Funny, it seems like we just ran an article last week with that same title. And yet, even more new subjects related to terrorism and our response to it popped up this week, both on the Lycos 50 and in the 50 searches below it.
Start with the term Jihad (#55). Last week, the term was around #100 on our list. This week, searches for Jihad were up 50 percent as Lycos users struggled to understand this multifaceted Arabic expression. Does it refer to a violent "holy war" against non-Muslims, as Bin Laden seems to use the term? Or, as moderate American Muslim scholars describe it, does jihad refer instead to the internal struggle to become a more observant, righteous Muslim?
Jihad is not the only facet of Islam that Lycos users seem to be trying to understand. Searches for the Koran (#63) were up 65 percent this week. Lycos has a number of links to resources about Islam, or check this handy glossary.
Another popular query this week was the New York Fire Department (#65). We got a number of searches for FDNY hats, such as the ones the Mets are wearing on the field these days. We also got a lot of searches for the picture of the firefighters raising the flag at the World Trade Center wreckage.
Right now the firefighters and police in New York are our American heroes, but if we go to war that may change. Lycos users were concerned this week about the fighting to come, so the military draft (including searches for selective service) was at #69. Searches for the U.S. Army (#71) have doubled over the last two weeks.
A number of feet have been placed in mouths since the terrorist attacks, but perhaps nobody created more controversy than Jerry Fallwell (#80). On The 700 Club September 13th, Fallwell said the following:
"I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way--all of them who have tried to secularize America--I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.'"
Open mouth, insert foot. Fallwell (and Pat Robertson, who sat next to him and agreed with him) have since apologized.
Also in trouble is Politically Incorrect host Bill Maher (#91). On his September 17th show, Maher said the following:
"We have been the cowards lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly."
Whoops again, although not quite for the same reason. To me, it seems clear that Maher is talking here about government policy, not the men and women of the armed forces who take the orders. But, that?s not how some folks saw it. Lots of folks were upset, and companies like Fed Ex and Sears pulled their ads from the show.
Part of the problem here, of course, is that "coward" is such a loaded term. People confuse courage with righteousness, but those are two different things. It is possible to be evil, but not a coward. Nonetheless, Maher had to make a big apology to save his show.
Speaking of controversy, the upcoming 2002 movie Spiderman (#67) received a ton of searches this week for a preview trailer that was pulled from theaters after the September 11. The trailer showed Spiderman trapping a helicopter full of bad guys in a web spun between the towers of the World Trade Center. The scene does not appear in the movie, so Spiderman should be released, as scheduled , in the summer of 2002. It should spend a large part of next summer on the Lycos 50 as well.
Finally, last week's well-circulated commentary belonged to the late Canadian commentator Gordon Sinclair. This week, everyone got an email with an essay by an Afghan immigrant in the United States named Tamim Ansary. In his essay, Ansary attacks the Taliban and compares the Afghan people to the Jews in Germany during Nazism, trapped by an oppressive government. Ansary got more searches this week than the soon-to-return Michael Jordan.
TOMORROW: The war's first breakout star among newscasters.
