Why 9/11
Occurred on September 11
11 Sep, 2008
Very few people
seem to be aware of why it was that Al-Qaeda chose September 11 for the date of
a devastating, carefully planned attack on the United States, but the
information is illuminating and worthy of discussion. A better understanding of
what drives Islamic terrorism assists in helping to understand why most
Westerners' lack of any sense of history is dangerous. Conversely, Islamic
terrorists are driven by events that occurred hundreds of years ago. They
comprehend that Islam and Western Culture have been locked in mortal
confrontation for approximately 1,400 years with a brief interlude that has
caused Western culture to forget what is at stake and what is at risk.
Part of the
motivation of Islamic terrorists is to reverse the trend of decline in the
Islamic world relative to Western culture that many trace as far back to
September 11, 1683 when a large Turkish army was humiliatingly crushed by
Europeans at the Battle of Vienna.
In 1683, the Ottoman Turks
attacked Vienna. The Turks viewed Vienna as the gateway to hegemony over all of
Western Europe. The resulting battle of Vienna was a watershed moment in
history. The Turks had made elaborate preparations and had assembled resources
and Jihadists eager for booty from throughout the Ottoman Empire. Europe was
quite vulnerable as it was fractured into warring kingdoms and weakened by
internecine squabbles that nearly allowed the Turks to conquer the European
continent. However, the Turkish preparations were so elaborate that they could
not be hidden and the Europeans were able to form agreements or treaties to
assist each other against the Turks that proved decisive and which changed the
course of human history.
The Battle of Vienna
was a hard-fought war with an uncertain outcome. The Turks nearly conquered the
city. All that saved Europe was the arrival of a relief force headed by Polish
King Jan Sobieski. Jan Sobieski and his troops won a major victory against the
Turkish forces on September 11, 1683. The victory was so compete that Polish
King Jan Sobieski purportedly described the windfall in a letter to his wife as
follows:
"Ours are treasures
unheard of ... tents, sheep, cattle and no small number of camels ... it is
victory as nobody ever knew of, the enemy now completely ruined, everything
lost for them. They must run for their sheer lives . . ."
Educated, fundamentalist
Muslims feel the sting of the defeat hundreds of years later. In their view, they are
the recipients of Allah's final revelation and it is humiliating to them that
their "perfect" Islamic culture has declined relative to Western
culture. They seek to reverse the trend and September 11 was carefully chosen
to try and reverse the course of history and create a new September 11 that the
Islamic world could celebrate. . .
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