Terrorism

The attacks were a deliberate attempt by a terrorist organization (al-Qaeda) to affect the foreign policy of the US and other nations by killing civilians in a series of organized suicide attacks. The underlying reasons for the attacks are a subject of continued debate.

• A brief answer is that the United States has garnered a lot of hostility because of its support for the establishment and continuation of Israel, a Jewish state. This support has angered many Islamic nations in that geographic region, leading to many radical Islamic fundamentalists calling on the United States to withdraw from the region altogether and to stop supporting Israel. Obviously, the strategic interests for energy are too important for the United States to do this, and so the people -- Islamic fundamentalists believing they have a religious duty to fight the United States' infidels -- call on followers of radical Islamic faith to make war on US citizens and the US government.
• In addition to Israel, Bin Laden himself listed several other grievances including, but not limited to: US soldiers stationed in Arabia in violation of Mohammed's wish that Arabia be entirely Muslim, the US and Australian intervention to assist East Timor (a majority-Christian country) to gain independence from Indonesia (a majority-Muslim country), the US intervention in Iraq in the Gulf War of 1990-1991 that resulted in Kuwait's freedom and the death of many Iraqis as well as no fly zones in Iraq, and the US support and direction of the Egyptian Regime under Hosni Mubarak.
• The hijackers were mostly citizens of Saudi Arabia and they were thought to be members of Al Qaeda, led by Osama Bin Laden. A group of terrorists took control of two commercial airliners and purposely crashed them into the "twin towers" of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Another group of terrorists took control of another commercial airliner, reportedly headed for the White House in Washington, D.C., which crashed in a field in Pennsylvania after the terrorists were overtaken by a group of passengers. Another group of terrorists took control of yet another airliner and purposely crashed it into the Pentagon.
• It is generally believed that the Koran's teachings engender in some Muslim fundamentalists a hate for westerners which caused them to commit these hostile, mass-murdering terrorist acts. The terrorists believed that giving their lives in order to kill many of their western 'infidel enemies' in the United States was a "holy" act given to them by their god. They felt it was what they were 'destined to do' for their god, and that's why they did it.
• Muslim fanatics attacked the US because of their belief that predominantly Christian nations such as the US have deprived the Islamic world of the leading role, and the power and prestige that it rightfully deserves. Elements of Christianity and Islam have been in conflict since the Muslim conquest of the Levant, North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula (beginning in the seventh century) and the Crusades in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries. Additionally, US support for the nation of Israel since 1948 has greatly inflamed Muslim resentment toward the US. To the September 11th terrorists, that attack was merely the latest battle in a long running war between faiths.
• Also, be aware that there are many people who simply hate the United States because they have a distorted view of our country. Instead of seeing the United States as the "melting pot" country that it is; that it is a "free" country; that it allows its people to believe, speak, and worship as they wish. They prefer to believe that because Americans do not believe, speak, and worship as they do, that everyone here is full of sin, going against "their" God in so many ways (religion, technology, etc.); not living our lives in their simple and prudent ways; not using only what is necessary, but rather using more than our share.
• Additionally, there are many people in the West, including the U.S., who have historically viewed the Islamic nations as nothing more than a source of wealth to be exploited, with no regard for the welfare of the area's populace.

Extreme religious views, and a total disregard for the rights and freedoms of others caused 9-11, and led terrorists to attack a nation because of a lack of tolerance for differences.

The September 11, 2001 attacks on the United State of America was caused by terrorists affiliated with Al-Qaeda, the extremist Sunni Islamist militant group founded by, now deceased, Osama bin Laden. There motivation was repeatedly broadcast in recorded televised message in which they had declared a "Jihad" (so-called "struggle on behalf of God") on the United States, and had vowed death to Americans.

Their extremist religious beliefs convince them that the doctrine contained in the Qur'an teaches that anyone who does not live according to their strict standards, and those who do not believe as they do are "infidels" and "non-believers," and must be killed. Since the American way of life promotes democracy, free will, free speech, free religion, and a number of other freedoms pertaining to potentially deviant behavior, Americans are viewed as "infidels" and their way of life is a threat to the extremist Islamist. They believe that "Allah" commands them to kill infidels, and rewards them in Heaven if they die in the process. Suicide bombings and hijackings are believed by these extremists as a guaranteed reward in the after-life.

There is an official explanation that holds the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda and its founder and leader Osama bin Laden were responsible for the attacks. In the words of George W. Bush: "They hate us because of our freedom."
The terrorist attacks of 9/11 were started when tensions between powerful groups in middle east and the United States reached a breaking point. Al Qaeda was supposedly formed as a militant group around the time of the Desert Storm conflict between Iraq and the U.S. They have been blamed for many attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan before they infiltrated many factions of US security including the military and the CIA in order to find weaknesses in America's defenses in preparation of four large scale attacks using large commercial airplane, three of which were very successful and one was supposedly thwarted by hijacked passengers, missing it's target but nonetheless crashed in rural Pennsylvania, adding to the casualties.
Terrorist groups wished to kill hundreds or, if they could, thousands of innocent Americans. This is what extreme religion does to you...most Muslims are very peaceful, just like Christians or Catholics or Jews, but these extremists are dangerous and insane. They decided to kill the "infidels," or those who don't believe like they do.

Well, History is a written account of the deeds of people and nations (especially, their political deeds) and Terrorism is the belief that threatening innocent civilians with random acts of violence is an effective and acceptable way to bring about social and political change.

