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Thursday, January 07, 2010


Thomas Friedman Identified the suicide bombers father as a hero do you agree with his opinion?




Why do you thin there are so many negative responses to Thomas Friedman's article?


27 comments:

Kendra D said...

I think Thomas Friedman Father's know best was a controversial article. The families of terrorist in other countries are offended that they are not being recognized for not supporting their children's actions. They think the United States should publicly announce the families who are doing the right thing..

Kendra D said...

I think Thomas Friedman Father's know best was a controversial article. The families of terrorist in other countries are offended that they are not being recognized for not supporting their children's actions. They think the United States should publicly announce the families who are doing the right thing..

adetayo ojudun said...

The father being identified as a hero is very understandable, because he was the reason why Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (his son)was even on the FBI/CIA's beware list. The father could have kept quiet about his radical son, but he decided to take a risk instead. Taking time and weighting the situation and not knowing if the outcome is going to be in your favor can be classified as a hero to me. The comments about the father not being a hero are most likely sufacing because people feel like the person who actually impeded the bomb from going off should be getting that metal of honor. Certain people may feel as though it was his civil duty to call out a suicide bomber yet it must have been a hard decision it being his son. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab father may never be able to his son again and that was the risk he was willing to take for the going of people and he should be honored for that at least.

Kendra D said...

Thomas Friedman's "Fathers knows Best", was a very controversial article. A lot of people were upset or appauled by this article because this is not the first time the families of the terrorist , tried to stop their child from doing such actions.That they should to get reconized for their heroic actions. That this article is based on one person when it should be based on people who tried to make a difference.

Mr.Pryce said...

i agree with Mr.Friedman because we fail to see what the father had to give up. He had to rat on his own son and disgrace his village in order to protect innocent people.This action might not be as flashy as tackling a suicide bomber to the floor but it has its credibility as a heroic action. & i think that there were so many negative comments because we view it as he is justifying the suicide bombers family. i think people are just very ignorant to the fact that hero's are not always judge by physical actions.

adetayo ojud.. said...

correction-
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab father may never be able to his son again and that was the risk he was willing to take for the good of the people and he should be honored for that at least.

Adam said...

Thomas Friedman was the father of a would-be-suicide bomber. It is my own personal opinion that he is a hero. What he did was truley difficult, even more so because he did not have one of those spur of the moment acts of heroism, on the contrary, he had the time to think about the consequences of his actions. Which, I believe makes it all the more heroic. As was discussed in class, there is a strong possibility that he will have to suffer mental and baybe even physical abuse from his closest friends, neighbors, etc. However, he put his own future hehind the lives of people he didn't even know. I believe that was a true act of heroism.

Samaroo, A said...

Ah, that last one about the consequences of his actions and stuff was by Adam Samaroo

Elizabeth P said...

Yes, Thomas Friedman does identify the father as a hero because the father went out his way to tell the US to watch out fot his son. "Bless him for that." I think the father is a hero for warning the US about his son because if it wasn't for him the US would've never known to take action. If the US took action faster than they did earlier than no one would've known there was a terriost plan awaiting on their plane. The reason there's so many negative respones to Thomas Friedman's article becuase people don't believe the father is the hero. It also stated how it was the peoples fault that the son failed to stay on the right track on life which they feel isn't true.

W Brown said...

Ummm... "Knowledge"-Thomas Friedman wasn't the father of the bomber he was the author of the article.

Shah M. said...

There are many negative comments towards Thomas Friedman's article because they don't agree with him.
Many Muslims don't like Friedman accusing them of giving the terrorist the title of "hero's"...many say that, they DO shame the people, but we never publicize it unless it becomes big like this one.

Many also believe that before asking the Muslims to shame their suicide bombers, we should tell our leaders to prosecute the US criminals that inspired the suicide bombers.

nbeckford! said...

