Lest We Forget

Today we remember the outrage of September 11, 2001. Those among us who are historians recall that the date was not chosen at random orby mistake; it was an intentional strike meant to revive the Caliphate and reinvigorate the Islamic movement by recalling the defeat of the Muslim forces at the gates of Vienna in 1683, culminating on September 11th and 12th of that year.

It is politically correct to describe the attack on September 11, 2001 as the misguided lashing out of Osama bin Laden and his followers or, in the alternative, as the culmination of the smaller Muslim attacks that had marked the 1990s, growing out of the frustration of a large population of Muslims who felt that they were disrespected and held down by the Western world personified by the United States.

Those politically correct explanations ignore the long history of antagonism by Islam against Christianity, the West, and America in particular. That antagonism is not new where America is concerned, although the defeat of the Muslim forces at Vienna predated the founding of the U.S. America’s first war following the Revolution was against the Barbary Pirates – Muslim slave traders in the Mediterranean Sea – who captured American ships and enslaved their crew members. The United Sates Marines were formed to battle the Barbery Pirates. Throughout the history of conflict there has been an undercurrent of hated stemming from the teaching of the Koran. It has been carried forward to this day with the beheadings of Christians by ISIS and other Islamic organizations, all in the name of Islam. Whether those killings represent “true Islam” or not is beside the point.

The Islamists have had allies in their war against Christianity, albeit allies who would eschew any alliance or relation with Islam. Paul Krause recently wrote a thoughtful piece, under the heading “Why Religious Liberty Matters.” Krause argued “{W]hen Christianity confronts the liberal establishment and agenda, . . . the real heart of the current elite is revealed. Contempt. Mockery. Scorn. Hatred. Associating Christians with the Taliban and al-Qaeda and ISIS is now very common on social media. Ignorance over the role of Christianity in shaping education, law and liberty, and the healthcare services in the United States is widespread, even though Christianity provided the foundation for our cherished ideals in education, law, liberty, and service to the poor and downtrodden.” Krause is right and the ignorance is intentional. The fascinating part of this is that the intellectual elite may get their wish and succeed in destroying what little remains of the Christian underpinnings of America at about the same time the Islamists succeed in their next attack on America. The intellectuals may be surprised to learn that the Islamists have no more regard for them than they have for the Christians.

Following the attack on September 11, 2001, American leaders loudly proclaimed that America would “never forget.” Well, we have forgotten. Whether it is too late to remember is an open question. Ratcatcher is not optimistic,

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