While most observances of the 9/11 anniversary focused on remembering the fallen, Robert Spencer wants Human Events readers to remember the fight against terrorism — a fight he contends America is losing.
We were attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, by Islamic jihadists who explained, in writings they left behind, that they were committing mass murder in the name of Islam, inspired by the teachings of Islam, and in defense, as they saw it, of Islam. They struck the United States in service of their hope of destroying it, and ultimately imposing upon the U.S., the West and the world an Islamic government that would rule according to Islamic law, which denies the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience and equality of rights for all people.
Yet 10 years later, it is not only the height of political incorrectness to speak about the motives and goals of those who attacked the United States on that terrible day. It is explicitly against United States government policy to look into such matters. The Obama administration hardly ever speaks of terrorism at all. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano famously said several years ago that she preferred to refer not to acts of “terrorism” but to “man-caused disasters,” and focused a DHS report on hunting “right-wing extremists” rather than Islamic jihad terrorists.
Ten years after 9/11, we have a President who has communicated in numerous ways that the United States’ new primary response to Islamic jihad terror is to redress what Muslims perceive as grievances. Barack Obama has even declared: “I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.”
