The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, commonly known as the NAACP, came under fire on Friday for calling the 9/11 terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people as a "horrific incident." Social media users lashed out saying the civil rights organization undermined the September 2001 attacks by not calling it an act of terrorism.
The NAACP posted a tweet commemorating the 19th anniversary of the co-ordinated attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Virginia and a plane crash in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. "Today we remember all the lives lost and families affected during the horrific incident that occurred in 2001. #NeverForget," the organization's tweet read.
NAACP Under Fire for Calling 9/11 'Horrific Incident'
The tweet met with backlash from Twitter users who said the NAACP downplayed the severity of the attacks. The organization was slammed for being "tone deaf" as users pointed out the difference between a "horrific incident" and a terrorist attack. Some users accused NAACP of dishonoring the memories of the people who lost their lives in the attacks.
"'Horrific incident' makes it sound like it was an accident. It was TERRORISM plain and simple. Serious question: was whoever wrote this even alive when it happened?," one Twitter user wrote. "Words are important. Do you really think that what took place was just a "horrific incident"? Unbelievable...," wrote another user.
Some users likened NAACP's tweet with Rep. Ilhan Omar's "some people did something" statement last April while describing the 2001 terrorist attacks. "For far too long we have lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen, and frankly I'm tired of it, and every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it. CAIR [The Council on American–Islamic Relations] was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties," Omar said at the time.
The September 2001 attacks are one of the deadliest terror attacks in the United States. Islamist terror group al Qaeda, then headed by Osama Bin Laden, took the responsibility of the attacks that left 2,753 people dead and over 6,000 injured. The age of the victims ranged between two and 85.
