September 11th, 2001 was a day most Americans will never forget. Nearly 3,000 lives were stolen from us on that day (9/11 Death Statistics). At 8 a.m the day of the attack, Danny1 Lewin prepared to board his non-stop flight from Boston to Los Angeles. American Airlines flight 11 was one of four thousand flights scheduled to depart that day. Danny, a 31-year-old Internet entrepreneur, was excited to head home to see his wife and two sons. Sixteen minutes into the flight, the plane took a wrong turn and began to fly towards New York City. A bloody hijacking began, and all five terrorists on board were yielding box-cutters and knives. Danny, an Israeli-American, could understand the Arabic they were speaking and decided to take action. In the encounter, he was stabbed and killed. His was the first life taken on September 11th. The plane continued to fly towards New York City, and at 8:46 a.m., it crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
A memorial and a new skyscraper, One World Trade Center, have been built where the Twin Towers used to stand. These beautiful new structures symbolize how our country has risen from the ashes of the 9/11 attacks. Although America’s wounds have healed, the fear of terrorism still lives in all of us. The attacks on our country by al Qaeda have changed what it means to be an American.
Today, al Qaeda continues to threaten the lives and freedoms of people all over the globe. This militant Islamist organization was founded by Osama bin Laden in Pakistan between 1988 and 1989, according to Bill Moyers, of the PBS network. Al Qaeda is a multinational, stateless army, of radical Sunnis, which calls for global jihad.2 Believing in a strict interpretation of Muslim law, they have carried out many terrorist attacks on non-Sunni Muslims, non-Muslims, and other targets they consider kafir3. The group has power in numbers, with members in over 10 countries around the world, according to the New York Times (see image below)....