It's A Different World 25 Years On

    A quarter-century ago, in September of 2001, the chief aim of jihadist terrorism in the West was to horrify free populations and intimidate their leaders into submitting to Islamist demands. Coercion was the blunt logic behind terrorism for decades, if not centuries. But over the past 3 years, jihadists have been furnished with a very different incentive to draw blood. Among a segment of the free world, terrorism no longer primarily horrifies; rather, it thrills and inspires. Acts of murderous violence, therefore, have also become a means of gaining support for jihad in certain groups of sympathetic thought in the West. 

    I’ll put it another way. In America, terrorism now has the additional power to seduce, and, I kid you not, be cool.

    Terrorism has long been used as a rallying cry of recruitment in the Muslim world and in countries with no tradition of individual liberty or classical liberal thought or civilized behavior. That it increasingly functions the same way in the West is the clearest sign that those traditions are in the extreme among much of Gen Z and the entire activist class.

    Within on day of Hamas’ October 7 massacre/pogrom, organizations including National Students for Justice in Palestine, Black Lives Matter Chicago, Detroit IfNotNow, and others began not only rallying behind Hamas but incorporating the group’s imagery into their own promotional materials. They slapped the Hamas paraglider on their pamphlets, social media accounts, and protest posters. Supporters of jihad gathered at once in a slew of American cities, including New York, wrapped in keffiyehs and chanting genocidal slogans. 

    Were they horrified? Frightened? No, not this crowd. In the words of Cornell University associate professor Russell Rickford, October 7 “was exhilarating, it was energizing.” I can only imagine what he said after September 11. Naturally this craze went on to overtake campus after campus, where terrorist slogans and imagery were as common as tie-dyes at Woodstock.

    “Globalize the intifada,” a blatant call to mass murder, became a staple of the public square.

    Twenty-five years ago, in the days and weeks after 9/11, no one in the Western world took to the streets waving al-Qaeda flags, quoting Osama bin Laden, and calling for jihad. But they got there after October 7th. It was in October 2023, in fact, when bin Laden’s “Letter to America” manifesto went viral on Gen Z TikTok, with fresh-faced American twenty-somethings testifying to its genius and righteousness. Months later, at a demonstration in Lafayette Square Park, right outside the White House, protesters held up a banner reading “Jihad of Victory or Martyrdom.”

    When terrorists hoped only to terrorize us, the cultural antidote was clear: Courage. We needed to stiffen our spines and not back down in the face of barbarous violence. But what is needed today, when a growing number of Americans and others are being seduced by terrorism and lawless violence; from the murder of Jews to the murder of CEO’s? An education in history and civics? Sure. Moral guidance? That, too.

    But there is something else missing, something larger, more elemental, and yet harder to name. It has to do with finding purpose, engaging with the world, and whatever else goes into wanting to contribute to a great civilization instead of blowing it up. I don’t what else to call it except the love and embracing of life. Because trust me when I say this…its opposite is a death wish. 

    I will be at our Bucks County 9/11 Memorial tomorrow, to pay my respects…and remember. I have no idea what is scheduled, if anything, as far as a program. But I do know that I will not have a lot of patience for vulgar, Neanderthal-like protestors singing praises to Allah, singing death chants to America, and verbally desecrating a solemn ceremony in honor of innocent victims and heroes. I honor their freedom of speech and their right to “protest.” But keep your distance. Respect our right to gather in a public place without interference. Because I do not believe I am mature enough to peacefully go through that again. 

Write to Peter: magtour@icloud.com