Dear FOTH members 

I would like to begin my response to Feroz Karmally (#125) by trying to discern what exactly he is saying about 9/11. He asks that I should read his message and understand it. Well, I have read it, but I am still unsure. Has he joined that sad group of fringe lunatics who imply that it was an inside job? If so, he has hit the end-stops of my open mind. Such an opinion deserves only ridicule; after all, we should never open our minds so far that our brains fall out. His bizarre notion of the significance of the number nineteen falls into the same category. 

Where does Mr Karmally get his science? The fuselages of the planes were not ‘paper thin’ but extremely strong. In any case it is the shape that matters. Very flimsy structures will go through a wall if the shape is suitable and the velocity is high enough (it was). Blast expert Allyn E. Kilsheimer, who according to Popular Mechanics was the first structural engineer on the Pentagon scene, said, “It was absolutely a plane…I held in my hand the tail section of the plane…I found the black box.” Also, petrol or kerosene can melt steel. Steel beams in fact lose most of their strength at quite low temperatures. Wooden buildings burn and melt steel roof-beams. In fact here in New Zealand laminated wooden beams are preferred where life may be at stake (eg school halls) because they retain their strength until much later in any fire. In a really hot fire (as these were) the steel beams themselves ignite and contribute to the fuel. In fact it is quite easy to ignite steel. A friend of mine, a retired science teacher, ignited steel with one ordinary match in a chemistry demonstration. Aluminium can also burn, though it cannot be lit with a match. However, burning steel would probably ignite it. Mr Karmally appears to imagine that the temperature of a burning fuel is a constant. This is quite erroneous (except perhaps in the other-world of Koranic science); the discovery that it is the supply of oxygen and not the fuel that controlled temperature was the foundation of the metallurgy industry. 

Sound refutations of the 9/11 conspiracy movement can be found at this site: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/1227842.html. I also recommend http:www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/06-09-11.html and Penn and Teller’s short, typically profane, no-punches-pulled Youtube film on the subject at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcrF346sS_I.

Not content to ignore established science, Mr Karmally warps the facts of economics. The price of gold is not fixed but freely traded. The price of gold has not been fixed since the US$ floated and the price was $35 per ounce. Anybody can use the internet to see the mechanism used.  

Mr Karmally presents “facts that cannot be denied.” Actually, his mastery of facts is so unreliable  that if he were to describe a house as blue, there would be an excellent chance that it would be red. His labeling the Boer War as the “De Boer wars” suggests that he had never heard of it, but read about it in a book somewhere - probably the same one that gave him the "facts" about the price of gold and Jewish world domination. I'll wager he has a copy of "The Protocol of the Elders of Zion" under his pillow. Let us consider a few other claims specifically. He says, “There is no denying that the profit margin on arms is huge.” I’m sorry, but I have no idea what the profit margin on arms is. Does he? I have no reason to assume it is any higher than margins in the oil industry or the cosmetics industry. Saying that it is “huge” is not what I call a fact. If indeed the margin is huge, please give us a figure so that readers can judge for themselves. “War benefits the arms merchants and the bankers that finance the transaction.” This may be true, but misses the point that I made: this does not make for effective national policy, because it endangers the “peace” economy.  Would Mr Karmally have us believe that an economic policy that benefits solely Blackwater, arms manufacturers and a handful of banks would bring more prosperity to Western countries?  

When I wrote that the Pakistani community does not accept my views, I was not being racist. Not at all. I have nothing but admiration for the minority of people on this site who espouse common-sense views. Pervaiz Hoodbhoy is an intelligent, articulate and courageous man. But what I find disturbing is the almost universal acceptance by a huge majority of Pakistanis of outrageous conspiracy theories regarding Western (mainly US) policies. The downtrodden can only afford to attend madrassas. That is a tragedy. However, if the educated ones believe such nonsense as a kind of dogma, that is just as tragic, and a waste of their education. It is also a disaster for the future of Pakistan. 

Do I stereotype Muslims? Yes and no. I realize that the Muslim world is very diverse: an Arab is very different from an Indonesian. In that sense, I do not stereotype. However, I consider all Muslims extremists. However, stereotypes can be based on close observation rather than bias. I regard anyone as an extremist who believes that their holy book is the inerrant word of their God. I have met many Muslims, but none who have denied this. Very few Christians make this claim about the Bible these days. Related to this, a large majority of Muslims (not all, to be sure) do not accept evolution. Richard Dawkins has said that anyone who does not accept evolution in the twenty-first century can only be ignorant, stupid or insane. I agree. 

I am not sure how many people read these postings any more. I do not expect what I have written here to have the slightest influence on Mr Karmally and others in the deluded coterie of the True Faithful. They are most likely beyond redemption. But if I can reach the receptive mind of just one moderate reader with some horse sense, I will be happy.