September 11: Commemoration is fine; Islamophobia is not

Today is September 11, 2019.

It is the 18th Anniversary of al Qaeda's terrorist attacks on the United States of America in New York City, Washington, DC, and Shanksville, PA (the site where United 93 crashed when its passengers, aware of the other attacks by three hijacked airliners against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, fought back against the al Qaeda hijackers and forced the plane to crash before it reached its intended target, which was either the White House or the Capitol in Washington, DC.)

Over 3,000 Americans, as well as the 19 hijackers, were killed in the worst terrorist incident in U.S. history.

September 11 is a date that will, like 12/7/1941, live in infamy. The attacks were masterminded by Osama bin Laden and other radical adherents of Islam. They were carried out by young men who were radicalized into believing the tenets of a religion that some "imams" and "religious thinkers" have twisted into something that most Muslims do not believe.

There are many Americans - mostly those who identify as Christian - who are posting similar "remember 9/11: status messages on Facebook today. They state many of the same basic facts that I have mentioned, but with a subtle but ugly twist.

When these posts mention the perpetrators, they either mention bin Laden or al Qaeda, which is appropriate because those are the culprits. They also - at least some do - state that 9/11/2001 was not a false-flag incident carried out by the United States to justify invading the Middle East for its main commodity: oil. So far, so good. I agree; conspiracy theories about the U.S. carrying out an attack on its own people are stupid and dishonest, and they should be dismissed as Grade-A bullshit.

What I do not agree with, however, is attacking an entire religion and all of its followers and blaming all Muslims for the September 11 attacks. Such aspersions against 1.9 BILLION of our fellow human beings are ugly, hateful, and are just as bad as the old "blood libel" and other baseless attacks on Jews. Such tales, as well as the "Jews own all the banks and the media" myths that anti-Semites from Adolf Hitler to followers of the Christian Identity and the Westboro Baptist Church have spewed for over a century, are false and should be condemned as such.

Are there bad Muslims in the world? Yes. Am I defending Islamic terrorists? No.

Radicalism in Islam is a genuine problem. It is the root of most of the terrorist attacks carried out in the name of Islam.

But you know what? There are radical and violent strains in every one of the Abrahamic faiths. Indeed, all of the world's religions have their radicals and violent followers. .EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Including Christianity. 

So, please. If you feel the need to commemorate this solemn anniversary, do so.

But don't think that you can piggyback a message of hate and intolerance along with your "Remember 9-11" post and use it to justify a bigger military budget or your support of a border wall. It is not cool.