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The September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack occasioned spontaneous outbreaks of public celebration in a number of Arab Muslim communities. Press and television coverage of these celebrations were met with shock and outrage in the United States. Terrorist sympathizers in other nations often contrasted them with what they believe to be a justified distrust and antipathy to American hegemony.
There were reports of celebrations on the West Bank, and at the time there was an urban legend that the footage of some Palestinians celebrating the attacks was faked, and that it was actually footage from the invasion of Kuwait. This was proven false shortly afterwards , and the media widely circulated that fact.
However, the US media did not widely circulate European media reports (by the German weeklies Der Spiegel and Stern, by the German public TV magazine Panorama and by the Swedish Dagens Nyheter) that while the footage was indeed correctly dated, reporters may have partly staged one of the scenes. One woman was quoted saying that she was offered a piece of pie for whooping it up in front of the camera. It is unclear whether it was explained to the woman what she was supposedly celebrating, nor is it clear whether the person who offered her the treat was a reporter. The Panorama TV report which analyzed the full video footage noted (translated):
- A closer look at the complete film material which was not broadcast shows that the street around the celebration is quiet. Only in front of the camera there are a few excited children. The woman, who is remembered for her cheering, shortly afterwards moves along quietly. A man in a white T-shirt is conspicuous. He incites the children, and keeps fetching new people. The woman who just left the picture says today that she was offered cake if she celebrates on camera, and that she was appalled when she saw the pictures on television.
On the day of the attacks, Times Newspapers LTD. (British) reported that 30 celebrants were pouring into the streets of Nablus and dozens of people were celebrating in Arab East Jerusalem.
Moderate Palestinians and the Palestinian leadership quickly distanced themselves from any celebrations. The Palestinian Authority recognized the matter as a public-relations nightmare and moved quickly to suppress further reports of public celebrations. Ahmed Abdel Rahman, Arafat's Cabinet secretary, said the Palestinian Authority could not "guarantee the life" of an Associated Press cameraman if footage he filmed of post-9/11 celebrations was broadcast. Rahman's statement prompted a formal protest from the AP bureau chief, Dan Perry. A few days after the September 11th attacks, Yasser Arafat symbolically donated blood for victims of the attacks.
Members of the Westboro Baptist Church went to New York City to protest the rescue efforts going on there, mocking victims as they were taken from the rubble, shouting obscenities at rescue workers, and demanding that those still alive be left to die. Phelps reasoned that God had caused the terrorist attacks as a punishment for tolerance of homosexuality, and that it was God's will that those who suffered in the attacks should die. Signs carried at the Ground Zero site included, "THANK GOD FOR SEPT. 11", "FDNY SIN (with a picture of stick-figures engaged in anal sex)", "NYPD FAGS (with a picture of stick-figures engaged in anal sex)", "YOUR PENTAGON IS SQUARE", and "TOWERS CRASH, GOD LAUGHS".
At the same time, Phelps also wrote several songs about the incident and recorded them with the Westboro Baptist Church Choir. The two most notable songs (which Phelps published on his own record label, named for the church) were "God Hates America" and "America the Burning," which are both sung as hymns mocking the dead and thanking God for killing WBC's enemies. The third song, "I Like to Watch," was told from the point of view of someone masturbating to footage of the WTC collapsing; the lyrics implied that the narrator is either a gay man or God Himself. The song quickly popped up on Ogrish.com as part of their series on the terrorist attacks; shortly thereafter, the song was yanked from WBC's homepage and has never been re-posted or referred to again.
Phelps's group also planned a protest at the funeral of David Charlebois, gay copilot of the plane that was crashed into The Pentagon as part of the September 11, 2001 attacks.