Observing Patriot Day: September 11, 2012

On September 4, 2002, President Bush proclaimed September 11 as “Patriot Day.” On this day Americans are to fly the flag at half-staff at every location, and at 8:46 a.m. (EDT), the time the first plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center, a moment of silence is to be observed.

The day isn’t an official federal holiday and so schools and government offices don’t close. But many communities around the nation observe the day as a “discretionary day of remembrance,” as does mine.

The small Florida city where I live has scheduled an event, starting at 8:30 a.m. at the Firefighters Memorial Park in memory of the 2,977 who were killed in the terrorist attacks. “We will never forget,” proclaims the notice on the city website.

This year, as we remember the victims of 9/11, we would also do well to remember the cause of their deaths, and to give thanks to God for His protecting us from further attacks from our enemies.

According to former U.S. Congressman Fred Gandy, of the Center for Security Policy, we should not forget that the threat of further attacks remains. Gandy says: “Radical Islam is a threat to the average American because it is a threat to all of the institutions that the average American now takes for granted: democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, due process, all of that is threatened and could potentially be eviscerated by a radical Islam doctrine. And it’s happening in countries like Egypt now.”

Judith Mendelsohn Rood, director of the Middle East studies program at Biola University, says the Muslim Brotherhood’s rise in Egypt is “marked by the populist Islamist rhetoric of jihad, martyrdom, caliphate, and the conquest of Jerusalem, preached in mosques throughout the years, despite the enormous historical changes in the [Middle East] since the end of WWII” (World, 7/28/2012).

Rep. Gandy, who was in Congress from 1987 to 1995, says, “I think every politician in this country, whether they’re running for school board or whether they’re running for president of the United States, has to answer, ‘Where do you stand on national security when it comes to radical Islam — when it comes to the attempts to create jihad both by overt and covert means?’”

Unfortunately, some in our highest levels of government are unwilling to speak publicly about the threat posed by radical Islam. At one point, James Clapper, U.S. Director of National Intelligence, told a House Intelligence Committee hearing that the Muslim Brotherhood is no threat to America.  

In February of 2011, Clapper, who oversees 16 American intelligence and investigative agencies, testified that Egypt’s branch of the Muslim Brotherhood movement was “a very heterogeneous group, largely secular, which has eschewed violence and has decried al Qaeda as a perversion of Islam.” A spokesman for Clapper later said, “He is well aware that the Muslim Brotherhood is not a secular organization.” But he let stand Clapper’s other remarks.

The ground-breaking book by the Center for Security Policy (CSP), Sharia: The Threat to America, devotes a chapter to the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), which it says is “the ‘vanguard’ or tip-of-the-spear of the current Islamic movement in the world,” and “the root of the majority of Islamic terrorist groups in the world today.” Al Qaeda was spawned by the Brotherhood, but the latter is far more organized and now is active in 80 countries. Ikhwan (the Brotherhood’s Arabic name) was founded in Egypt in 1928 with a two-fold purpose: (1) to implement sharia worldwide, and (2) to re-establish the imperial Islamic state (caliphate).

At least one Middle Eastern security head has spoken publicly, warning of the MB’s goals. In July 2012, Reuters reported that Dahi Khalfan, chief of police of Dubai, and one of the most outspoken security officials of the United Arab Emirates, warned of an “international plot” to overthrow the governments of Gulf Arab countries. Previously Khalfan had also accused the Brotherhood of trying to sow discord in the UAE.

But according to the CSP, the Muslim Brotherhood is advancing its purposes in the West by using non-violent, stealthy means — such as penetrating government circles in executive and legislative branches at the federal, state, and local levels as well as law enforcement agencies, the military and penal institutions. It is also influencing the media, think tanks and policy groups, academic institutions, and non-Muslim religious communities.

The CSP warns, “The Brothers engage in all of these activities and more for one reason: to subvert the targeted communities in furtherance of the MB’s primary objective — the triumph of sharia.”

Several members of Congress have voiced concern that the Muslim Brotherhood is gaining influence in our government. Their concerns should not be dismissed as “politics.”

As Egyptian Christians point out, the Brotherhood’s motto is: “Allah is our objective; the Prophet is our leader; the Koran is our law; jihad is our way; dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”

This year, let us observe Patriot Day, not only by remembering those patriots who lost their lives on that day, but let us resolve to do all that we can to serve our God and our country with determination and diligence, so that our nation will continue to be “the land of the free and the home of the brave” for generations to come.

Dr. Karen Gushta is a writer and researcher for Truth in Action Ministries (formerly Coral Ridge Ministries). Her most recent book is How Can America Survive? The Coming Economic Earthquake. She has also written The War on Children: How Pop Culture and Public Schools Put Our Kids at Risk (2009) and co-authored Ten Truths About Socialism (2010). A former educator, Dr. Gushta taught kindergarten to graduate level in both public and Christian schools in America and overseas. Her doctorate is in Philosophy of Education.

Publication date: September 10, 2012