Political Science

That the famous 911 terrorist attacks on the United States of America was based on strained relations between America and the Muslim community is evident. A brief look into the history of the aforementioned attacks reveals that it involved the use of four hijacked American jetliners. The said commercial airplanes were en route to Los Angels and San Francisco from Boston, Washington, D.C and Newark. The first target to be struck during this attack was the World Trade Centres North Tower at 8.46 in the morning using Flight 11. At about 9.03 am the South Tower was hit using the American Airlines Flight 175, while Flight 77 Airline was flown by hijackers at 9.37 am to the Pentagon. The fourth plane belonging to the United States Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania near Shanksville at 10.03 am although its target was believed to be the White House or Americas capital. Thought brief and fast, there is the general consensus that the said attacks resulted to a high number of casualties. Statistics from a various sources indicate that there was 2, 995 deaths with the inclusion of the 19 hijackers while the number of victims stood at 2,976.

Furthermore, it was established that approximately 90 nations lost their citizens as a result of these attacks. It is estimated that about 17, 400 persons were at the World Trade Centre Complex during the attack with the vast majority of those affected being those that were above or at the impact zone at the time. Other than loss of lives and resultant to several individuals, it is note worthy that these attacks caused a lot of damage to the infrastructure. By so doing, the economy was negatively affected in terms of reconstruction in addition to general environmental pollution. Perhaps it is imperative to note that there are conspiracy theories as advanced by various proponents. In particular, these proponents hold the view that persons within America actually possessed crucial and detailed information with respect to these attacks although they deliberately opted not to act. To this end, this group is of the opinion that certain people outside of Al-Qaeda links planned, assisted or carried out these attacks. Yet still, another theory advances the view that indeed the World Trade Centre Complex collapsed not because of the planes crashing but that its demolition was as a result of explosives. This became to be known as the controlled demolition hypothesis an aspect that was rejected by the American Society of Civil Engineers as well as the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Against the backdrop of their researches, they deduced that the collapse of the Towers was in fact caused by impacts of the jets due to their high speeds together with subsequent fires.

As it has been stated above, these attacks were founded on deep hatred by the extremist Muslims towards the American community. With this in mind, it is therefore of importance to inquire the root cause of this deep hatred by the said Muslim community in the context of Americas Foreign Policy. Though majority of individuals would hold the view that the Muslim community is irrational by turning against the United States of America yet it is dedicated to protecting and delivering them from the bondages of tyranny, it is justifiable to note that Americas foreign policies have failed in restoring the much needed tranquility in the Muslim community. More often than not, Americas foreign policy in the Muslim community has resulted to the massive deaths as well as wanton destruction of property and infrastructure. At the same time, Americas insistence on asserting its presence within the Middle East is perceived to be a direct violation of sovereignty of this region. This helped to provide the much needed impetus and motivation for the planning and execution of these attacks by the Muslim extremists under the tutelage of Al-Qaeda group.

In an attempt to voice their concerns, this group through its leader Osama Bin Laden in a fatwa that was issued in the year 1998 was vehemently opposed to Americas occupation of its holy lands of Muslim community namely Saudi Arabia specifically the Arabian peninsula. In particular, America is accused of plundering riches within it, dictating rulers, humiliating people, terrorizing surrounding Muslim nations in addition to using the area as a base to fight the Muslim community. A detailed analysis of the fatwa brings to the fore the underlining concern from the Muslim community with regards to Americas oppression and exploitation of resources from the Middle East. In this regard, the Middle East is perceived to be taken as a business asset under the disguise of ensuring democracy within the region. At the same, Americas invasion of this region often results to massive deaths of civilians despite the fact that its intentions might be good and aimed at restoring democracy within the said region. It is the inability by Americas foreign policy to prevent the loss of innocent lives that aggravated this hatred. One cannot afford to overlook Americas involvement in the Gulf War which culminated into invasion of Iraq. To the Muslim community, actions of the United States of America were taken to be a deliberate onslaught on the community within the past three decades aimed at eliminating them. At this point, it is perhaps important to ask just how many Muslims have been killed due to the Americas foreign policy mistakes in the Middle East