September 11, 2001, and October 7, 2023, are not two separate events.
They are chapters in the same book, authored by the same ideology: radical Islam’s war against Jews, Christians, and the West. The methods differ—planes into towers, paragliders into kibbutzim—but the theology behind both atrocities comes from the same place: the conviction that Islam must rule the world, and that Jews especially must be destroyed.
Let’s stop deluding ourselves. The terrorists are not vague “militants.” They are not “resistance fighters.” They are theological warriors, quoting chapter and verse as they slaughter. Al Qaeda on 9/11 and Hamas on October 7 were not acting despite Islam, but in their own eyes, because of it.
Hamas’s founding charter quotes the Quran directly: “The Day of Judgment will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews, and the Jews hide behind the stones and the trees, and the stones and the trees say, O Muslim, O servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him” (Sahih Muslim 2922). That isn’t a fringe idea—it’s a Hadith considered authentic in Islamic tradition. For Hamas, this is not metaphor. It is policy.
When Al Qaeda struck America, bin Laden declared it was a holy war. He quoted the Quran: “Fight them until there is no more fitnah [unbelief] and religion is all for Allah” (Quran 8:39). His target was not just the U.S. military—it was the very existence of a free, pluralistic West. The Jews were the “little Satan,” America the “great Satan,” both obstacles to a world submitted to Allah.
October 7 was soaked in the same theology. Hamas fighters stormed Israeli towns screaming “Allahu Akbar,” not “Free Palestine.” Their goal was not territory, but theology: the humiliation of the Jews. In their eyes, this is obedience to the Quran: “Humiliation and wretchedness were stamped upon them [the Jews]… They incurred wrath from Allah” (Quran 2:61). To Hamas, slaughtering Jews is not a crime—it is a divine command.
And the hatred is not limited to Jews. The Quran describes Christians, too, as destined for defeat: “They have certainly disbelieved who say, ‘Allah is the Messiah, the son of Mary’” (Quran 5:72). This is why 9/11 targeted America, not only Israel. It is the same war, the same creed, the same script.
The echoes between 9/11 and October 7 are therefore not just tactical, but theological. Both were sermons with bullets. Both were commentaries on scripture written in Jewish and American blood. Both were acts of worship as much as they were acts of war.
What does the West do? Deny it. Whitewash it. Pretend this is about borders, poverty, or politics. After 9/11, intellectuals rushed to insist “Islam is a religion of peace.” After October 7, the same voices bend over backwards to claim Hamas does not represent “real Islam.” Meanwhile, Hamas clerics broadcast weekly sermons dripping with Jew-hatred, quoting Quran 5:82: “You will surely find the most intense of the people in animosity toward the believers [to be] the Jews…” These are not marginal verses. They are mainstream. And jihadists act on them.
The tragedy is not only that Jews were butchered on October 7. The tragedy is that we still pretend this has nothing to do with religion. The West hides behind illusions of “coexistence.” Israel clings to hopes of “managing” Hamas. But the killers have told us in plain Arabic: they are obeying God.
The echoes of 9/11 on October 7 ring with one command: believe your enemies when they tell you who they are. Radical Islam wants the West humiliated, America dethroned, and the Jews eradicated. If 9/11 was a wake-up call, October 7 is the alarm blaring again.
Israel must respond not as if this is a border dispute, but as if it is a holy war—because that is exactly how our enemies see it. Hamas must be crushed, not contained. And the West must face reality: the jihad that hit New York and the jihad that hit the Negev is the same jihad. If Israel falls, the towers will fall again—whether in Manhattan, London, or Paris.
The towers burned. The kibbutzim burned. The texts that inspired both burn still. Until we take them seriously, the echoes of 9/11 and October 7 will not fade. They will grow louder.
REPUBLISHED:
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-echoes-of-9-11-on-october-7-a-war-rooted-in-hate-theology/
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