I agree with Thomas Friedman's opinion on the view that the suicide bomber's father is a hero. The father gave multiple tips that his son was a threat to society. Still nobody gave him much attention. Heroes don't necessarily have to make a physical deed to be considered one. In this case, the father was prompting impending danger. There's so much negativity regarding Friedman's article because obviously they do not agree with the hero the father of the suicide bomber is.

Philip M. said...

Thomas Friedman may have classified the suicide bomber’s father as a hero, but I wouldn’t go that far as to classify him as that. Alhaji Umaru Mutallab isn’t really a “hero” to me; I would classify him more as a person fulfilling his duty. It was Mutallab’s duty to report his son to the authorities, otherwise he would just be considered as an accomplice protecting the bomber. He did this out of fear for his son, and, most likely, fear of what the U.S. would do to his village in retaliation. Being a hero would be actually going ahead to stop or prevent any more actions done by the suicide bomber from happening.
Thomas Friedman’s article received so many negative comments because of how he addressed the issue of the suicide bomber. In his article, he focuses mostly on suicide bombers from the Middle East. Ike Solem commented on the article saying that today’s focus on terrorism is a bit one-sided, and that terrorism from within the country could be on the rise. Terrorism is viewed by U.S. citizens as more fearful in other countries than in our own; “Asking Muslims to be courageous and shame suicide bombers would be more convincing if you at the same time asked our leaders to be courageous as well and prosecute the US war criminals that inspired the suicide bombers”, commented Marc.

Neal,B said...

I think the suicide bomber being a hero really depends on what his intention were behind the warning. If he warned the government about his son because he didn’t want to look like a bad father then he shouldn’t be consider a hero. But if it was genuine warning then he should be looked at like a hero even though his warning didn’t work at least he tried. I think there’s so many negative responses are because for one we’re focusing on the father instead of the guy who actually tackled the guy down. Another reason I think some comments are negative is because parents warn the government all the time about terrorists and those don’t get published so it may seem like this happens only once in a while.

D.Samuels said...

I agree that he is a hero. He just jeopardized his status in his village by telling on his son to protect people from dying and no one realizes this. Everyone thinks that the man who jumped over rows of seat to attack the terrorist is the hero. But if the CIA did their job no one would have to be in that situation. The father is the unsung hero and I hope his village and everyone understands what he did was the right thing to do even if he told on his own.

victoria.o said...

I think Thomas Friedman father is a hero in a way to where he is welling to give up his life in is village for the wrong doing of his son to like what Mr. Pryce said in his opinion. but to where the father is not a hero cause he did his job to tell the government he thinks his son's going crazy and the government did nothing about he could have in forced it on them to where he sees them doing more then what they can do to where they just waited for the boy at the next stop landing.

Alvarez S. said...

Due to the article and what the father has done to his son is seen as herioc is because if i was in the father shoes and if i was brought up in the world of doing what you know that is right then regardless on the relation to the boy i would have to say something to somebody. Though the son may be betrayed from his father actions it is given him a valuable lesson. Don't think that your father would just go with the flow just due to the fact that you are his son.
He is titled as a hero because he warned people that his son had a bomb. That he probably didn't want to go through the grief of thinking that he knew what his son was a doing and didnt do anything about it.
Putting ones life behind bars isn't as worse and killng hundreds.

Ashley A said...

I wouldn’t go as far to say that the bombers father is a hero, but someone doing what is right. While some suicide bombers families may be happy with what their children do, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab said he did not believe in the Islam that his son was practicing and was afraid of him. He was simply doing what he thought was right. If we were to call him anything it would be an example of change. I believe this article is controversial because Freidman presented a simplistic solution to a complicated problem. His idea of parents of radicals speaking up makes sense, but it a much harder thing to do than it sounds on paper.

Hogan,I said...

It takes a lot from a parent to announce that their child is the one killing all these innocent people.It also creates bad vibes between a father and a son that probably had the best relationship. So I agree with Mr.Thomas Friedman in "Fathers Knows Best" that the father of the bomber should be called a hero in this story.I dont understand why there were so many negative responses towards Mr.Thomas F.'s article because what would you call this man who stood beside the families that lost love ones instead of his son who took lives.

