Seven years and a couple of hours ago, I was sitting at my desk in my townhome apartment in Cary, North Carolina. I had just send my daughter off to school, turned on the television, and begun my day.
As it happened, I turned on MSNBC as 'background noise' just moments after the first plane struck the World Trade Center in New York. Before the second plane hit, I had called my friend Chad Bryant, who was then living in Bakersfield, California. I didn't even stop to think that he might not be awake yet. As it happened, he was in the shower. I don't recall, exactly, all that I said, but I do remember saying this:
"I think we're at war."
A few minutes later, that fearful speculation was borne out as a second plane struck the other tower.
Unlike many Americans at that time, I was fairly conversant with al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, and the Taliban. I had written an article several months prior, protesting the destruction of several giant Buddha by the Taliban.
This rant might be dated by a few weeks, but I still feel the need to rant on it. On March 2, 2001, a radical Islamic sect in Afghanistan known as the Taliban announced that they would be destroying all of the centuries-old megalithic statues of Buddha that are carved into the cliffside near Bamiyan in central Afghanistan, including the largest known statue of Buddha in the world. The reason for this mindless destruction, according to Taliban supreme leader Mulla Mohammad Omar, is that their presence could induce the worship of 'false idols,' a sin under Islamic law.
This same Taliban, on May 1 2001, announced a complete ban on all non-Islamic music within the borders of Afghanistan. The only music now permitted there is the singing of Islamic hymns and Taliban chants.
On May 22, 2001, in a move frighteningly reminiscent of pre-WWII Nazi Germany, the Taliban announced that all non-Muslims must wear distinctive marks on their clothing to set them apart from the country's Muslim majority.
Since the Taliban began seizing power in the mid-1990's, their rulers have implemented a very strict series of laws aimed at adhering very closely to they hyperconservative letter of the 'law,' that is to say the Koran. Today in Afghanistan, women are not allowed to work or attend school, and may not leave home unless veiled from head to foot; men must wear long beards and pray in Mosques 5 times per day.
Now, don't get me wrong; I'm all for freedom of religion and anyone who chooses to practice this particularly offensive (to human rights) brand of Islam is welcome to do so in my opinion, until they violate the rights of others. I believe that just as with Christianity, Islam is a religion and culture that has some very solid ideas, that have been filtered through some very human minds and interpreted in some very human ways. I've read the Koran. I know what it says in there, and I know what my heart tells me is divinely inspired, and what is inspired by the authors drive for political and personal power. I do not believe that any God, any Where, any When, advocated the beating of wives, or the murder of non-believers. That's human bullshit - control through fear and battery. Mohammed appears, in my opinion, to have had some trouble dealing with the idea of a woman thinking for herself, and now 2000 years later here we are. Mohammed seems to have needed a rallying cry to secure troops willing to fight and acquire land; it appears that as in so many other heinous and horrible crimes against humanity, he used God as his excuse and his rallying cry, and for 2,000 years his followers have been killing for Mohammed and Allah, believing that because they are fighting for Allah, their sins are forgiven them, or they accrue no sin at all.
I find this notion to be utterly insane, and I believe that most people that consider themselves Islamic in this day and age do too
(...)
Somewhere, right now, in Afghanistan, a beautiful wife is being beaten mercilessly for disobeying her husband, under sanction of law. That beautiful wife has no choice - she cannot get a job to support herself, and even if she could, due to the illegality of educating women in Afghanistan, she's not likely to have the skills to *perform* a job, other than as a maid, au pair, or whore. Those are the only functions that women in Taliban Afghanistan are allowed to fill, and I personally find that offensive against the very nature of humanity in the highest degree.
It's 2001, for crying out loud. How in the world can this be going on today? How can such oppression be allowed to continue? I'm not a big one on war - it's destructive and the usual victims are anyone BUT the people you're shooting for - however, I firmly believe that strong, polylateral military action is not just required, but a moral imperative. The idea that one madman, or a small collection of them, can be allowed to dehumanize people and destroy centuries-old artistic treasures - to hell with the religious import - is absolutely mind-boggling to me.
I call upon you, reader, to do whatever you must - write articles, letters to the editor, contact your congressman, write the president, whatever you have to do - to put an end to this unchecked madness in Afghanistan now, rather than waiting for 6 million more Jews (Gypsies, Catholics, disobedient wives, insert your afghan religious minority here) to be gassed to death before we step up and put a stop to it, like we did last time.
How many people have to die in the name of God? How many priceless and timeless works of art, which are by convention and agreement the property of all humankind, will be lost forever to the ages due to the horrific acts of a few loose screws. Afghanistan is the ONLY country in the world in which human rights were *more* protected under communist soviet rule. The worst part is, WE helped put the Taliban in power by running out the Soviets.
I would like to make this a cause celebre amongst those of you reading. Ideas - a petition? a march on Washington? some sort of mass civil disobedience? - are welcome in my mailbox - perhaps together, we can manage to do something about this.
Today, seven and a half years after I wrote that article...I wonder: If more people had taken action then, would we still have the Twin Towers, and the 2,751 human beings of all variety who are no longer with us?
Today, seven and a half years after I wrote that article, seven years after our world changed forever, I wonder: have we REALLY learned anything? Have we really turned that stunning blow into an opportunity for growth and success? When the biggest political story is an overblown and deceitful indignance at the phrase 'putting lipstick on a pig?' When we stand apparently eager to elect a president based on his selection of a vice-presidential candidate who is an unabashed religious zealot with no qualms about allowing her religious believes to dictate her civic responsibilities? Someone who believes that our misguided war in Iraq is a 'mission from God?'
Have we really learned anything from 9-11?