Why was September 11 chosen as the date to attack the USA?
Gary Sweeten

Christopher Hitchens has looked into the date chosen by Muslim fanatics as the best time to destroy the US economy and political leadership. In an article for The Guardian, a British newspaper, he says this.

I now think I can provide a more persuasive explanation, however. It was on September 11 1683 that the conquering armies of Islam were met, held, and thrown back at the gates of Vienna.

Now this, of course, is not a date that has only obscure or sectarian significance. It can rightly, if tritely, be called a hinge-event in human history. The Ottoman empire never recovered from the defeat; from then on it was more likely that Christian or western powers would dominate the Muslim world than the other way around.

In our culture, the episode is often forgotten or downplayed, except by Catholic propagandists like Hilaire Belloc and GK Chesterton. But in the Islamic world, and especially among the extremists, it is remembered as a humiliation in itself and a prelude to later ones. (The forces of the Islamic Jihad in Gaza once published a statement saying that they could not be satisfied until all of Spanish Andalusia had been restored to the faithful as well.)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

We cannot imagine how anyone would declare war on a nation and an entire people based upon an event that happened 318 years ago. In 1683 there was no United States of America. So, why attack the USA?

That is easy to answer. The fanatics consider of us all to be Christian Crusaders.Despite arguments to the contrary by the ACLU and many liberal-socialists in America, the Muslims think we are a Christian nation. They know our history better than we.

This is a clash of civilizations. Not because we want it to be but because the fanatics can think of little else. They are not fundamentalists. A fundamentalist is one who strongly holds to the fundamentals of the faith. These fanatics defy many Islamic tenets and change others to meet their personal convictions.

So, why do they hate us? Because they cannot stand to think that 1)Christians went on the Crusades to liberate Palestine from the Muslims during the 11th and 12 centuries; 2) Christians defeated the Ottoman Turks at Vienna on September 11, 1683 and 3) Christian nations placed infidel Christian troops on holy Saudi soil in 1991 to defile, shame and defeat Islam.

Which of these can we change in order to gain forgiveness from bin Laden and his gangs of fanatics?

Gsweeten@lifewaycenters.com
www.lifewaycenters.com