The History of America
Chapter 33
The War Against Islam
Most historians now consider that the first event that ultimately led to the war was the terrorist hijacking of four jumbo jet liners, three of which were then used as missiles that struck the twin towers in New York City and the Pentagon.
The 9/11 attacks, as they quickly came to be called, were, in retrospect, the work of a very small cadre of terrorists who were led by a charismatic figure named Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden had fought with the mujahedeen against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
He rose from that conflict to lead a group of radical believers (known as “al Qaeda,” or “the Base”). Their numbers in the decade that followed were still small, perhaps no more than several thousand, but they found safe haven in the remote mountain regions of Afghanistan, which, by then, was dominated by the Taliban. The Taliban practiced and enforced a form of sharia law that demanded fundamentalist adherence to the most extreme interpretations of the Koran, the religion’s holy book.
Bin Laden allegedly developed intense anti-American attitudes when U.S. military forces embedded themselves in his native homeland, Saudi Arabia, during the first Gulf war. That war, circa 1990, was prosecuted by the United States and a large coalition of nations (some of them Islamic from the Middle East) to reverse the takeover of a small oil rich country, Quwait, by one of its neighbors, Iraq.
Iraq was, at the time, ruled by a ruthless dictator named Saddam Hussein. Hussein had been supported in his takeover of control of the country, circa 1970, by the United States government, and had received tacit support from the U.S. throughout the 1980s in a bloody war against Iraq’s neighbor, Iran.
The first Gulf war ended with the restoration of sovereign rule to Kuwait, but Hussein remained in power in Iraq. That fact became significant in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks when President George W. Bush, the son of the previous U.S. president of the same name (who had led the fight against Hussein in Gulf War I), took his country to war again in Iraq. That war was the second to involve a heavy commitment of U.S. forces in the region at the same time.
The first was the war in Afghanistan, which began in the months immediately following the 9/11 attacks. It was started, at least as originally explained by Mr. Bush, to bring the al Qaeda terrorists, and their leader bin Ladin, to justice.
Bin Ladin was never captured or killed in that long war (the longest in the country’s history), and the reasons for its continuation changed repeatedly as U.S. presidents succeeded each other and never found a way to disengage.
But it may have been the invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of Hussein that created the greatest negative consequences for the United States. Much of the Islamic world viewed the invasion with contempt, and many observers believe that the prosecution of that war converted many moderate Muslims in the region into bin Ladin followers, if not soldiers in his organization.
That organization grew significantly throughout the first decade of the century, with active cells operating in many countries beyond Afghanistan and its neighbor, Pakistan, which was where bin Ladin appears to have remained until his death, many years later.
By then, his hopes for a worldwide jihad had largely been achieved. He was aided immensely by a political movement in the United States that developed during the presidency of Barack Obama. Obama, the country’s first black president, was felt by some on the far right of American politics to be a sympathizer with, if not a practitioner of, Islam. Throughout his presidency, he was accused of not being an American and of being a Muslim.
And then, in 2010, a controversy developed that led to a strong outpouring of hostility towards Muslim-Americans. The incident concerned a cultural center that a moderate Muslim intended to build in New York City, not far from the site of the twin towers that had been felled in the 9/11 attacks. Opposition to the construction of the center grew exponentially as right-wing politicians joined the cries against the plans for the center.
This groundswell soon became something of a national movement, marked by many concerted acts of violence against Muslim mosques and against individuals believed to be Muslims. Moderate politicians remained silent in the face of these acts, leading to an increase in their frequency and intensity. President Obama did make one attempt to support the construction of the cultural center in New York, but he quickly backed away from that position when the right-wing media and members of the then-nascent Tea Party called him down for it.
Ultimately, anti-Islamic feelings became a major political issue, even eclipsing the failing U.S. economy as an election issue that fall.
The stage was thus set for the next al Qaeda attack, which came in the form of the dirty bomb that detonated in midtown Manhattan in the summer of 2012. It killed 10,000 people, but the radiation that it released sickened many and killed several hundred more in the weeks following its blast.
