Nine years ago Saturday, radical Islamists attacked The United States of America.
Extremist Muslim males, each and every one, hijacked two airliners and flew them into the twin towers of New York City’s World Trade Center. They flew a third plane into the side of the Pentagon in Washington, D. C. The Islamists also seized a fourth aircraft which they turned toward the nation’s capital, but before their plans could be completed they were thwarted by patriotic American passengers who more than self loved their country, and loved mercy more than life.
That jetliner crashed into a Pennsylvania field, a perpetual statement to Islamist extremists that regardless of how politically correctly our officials fearfully tread, when push comes to shove quiet, God-fearing, American people will — in their righteous might — rise up and smite those who would clandestinely operate from within mosques and brainwash children into becoming suicide killers
Most of America’s "greatest generation" can tell you exactly where they were when they received news of the dastardly December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Most Americans know where they were when the incredible news of the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001, arrived.
Nine years have passed. And what has transpired? We still allow foreign nationals, Muslim males of middle eastern extraction, unfettered access to our institutions of higher learning. Despite incontrovertible evidence of "sleeper cells" operating in our nation, despite known recruitment of young people through mosques in cities such as Minneapolis/St. Paul, we allow extremist Muslims to continue their activities.
As elderly white Americans, young black Americans, Latinos and Native Americans undergo searches in our airports, the American president has gone on record defending the right of Islamists to build a mosque near Ground Zero — the very spot where extremist Muslims attacked the Christian nation of America.
Muslims burn American flagsand Holy Bibles and shout "death to America" on televised news programs. And all of this is protected by our Federal Government.
Meanwhile, in a tiny Florida church, a Christian preacher’s decision to burn the Koran, Quran, or whatever you call the book of Islam, elicits vehement reaction from liberals and government officials.
And that’s just wrong. Pure and simple. Do Christian ministers not also have First Amendment rights?
America is a Christian nation. We tolerate other opinions. There’s a big difference between tolerance and submission. What have we come to when the president of the United States defends the right of Muslims to build Islam’s historic symbol of triumph near Ground Zero, yet says nothing about the right of a Christian minister to burn the book followed by the very Muslim extremists who attacked our nation Sept. 11, 2001?
We all have memories of that fateful day. My own include the experience of my college roommate, who the previous week visited the Steinway Company to pick out a grand piano for Georgia Southern University’s new performing arts center. The Steinway folks who helped him choose the instrument perished on 9/11, for their offices occupied a top floor in the twin towers.
James Taylor wrote a song in the 1970s which helped make him famous. The lyrics to "Fire and Rain" form a fitting backdrop to our national tragedy, remembered as "Nine-One-One."
"I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain.
I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end.
I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend.
But I always thought that I’d see you again."
America must never forget the despicable attack by extremists Muslim males against our nation. To do so would dishonor Americans who perished at the hand of evil on a date which, along with that of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, will forever live in infamy.
Nat Harwell is a long-time resident of Newton County. His columns appear regularly on Sundays.
