The questions I am most commonly asked regarding the 9/11 attacks, certainly this week, are, "How do we explain 9/11, especially to our kids?" and "Did religion cause 9/11?" My short answer: be honest -- religion drove those planes into the building. It's painful to say, especially for a person of faith, but it is we who need to say it most. And, at the risk of being even more provocative, it is Muslims who need to say it the most among those who are religious.
There is a long history of hate and violence being done in the name of God, and failing to admit it means failing to fix it. After all just as we ought not to fix what isn't broken, we can't fix what is until we admit that it is. To be clear, this is not about one particular faith; it is about fanatical faith which sees its way as the only way. Any time that happens, in whatever tradition it happens, we all suffer. But that is only part of the story.
As much as we must admit that fanatical faith has spilled the blood of millions over the centuries, it must also be admitted that as many human beings were murdered in the name of Godless ideologies in the 20th century, as all those killed in the name of God during the previous 18 centuries put together. Think I am wrong? Just repeat these three names: Hitler, Mao and Stalin.
I am not suggesting that because atheist absolutism killed people in larger numbers, faster, it is worse than fanatical faith. The rapid "catch up" was largely a function of the growing capacity of technology to inflict mass harm. But the conclusion remains that this is not simply about one more time what religion always does and secular systems don't.
It's not as simple as either those who defend faith or those who attack it would like to believe. Ultimately it's about whatever systems are used to fire up people's absolutism, and the presumption by those systems that if we just get rid of some other group -- racial, ethnic or religious -- whether through murder, banishment or conversion, all of the world's problems will be solved. It has never been so, and it never will be.
Finally, it would be helpful if people -- especially those who are most adept at pointing out the bloody history of religion -- were equally adept at pointing out that no force has been better at inspiring the most selfless, compassionate and healing acts as religion has. From caring for people in need to inspiring the political movements of Gandhi, King and so many others, religious faith has fueled many of humankind's greatest achievements.
It's really not about the faiths, it's about the faithful. It's not about what any sacred books say or don't say -- they say everything, from the very best to the very worst. It's about how those who hold such books sacred, use them.
Religion is like a fire -- it can warm our homes and cook our food, or it can burn those same houses down and take a great many of us with it. It's up to us. That's what I'll be thinking about and teaching about this Sunday, and every other opportunity I have.
Follow Brad Hirschfield on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bradhirschfield
Religion excluded at the 9/11 ceremony - - The Washington Post
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Paul Brandeis Raushenbush: Ten Years After 9/11: Has Religion ...
After 9/11, some lives recast for greater good - CSMonitor.com
So how much is the US paying to Afghanistan every week? 2 billion or something?
Not a Single Christian Church Left in Afghanistan, Says State Department
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/not-single-christian-church-left-afghanistan-says-state-department
There is not a single, public Christian church left in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. State Department.
This reflects the state of religious freedom in that country ten years after the United States first invaded it and overthrew its Islamist Taliban regime.
Qur'an (3:54)
And they cheated/deceived and God cheated/deceived, and God (is) the best (of) the cheaters/deceivers.
Narrated Anas bin Malik:
Allah's Apostle said, "I have been ordered to fight the people till they say: 'None has the right to be worshipped but Allah.' And if they say so, pray like our prayers, face our Qibla and slaughter as we slaughter, then their blood and property will be sacred to us and we will not interfere with them except legally and their reckoning will be with Allah."
Narrated Maimun ibn Siyah that he asked Anas bin Malik, "O Abu Hamza! What makes the life and property of a person sacred?" He replied, "Whoever says, 'None has the right to be worshipped but Allah', faces our Qibla during the prayers, prays like us and eats our slaughtered animal, then he is a Muslim, and has got the same rights and obligations as other Muslims have."
Was he or not? Compare that to Koran 9:29 and this interpretation in Sharia law:
“Fight those who do not believe in Allah and the Last Day and who forbid not what Allah and His messenger have forbidden—who do not practice the religion of truth, being of those who have been given the Book—until they pay the poll tax out of hand and are humbled†(Koran 9:29)
" o9.0 JIHAD
" (O: Jihad means to war against non-MuslimÂs, and it is etymologicÂally derived from the word mujahada, signifying warfare to establish the religion. And it is the lesser jihad. As for the greater jihad, it is spiritual warfare against the lower self (nafs), which is why the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said as he was returning from jihad..."
http://www.shafiifiqh.com/maktabah/relianceoftraveller.pdf
Bin Laden claimed to be acting according to Islamic doctrine:
“[O]ur talks with the infidel West and our conflict with them ultimately revolve around one issue, and it is: Does Islam, or does it not, force people by the power of the sword to submit to its authority corporeally if not spiritually?
Yes. There are only three choices in Islam: either willing submission [i.e., conversion]; or payment of the jizya [poll-tax paid by non-Muslims], thereby bodily, though not spiritual, submission to the authority of Islam; or the sword—for it is not right to let him [an infidel] live.
The matter is summed up for every person alive: either submit, or live under the suzerainty of Islam, or die…. Such, then, is the basis of the relationship between the infidel and the Muslim. Battle, animosity, and hatred—directed from the Muslim to the infidel—is the foundation of our religion.â€
(The Al Qaeda Reader, p. 42.)
continued--
And to say Christianity causes hatred and violence, is a nonsensical statement, without the historical context of the last 1000 years,during which Islam has aggressively started wars to overthrow Christianity in Europe and the West.