It was then that President Obama, facing very low poll figures in his re-election campaign, succumbed to the calls from members of both political parties and ordered that all members of the Muslim faith then residing anywhere in the United States be taken to relocation camps.
The war within the country began shortly thereafter, as large bands of renegade Muslims used guerilla tactics to wreak havoc in major U.S. cities.
Those battles consumed the country for several years as Arab states grew increasingly restive. By 2015, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Iran and Lebanon had all broken off diplomatic relations with the U.S. Iraq followed the following year. With the loss of oil some of those countries had provided, the U.S. economy sunk even deeper into a second Great Depression.
Finally, in 2017, the newly elected president, the first from the new Tea Party, declared war on all the Muslim Arab states.
Next: Chapter 34 – The aftermath of the war
Geez, Ed, your crystal ball is in a bad mood. It makes perfect sense of course. But doesn’t it see any slightly more optimistic possibilities? This makes predictions for the end of the world happening in 2012 seem cheery by comparison.
xo dw
Well, Ed, I’m inclined to agree that taking out Insane may have been a mistake mainly because Ameircans had no clue how screwed up the muslim world really was, at the time, Now we know. I don’t believe the part about Mosques being distroyed. But, I can see esculated terrisom being purpotrated against on muslims within Amercia happening and muslim countrys putting a plug in the oil pipe. But all of that being said I suspect Obummer will have distroyed America by the end of his first term.
So opposition to the ground zero mosque will result in 10,000 American deaths, a declaration of war against all Arab states, and it will be the fault of Tea Partiers. This one is an all time classic.
You’re right! it is spiritual warfare! For over 60 years, radical Muslims have sought the “hundredth egg” so they can lay waste to the world and all that is in it. There is a better answer, but maybe too obvious for many of us. This Tea Partier suggests:
LET’S BUILD THE AL SAYIDDA MOSQUE
In a Western World that has ceased to be openly Christian, we have created a spiritual vacuum that will be filled by renewal or conquest, like it or not. History does repeat itself. Yet we cling to unworkable political solutions for peace among us and renewed rounds of hatred that must be stayed.
I might favor a Muslim sponsored house of prayer near the World Trade Center site on one absolute condition – that it be dedicated to and honor the exhortations for repentance, peace and the love of God of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus!
Why? Mary is for Muslims. “The True Sayidda or Lady!” The Prophet Mohammed held her up as the greatest example of humanity. She is also Mother of all, since Jesus gave her to us as he was dying on the cross. When I was a student at Immaculate Conception School in Chicago during WWII, we dedicated our nation to the Blessed Virgin. I remember a few lines from a song to Mary asking for her prayers to God for America – “O shed on our bright colored flag thy mild light; let its folds in thy radiance shine. Oh keep it a symbol of freedom and right. ‘Tis the flag of our country, ‘tis thine!”
The Qur’an has many passages concerning the Blessed Virgin Mary. First Muslims believe in her Immaculate Conception, conceived without the stain of original sin preparing her to be God the Father’s vessel to bear the Savior.
The only possible serious rival to her in their creed would be Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed himself. After the death of Fatima, Mohammed wrote: “Thou shalt be the most blessed of all the women in Paradise, after Mary.” In a variant of the text, Fatima says, “I surpass all the women, except Mary.”
How can this Jewish mother of Jesus the Christ be the great unifier when most Protestants – and Catholics – underestimate her role in salvation history; Jews deny her virgin birth of Jesus; and Muslims see Jesus as only a prophet, subsidiary to the Prophet Mohammed?
We all came from one originating source in East Africa.. We all carry that Promise deep within, no matter how we interpret or deny it. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/genographic Should they study their own roots; all religions have the seed of the original promise of Redemption given our first parents… “The Seed of the woman shall…”
We should wonder why prejudices fester and religious wars are fought – even to Muslims suicide bombing each other’s shrines and Christians burning down opposing sect’s churches with each claiming to be the repository of biblical truth. Jesus warned there would be such because we are stubborn and evil does exist.
