9/11 Paranoid Thoughts

On this the 8th anniversary of the Islamic attack on our nation, I went to church early in the morning as my personal memorial to the victims of those attacks. The presiding priest only briefly mentioned the wrong of terrorism and pointed out that the gospel passage designated for today stressed that it is God's job to judge and not ours. This religious message was well received by me for at the beginning of the service I had prayed for souls of all who had died and all who had suffered but said to God that I could not pray for the terrorists or their families. That was something that only he could handle.



Not long after returning home I was forced to consider two Islamic matters and on both I felt anger, trepidation and paranoia.



A fairly obscure, at least to me, international reporter had opined that the death or demise of Osama bin Laden would allow into power a person the West would soon fear much more than the current Al Qaeda leader. Identified as the selected successor to bin Laden was Sheikh Abu Yahya al-Libi also known as Muhammad Hasam Quaid also known as Yunus al-Sahrawi. Additionally, the writer stated that Al Qaeda was no longer merely a remotely controlled terrorist group but now a global movement, a global sentiment and far more capable of violently aggressive action which would be implemented by al-Libi/Quaid/al-Sahrawi. This was news I had no patience for on this 9/11 anniversary and drew only feelings of greater animosity towards Muslims.



This almost irrational feeling was made even worse by viewing an Islamic web site, http://islamoncapitolhill.com/, to which I had been referred. It appears that a group of American Muslims, or at least Muslims living in America, are promoting a rally in Washington to be held on September 25, 2009. Their goal is to have 50,000 people gather and pray in the Islamic manner. This type of function is in fact an American tradition for politically motivated groups to gather in mass, particularly in Washington, to express a position. The conservative, anti-Obama Tea Party is going to do the same this next weekend. This Muslim web site, however, bothered me with its beautifully sounding, apparently religious background chanting, the meaning of which was lost on me but what followed was worst. The web site had closing words printed on the computer screen. Those words were, "Our Time Has Come" and actually caused me to go cold.



Can it be possible to create a worse closing slogan? Maybe "Death To The West" or "Hail The Islamic Revolution" would be more sinister but "Our Time Has Come" is so open to interpretations, none of which can be positively viewed by any one but Muslims.



The report on the nature of bin Laden's successor coupled with the perceived meaning of the said Islamic slogan has made this 9/11 anniversary more ominous than any of the past.