To conflate the clash of these two Historical religious opponents, with the Holy Roman Empire that used torture and death to rule over Europe in the name of Christianity, is to miss the whole point here.
Real Christianity is avowedly set in the midst of foes: "Behold, I send you forth as sheep among wolves!" The apostles of Jesus Christ were attested to have wielded mighty miracles of arresting power, yet never once do we read of them destroying their enemies by their miraculous power; no, not even to prevent themselves from being put to death.
It was proposed to our Lord Jesus, to use this very power: "Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, even as Elias did?"
But He turned and rebuked them...Ye know not manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." The signs given to authenticate the Gospel was His own Character as He went about feeding the hungry, healing the sick and raising the dead.
That was never the testimony or the personal conduct of Islam's founder Mohammed.
15:6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
Eternal torture, for finite suffering. Possibly the most immoral doctrine ever.
What do you think hell is a bed of flowers?
Sure, religion can make people feel good....but there are lots of ways we can live that make us "feel good" in healthy ways.
Religion can lead people to drive planes into buildings.
Since we can "warm our homes and cook our food" without religion, and sometimes religion leads people to "burn our houses down".....why do we need religion?
Tamanna Muna Layylah
‎9/11 was tragic. We remember the 2,976 American people that lost their lives on that day. We also must not forget the 48,644 Afghans, 1,690,903 Iraqis, and 30,000 Pakistanis that died as a result of the attacks. They paid the ultimate price for a crime which they did not commit. There will be no documentaries paying homage to them and their names will not be sketched into the wall in the Ground Zero Memorial but we must not forget them in our prayers.
9/11 Provable Lies
http://www.forbiddenknowledgetv.com/videos/911/911-provable-lies.html
http://cpost.uchicago.edu/
If Muslim terrorism was about religion, we'd see a LOT more of it from the world's 1.6 Billion Muslims, and we'd see it in places unconnected with the presence of Western armies in Muslim-majority countries ... but we don't.
Whatever caused 9/11 is more than just one factor. It's not just Western occupation nor just religion, it's a multitude of factors working together. If it were just one simple factor, I could play your game and dismiss all causes. The question here is whether religion is a key factor in what made the terrorists tick. Does religion, when combined with other certain factors, lead to someone thinking horrific action is the will of God and honoring the sacred? I suspect the answer is yes.
I also must challenge your underlying assumption that Islam is one religion. As if all Muslims believe the same thing and consequently if many Muslims aren't terrorists, that common belief isn't a cause of terrorism. Actually, within any religion there are multiple theological views and beliefs. Some are more liberal than others. (I could illustrate this wonderfully with Christianity and the mere multitude of views on what God is or how to read the Bible.) The fact that liberal Muslims don't commit terrorism does NOT mean more fundamentalist versions of Islam doesn't cause terrorism, as they have significantly different religious beliefs.
I think you need a substantially stronger argument.
Anyways, if religion was the causal factor for 9/11, why did bin Laden put it squarely on American imperialism and support for Israel? Why do we need to be searching for a reason when we can just go read the writings of those responsible where they flat out state the reasons?
The one you refer to was for Western consumption and it looks like you consumed it.
The other version was sent to his Saudi co religionists and I have quoted some of it above.
Politics and economics were the driving force behind these attacks, religion was just the flavouring. The Muslim world has long been ruled by fundamentally corrupt regimes (often backed to the hilt by the West) that have repressed their people and kept them in poverty, both monetary and intellectual. In these nations, Islam, and a particular xenophobic strain at that, became the defacto voice of dissent, all others being closed down. One need only look at the historic links between the Houise of Saud and the Wahhabi school of Islam to see that.
Yes the excuses and the language are religious, the attackers frame their concerns in the language of extremist religion, but had govts and economies provided more freedoms they wouldn´t have been driven into the arms of the "mad mulahs" in the first place to vent their anger.
http://cpost.uchicago.edu/
That doesn't make the 9/11 attacks any less heinous; it just helps highlight the fact that the 99.99% of Muslims in the world who have nothing to do with terrorism ... have nothing to do with terrorism.
=============
It's not either/or. Bin Laden had a lot of reasons to attack America, and spreading Islam was one of them.
"1. The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam.
A. The religion of tawhid; of freedom from associatinÂg partners with Allah Most High, and rejection of [such blasphemy]Â; of complete love for Him, the Exalted; of complete submission to His sharia; and of the discarding of all the opinions, orders, theories, and religions that contradict with the religion He sent down to His Prophet Muhammad."
From "Why We Are Fighting You: Osama bin Laden's Letter to Americans"Â, October 2002.
The al Qaeda Reader, p.201-02
He was criticized by Islamic scholars and legal specialists because this call to Islam is supposed to precede any attack on non believers. So it is his belated attempt to comply with Sharia law, which was clearly important to him. He was also criticized for targeting innocent non combatants, but the proper definition of those terms is hotly contested within Islam.
He clearly saw himself as a Muslim warrior defending Islam from the enemies of Allah in a manner consistent with the laws of the religion, and many Muslims agreed with him, judging from his memorials in Muslim countries.