Xenia Citizen Journal

Some claim 9/11 has been politicized by the controversies about Pastor Terry Jones’s radical attention getting “Burn a Koran Day” and the Ground Zero mosque plans. Yet, 9/11 would be meaningless without being political. The message of those Middle East Jihadists endures through the images, protests, and commemorations of 9/11.

Yes, America honors their heroes who sacrificed their lives to save others. We remember the innocent victims who died at Ground Zero. It is part of the message produced by those Islamic radicals who attacked America.

Since that terrible day, September 11, 2001, American officials have obscured that message. At first, those so-called terrorists were accused to attempting to destroy our way of life. They presumably hated the freedoms of our open society. We also were told that those terrorists attempted to destroy important American landmarks. Apparently, public officials wanted to deflect our attention from the fact that those landmarks were all political institutions with global influence on Middle East governance and culture. Housed in the Twin Towers was government or quasi-governmental and international economic organizations. Surely, the Pentagon is more than an historical landmark. Yet, Al-Qaeda’s stated goal was to severely impede the U.S. government’s controlling influence in the Middle East. They came close to succeeding.

Consequently, Congress declared war on all terrorism. Being fair-minded egalitarians, most abhored the idea of only fighting against Islamic terrorists. That would be profiling. Therefore, all potential terrorists or radicals must be opposed even right wing Christian groups.

Whether America’s war on terror actually is comparable to the cold war with Russia, or the war on drugs, poverty, obesity, middle class lack, or the like is still uncertain. What is certain, like the cold war, America’s war on terror will be waged until politicians and bureaucrats discover Islamic radicalism can no longer justify their policy agendas like the New World Order many hoped Obama could achieve.

Many Americans have missed another very important part of the message sent by those Muslims who piloted their hijacked Boeing 747s into Twin Towers and the Pentagon. We have been told by politicians, government officials, Muslim leaders, other religious leaders, and the media that Islam is a religion of peace. Those radical terrorists do not represent true Islam, and many Americans believe them except those who have studied the Islam.

In the excellent article titled What is radical Islam?, the author, who has studied Islam for 8 years, persuasively argues that “radical Islam” does not exist. The words and acts of so-called terrorists, like members of Al Qaeda, demonstrate their strict adherence to the Quran, Hadith, and Shariah. Islamic moderates are those who are not faithful to Islam. It is no different from saying liberal Christians who defy certain parts of the Bible and doctrines are moderates while those who are truly faithful are radical fundamentalists.

As pointed out by the author of What is radical Islam, there is no such thing as moderate Islam and radical Islam.

“[T]he problem is that Islam is radical. It is not that there is a separate religion called ‘radical Islam’, but that the religion of Islam has many components that are considered radical/unacceptable/violent by modern societies…. To make Islam moderate, we would have to expurgate many verses (and entire chapters, such as that on raping female captives without impregnating them, so that their slave price does not fall) from the Kuran and Hadith.”

The author also wrote that those who claim radicals like Bin Laden are hijacking Islam are obscuring the facts. They are in fact seeking to hide from the scrutiny of Americans and others in western cultures.

“Every single action [Bin Laden] has done is justified by the Kuran and Hadith, and he has taken great pains to provide the verses that justify his actions. Not only that, for centuries, people like that were hailed as Ghazis (holy warriors) within Islam. It is not for nothing that in the muslim world, a majority of people hail him as a hero. It is only when you are trying to hide from the scrutiny of the west that you say he has “hijacked Islam.” He is merely a person who follows Islam to the word. He is, in many ways, a true muslim. In numerous Hadith, Muhammed says that the best muslim is not one who fasts and prays, but who gets on his horse and fights against infidels (especially polytheists) for the spread of Islam. That is what Bin Laden is doing. What about the innocent women and children he kills? Guess what – the Hadith emphatically state that it is perfectly alright to kill the women and children of polytheists. Nothing Bin Laden does is outside the Kuran and Hadith. He is not a “radical” muslim, he is merely a practising muslim!”

The meaning of 9/11 is that Islam’s true believers will fight the perceived oppression and corruption of the American empire and its leaders. Of course, it is the influence of secularism assisted by American business on their cultures; our government’s hindrance to their eliminating Israeli governance in Palestine; and America’s not-so-righteous military launching attacks on fellow Muslim countries from their homelands that forms their perceptions. That is why they attacked our national landmarks. That is why some respond to our political and military victories by retorting, “Kill Americans (read, infidels) anywhere you find them.”

The message that Islam is a religion of peace reveals a serious internal conflict within both America and Islam. It is a pervasive type cognitive dissonance about truth and its public expression. The culture war between conservatives and progressives, moderates and fundamentalists, religious fanatics and secularists is one by-product and the so-called war against terrorism is another.

Although denied by secularists, America was founded by Christians whose religious text does not justify violence and injustice. Judaism influenced the formation of America ideas as well. Although some Torah laws and punishments seem abusive to moderns, only in the Promised Land–Israel–is violence permitted in the due process of upholding law. Because the vision of Islam encompasses the conversion of the world, its justifications of violence and abuse make it dangerous. Nevertheless, as long as criminal laws exist and are strictly enforced, Americans can expect moderation from adherents of American Islam and all others.

But, watch out for those who would make American law conform to Islam’s Sharia.