A Further Perspective
Like It or Not, 9/11 is About Islam
Everybody knows it except our president.
By Aaron Goldstein – 9.11.14
Thirteen years have now passed since al Qaeda terrorists carried out their attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. If not for the valiant efforts of the passengers of United 93, the White House or Capitol Hill might have been added to that list. Their courage would save thousands of lives.
Yet 2,977 people would perish on September 11, 2001. I saw the pictures of every one of those men, women and children at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum last May. As I noted at the time, the exhibit made it clear who was responsible for those pictures being there and the religious ideology that motivated them.
What is so troubling is the ongoing insistence that there is no connection between the attacks of September 11, 2001 and Islam. It isn’t to say that every single Muslim in the world bears responsibility for 9/11. But if we insist on pretending their isn’t a critical mass of Muslims prepared to murder innocent civilians, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, in the name of Islam, then we only succeed in insulting our intelligence, thus ensuring that this will continue to happen. There is a problem within Islam and the consequences of this problem is the 9/11 attacks by al Qaeda and the beheadings of journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff by ISIS and numerous incidents in between. According to the website, the Religion of Peace, there have been 23,795 acts of Islamic terrorism since September 11, 2001.
The biggest offender in insisting there is no connection between Islam, 9/11 and other terrorist attacks that have been committed since is President Obama. For more than five years now, Obama has told us that we are not at war with Islam. But a significant segment of Islam is at war with us. Unfortunately, Obama will never acknowledge this fact. So I could hardly be surprised when Obama disclosed last month that his administration didn’t have a strategy concerning ISIS. If President Obama can’t utter the phrase “the war on terror,” how can we expect him to have a strategy against those who engage in terror?
What does someone have to do for Obama to acknowledge there are acts of terrorism committed in the name of Islam? How about carrying out an attack on one of our consulates on the anniversary of the September 11th attacks? An Internet video is the culprit. How about when someone screams “Allahu Akbar!!!” as he mows down a dozen of our finest men and women in uniform on this country’s largest military base? Blame workplace violence.
So it should hardly come as a surprise that Obama would claim ISIS speaks for no religion even if ISIS stands for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Just as with Nidal Malik Hasan’s business cards bearing the inscription “S of A” – Soldier of Allah — Obama sees no evil, hears no evil. All Obama can do is make a speech asking Congress for money — $5 billion to be exact. I suppose it’s a step up from when he bypassed Congress leading from behind in Libya in 2011. And what did that get us? Four dead Americans at our consulate and an abandoned embassy now being used a jihadist Club Med.
Now Congress will likely give Obama its blessing. But how will Obama use these additional resources Congress bequeaths him? Will he direct these resources to “destroy and degrade” ISIS or is he merely striving to make them “a manageable problem”? I suspect he will do the latter as opposed to the former.
It worries me when the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights chief speaks out against ISIS with more conviction than Obama. Prince Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein of Jordan calls a state ruled by ISIS “a harsh mean-spirited house of blood.” Don’t get me wrong. Hussein’s words are more than welcome. It’s heartening to hear a prominent Muslim speak out so forcefully against ISIS. But neither a Jordanian prince nor the UN Human Rights Commissioner (even if he is one in the same) has the power the President of the United States possesses.
It is true that Obama was able to use his power to authorize the killing of Osama bin Laden. With bin Laden dead, Obama insisted al Qaeda was on the run. Despite Benghazi, this argument helped Obama win a second term in the White House. As Obama dithered in Iraq, Syria, and Libya, these assurances turned out to be false. Not only does al Qaeda remain active, but now ISIS has emerged with American blood on its hands.
Neither al Qaeda nor ISIS will be on the run as long as their ideology of Islamic supremacy remains alive, well, and unchallenged. It is this ideology that led ISIS to behead two American journalists and the ideology that led al Qaeda to attack to kill 2,977 people at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania 13 years ago. Like it or not, the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the attacks that have followed are about Islam. Until the President of the United States acknowledges this we shall never triumph over this evil. We know our current President won’t make such an acknowledgement. We can only hope our next President will.
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Source URL:
http://spectator.org/articles/60397/it-or-not-911-about-islam
