By Kelly O'Connell ——Bio and Archives--September 11, 2011
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The September 11 attacks were a series of four coordinated suicide attacks upon the United States in New York City and the Washington, D.C. area on September 11, 2001. On that morning, 19 terrorists from the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger jets. The hijackers intentionally crashed two planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City; both towers collapsed within two hours. Hijackers crashed a third plane into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. A fourth jet, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed into a field near Shanksville, PA, before it could reach its intended target in Washington, D.C., after the passengers attempted to take control. Nearly 3,000 died in the attacks.
The sacred law of Islam, the Shari'a, occupies a central place in Muslim society, and its history runs parallel with the history of Islamic civilization. It has often been said that Islamic law represents the core and kernel of Islam itself and, certainly, religious law is incomparably more important in the religion of Islam than theology.Second, there is no doctrine of practical separation of mosque and state, even if some Muslim states have practiced such. Third, there are two possible spheres of reality--the lands of the believers versus that of the unbelievers. Fourth, only believers hold unmitigated rights of any kind, but only when they hold tight to the one true faith.
The world is divided into the House of Islam and the House of War, the Dar al-Islam and the Dar al-harb. The Dar al-Islam is all those lands in which a Muslim government rules and the Holy Law of Islam prevails. Non-Muslims may live there on Muslim sufferance. The outside world, which has not yet been subjugated, is called the "House of War," and strictly speaking a perpetual state of jihad, of holy war, is imposed by the law. The law also provided that the jihad might be interrupted by truces as and when appropriate. In fact, the periods of peace and war were not vastly different from those which existed between the Christian states of Europe for most of European history. The law thus divides unbelievers theologically into those who have a book and profess what Islam recognizes as a divine religion and those who do not; politically into dhimmis, those who have accepted the supremacy of the Muslim state and the primacy of the Muslims, and harbis, the denizens of the Dar al-harb, the House of War, who remain outside the Islamic frontier, and with whom therefore there is in principle, a canonically obligatory perpetual state of war until the whole world is either converted or subjugated.
When the word is used without qualifiers, like "of the heart," or "of the word," it is universally understood as war on behalf of Islam (equivalent of Jihad "of the sword"--jihad al-sayf), and the merits of engaging in such Jihad are described plentifully in the most respected religious works.Firestone describes how the doctrine of Jihad developed, especially as holy war was allowed by Allah to evolve because of the obdurate attitude of the unbelievers. Eventually this developed into a doctrine of total war in the name of God.
The only reasons an unbeliever should be put to death...is their unbelief. This motive then goes for all unbelievers...Enemies must not be tortured nor their bodies mutilated. The Muslims agree they may be slain by weapons. Controversy exists, however, concerning whether it is allowed to burn them by fire.As to whether once could wage total war, and thereby also destroy the homes and property of unbelievers, Peters reports that while the Prophet's right-hand man Abu Baker did not allow this, Muhammad did himself.
[2.190] ...fight in the way of Allah with those who fight with you...[2.191] And kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from whence they drove you out, and persecution is severer than slaughter, and do not fight with them at the Sacred Mosque until they fight with you in it, but if they do fight you, then slay them; such is the recompense of the unbelievers.
The classical doctrine of jihad considered all wars against unbelievers as legal wars, sanctioned by the Shari'ah. In Fact, the Shari'ah required that the head of state organize once a year a military raid into enemy territory.
Marco Polo brought the remarkable tale of Hasan-i Sabbah and his cult of Assassins to the West. He visited their former stronghold, the fortress of Alamut ("Eagle's Nest"), near Tehran, in 1273 C.E., 150 years after the death of Hasan. Beginning just before the First Crusade, the Assassins held the Muslim world in the grip of fear. From his mountain keeps, Master Hasan directed campaigns of holy terror against rivals. Rulers could be struck down at any moment not just by a hidden assailant, but by a beggar or holy man on the street, even a trusted member of their own households. When captured, the attackers were contemptuous of death, resisting severe torture without betraying their comrades, sometimes even naming innocent people as their supporters, causing their deaths as well. Hasan's organization was clearly a prototype for modern Islamic terrorist groups. In some ways, it is eerily like Osama bin Laden's. As one historian put it, Hasan's contribution to the art of assassination was that by careful selection, training, and inspiration he developed the practice into a sacred ritual and the prime weapon of a small state waging war against a great power. Thus, Alamut became the greatest training center of fanatical politico-religious assassins the world has known.In other words, this group prizes martyrdom and murder so highly, one must assume that their entire purpose is to fight for their religion--even in the face of impossible odds. So, of course, they will not give up their war against the West. That is not in their nature or beliefs.
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.What radical Islam attempts is nothing less than the assassination of world freedom. America's liberties are what really drive militant Muslims to want to destroy us. Their chief aim is obliterating freedom, and they shall not rest until achieving this. And unless America stands up to these religious bullies, world liberty will always be very much be at risk.
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Kelly O’Connell is an author and attorney. He was born on the West Coast, raised in Las Vegas, and matriculated from the University of Oregon. After laboring for the Reformed Church in Galway, Ireland, he returned to America and attended law school in Virginia, where he earned a JD and a Master’s degree in Government. He spent a stint working as a researcher and writer of academic articles at a Miami law school, focusing on ancient law and society. He has also been employed as a university Speech & Debate professor. He then returned West and worked as an assistant district attorney. Kelly is now is a private practitioner with a small law practice in New Mexico.