So, it seems to me as if the fit is not all that good (i.e., Terrorism is not the same thing as History.) But wait! You asked about the War ON Terrorism which is another thing altogether. It's hard to get a straight answer about what the war ON terrorism actually is or who even is in charge of it, but if you look at where all of the money has been spent, most has been spent on the building of permanent U.S. military bases in locations that will have immense strategic importance in the event of a future war for oil, and the rest has been spent producing war propaganda to entertain the American people and acclimate them to the idea of killing brown people in order to preserve the sacred "American way of life."

So, it seems to me as if the fit still is not all that good. The War ON Terrorism is not the same thing as History.

Hey! Here's an idea. What if somebody looked AT history (i.e., read some). I wonder if there's anything written down in history that could inform your opinion as to whether either Terrorism or the War ON Terrorism was a good thing?

Answer 1

Islam is never a violent religion. Islam calls for peace and justice and good morals. If Islam calls for defending your lands and properties (called military Jihad) it does not mean violence. If Islam calls Muslims to struggle within themselves to be in the right path of God and not to commit sins, it does not mean violence, Islam calls for peace and tolerance and forgiveness.

Western media and politicians propagate false ideas about Islam to have control over Muslim countries and to resist the Islam religion propagation through convert of non Muslims to Islam.

Answer 2

Let me make it clear that the overwhelming majority of Muslims and the majority of Islamic leaders do not promote violence. However, this question is not asking about those people, but for leaders and organizations who are devout Muslims and who do advocate for violence. Some examples include:

• Ayatollah Khamanei who advocated for violence against Iranian Mossavi Protesters across Iran and demands the mass slaughter of Jews in Israel.
• Ayatollah Khomeini who called the Iran-Iraq War a "holy mission" for Muslims to devote themselves. (Note: he could have easily justified his war on political grounds, but chose not to, appealing to his religious faith.)
• The Taliban repressed women and brutally tortured their opponents, believing that they had the right to implement the harshest forms of human indecency because of their religion.
• Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, an Iraqi Ayatollah claimed that suicide bombers that kill civilians are blessed by God and therefore do not need an Imam to bless their errand.
• The Saudi chief of Islamic Affairs (Sheikh Saleh Al-Sheikh) also claimed that suicide bombers were martyrs for God's causes.
• Anjem Choudary, leader of the now-banned British Islamist organization Al-Muhajiroon, claimed it is an "obligation upon Muslims everywhere to support the Jihad against those who fight Muslims anywhere in the world or who occupy Muslim land".

Percentage of Muslims
First, we need to take a moment and realize that Islamic terrorism is a very small percentage of the Muslim population, just as terrorists in general are a minimal part of the population. However, just because terrorists make up less than 1% of Muslims (it is estimated that there are roughly 300,000 Jihadists in the world out of 1.6 billion Muslims), this number is still significantly larger than other groups who perform terrorism and are responsible for an inordinate share of casualties. In the last ten years, over 85% of terrorist incidents and 85% terrorist-related fatalities were perpetrated by Muslims. This is far more than either the Jews or the Christians.

It is the same way that criminals are usually less than 1% of the population of a given country, but police are still needed to prevent more crime. Pretending that crime does not exist because 99% of people are not criminals is not a healthy approach.

Answer
As to the question today of why Muslims are more violent per capita than Jews or Christians, even where the Qur'an is only as violent if not less violent than the Old Testament, there are three major reasons for this:

1) Religious Moderation through the Enlightenment and Disempowerment
Both Judaism and Christianity have had documents that have moderated or delimited the violent passages in the Old Testament.

In the case of Judaism, the Mishnah, Talmud, and other books of Jewish Religious Jurisprudence have often made the more violent aspects of the Old Testament completely unenforceable. While the possibility of the return to more violent laws is possible in a Messianic Age, the Jews do not currently see it to be religiously proper to stone children to death for disobedience to their parents.

In the case of Christianity, the New Testament served as a watershed moment, effectively splitting the laws of the Old Testament into ceremonial laws, the judicial laws, and the moral laws. Ceremonial Laws are the laws concerning sacrificial rituals and holidays and judicial laws concern the particular punishments meted out for sinful behavior. Christian theologians argued that the ceremonial and judicial laws are no longer valid because Jesus was himself the fulfillment of the law and, therefore, these ways of getting to God were unnecessary. As a result, the moral law was the only law that survived.

Regardless of these steps, which pushed both Judaism and Christianity in the right direction, what further impelled religious moderation was the Enlightenment and the forcing of religion out of power. In a new, non-governmental position, religions became more about morality and less about forced conformity. As a result, Judaism and Christianity mellowed further.

2) Piety: Simply put, the average Muslim is much more religious than the average Jew or the average Christian. This does not mean that there are not millions of pious Jews and Christians, but rather that when you have a larger pool of religiously observant people and it comes from a religion whose violent beliefs were not moderated, you have a higher likelihood of generating violence.

3) Political Issues: In most of the Jewish and Christian World, baseline domestic concerns are taken care of. Conversely, much of the Islamic World is poor and often battle-scarred. This political instability is more likely to generate violence than a politically stable environment all else equal.

Related Questions
Please also see these Related Questions:

• Why is it that while not every Muslim is a terrorist, every terrorist is a Muslim?
• Why are Muslims intolerant of other religions?
• Are there any rules governing Muslims in relation to Non-Muslims?