| Remembering 9/11: Islamists are Our Enemy By Andrew L. Jaffee, September 11, 2003 |
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Today is the second anniversary of the vicious attacks wrought against the United States on September 11, 2001 by Islamists (also known collectively as "militant Islam" and "Islamism"). We need to pause and remember. We need to remember the victims of 9/11. We need to remember their families and friends. We also need to remember who did this to America.
The 9/11 attacks were not just localized incidents in which passenger jets were forcibly crashed into the World Trade Center (WTC), the Pentagon, and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. This was an attack against all Americans and against all people in the world who believe in freedom and democracy. This was an attack against me.
In 1997, my daughters and I stood on the stern of a Manhattan-based tour boat, and were awed by the skyline of New York City:
Last year, we visited New York to see what was left of the WTC -- a big ditch:
Just because I wasn't in the World Trade Center doesn't mean the 9/11 attack wasn't directed against me. It was an attack against humanity. It was a statement of pure evil. Some misguided American soul once said to me soon after 9/11:
What is everyone so upset about? Most Americans didn't even know the people on the planes, in the WTC, or in the Pentagon. There's no sense of American identity. Its just a big mess.
He obviously doesn't understand America. He's going through life with blinders on. When I take my daughters and girlfriend to the all-you-can-eat buffet here in the American heartland of Ohio, we sit next to tables of Indian-Americans, rural white Americans, Arab-Americans, African-Americans, suburban whites Americans, Jewish-Americans, Latino-Americans, Chinese-Americans, etc., etc. He must've never listened to bands like ZZ Top who honored Jesus Christ with a hard-rockin', foot-stompin' song like "Jesus Just Left Chicago". No such creativity flourishes under Islamist rule. Music was illegal under the Taliban.
My "acquaintance" must not ever attend the local Lebanese, Carribean, Reggae, or Appalachian festivals. Has he not noticed the flood of immigrants, including Muslims, that flock to America every year? People from every nation on earth have immigrated to the U.S. We all live and work together pretty darn well. America is indeed a land of opportunity, freedom, and democracy. Do we have problems? Sure. If you want to read about our problems, just type "corporate greed" into Google and you can read all you want. But I wonder how the man I quoted above would feel living in North Korea, Saudi Arabia, or Cuba. I wonder what (and if) he'll be thinking today, the second anniversary of 9/11.
We need to remember how we felt on that tragic day -- not only the shock and the fear, but the disgust and the anger that surfaced when realizing how absolutely evil the perpetrators of this act were and still are. When I say "we," I'm of course talking about the sensible people worldwide who see the 9/11 attacks as an atrocity and great evil, not those who sympathize for terrorists and rationalize terrorism. When I say "we," I'm not talking about groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), who "wants to create an Islamic state in America."
We must grieve for those lost on 9/11 -- and 500 of those killed came from 91 different countries. We must empathize with those they left behind. However, we must remind ourselves who it was that perpetrated such an evil act: The Islamists. Al-Qaeda, the group directly responsible for the 9/11 attack, is just one symptom of a much larger problem. And no, I'm not targeting or generalizing about Islam or Palestinians or anybody. I'm saying we should call a spade a spade. I'm saying Islamists support and are engaged in evil activities like terrorism.
Daniel Pipes is probably the world's greatest expert on Islamism. In his book, "Militant Islam Reaches America", he most eloquently said:
Does Islam threaten the West? No, it does not. But militant Islam does threaten it in many and profound ways. There is, indeed, no comparable danger in the world today.
One cannot emphasize too much this distinction between Islam -- plain Islam -- and its militant Islamic version. Islam is the religion of about 1 billion people and has been the host of one of the world's great civilizations. It is a fast-growing faith, particularly in Africa, but also around the world. In contrast, militant Islam is a utopian ideology, initiated in the twentieth century that attracts only a portion of Muslims (perhaps 10 to 15 percent), seeks to capture control of governments, and is nakedly aggressive toward all those who stand in its way, no matter what their faith.
In an article entitled "Protecting Muslims while Rooting out Islamists" which Pipes wrote for London's Daily Telegraph, he added:
Islamism is not so much a distortion of Islam, but a radically new interpretation. It politicises the religion, turning it into a blueprint for establishing a coerced utopia. In many ways, its programme resembles those of fascism and Marxism/Leninism.
This week's [9/11/2001] events mark not the outbreak of a new problem but the heightening of a two-decade-long pattern of Islamist violence. That violence is a truly global phenomenon, affecting such varied countries as Algeria, Pakistan, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Philippines. Islamists constitute a small but significant minority of Muslims, perhaps 10 to 15 per cent of the population. Many of them are peaceable in appearance, but they all must be considered potential killers.
In the same article (which all sensible people should read), Pipes counseled that we proceed forcibly but cautiously against militant Islam, building bridges with moderate Muslims, and:
Maintain[ing] the utmost respect for individual Muslims, mosques and other institutions. A time of crisis does not change the assumption that each of us is innocent until proved guilty.
When discussing the Islamists, we're talking about people who dress up children like suicide bombers, blow up buses full of civilians, run kindergartens to train children to become homicide bombers, crash planes full of innocent people into buildings filled with innocent people, and run extremist religious schools ("madrasas") that inculcate an early hatred of America in Muslim children. We're talking about people who celebrated the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. The Islamists have killed thousands of innocent people, many of them Muslims. Remember last week's bombing in Iraq where Muslim extremists killed at least 80 Iraqi Arab Muslims and wounded more than 100.
We can't negotiate with people such as these. On what grounds would we negotiate? Would it be something like what the French and German governments engage in?: "We'll ignore you and/or pay you off while you continue your plans to forcibly convert the world's populace to Islam."
I'm pissed off at the Islamists. I'm angry. I don't feel guilty about feeling anger. But my anger is not some flailing, mindless rage. I have directed it constructively, and am fighting the good fight on the political battleground by lobbying my elected representatives and trying to educate people about the dangers of Islamism. But I'll die before I allow some Islamist thug to disenfranchise my daughters and force them to wear bhurkas.
Photographs by Andrew L. Jaffee