After the planes hit on 9/11,
a myth-making industry was born.
“Why do they hate us?” was
the first thought to cross horrified American minds.
Israel’s lobby, worried that she
would be seen as having sowed the seeds of anti-American sentiment in the
Islamic world, quickly came up with an alternative explanation: “They hate us for our freedoms—our way of
life,” screamed the headlines. Promoted by friendly journalists,
politicians, and academics, these slogans quickly drowned out all other
competing theories and were eagerly picked up and trumpeted by right-wing
pundits like Rush Limbaugh, and Islamophobes like Daniel Pipes, who went on to
claim that Islamists want to impose sharia law on America.
Hollywood, not to be left out
of all the fun, quickly jumped on the bandwagon with a slew of entertaining
programs like 24; Sleeper Cell; Homeland;
and others that amplified and capitalized on this paranoia.
Bin Laden, in fact, had no interest
in changing the “American way of life.” He wanted instead to topple the Saudi
monarchy and saw 9/11 as a way to permanently rupture the Saudi–US alliance, a
goal he very nearly succeeded in accomplishing.
Islamists actually could not
care less about imposing sharia law in the US. They want control of Arabia, its
oil and its holy places, and any other Muslim-majority state they can get their
hands on in the meantime. Their target, their obsession, was the Muslim world
not America. Islamophobes, however, striving to keep Americans on edge, claimed
to spot “homegrown” radical Islam lurking behind every tree.
In fact, a careful review of
events since 9/11 proves, without a shadow of a doubt, that the claim that
militant Islam has gained any traction among the Muslims of America is
farcical.
