9/11 Was The Beginning Of A Religious War That We Lost
We thought religion had no real influence on peoples and cultures, so we failed to recognize the religious nature of the conflict1...
The idea that there would be no more major ideological conflicts, or that Western civilization had nothing to fear from competing cultures and peoples, was positively delusional...
It was a delusion, in other words, enabled by an Enlightenment philosophy that looked on religion as a quaint relic of a bygone era...
The terrorists' first priority was not for the U.S. to leave Muslim lands, or halt support for Israel, or stop propping up authoritarian regimes in the Middle East. All of those demands come after what bin Laden says is the first thing he wants for America, which is conversion to Islam2...
... almost no one in the West wanted to acknowledge this reality and its implications...
Less than a week after 9/11, as the rubble of the Twin Towers was still smoldering, President George W. Bush gave his now infamous "Islam is peace" speech after meeting with Muslim leaders at the Islamic Center of Washington...
... it was especially absurd, and indeed offensive, as a response to terrorist attacks that had just killed thousands of Americans...
In saying these things, the president was simply expressing the mainstream liberal view, shared by almost all our political and media elite, who were unable to recognize the religious and civilizational nature of the conflict that had erupted....
It never occurred to them that not all religions and cultures are actually the same, and do not produce the same things. It never occurred to them that Christianity, not the act of voting, is why representative democracy created peace and stability in the West...
That is the real legacy of 9/11. It was the beginning of a religious war that we lost because we refused to recognize the religious nature of it1...
Notes
1. It's not a religious conflict. It's a political war wrapped in the facade of a religion. Learn more about Political Islam, creeping sharia and Islamic conquest.
2. The tenets of Islam call for unbelievers - that is, Kafirs - to be called to convert to Islam. If they refuse, then they are ripe for conquest, slaughter, and subjugation.