I was 5 when 9/11 happened. If it had happened the next day, I would have been 6, because the 12th was my birthday. And I still don't remember any of the news from that day, seeing the images of the towers, or the pentagon or the look on people's faces that day in school. I don't recall a single image but only a feeling in the air of nervousness and worry that first clouded over my excitement for my coming birthday and then fully eclipsed it.
The only memory from the days following the tragedy was a single scene sitting in my backyard with my older sister. She was trying to explain to me what had happened. She used Jenga blocks setting up two pillars before knocking one down with a block that was supposed to represent the first plane and hitting the second with another. I can recall staring at the pile confused because it seemed a hugely unfortunate coincidence that two planes had accidentally crashed into the buildings like that. But then it dawned on me immediately, even as young as I was, that this had been no accident. Still, I was left sitting there wondering why anyone would ever do such a thing. Fifteen years later I, like the rest of the country, still don't have an answer.
We have watched terrorism spread like a global disease infecting us with hatred and violence as the modern day version of Nazis arrive on the world stage in brutal fashion. These past weeks have become a shock as a series of attacks ripped through the Middle East. More than 30 were killed in an Istanbul airport, over 250 were killed in a blast in Iraq's capital, in Bangladesh a terrorist hostage situation rattled the country after 20 were killed, and in Saudi Arabia three different suicide bombing attempts left several dead, one attempt of which took place near one of the holiest places in the entire Islamic community.
This was concerning for all the horrifyingly obvious reasons but also concerning because of the way such occurrences, even 15 years later, have become an increasingly normal part of modern life and because of the lack of coverage and knowledge of these occurrences throughout America. This needed to be covered and shown to the whole world because what this was, was not only a clear example of the evil and stupidity of ISIS but also a chance to fully display to us once and for all the clear separation they have between the religion they claim to represent.
It has been understood for some time that Muslims have been the number one victims of terrorist attacks and never has it been more clear than now. So with ISIS again trying to massacre the people of the religion it falsely represents, it must be made clear what we are up against. Before we make wild accusations and prejudices against mass populations or get jumpy by everyone in a hijab, the enemy must be understood to the public like it should have from the very moment ISIS was formed.
ISIS believes in forming an "Islamic" caliphate and believe that their actions in seeking land and power through such bloodshed and violence is also helping to bring about an end of the world apocalyptic battle between them and westerners. They also, like other evil groups of the past such as Nazis, believe in a cleansing to take out all those who are impure in their beliefs, this includes non-compliant Muslims.
Their whole philosophy is nothing short of total and moronic hatred which I guess is something most of us already knew. But this knowledge is important because in order to defeat this enemy which daily works to kill every group, country and person they can get in their grasp, we must understand what it is we are fighting against. We are not fighting against Islam or Iraq or Syria or the Middle East itself.
I am a Roman Catholic and of course cannot claim to know all the full ideas of Islam, but I can assure you without any doubt that the beliefs of ISIS that I have mentioned above are not only a deeply warped view of Islam and a culture of over a billion people but more like a complete defacement of it as nearly every move ISIS has made goes against everything the Quran instructs. This can be seen clearly if one looks at a notorious and often repeated line of the Quran that even I have come across before which goes against violence, a statement of which gives the simple advice, "Whoever kills an innocent person, it is as if they have killed all mankind."
Once we understand across the globe that we are on the same side, that we are all working to help humanity, not end it like the delusional morons of ISIS, then we will be many steps closer to truly stopping this evil for good and stopping the bombings like those that have happened this month from being just one of many incidents to come.
Fifteen years after 9/11, I still do not understand the thought process behind such evil and I hope I never will be able to. But we can at least take a moment to understand what this evil is. It is not a country, it is not a religion, it is not a culture. It is simply a delusion of propaganda led by power-hungry, bloodthirsty people who will do whatever they can to spread tyranny, oppression and hatred. And we must have the courage enough not to give into the terrorists' games of hatred and work together with all of humanity, before it spreads any further.
Ignorance anywhere is a threat to knowledge everywhere. Terrorism is one massive factory of pure ignorance. We cannot allow ourselves to be sucked into that ignorance to defeat them or we never will win and the knowledge of freedom will be lost in the fight.
