EDITORIAL

The Sordid ‘Philosophy’ of the 9/11 Terrorists

Posted

In the aftermath of the 20th anniversary of the sad and tragic events of September 11, 2001, it’s important to reflect not only on the horrific actions of the terrorists themselves, but also on the “philosophy” that gave birth and direction to those evil actions.
The attitude of the terrorists can be summed up in 3 lines that we hear all the time with respect to certain immoral activities that have become socially acceptable in the United States in recent decades. The first is: “I’m pro-choice.” The choice the terrorists supported, of course, was the choice to murder 3,000 innocent people. The moral quality of that choice did not matter to them at all; it was completely irrelevant. Neither does it matter to many of our politicians today, with respect to certain contemporary attacks on innocent human life, abortion being the most noteworthy.
The moral perspective of the terrorists can thus be summed up in this frequently heard declaration: “It’s my body and I’ll do whatever I want with it.” That obviously included taking their bodies into large airplanes and smashing them into skyscrapers and government buildings.
And to those who might object to such heinous actions, the terrorists would smugly say, “Who are you to impose your morality on us? We believe that it’s morally acceptable — and even virtuous — to kill those whom we consider to be ‘infidels.’ And who are you to tell us that we’re wrong?”
Many Americans in the last few weeks have been reflecting on the tragedy of 9/11, and on the lessons that we should learn from the evil we experienced that day. One of those lessons concerns the sanctity of human life and the dignity of the human person. Another is that we need to identify and uproot the sordid “philosophy” of the 9/11 terrorists from every aspect of modern American culture — because, unfortunately, it’s still with us.