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The N.Y. Disaster and Denmark

© Britt Koch Franczek-Pedersen

The disaster in New York on September 11, 2001 affected the entire planet. People all over was choked from the terror and cold blooded method which was used to kill thousands of innocent people in and around the World Trade Center.

Just like that the entire world came together and no one was in doubt that this was something not only touching the American people, but surely also people on the other side of the globe.

Coming from Denmark I got a pretty good idea of the reaction there.

When I woke up the morning of September 11 and saw what had happened I immediately called home to see how everyone was doing and to let them all know that I was all right. They already had been watching the news for a couple of hours and were on top of the events and were all very terrified and in grief over the attack.

People were crying for the dead and wounded and for their families, even though so far away.

The news was showing live coverage 24/7, but most people had CNN on to be sure to get the news as fresh as possible.

The very next day, September 12 at 7 p.m. Danish time, people came together at the city town hall square with candles to show their sympathy and to protest against terrorism.

People flocked to the American Embassy with flowers, poems and candles, trying their very best to hold their tears back, shaking their heads in disbelief.

All air port traffic was stopped for a couple of days and no one got together without talking about the tragedy.

Friday September 15 at noon people again gathered at the American Embassy to have two minutes of silence together with the rest of the world. The American Ambassador came out and gave a public speech, cars stopped driving and everyone sent their thoughts to the US and New York.

As everywhere else a few Muslim people chose to celebrate the event instead of mourning it. Unfortunately this, as anywhere else, was taken as an example of all Muslim people and quickly riots arose between the Danish and the Muslim people. If anything, we really need to understand that this is not how Muslim people are in general, and later on two out of the five who were caught celebrating later came on TV apologizing for their behavior saying that it was a misunderstood act. We need to remember to stay together and not apart.....

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