Dr. Moshe Dann is an historian, writer and journalist living in Israel.
The attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 is embedded in America’s consciousness as a nation. Jews in Israel and around the world share the pain of that event as we celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year on that date this year. We, too, suffered a national disaster when Hamas terrorists attacked Israeli communities on October 7, 2023.
Both events were perpetrated by Muslim terrorists with similar ideologies; both left deep scars. Both were wake-up calls that initiated wars, changed perspectives, and engaged new strategies.
The world’s reaction to these events, however, has been strikingly different. Expressions of outrage over 9/11 and support for America’s response are contrasted by support for Hamas and Islamist terrorist organizations, while condemning Israel for defending itself.
Like the war against Al Qaeda, the war against Hamas and its supporters is not over. Although largely defeated, they remain active, dangerous and determined.
Everyone who is interested knows what happened on 9/11. Many people have written about it and have produced documentaries about it, but too few have asked what the attack means, its significance, and its connection to Islamism. Prof Efriam Karsh wrote about this in his book, “Islamic Imperialism: a history”, which explains the strategy of Islamist terrorist organizations.
Connecting 9/11 to other Islamic-based suicidal attacks, such as the attack on the World Trade Center in 1993, and attacks on civilians and civilian targets is essential. It’s what the Muslim Brotherhood’s plan of “Civilizational Jihad” means.
Most people know, despite conspiracy theories being spread on social media, that the attack on 9/11 was carried out by a group of mainly Saudi terrorists who were connected to Al Qaeda, a terrorist organization. These Al Qaeda terrorists were funded and assisted by the Saudi government and Muslim “charities,” and by Saudis living in California and other states. Several Saudi terrorists who carried out the attack were enrolled in flight schools and training programs in the US where they were learning how to hijack and fly airplanes to use them as weapons of mass destruction.
Why were they supported by the Saudi government and Muslim donors?
Al Qaeda’s ideology of “Global Jihad” is well-known. Its infrastructure was known by intelligence and security agencies.
Why did the FBI ignore warnings about what Al Qaeda advocated?
Why did US authorities allow the terrorists to enter the US and receive flight training?
Why was no one paying attention?
On September 28, 2000, after signing the Olso Accords and receiving offers of statehood from PM Ehud Barak, Yasser Arafat launched the Second Intifada, a campaign of suicidal attacks on civilians in Judea and Samaria (aka “West Bank”) that lasted for several years and took thousands of lives. It was a straightforward pre-planned war of terror, euphemized as the “al-Aksa intifada” (referring to the mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem), and Hamas’s attack on October 7th as the “al-Aksa flood.”
Arafat worked closely with Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations, such as the Islamic Jihad, Hamas (founded by the Muslim Brotherhood), and the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade (led by Osama Bin Laden). Assisted by the Taliban in Afghanistan and Islamic terrorists in Iraq and Iran, Islamic terrorism spread throughout the world.
In 2001 Al Qaeda had 20 functioning cells and 70,000 insurgents in over 60 nations. Supported by countries such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and dozens of NGOs, such as the Islamic Relief Organization, the Muslim World League, and the National Islamic Front, Muslim militias are active today throughout Africa where they are carrying out massacres of Christian communities and seizing control of countries.
Despite tactical differences among Islamist terrorist organizations, they share a common ideology that seeks to establish a Muslim Caliphate and to destroy Israel and America, as well as non-Muslim countries and Muslims who oppose them. It’s all well-known. Why is this danger not being addressed?
The attack on 9/11 and subsequent Jihadist attacks were meant as a warning to Muslim countries, especially Egypt and Jordan which had signed peace treaties with Israel, and Muslim countries that supported peace with Israel and eventually joined the Abraham Accords.
Terrorist attacks like 9/11 are also meant to warn European countries who have trade and financial relations with Israel. They are also meant to support terrorist organizations such as Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Iran and its proxies, Hezbollah and the Houties in Yemen. It is meant as a declaration of war on behalf of the Islamist agenda to conquer the world.
The failure to understand the meaning of 9/11 has led to the spread of Islamism and Muslim violence throughout the world. Hamas and other Muslim terrorist groups remain powerful. The threat is real and visible. That is why the meaning of 9/11 must not be minimized, or ignored.
