Thoughts on 9/11: Bat Ye'or, the Euro-Arab Dialogue and Dhimmitude: Five Years On, What Will America Choose To Do?

Last night, about 10:30p.m., while I was reading -- intently focused -- on Bat Ye'or's _Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis_ , I got a call. Answering, I was told to turn on the TV and watch the National Geographic documentary on the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I put the book down and began to watch the program. Along with the gruesome disasters at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Alexandria, Virginia, it also told the story of the brave Americans on board flight 93 that was crashed into the ground near Shankstown, PA, killing all on board. It was apparently headed for the US Capitol building where, had it not been for some very brave people, I am sure it would have destroyed that building as well. After about a half-hour, I set the DVR to record, turned the TV off and went back to my book intending to go to sleep. (More on the book later.) But it called me. I stayed up into the wee hours watching the TV and watching my own reactions to what I was watching again. I couldn't help the pull to live those moments again. I couldn't. They were different feelings than those I remember five years ago. The feelings I had were more intense, bolstered by the knowledge that I had obtained in the interim on the attacks, the people, their ideology and the constant drumbeat of President Bush's "War on Terror". Some time ago, I realized that it was indeed a war, but I have never felt that there has been a coherent story behind what it is that the Western world is facing from radical Islam or "Islamofascism". That term, as I have concluded, is somewhat of a misnomer as the battle is against the Islamic requirement of jihad against the "unbelievers" -- infidels like me.

I remember every scene that they played back � the video and the audio. Except the particular video of the exact moment that the steel in the South Tower began to bend as the result of the raging fire which reached in excess of 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. The bend did not last. At that exact moment, the South Tower � camera panning out � began to collapse. Quickly. The debris roaring out on Vesey Street visible from W. Broadway was utterly hellacious to watch as was the utter darkness into which lower Manhattan descended. But five years on, I was honestly overwhelmed. Each of us has been inundated with information about the causes of those terrorist attacks in particular and the cause for Arab terrorism in general. There had been a Congressional investigation � insufficient of course�; a realignment of our governmental intelligence agencies to make interagency communication about potential future terrorist easier to transmit and act upon, and an enormous number of books about nearly every conceivable topic related to the attacks in New York, Washington and elsewhere. We invaded Afghanistan to try to root out Osama bin Laden, who had been lifted to the level of a demi-God amongst much of the Arab world for having poked the big, bad United States in the eye. There had been an invasion of Iraq and the toppling of the Ba�aathist regime of Saddam Hussein. There has been a great deal of soul-searching here and abroad about how to combat this nearly invisible, yet implacable enemy which only exists to�what? What is their ultimate goal? What can we in the West honestly do to turn the minds of the Arab �street� against their violent anti-Western attitudes? Regardless of your views as to how the coordinated attacks on September 11, 2001 related to Iraq is at this point not important. The US has committed to a new Iraq with the blood of over 2700 servicemen and women. Many civilians have died in the process and we now find ourselves trying not to get killed while the Sunni minority tries to hold its place against the Shi�ite majority which is being aided by Iran and Syria. To leave now will be to hand Iraq over to Iran.

Many people have sought to bury their heads, choosing to not know. Or have chosen politically correct viewpoints and explanations for the battles that we have fought and have yet to fight. Five years on, the replay of the horrors that so many people directly experienced on September 11-- imagining those who lost loved ones and friends and the tremendous, seemingly inexplicable losses they live with now -- and which all Americans live with and remember to one extent or another -- triggered more profound feelings than I actually had the day the attacks were carried out.

Are we destined to live lives in a country that is just waiting to react to the next terrorist idea? Are we a body politic comprised of sheep? Why do we accept, without question, the TSA�s mandate that we must ALL live as if we were all terrorists? Why are they so focused on �things� and not the actual people who would actually commit a terrorist attack? Before anyone can answer any of these seemingly reasonable questions, the first thing that is necessary is to really identify the problem. And I believe that the answer is in front of us. All we have to do is look. And read. And act accordingly in the spirit of Winston Churchill at the outset of WWII � to gather our righteous rage against and utterly destroy those who would take from us our most precious, fundamental rights as free people. We have to understand that the people and ideologies that we are pitched against are not going to tolerate us. They will use every available means to destroy our way of life. And I do not say this cynically. I mean that these people would have us as slaves as they have in the past. And I do not mean to sound alarmist or reactionary. I, too, thought those people who used to say that we were really in the throes of the first battles of WWIII were overstating their cases. They are not. This is real.

If you read nothing else on the subject of why Europe is, well, no longer �Europe�, you will want to spend some time with the attached article which was written a few years ago by Bat Ye�or.It is located here: http://www.dhimmitude.org/archive/by_eurabia_122002_eng.doc

In order to understand the problem that we face, we must get used to the notion of reading and understanding concepts that take more than a paragraph or two to understand. Sound bites are insufficient for true comprehension. That said, I am asking you, for your own sake, to read this article. Carefully. It will not make you happy, but it will make you feel like you have stumbled across something that totally feels right and is moreover supported by history and facts. From there, it's not a long jump to imagining that something can be done to attempt to rectify the situation. When you read this article, you will feel as if a weight -- the weight of helplessness-- has been lifted from your eyes. From this, we can develop a plan to take back our world.

I was interrupted by the 9/11 documentary from my current reading: Bat Ye'Or's latest book, Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis (Farleigh Dickenson University Press, 2005) which discusses many of the themes contained in the attached paper.

Unbeknownst to me before I bought the book, Martin Gilbert, who is probably the most respected and prolific historian on the planet, has lent his name and imprimatur of accuracy and relevance to the book. The expression of the reasons for his admiration for the book is found on the inside front flap. It is an amazing historical, economic, political and sociological analysis that the leaders of the remaining free world would be wise to study. After spending some time with Ms. Ye�or�s book, I cannot say that Western Europe is really any longer free, as that term used to be defined before 1967 or so. Most of those countries exist only as a civilization of dhimmitude under Shar�ia law, not as truly free countries for reasons that you will understand after reading this article.

Her book was reviewed last year in the National Review and can be seen here for free: http://www.benadorassociates.com/article/14174 courtesy of the author�s publicist.

If you take this as a call to engage, it's because, I guess, it is. Bat Ye'Or's articles and her books are the synthesis of the perfect storm that is waiting for us. It is time to understand the reality and impact of the Euro-Arab Dialogue and dhimmitude. And once understood, it's time to act based on that understanding. What will we in America do? We cannot continue down the path we've started down, that's for sure.

The party is over for Europe. Its status as dhimmitude is secure. The same may be ttrue here in the US if we don�t collectively wake up and smell the fire that is starting to burn our own house down.