After 9/11's mass murder, what do we believe?
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There was something missing from Sunday's observances.
We heard over and over of "the tragic events of 9/11" and of "those who lost their lives." If any other phrases were used Sunday, and in the week leading up to it, the "horror" and "sacrifice" of that awful morning were sometimes invoked.
But 9/11 wasn't just tragic. It was infuriating. It was profoundly disgusting.
The victims didn't just "lose" or "sacrifice" their lives. They were murdered.
Such blunt words were mostly absent from the official ceremonies at which we honored the dead. But those words should not be censored from our non-ceremonial reflections. If we want to salvage what's constructive and true from 9/11's calamity, we can't flinch from examining -- and passing judgment on -- what's destructive and false.
On Sept. 11, 2001, 19 fanatics attacked America because they believed those who do not share their fanaticism ought to die. Politicians and commentators, especially conservatives, have often opined that our attackers "hated liberty." But it's more specific than that: They hated religious liberty.
Al-Qaida's zealots make no distinction between church and state -- or mosque and state. For them the state exists only to enforce the holy law revealed in the Koran. Their worldview is the antithesis of what America's founders envisioned and what America long ago achieved.
Some of the New World's earliest settlers came for adventure and wealth, of course, but even more came to find religious freedom. Roger Williams, the minister who first wrote of "the wall of separation" between church and state, established the first practice of this principle in the Rhode Island colony.
Williams's understanding of his Christian religion compelled him to a war of words with his fellow Puritans. Al-Qaida terrorists' understanding of their religion compels them to a different kind of war.
To Puritan leaders who were not allowing religious freedom, Williams proclaimed, "It is the will and command of God that ... a permission of the most paganish, Jewish, Turkish [Muslim], or anti-Christian consciences and worships be granted to all men in all nations and countries."
Williams's vision won -- so much so that dozens of the 3,000 murdered on 9/11 were Muslim-Americans living out their version of the American dream.
All men are created equal, but not all ideas are. Some ideas lead to peaceful coexistence and human prosperity. Some lead to destruction and death.
First Published September 12, 2011 12:00 am
