Saturday, September 11, 2010

Nine Short Years Later

"Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it." ~ Michel de Montaigne



I didn't need to post the preceding video. The images of that fateful day are indelibly etched into Americas collective mind. And yet...

We never thought it would come to this.

Nine years ago today, on September 11, 2001, A group of fanatical Muslim terrorists attacked America, and the entire country came together in solidarity.

We mourned together. We prayed together. We comforted each other. We stood together in defiance against America's enemies. We vowed vengeance together.

Every United States Representative and Senator in Washington gathered together on the steps of the Capitol, stood side by side, Democrats and Republicans, Liberals and Conservatives, and, together, sang "God Bless America".

We were a nation united.

And now. nine short years later, our nation is divided. We are divided over race. We are divided over religion. We are divided over ideology.

What the hell happened?

The religion whose adherents attacked us is now reviled by some, adored by others.

To be fair, most Muslims would have never attacked us. Most American Muslims are law abiding citizens, and wouldn't think of harming another individual.

This act of terrorism was carried out by a small group of fanatical extremists, certainly in no way representative of the whole of Islam.

So, just as there is no logical reason why all Muslims should be hated, there is no reason why all Muslims should be loved and respected.

But now, nine years later, we find, among the Liberals, an inexplicable and illogical love of all things Islam.

I fear this new found Liberal love affair with Islam is symptomatic of a phenomena author Shelby Steele labeled "White Guilt". While trying to be fair, some people are drifting too far in the other direction.

I liken this phenomena to the father who is asked to umpire his own son's little league baseball game. He wants to be fair to both teams, and not show favoritism to his son's team. Invariably, a situation will come up sometime during the game where he will have to make a close call, and he will rule in the opposing teams favor, sub-consciously, just to prevent any possibility of showing bias to his son's team.

Now, there is a whole new sub-culture of Liberal Americans who love all Muslims, regardless of their level of extreme fanaticism. All Muslims good. All Americans and Jews bad. Regardless of whether this is an accurate statement, it certainly appears to be their mindset.

At the same time, there is another sub-culture of Americans who hate all Muslims because of the fact that there still exist in this world, fanatical extremist Muslims who truly want to murder every non-Muslim on Earth. Their mindset appears to be, "The only good Muslim is a dead Muslim".

Neither of these two extremes are accurate. The truth of Islam is somewhere in the middle.

But, America is nevertheless divided.

Nine short years ago, we never thought it ever would come to this.

Cross posted at Casting Pearls Before Swine

4 comments:

  1. well said, mark. thanks for making these observations - i wholeheartedly concur...

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  2. Like your proverbial father/coach I know you're just trying to be fair, but I must take issue with this statement:

    "The truth of Islam is somewhere in the middle."

    Uhhh, no it's not. The truth of MUSLIMS may be somewhere in the middle-- and just to be clear I hold no animosity toward Muslims in general. I've like most of the Muslims I've known; about as equally as I've liked most people in general. But the truth of Islam is anything but "truth". Anyone who's bothered to read the Quran should know that there's little right with it. Most people don't understand this, but Islam is more than just a faith, it's a political system as well. It's sharia. And it seeks to dominate the entire world, whatever the naysayers will say to the contrary. The truth of Islam is no where near the center (or middle) of anything right or decent.

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  3. "but Islam is more than just a faith, it's a political system as well. It's sharia."

    Sounds really familiar. And since the Constitution was supposedly written by Christians and the rights expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are "God given", and the Ten Commandments adorn the Supreme Court building, how is this different from Sharia?

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  4. Jim,

    Your comments are really getting stupid, but this one is a special case. Are you really trying to make a comparison between islam, which is as Eric stated, as much a political as religious system, with our founding, which gives honor to the Source of all but does not require anyone to worship anyone or anything? Is that really what you're trying to do? If you can't perceive a difference between our system and islam, you are a clinical idiot. Night and day is not as different. Get a freakin' clue dude. You embarrass yourself.

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