A.Tejada said...

I understand that the father is being identified as a hero. He jeopardized his life by him telling on his son to protect the ones in his village from his son. What he did was right because he was trying to protect others and no many realize this. Like adetayo said he took a risk, he took time to think about the situation, not knowing if he as going to become worse than what I already was. Many people are ignorant and don’t care on what others have to say or do.

Tiffany Hairston said...

To me Thomas Friedman's article was one stating some true beliefs but shutting out others' small attributes. I believe that the families of other terrorists aren't really being neglected or over looked because when did they ever fore-warn anyone of the attacks their children were about to commit? The father of the terrorist that called and notified officials that his son was a threat to a entire country did the right thing, and deserves to partially be called a hero in his own right.

I feel this way because if you look at it, you have to think as far as his over all character. He's a father before he's a noble cemeritan. Once you have children(doesn't go for all parents) you set aside all of everyone else's needs, and wants to make sure you can provide, and do right by the human being that you helped bring in to the world. So for him as a father to have to set aside his parental feelings, duties, emotions, and etc. to instead of trying to save somebody with a mind as corrupt as killing probably hundreds of thousands or more for an un-just reason, but to in a way sacrifice your own to save the lives of others is something that you have to look at, and commend in a way, because as a parent he could have honestly known his son's plans of attacks and turned the other cheek because whoever he killed or kills isn't one of his, he has no loyalty or responsibility to them like he does to his child.

He is a hero in his own right, and anyone who disagrees is looking through the eyes of someone feeling that they are being neglected of recognition that they don't fully need to come from someone else because not supporting acts of terrorism is the right thing to do regardless of whether your the person who denied someone help or not...

Ana J. said...

Of course the article received a lot of negative reviews. Many terrorist families were upset with this article because they felt that people thought that they were supporting their kid's unthinkable actions when really they weren't. What Alhaji Umaru Mutallab did was heroic. He told on his son although it would follow consequences. He saved lives.

supreet singh said...

Thomas Friedman identified the suicide bomber's father as a hero. I agree that the father of the suicide bomber was indeed a hero. Thomas Friedman identifying him as a hero brought many negative comments to this article because there are many people that are also heroes but do not get recognized. I believe that people where just upset that he was being recognized for his heroic act because most people do not always get recognized as being a hero after doing a heroic thing.

M.Karim said...

i think the father should be a hero because he reported his own son. i dont think many parents would put there own child in harms way with the government. i believe that alot of the parents are also claiming that they dont support there kids doing terrorist act but i recall in class Mr. Brown said some parents throw celebrations and get congratulated for there kids doing these acts.

C. Reyes said...

I think that the article by Thomas Friedman shouldn’t have been viewed as being controversial or appalling. I think that it was actually kind of eye opening. Learning that the terrorist who tried to blow up his pants had a father who told the U.S that his son was dangerous was pretty surprising. I agree with Friedman. I believe that the father has every right to be viewed as a hero. For a parent to admit that their child is this screwed up takes a lot. I agree with Moose that many parents wouldn’t put their child in harms way. I think that standing against his son for the safety of others makes the bombers father a hero.

geneva b said...

I think thomas friedman father know what was best. the families of terrorist is upset because they couldnt be hero like this father is being. they also upset because they couldnt stop there child or anybody like that father did by tellin the nypd how his son is a terroist and have a bond on the plane and was explainin to us on why and how he was comin to new york and also where he learn how to make bonds..he also told us how his son was in a mary in the country he came from.

geneva b said...

I think thomas friedman father know what was best. the families of terrorist is upset because they couldnt be hero like this father is being. they also upset because they couldnt stop there child or anybody like that father did by telling the nypd how his son is a terroist and have a bond on the plane and was explainin to us on why and how he was comin to new york and also where he learn how to make bonds.he also told us how his son was in a mary in the country he came from.