The 9/11 Attack Memorial Service, 2017
Today, the United States mourns the attacks on September, 11, sixteen years afterwards. While we mourn let us take a moment to remember the people who died in an instant in New York, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania.
Let us also take a moment to ponder why nineteen desperate men carried out such a calculated and despicable act.
The September 11 attacks were the result of Middle Eastern hatred towards America; hatred that had been simmering for decades leading up to the incident. Oddly, Middle Eastern hatred towards America began with one man's experience in America.
While studying in United States, Egyptian, Sayyid Qutb, observed a social gathering in a gymnasium in Colorado. Amongst the music being played that evening was the song, "Baby, It's Cold Outside." Qutb was utterly appalled by what he saw on the dance floor that night. Qutb described the scene on the gymnasium dance floor as "animal-like" mixing of the sexes. However, Qutb's disgust didn't stop on the dance floor.
On his return to Egypt Qutb went on to publish the quintessential book, "The America that I Have Seen". In his book Qutb is explicitly critical of the things he had observed in the United States. Qutb hated everything about America. Qutb hated the country's materialism, individual freedoms, the economic system, Hollywood celebrities, racism, hair styles, superficial conversations, enthusiasm for sports, lack of artistic feeling, and the country' strong support for the new Israeli state. Qutb called for a return to Sharia law as well as acts of terror against America and Israel.
At the time, the United States had just come out of Second World War as one of the three major victorious nations. The United Kingdom and the Soviet Union were the other two. At that time the United States, the United Kingdom and Soviet Union established a governing body of nation states, the United Nations, as Woodrow Wilson had done establishing the League of Nations after the first World War to preempt war. At that time Supreme Court justice, Louis Brandeis successfully lobbied Harry Truman to spearhead the creation of a Jewish state. Brandeis, himself, was a Zionist. Other Zionists had successfully lobbied Winston Churchill in the United Kingdom.
Together, the two great powers, the United States and the United Kingdom spearheaded UN resolution 242, which called for the creation of the state of Israel. Neither of the two nations had the authority nor jusridiction to parcel out what was Palestine to the Zionists. However, they did it anyways and in so doing carved out a Jewish state in the heart of what was Palestine against the wishes of the indigenous population. At the same time the two great powers, the United States and the United Kingdom ignored Palestine as a UN state.
The two communities, the Zionists and the Palestinian indigenous population were less than compatible. The Arabs, themselves, were at the time and still are xenophobic. As the United Kingdom attempted to manage and curtail the migration of European Jews to Palestine, Zionist activists and paramilitary groups, including the Irgun, harassed and attacked British interests.
Finally, in 1948, the Zionists routed out the indigenous population from the region. Assassination squads including the Stern Group slaughtered hundreds of Arab dissidents. Former Israeli Prime Minister, Itzak Shamir, was at the time a member of the Stern group. The Zionists effectively chased the indigenous populations from their villages and lands. The Zionists used explosives and bulldozers to wipe away any evidence that the indigenous population ever lived there. To this day, the Palestinians continue to regard the nine months of misery as the great catastrophe.
After the route, the indigenous populations lived in tent cities in Syria, Jordan, and the Gaza strip located in Egypt.
The clash of communities was by all accounts a war. In regards to the Palestinian perspective the war has never ended. No surrender has ever been effected; no armistice signed. Today, the Zionists continue to build settlements in the occupied terrorities presumably to annex the territory.
The September 11 memorial ceremonies are mournful events to us, however, the attacks are seen as retaliation to a people who feel they are still at war.