A patriot speaks On this 9/11, the fight is far from over

A patriot speaks On this 9/11, the fight is far from over

On this 9/11, the fight is far from over

As we mark the 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, alarming gains by the Islamic State, along with continued threats from al-Qaida and others, make it clear that the danger of terrorist mass murder is by no means a thing of the past.


While these groups seek to recover a mythical golden age, they also are propelled by an inescapably modern — and terrifying — idea. Surfacing in the last century, decades before 9/11, that idea has come to be known as totalitarianism. If we are to defeat the Islamist radicals who are today threatening the world, we must shine the brightest of spotlights on this malignant idea at the heart of their ideology. And we must counter it, not just with the force of arms, but with a compelling defense of morally ordered freedom.What defines totalitarianism is a list of shocking demands:


-Give fanatical leaders and movements absolute and permanent authority.


-Make these leaders and their followers into virtual gods, charged to take control of history and transform humanity itself.


-Release them from accountability to any law and institution, belief and custom, moral norm and precept.


-Grant them complete control of every facet of human existence, from outward conduct to the innermost workings of conscience and belief.


The rise of this extremist ideology coincided with a deep crisis of faith that engulfed Europe after the carnage of World War I nearly a century ago. In response to this crisis, totalitarianism — initially in communist and fascist forms — rose to fill the void. Its vision amounted to the state’s replacing God, while anointing certain people as humanity’s new leaders.


In the 1930s and 1940s, it threatened humanity through forms of fascism that exploited the concept of race and the ideology of nationalism. After World War II, with Nazism defeated, totalitarianism posed its greatest threat in the form of communism, which hijacked the concepts of class and class consciousness and the strivings for social justice.


By the close of the 20th century, these movements had committed every crime under the sun, triggering the deaths of nearly 150 million human beings. They also waged unceasing war on the rights and duties of conscience, leaving behind a grim legacy in which more than 75 percent of the world’s people live under regimes that seriously violate freedom of conscience and religion or stand by and let mobs or extremists persecute religious and other minorities with impunity.


The same totalitarian impulse has hijacked religion as its latest vehicle, creating radical Islamism.From the Islamic State to Iran’s mullahs, and from al-Qaida to the Taliban, these new totalitarians pose similar threats to freedom, dignity, and peace. Displaying characteristic contempt for the rule of law and the crucial distinction between combatants and noncombatants in war, they have deliberately targeted civilians and resorted to mass murder, precisely as the Nazis and communists did.


From Afghanistan, they launched the 9/11 attacks and seek to regain power and destroy every human right, from religious freedom to the rights of women. In Iran, they run the government and regularly execute religious dissenters while supporting terrorist groups around the world. In Iraq, they indiscriminately slaughter men, women, and children and threaten the lives and liberties of religious minorities and most of the Muslim majority. In Pakistan, they have assassinated leaders and target both Muslims and religious minorities who dare to dissent from their beliefs.


Many observers presume that these movements simply represent Islam taken to an extreme. Some even maintain that it is “the true Islam.” They are mistaken.


No religion, including Islam, ever stood in principle, as the Nazis and communists did, for what amounts to nihilism. No great world religion ever granted any human being, group, or government the perpetual right in principle to flout any rule, break any law, or commit any atrocity with impunity.


The struggle we face today does not pit one religion against others, nor is it a battle of religion against humanity; rather, it is a struggle pitting lawlessness and tyranny against freedom and dignity.In this struggle, Muslims have a duty to their faith and to humanity to stand resolutely against Islam’s hijacking by people driven by the same diabolical impulse that unleashed Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot.But those of us who are not Muslims also have responsibilities. We have a duty to engage the enemy in the most important battle of all, the one for hearts and minds. We must reaffirm and promote freedom’s creed — that people have inherent dignity, worth, and rights that no movement or government can ever take away.