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Story Time!
Posted by Joshua White on 11.30.2006

Gather ’round everyone. Uncle Josh has a story for y’all.

I know that many of you came to 411 early Wednesday morning full of vigor not being able to wait for my latest column. When you realized that I hadn’t posted any new brilliance you must have been distraught. For that, I apologize.

Before I get to story time I thought that I would reply to a few of my followers’ emails to me. Apparently, saying the N-word gets people write to you. (I should try other obscenities and see if that works.)

Oddly, I got a lot of positive feedback from my N-word column. (If you haven’t read it…what are you? Crazy?) But I did also receive the standard line of thinking as I understand it:

If you are not Black then how could you possibly understand? In order to understand what Black Americans have gone through you would have to be black.

While the point of the column was not to address how hurtful the N-word is, I will address this point nonetheless.

No white person will ever know, specifically, what it feels like to be called the N-word as a black person. They can’t understand that specific pain or anger. But that is not to say that we don’t feel humiliation, pain, or anger. I’m sure that there are white people out there that have experienced the same sort of emotions on the same scale as a black person does when he is called the N-word. So while I, as a white man, can’t tell you what it feels like to be called the N-word a as a black man, I can tell you what it feels like to be humiliated, embarrassed and hurt. So, with that said I think that for the most part I can understand.

How does this specifically relate to politics (as this is the “politics zone”)? I’m not sure. I just wanted to get that point out there.

Ok, now we get to the good part: story time.

Since last week our government has apprehended two men who apparently were supporting the Taliban. Further, these two wanted, according to the news, to go over and fight with them against the “invaders” (read: Americans).

Kobie Williams, of my fair city, Houston, TX apparently gave $350 to an organization that he felt would give the money to the families of the Taliban. He was also training with firearms so that he could act in a ground based jihad.

By now some of you are asking yourself, “Uh, Joshua, besides the fact that it is slightly interesting that we are still finding Taliban supporters in America, why are you telling us this?” I would say in response, “Patience follower. Patience.”

So what does make this story so interesting (for me at least)? Kobie Williams, alleged supporter of the Taliban, alleged desiree of a ground based jihad, is my neighbor. For the past year and a half I have lived two doors down from him in an apartment complex in Houston.

I know this man. I have known him. I have had many discussions with him. He has been in my house and had dinner with me. He has babysat my baby. So to hear that this man, who you don’t agree with on religious matters, but is otherwise a decent chap is actually a small-time supporter of the Taliban…well, needless to say it was a shock.

It was amazing to see someone you knew and was fairly familiar with shackled up and looking like a criminal (obviously he is one right now, but you get my point). My wife feels bad every times she sees his picture on the news or in the paper.

It seems that Kobie had sympathies for the Taliban. He didn’t like that the American coalition went over than and bombed their cities and killed their people. When I asked him what he thought about 9/11 and reminded him that the war in Afghanistan was a result of it he responded in a way that it was clear that he had some amount of sympathies for the Taliban. I very quickly, gently but forcefully told him that he needs to be very carefully who he tells this to and how he says it.

To be clear, he never said that he agreed with what the Taliban did or is doing, he just understood the anger that they felt. Of course, Kobie was a Muslim and felt that only his way was the correct way. Unfortunately for him, his religious views lined up with the Taliban’s (though it isn’t clear that his political views did). So, this seems to be the reason why he gave $350 to what he believed to be an organization

Kobie plead guilty to giving the money to the organization in order to support the Taliban’s family. He is facing up to five years in a federal jail. Despite the fact that, as of now, I know that he did something wrong this makes me sad. But I realize that I’m thinking about this personally and emotionally, and not rationally. Rationally I know that he deserves some punishment for doing wrong. But emotionally I just wish he would have realized that he was acting foolish from the beginning and stopped.

The other thing that bothers me is that he was being watched pretty intently for having done so little. Kobie only gave $350 to the organization. That is a pittance. The authorities claim that Kobie and his partner were training in firearms so that they could go help out on the battlefield. But at the same time the feds have been watching him for close to two years. Two years for a man who can only afford to give $350 and is shooting guns?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not claiming he’s innocent. Yet, it is odd that they would focus so much attention on him isn’t it? Let’s be honest: it is a tough time to be a Muslim right now. You do anything out of the ordinary and the whole world comes down on you. We, as a nation, profile. I profile. And sometimes I think rightfully so.

I’m not sure how to handle this honestly. Recently six Muslim men were removed form an American Airlines flight. Let’s forget about the rumors that this was a set-up by the men to get attention, and let’s focus on the possibility that they were taken off the plane because they prayed beforehand. These men claim that they simply prayed before their flight and because of this they were removed. Is that enough to legally ask someone to get off the plane?

I can’t claim to know the law as much as I would like. But I will say that as a people the Muslims have to be careful right now. It is unfortunate but if a Jew or a Christian were to be seen praying before they get on a flight, nobody would care. However if a Muslim were to do the same thing people would become uncomfortable. This is at most minimally the American Muslim’s fault. This is the fault of the Taliban. This, like my fear that I talked about in my other column, was brought about by their actions. At most the American Muslim is at fault for not more publicly condemning these actions.

The American Muslim has been ostracized by one of their own factions. This is probably why Kobie was caught. If I were to donate $350 to the mob I’m fairly sure nobody would care or catch on.* But I’m sure that Houston feds were keeping an eye out for local Muslims to be acting like this. As I have said, I’m not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, I don’t like people being treated different because of their religions or race. On the other, it is primarily one type of person who is acting like this. Kobie is just more evidence of this.

I haven’t given any strong feelings either way in this column. That is because, unlike all the Bill O’Reillys and other fools, some issues are hard and I just don’t know how to feel about them. But maybe this is one of the issues about which you do feel strongly. If so, please email me and tell me how I should feel about this subject.

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