The pivotal issue is why the Blessed Mother miraculously revealed herself in 1917 in the significant little village of Fatima, Portugal. To all future generations she would be known as “Our Lady of Fatima” as a pledge and a sign of hope to the Muslim people, and as an assurance that they, who show her so much respect, will one day accept her divine Son, too.
The third chapter of the Qur’an places the history of Mary’s family which goes back through Abraham, Noah, and Adam, the Qur’an describes the old age and sterility of Mary’s mother (St. Ann). When however, she conceives, Ann says in the Qur’an: “0 Lord, I vow and I consecrate to you what is already within me. Accept it from me.” This is evidence of the depth of the Prophet’s own search and its ultimate connection to the salvation of all the peoples of the world who care to love God and ask. God is, after all, “a rewarder of those who earnestly seek Him!” This desert son of Hagar has seen God’s promise to Abraham fulfilled.
Muslims sternly forbid the making of images of the Prophet today. As evidence that Mary holds a special place in the Muslim heart, when the Muslims defeated the Byzantines in Constantinople – now Istanbul, they rebuilt the cathedral into what is now the Sophia Mosque. Strangely, they could not bring themselves to destroy this mosaic of Madonna and Child – Mary holding the child Jesus. Are we so blind we cannot see this common hope in all of us?
Christian belief based on the Gospel of John holds Jesus to be the Word of God… “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” Many Protestants are beginning to look again at the importance of Mary in the salvation model. Mary, Virgo of the Stars! Even the Aztecs saw the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe as fulfillment of their prophecies which led to 9 million conversions in 8 years and the Christianization of the Western Hemisphere. Aztecs were known to blood sacrifice up to 300,000 men, women and children each year to placate their gods. She can certainly handle a devout atheist, monotheist or polytheist of whatever leaning!
When Mary is born, according to the Qur’an her mother says: “And I consecrate her with all of her posterity under your protection, O Lord, against Satan!” Genesis refers to the Redeemer as “the Seed of the Woman.” This is also atypical, as tradition always implies the man plants the seed in the womb – not so in a virgin birth.
The Qur’an also has verses on Mary’s Annunciation, Visitation and Nativity. Angels are pictured as accompanying the Blessed Mother and saying, “Oh Mary, God has chosen you and purified you, and elected you above all the women of the earth.” There are 41 verses on Jesus and Mary in the 19th chapter of the Qur’an. There is such a strong defense of the virginity of Mary here that the Qur’an, in the 4th book, attributes their condemnation of the Jews to their calumny against the Virgin Mary. Has that ever been discussed at a peace talk?
Muslims must someday consider why the Prophet (pbuh) held Jesus and Mary in such an unusually lofty position, but failed to see Christ’s divinity – perhaps, like the Jews not recognizing Mary’s virginity, it was not the time for God’s plan to be fully revealed for the Jews or for the gentiles. I suspect the potentially joyous path to discovery will be shared with Muslims and those hundreds of millions of Christians and Jews, Hindus and Buddhists who search for truth through their own faith. If we insist on failing to use the wisdom of our spiritual armor, we may be left vulnerable to unspeakable evil. We are after all, all God’s children with poorly applied free wills that bring suffering on each other because of our ignorance and arrogance.
How shall we end the conflict and hate? I believe the fears of some concerning the Muslims are not to be realized, but that Islam, instead, will eventually be converted to a belief in the divinity of Christ – in a way that Muslims are summoned to veneration (not worship) of the Mother of God and accept her leading. This does not predict their conversion to Christianity, but to the formation of a wonderful brotherhood as children of God. The structure is not up to us.
It’s certainly worth a try, but only with our own returning to childlike faith in God and his providence. It could even save our Constitutional Republic and maybe even a wonderful renewal of ladylike womanhood!