WI: 9/11 Attacks carried out by Westerners?

Incognito

Banned
OTL, 19 hijackers were responsible for stealing the airliners and flying them in the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. Fifteen of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, two were from United Arab Emirates, one was Egyptian and one was Lebanese.

1) What would be the cultural and diplomatic fallout if the hijackers included amongst their number one or more Muslims from western countries (France, Germany, UK, etc.)? Would a hijacker being an immigrants vs. native-born make a difference in terms of cultural and diplomatic ramifications?

2) What would be the cultural and diplomatic fallout if Russian Chechens were amongst the hijackers?
 
OTL, 19 hijackers were responsible for stealing the airliners and flying them in the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. Fifteen of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, two were from United Arab Emirates, one was Egyptian and one was Lebanese.

1) What would be the cultural and diplomatic fallout if the hijackers included amongst their number Muslims from western countries (France, Germany, UK, etc.)?

2) What would be the cultural and diplomatic fallout if Russian Chechens were amongst the hijackers?

Multiculturism becomes unpopular Muslims have a harder time integrating some idiots do something stupid. PATRIOT act is more intrusive.

Russian Chechens are too busy killing Russians, their real enemy is the Russian state and so they have little reason to take part.
 
OTL, 19 hijackers were responsible for stealing the airliners and flying them in the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. Fifteen of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, two were from United Arab Emirates, one was Egyptian and one was Lebanese.

1) What would be the cultural and diplomatic fallout if the hijackers included amongst their number one or more Muslims from western countries (France, Germany, UK, etc.)? Would a hijacker being an immigrants vs. native-born make a difference in terms of cultural and diplomatic ramifications?

2) What would be the cultural and diplomatic fallout if Russian Chechens were amongst the hijackers?

1. If it were just one, I don't think any. Now if the majority were citizens of Western nations, that would have an impact.

2. I don't think much. Now if the 4 or 5 were, then Bush might come under some pressure to cut Russia some slack.
 

Incognito

Banned
1. If it were just one, I don't think any. Now if the majority were citizens of Western nations, that would have an impact.
I was thinking that even if 1 or 2 of the hijackers were from Western nations, it may result in greater anti-European sentiment in the US, especially if major European nations refuse to participate in the 2003 invasion of Iraq like OTL.

Though I have to wonder if Western Muslims participating in 9/11 is plausible. The inspiration for the thread came from recent news about radicals in Europe (eg: one of the terrorist in the Algerian hostage crisis was French). But I don't recall any news about radicals in W. European Islam community prior to 9/11. I don't know if this is because they just weren't there at the time in any noticeable numbers or if media did not pay attention to them.
 
I know its not the point of the thread, but what if a lot of the attackers were Indonesian or Pakistani? Would that make a big difference?

To answer the thread I think it matters how the European nations react to it, and certainly there will be even more opposition to Muslims trying to build mosques and stuff.
 
If the majority or all were British Muslim, then expect a massive reaction from the Blair government. Britain would basically follow anything the Americans did. Britain's worldwide prestige falls greatly.

Earlier in 2001 the UK had experienced race riots between the White British and Pakistani communities in Yorkshire. I can imagine that if it was Pakistanis who did the attacks then these would re-ignite and probably spread to other cities with big Muslim minorities.

So Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Newcastle, Glasgow and East London would have big riots and probably some killings..:(
 
I was thinking that even if 1 or 2 of the hijackers were from Western nations, it may result in greater anti-European sentiment in the US, especially if major European nations refuse to participate in the 2003 invasion of Iraq like OTL.

Though I have to wonder if Western Muslims participating in 9/11 is plausible. The inspiration for the thread came from recent news about radicals in Europe (eg: one of the terrorist in the Algerian hostage crisis was French). But I don't recall any news about radicals in W. European Islam community prior to 9/11. I don't know if this is because they just weren't there at the time in any noticeable numbers or if media did not pay attention to them.

The majority were Saudi, and OTL it has not led to anti-Saudi sentiment.
 

Incognito

Banned
The majority were Saudi, and OTL it has not led to anti-Saudi sentiment.
It did create general anti-Arab, anti-Muslim sentiment. And I did see on this site and elsewhere sentiments like "I wish Saudi Arabia fell apart/was invaded by Saddam Hussein/was invaded by America/was nuked etc." as well as arguments that Saudi's actively back terrorism. Somehow I doubt such things would have been as common had 9/11 never occurred or perhaps if perpetrators of 9/11 not been majority Saudi. I bet without that, the common stereotypical image of Saudi Arabia in the west would be Aladdin-land :p
 
It did create general anti-Arab, anti-Muslim sentiment. And I did see on this site and elsewhere sentiments like "I wish Saudi Arabia fell apart/was invaded by Saddam Hussein/was invaded by America/was nuked etc." as well as arguments that Saudi's actively back terrorism. Somehow I doubt such things would have been as common had 9/11 never occurred or perhaps if perpetrators of 9/11 not been majority Saudi. I bet without that, the common stereotypical image of Saudi Arabia in the west would be Aladdin-land :p

Think about it. You reach for an example of how bad the anti-Arab, anti-Muslim sentiment was, and what do you come up with?

Some comments on the internet.
 

Incognito

Banned
Think about it. You reach for an example of how bad the anti-Arab, anti-Muslim sentiment was, and what do you come up with?

Some comments on the internet.
Er, no, I reached for examples of anti-Saudi sentiment. Or would you say they are generally viewed in a positive light?

If I wanted to give examples of general anti-Arab, anti-Muslim sentiment, I'd point to the Church Quran Burnings, the protests against Mosques, military lecturers saying that "total war" (complete with "using the lessons of “Hiroshima” ") against Islam is necessary for U.S. security, etc.
 

Deleted member 14881

what about more lynchings and more talks about internment for Muslim westerners? NOTE: I do not support bigotry or killing against Muslims.
 
Except by those too dumb to tell the difference or too xenophobic to care about it.
Alas, there are too many of those. There's that lady who thought Hindus were partly responsible for 9/11 (her own words- either that or she didn't know the difference) who just killed one. Not long after 9/11 three men were killed in vigilante attacks. One was a Muslim, one was a Coptic Christian, one was a Sikh.
There could be a lot more of that ITTL... We might even get a Maple Street-like situation. (See the Twilight Zone ep of the same name.)
 
Haven't seen any of the shows, but yes, that was what I had in mind. Admittedly, I think the response will be reasonably small in most areas, but there are a few areas where neo-Nazis abound, so expect those areas to become exciting places to live for anyone who looks 'foreign' (non-white).
 
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