Nineteen years ago today we watched in horror as passenger planes full of people were crashed into the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon, intentionally killing thousands of people going about their lawful enterprises. Only later we learned about the crashed plane in Pennsylvania which was intended to hit either the Capitol or the White House.
Many have written that we should remember the heroism exhibited that day by the first responders, by those who volunteered, and by the passengers on Flight 93 who died heroically fighting hijackers with their bare hands to crash that plane. I couldn’t agree more.
I write today to ask you to also remember who our enemy was that day, and on whose behalf they fought, people who remember the attackers as martyrs. We are currently experiencing a lull in the Long War, and that is great. There is a temptation, a wish to think maybe the other side has given up. Don’t believe it. In a very real sense they cannot give up, so we must not drop our guard.
Islam is still in an “error has no rights” phase of its religious development, and when (or indeed if) they’ll get over it is unclear. Our sort of acceptance for religious pluralism (including atheism and agnosticism) is anathema to many Muslims today, as it was to Christianity during the 16th and 17th centuries. I know of no majority Muslim nation today in which the principle of separation of church and state is operational, or even given serious lip service.
