Hope

JMJ. On this day, eight years ago, world-wide Islam declared war on the United States. Granted, I consider myself to be a citizen of the Confederate States of America, but the US is where I live so I took the actions of Islam quite personally, as did (and do) so many Americans.

I will never forget as long as I live the stark reality of a blazing, smoking Tower as another airliner appeared on the TV screen and collided with the second.
From that point on, the images became surreal. The sight of the Twin Towers collapsing seemed almost cartoonish by then.

I was numb, all of the folks at work that day who watched in dumb amazement were numb, too. For days thereafter it was almost as if we had been swathed in cotton batting. But most jarring for me were the video footage and pictures from around the world of the jubilation of Islam. According to a good friend of mine who lives in Copenhagen there was gaiety and glee amongst the Danish Moslems. They stopped their celebrations only when threatened with bodily harm by the non-Moslem Danish.

That's what I remember the most--for it was a flagrant declaration of war. All protestations on the part of a very few Moslems in the US and Europe that Islam is a peaceful religion and that this was a heinous attack were lost in the far-greater jubilation.

Today a Moslem doctor with whom I work muttered to himself, "Sept. 11, a horrible day." That was the first time I personally heard a Moslem make such a statement. Perhaps there is a scintilla of hope. But I doubt it.