Very soon, Americans are going to commemorate a date that is every bit as infamous as the date that saw the United States plunge into World War II … the day Japan’s naval and air forces attacked our Pacific fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Just mention “9/11,” and the whole world knows what you mean. We went to war on that day because terrorists flew commercial jets into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and into a Pennsylvania field when passengers aboard a fourth jetliner sought to wrest control of the doomed plane from hijackers.
President Bush, barely nine months into his job on Sept. 11, 2001, spoke eloquently in an effort to rally the nation behind the fight against international terror. One of the major takeaways from the president’s speech that evening was that “we are not at war with Islam.” The nation was taking aim at the terrorists who masquerade as Muslims.
I mention this today because we are hearing throughout North Texas language that suggests that not all Americans heard the message that President Bush sought to convey. Islam, Bush told us, is a religion of peace.
President Obama also reminded us that the leader of the terrorists who killed thousands of Americans on 9/11 — Osama bin Laden — was “not a Muslim,” but that he was a terrorist who killed thousands of Muslims during his reign of terror, before U.S. commandos brought justice to the head of al-Qaeda.
And yet, we hear rumblings in North Texas about efforts to ban Sharia law, a tenet practiced by some Muslims. I hear rumblings in small communities such as Sachse. In McKinney, the city council might face a recall effort by residents angry over some council members’ support of a proposed mosque in that city.
I must be clear on this. A mosque is a house of worship where Muslims are guaranteed their right to pray as they see fit. It’s in the Constitution’s First Amendment. As for Sharia law, the Constitution also prohibits the any religion in our public schools. This all strikes me as a cause in search of a villain.
As Americans prepare to commemorate 9/11, a date that will — as Dec. 7 has done — be remembered as a “date which will live in infamy,” may we also remember that our enemies are not Muslims. They are those who have perverted a great religion for a dastardly political cause.