Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero by

September 11, 2001 (herein referred to as 9/11) was a day in American history, which will be remembered as the most horrific attack on American soil. This attack, carried out by nineteen Islamic extremists, was associated with al-Qaeda, and involved the hijacking of four airplanes. Two of those airplanes were hijacked and flown directly into the World Trade Center in New York City, New York. The third plane’s target was the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and the fourth plane was brought down in Pennsylvania where it is believed the passengers aboard fought the hijackers. This horrific day in history cost over 3,000 people their lives, and was labeled the worst attack on American soil since the attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II.

Prior to the 1993 bombing, the threat of international terrorism had never really hit home for most Americans, “It couldn’t happen here”. But it did. A group of Middle Eastern terrorists placed explosives in the back of a rented van and parked it in the underground parking garage of the World Trade Center. The result was a large crater, over a thousand

Terrorist attacks have increased over the last twenty years, but one of the most remembered is the attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. It happened on September 11, 2001; and is commonly referred to as 9/11. Americans grow up learning details about 9/11; but rarely do we learn about a personal experience. In Adam Mayblum’s email “The Price We Pay,” he tells the story of what happened to him, and others around him on the day of September 11, 2001. Mayblum explains in paragraph ten “If you want to kill us, leave us alone because we will do it by ourselves. If you want to make us stronger, attack and we unite.” He made an excellent point with that statement, because he is right. He provides us with imagery, thoughts on terrorism, and strong use of emotions throughout the story that brings us a very well written narrative.

As I was watching the Frontline Video, Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero, I was immediately faced with the question about evil. It is hard to imagine how someone could do something so horrific in the name of religion. So many lives were forever changed during the events that transpired on Tuesday morning, Sept. 11, 2001. As a believer of God, I could certainly identify with the feelings of the people who lost loved ones during the 9/11 tragedy.

Imagine smelling the thick smoke, seeing the bright orange timbers, and feeling the terror all around you. This is what everyone was feeling when the terrorist crashed the first plane into the twin tower in NYC. Fortunately, while the was terror involved, hope was also present in 9/11. Terror and hope are found in both the article “From Terror to Hope” and the essay “Growing Up Muslim in Post 9/11 America”.

The events of the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 changed not just the American way of life, but the way in which terrorism will forever be viewed. Moments after the first plane changed our way of life by crashing into the first tower, it also changed the way people will live their lives for many generations from that point forward. For the first time on Continental United States soil, America was under siege.

The September 11th terrorist hijackings and attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon caught the United States largely by surprise. Once the dust had settled, and the shock and horror of such an unprecedented event had waned, the American public began to ask questions. Names such as Osama bin Laden, countries such as Afghanistan, and organizations such as Al-Qaeda were brought into the public's consciousness for the first time. Through newspapers, talkback radio and television programs the nation asked ‘why do they hate us so much?' Others, such as those in the government and public service, asked ‘what could we have done to have prevented this?' It is

Furthermore, as the narrator’s life begins to slowly unravel and tumble down in front of him, he is forced to wonder if there really is a God. For example, Eliezer, the main character and narrator of the memoir shows his journey throughout the Holocaust. In the first few sections of the book, he is devoted and loving towards God and the Kabbalah’s festive and cultural requirements. However, as he is then captured and introduced to the horrors of the concentration camps that he is taken to, some being Auschwitz and Buna, he begins to lose faith in his

On September 11, 2001 Terrorist assaulted America. Four planes were high-jacked and two of them were flown into the World Trade Center towers in NYC and another into the Pentagon in Washington. The fourth plane smashed in Pennsylvania before it achieved its objective in Washington DC. Inside two hours, both of the twin towers had fell. A segment of the Pentagon was extremely harmed. More than 3,000 individuals passed on in the assaults. Days after the fact the offenders of this annihilation were recognized as individuals from Al Qaeda, an Islamic fear monger amass situated in Afghanistan yet with cells all through the world. The high-jackers had worked out of Al Qaeda cells working in the US. Nobody knew whether more fear monger assaults were

On the morning of September 11, 2001, an Islamic terrorist group known as al-Qaeda carried out a series of four attacks on the United States. The most well-known attack is when two commercial airline planes crashed into the Twin Towers in New York City. Many innocent lives were lost and families were torn apart. While many Americans were determined to show their resilience towards the attacks, this is a day many Americans will never forget. Although the attacks happened sixteen years ago, Americans are still dealing with the impacts these attacks have had on life in America. The 9/11 attacks have had several long-lasting effects on everyday life in America, some of which include an increase in airport security, a change in national security, and an increase the fear of terrorism.

Terrorism is something that is brought up in our modern life as Americans quite regularly, though often not outright. We discuss heightened plane security and about whether it is appropriate to fear those who look different than us who are boarding the same plane. We talk about Apple and if it is worth losing our own personal privacy in order to gain insight on terrorist groups. We add a French flag over our Facebook profile pictures when a country like ourselves faces a reality we silently hope we will never have to face. In Juergensmeyer’s Terror in the Mind of God, the reader is forced to think about terrorism in a way that we are not used to, talking about terrorists as real people, with real motives, who could affect our own lives.

In the reading from Terror in the Mind of God, the author Mark Juergensmeyer aims to explain to the reader what religious terrorism is and dig deeper into why violence and religion seem to be tied, searching for “how terror could be convinced in the mind of God”. The chapters we read for class had a main focus of what terrorism is, what it is not, who is committing these acts of terrorism, and what is they are trying to achieve through the acts of violence. In the last chapter of our reading, Juergensmeyer reflects on how effective previous attacks have been and outlines the only options he sees available in response to our modern global terrorism.

As the 14th anniversary of 9/11 approached it allowed for greater reflection on the meaning behind justice in the United States of America. This become a dark day in our history, but we came out stronger as a nation. As a teacher I had the privilege of teaching a group of 3rd graders about the meaning behind 9/11 and the events that lead to many acts of selflessness and heroism. The number one question I was asked by these very curious students was “all those people died when this happened, what prevents this from happening again?” Sadly, I could not find the right answer for them, for I too found myself questioning whether justice was served. In the modern society to which we live, the definition of justice is always evolving, especially from its original meaning during Plato and Aristotle's time. This evolution creates different meaning for different people.

September 11th changed the lives of many Americans, irrevocably. The horrendous attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon altered the way American’s viewed their positions within the world, not to mention their lives and their safety. The attacks brought terrorism to the forefront of national attention, in every aspect. The government became immediately immersed in an effort to understand and defeat terrorism, and simultaneously, the media, with its perverse fascination with violence and profit-driven espousal to round-the-clock, up-to-the-minute coverage, demonstrated an obsession with the attacks, by broadcasting almost nothing but the latest developments in the search and rescue efforts and investigations

After the attack of 9/11 many American citizens sought out an answer to why one would hijack a plane and run it into the Twin Towers, killing millions. According to the Huffpost, Islam became the main reason for the attack and furthermore labeled religion as the inspiration for many terroristic attacks (Gibson, 1). According to many Muslims, however, the attacks are anti-Islamic because the Quran states not to harm civilians who are not involved with war and to avoid it at all possible times (PBS, 3). The conflict between Muslims and Americans is growing and many issues in the Middle East has become the focus for religious terrorism.