to even basic scientific truths, so far over 1,650 architects and engineers have signed a petition calling for an unbiased investigation into the collapse of the Twin Towers and Bldg. Number 7.
Let us recall that none of the alleged highjackers came from countries that have been attacked since 9/11, and yet such "preventive" wars have been justified on the basis of what these 19 men supposedly did. Is the blood of the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust (including some of my own relatives) more sacred than the blood of the millions killed so far in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. -- and now they want to attack Iran!
In the 1890s France there was the Dreyfus Affair, in which a French Jewish army officer named Alfred Dreyfus was falsely accused of handing over military secrets to the Germans. Enraged, the celebrated French novelist Emile Zola published a fierce denunciation of this bigoted act, of falsifying the truth leading to the wrongful conviction for treason of an innocent Jewish man, as well as the related attempt to cover-up the scandal afterwards. Sounds familiar? Zola's conscientious intervention in this affair helped to undermine antisemitism and rabid militarism in France at that time.
Maimonides wrote, "One should hear the truth from whomever states it." The Ninth Commandment states: "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor."
I believe it is now our turn to emulate Emile Zola and declare: "J'Accuse!" but this time to defend and protect Muslims, the new Jews. Thank you for joining or supporting our initiative: Jews and Muslims Asking for a Credible Scientific Investigation of 9/11 (JMACSI 9/11).
Yehuda Littmann
Statement of Moji Agha
Dear fellow lovers of peace and justice,
Thank you for gathering together to try to prevent yet another country from being attacked by the "civilized West," this time Iran, where I am originally from.
Over 10 years ago, and only 2 DAYS after 9/11, as the people of Iraq were being targeted because their U.S. installed ruler had turned into "the next Hitler," I wrote in the online journal Counterpunch, that I am already tired, as an "Iranian in Tucson." Tired of being doubly victimized by 9/11, as a Muslim American. I am even more tired now, because Muslims have become the New Jews. So I have asked my Jewish brothers and sisters, who know historic defamation intimately, to help us as Muslims, against the horrible demonization that we are subjected to, again with 9/11 as the pretext.
BUT, I am even more deeply tired because we have come to know that the official story of 9/11 is at best suspect, and at worst a cover-up, with Muslims as its double and triple victims. So I ask you my fellow peace and human rights activists to join us in JMACSI 9/11,Jews and Muslims Asking for a Credible Scientific Investigation of 9/11, in demanding to know the truth of what happened on 9/11, because 9/11 continues to be the ultimate pretext for continued wars by the Empire. Our initiative is inspired by Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth.
Thank you again for caring deeply about peace and justice.
Statement of Prof. Mohammad A. Auwal
Dear Anti-War, Peace Activists:
I cannot thank you enough for standing up for peace and justice and for your genuine human concern for the current and potential victims of the insane wars of the U.S. and some other Western nations. You are probably the last line of defense for these victims. You are playing the most important role at this point of time in history.
I am a naturalized U.S. citizen of Bangladeshi origin. My name represents a sign that I am a Muslim. Professionally, I am a professor of Communication Studies at a CA university. Every time I travel via an airport, I feel the palpable effect of the 'received view' ('terrorist theory') of 911 in action. I am always pulled over for special, humiliating search. And every time I read/hear news or views on media, I see how Muslims are victimized by the inane use of U.S. military and diplomatic might, and on top of that, I see how Muslims are almost always blamed for bringing wars on themselves. Case in point, for example, is this: Just days ago, when speaking on the latest massacre of Afghan civilians by U.S. soldiers, the current White House Press Secretary Jay Carney justified the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan by invoking the official theory of 911. He told everyone to remember that "we are there (in Afghanistan) because we were attacked on 911."
As an academic, I have studied the horrible events of 911 very carefully, and I have good reasons to believe that the official narrative of 911 is incoherent and FALSE. It is a fantastic theory, a myth, a miracle in our world of science. To be effective as voices of peace and justice worldwide, we need to dismantle this myth, for the following reasons:
- The official theory of 911 represents an irrationally held truth that is used to call for and justify U.S. wars on Muslim countries.
- “Irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors” (Thomas Henry Huxley
- “Unexamined life is not worth living” (Socrates)
- “Indeed falsehood is ever bound to vanish” (Qur’an 17:81)
- “Truth stands, even if there be no public support“ (M. Gandhi)
- "A time comes when silence is betrayal” (ML King, Jr.)
In the meantime, scholars including architects, scientists, and professional groups have produced a mountain of documentary studies that conclusively explode the myths of 911. We now have the smoking gun evidences of 911 as well as the DNA’s of the truth of what actually happened on 9/11.
