Thoughts on the Anniversary of 9/11

We commemorated the ninth anniversary of the attacks on the United States last Saturday. It brought back many memories of that day: witnessing the events on TV and out of my office window; my co-workers who died that day; the prayer circle we had at work as the towers collapsed; the sermon I gave that Sunday at the little church I was serving at that time; the memorial service we had at work for those employees who perished.

This attack, which cost 3,000 innocent lives in New York, at the Pentagon, and in Pennsylvania, finally woke us up to the fact that there are radical islamists who want to change the world. They don’t want peaceful coexistence, but their goal is to establish a world-wide caliphate under their control. That doesn’t mean we are at war with all Muslims, because, as I’ve said before, most Muslims, like anybody else, want to live their lives in peace and just be left alone.

What we must realize, both the West and moderate Muslims, is that we are at war with those radicals who kill people in mosques, cowardly blow up innocent victims in marketplaces and along roads, and wreak havoc around the world. These radicals kill their own, desecrate holy places by killing worshipers in them, destabilize Islamic nations, and go against much of what their scriptures teach. They consider their acts part of a “holy war” but it is anything but holy.

Christians, Jews, and Muslims are the victims of these fanatical but powerful few. Let us pray to God for protection against these mass murderers, and pray that God will defeat them soundly. Let us put our trust in God, who said in Zechariah 4:6b: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the LORD of hosts.” (NRSV)