The red, white and blue of US flags flew across the United States Thursday, as towns and cities rushed to line streets with the stars and stripes in a patriotic response to the worst terrorist attacks on US soil. Radio stations repeatedly played the national anthem and the country’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, sold 200 000 flags on Wednesday and 115 000 on Tuesday, compared to 6 000 on the same day last year. In San Francisco, some retail stores pulled the merchandise from their store windows and replaced them with US flags on the heels of Tuesday’s deadly terror strikes. The town of Reston, Virginia, not far from the Pentagon has replaced an ”end of summer” block party planned for the coming weekend with a ”Celebrate Democracy” rally. But in the midst of patriotism, there have been reports of backlash against Muslims and Arabs in the United States, including shots fired at a Texas mosque and rocks thrown through the windows of a Virginia Islamic bookstore. – Sapa-AFP
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