I don’t know about New Jersey and dancing in the streets, but on 9/11 I was at a café in front of my apartment building in Montréal, and the patrons of the café who were overwhelmingly Muslim men were watching the footage of the Twin Towers with smiles, good cheer and obvious enjoyment.
In all fairness, however, before I witnessed that, I had already heard non-Muslim people from Canada, Spain, Mexico, Australia and Uganda express contentment at the attacks.
One of my biggest surprises on that day was how alone I felt in my shock and outrage over what happened. I found out about the attacks in class but it took me a while to believe the story because it was delivered in such playful, smug tones and with such outlandish commentary that I thought people were trying to be funny. It was unbelievable that this sort of news could be delivered in such a comedic way.
I hadn’t been to the US at that time and had maybe only met a couple of Americans, so I couldn’t understand the reaction. But now I have had many opportunities to find out that Americans have a tendency to adopt one of two attitudes when they engage with the world:
- Self-satisfied, self-congratulating, condescending superiority that drives people nuts.
- Self-deprecating, drama-queenish condemnation of everything American that leads people to think, “Hey, if Americans say they are such bastards, then maybe they are.”
None of these attitudes generate a lot of goodwill. This doesn’t cancel out the fact that the people who were behaving like jerks on 9/11 were, indeed, jerks. I hate them, they are all jerks, OK?
But, Americans, you are not making it easy to love you as a group (as opposed to individually, given that you are the most personable and easy to like as individuals of anybody I know.) Find a different collective narrative to engage with the world, shall you? I believe you deserve a more nuanced identity than the inelegant “We are the best / the worst.”
Clarissa's Blog 
I was in Vancouver the day of the attacks. Many of my neighbors said something along the lines of “The Americans had it coming.” My work colleagues (I was in business rather than academia at the time) tended to have the opposite reaction, acknowledging that going after Al Qaeda would be a just action. (They were also justifiably worried about their businesses; as entrepreneurs and directors of start-up and penny-stock companies, they knew that raising capital would be very difficult for some time (and it was).
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“Many of my neighbors said something along the lines of “The Americans had it coming.”
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And the only world leader who publicly cheered 9/11 was, surprise surprise: Netanyahu (the Saudis did it in private, I imagine).
“Asked tonight what the attack meant for relations between the United States and Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, the former prime minister, replied, ”It’s very good.” Then he edited himself: ”Well, not very good, but it will generate immediate sympathy.” “
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That fellow, seriously. I think he has some sort of a mental disorder, to be honest.
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Note to self: Do not share this anecdote around the Thanksgiving dinner table unless I want to see people go into orbit. Although after that whole “speech to Congress” debacle, just mentioning “Netanyahu” is enough.
So much of New Jersey’s population is a bedroom community to NYC. I remember no coverage of gloating New Jerseyites– I do remember seeing footage of Iranians burning flags and shouting “Death to America!” I decided everyone had lost their minds in fear when I either saw a news segment or a newspaper article announcing increased approval of racial profiling by black people. I cannot find this on the internet though.
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I have to say that the reaction in Poland was very different. All sorts of co-workers I hardly ever see stopped by my office or stopped me in the hall to offer condolences and offer the hope that no one I knew was affected (short answer: no). And people left candles at the American embassy in Warsaw
I appreciated the good thoughts but it got a little monotonous and slightly oppressive. I’ve purposely not brought up the Paris attacks with a French office mate because I’m assuming she’s had enough of that from everyone else. I’m hoping she’s not thinking I’m an insensitive jerk and I intend to explain myself later when things aren’t as … fresh.
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I can’t shake my suspicious Soviet nature: are you sure they weren’t compassionate only because they knew you were American? Would they behave the same way behind your back?
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I’m pretty sure it wasn’t just for my benefit. Every Polish city had people leaving lightedg candles some public place. The media coverage was mostly very reasonable and when I did overhear people I didn’t know talk about it they were not gloating or being nasty about it.
But Poland is probably the most pro-American country in Europe overall, if anything it’s too pro-American at times (in going along with cockamamee schemes like invading Iraq). Anti-American sentiments are actually pretty rare here (though other Europeans I’ve met in Poland sometimes decide I need a lecture on some aspect of American policy they don’t like).
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Poland has also been very pro-Ukrainian. Only Lithuanians have been as good to Ukraine.
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I was at a conference at the time. Mostly British and European attendees, academics or professional scientists or managers of scientists. A few north Americans. People were subdued – shocked, sad, the conference had a minutes’ silence the following morning. A lot of quiet, private offers of sympathy and practical help, e.g. a place to stay after the conference since there would clearly be travel disruption, loans of phone cards to try and contact the states, arranging access to email (which was a pain at conferences back then), that sort of thing. Some private conversation, all couched in concern and sympathy, but a sense that well, at least some Americans might rethink their uncritical support of the IRA (my generation were teens and young adults when terrorism from the IRA on the mainland of Britain was widespread), might get a little tiny fragment of understanding of what it’s like in so many of the places where they swagger around and lecture and try to make things simple. Of course that turned out to be wishful thinking, so far as one can judge from outside.
The strongest thing I actually remember about 9/11 was how wonderful and strange it was to see clear blue skies without any plane tracks at all (the conference venue was in a major city near an airport).
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It’s shocking for me to gear that anybody could have supported the IRA. In my part of the world, we never heard anything positive about them.
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