{"id":101738,"date":"2023-09-11T22:58:17","date_gmt":"2023-09-12T04:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=101738"},"modified":"2023-09-11T22:58:17","modified_gmt":"2023-09-12T04:58:17","slug":"a-late-thought-on-a-memorable-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2023\/09\/a-late-thought-on-a-memorable-day.html","title":{"rendered":"A late thought on a memorable day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Minutes<\/a>
The North Tower of the World Trade Center was already fatally damaged when United Airlines Flight 175 hit the South Tower, resulting in the fireball shown here.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today has, of course, been the anniversary of the terrorist attacks against New York City and Washington DC and the hijacking of United Airlines Flight 93 that brought that airliner down in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all aboard.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s very little that I can say about the events of those days, if anything, that would be fresh or that would provide any fresh insights into one of the best known horrors of modern history. \u00a0So I don\u2019t think that I\u2019ll even make the attempt.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m guessing, though, that most of us who were of sufficient age to be aware of the news twenty-two years ago still remember pretty clearly where we were and what we were doing on that day. \u00a0I certainly do. \u00a0I\u2019m also old enough to remember where I was, and what the day looked like, when I heard that President John F. Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. \u00a0I was out on the playground at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School \u2014 since transformed into Gabrielino High School<\/a> \u2014 in San Gabriel, California. \u00a0Within just a few minutes, watching the television back in our classroom, we learned that he had died.<\/p>\n

On the morning of 11 September 2001, I had showered and was just getting dressed for the day. \u00a0My wife called to me: \u00a0\u201cDan, you need to come and see this.\u201d \u00a0American Airlines Flight 11 had crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. \u00a0We stood watching, in shock.<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t altogether surprised. \u00a0On several occasions, flying into LaGuardia Airport, I had marveled at how close we came to several high-rise buildings. \u00a0I mused on the possibility of a pilot suffering a heart attack or a stroke and veering off course into the upper floors of one of those buildings or, in an era of suicide attacks, doing so deliberately.<\/p>\n

As we stood in front of the screen, I wondered whether the plane\u2019s crashing into the North Tower had been accidental or a pre-meditated act of terrorism. \u00a0And, as we watched, the South Tower was hit by United Airlines Flight 175 and all doubt was gone. \u00a0Moreover, I instantly knew who had done it: \u00a0Paired attacks \u2014 such as the 7 August 1998 truck bomb explosions at the American embassies\u00a0in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and\u00a0in Nairobi, Kenya \u2014 were a signature trademark of al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.<\/p>\n

Slightly more than a half hour later, a third flight, American Airlines Flight 77, smashed into the Pentagon. \u00a0And then, less than thirty minutes thereafter, United Airlines Flight<\/a> 93 crashed into that rural Pennsylvania field. \u00a0The entire multi-pronged assault had taken just slightly more an hour and a quarter. But the damage continued to ramify. \u00a0Both of the 110-story skyscrapers of the World Trade Center had collapsed within a mere hour and forty-one minutes.<\/p>\n

Not including the nineteen hijackers, the attacks of 11 September killed 2,977 people \u2014 among them 72 police and other law enforcement personnel and 340 firefighters \u2014\u00a0injured thousands more, caused at least $10\u00a0<\/span>billion in infrastructure and property damage, and led to substantial long-term health consequences from which victims continue to suffer.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"5<\/a>
Downtown Manhattan, five minutes after the collapse of the North Tower at the World Trade Center \u00a0 (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We knew that we were under attack, but we didn\u2019t yet know that that fourth flight marked the conclusion of the initial assault. \u00a0What else was coming? \u00a0And when? \u00a0And where? \u00a0Rumor had it that other hijacked aircraft were headed across the continent toward Los Angeles. \u00a0What landmarks were they targeting? And what other elements of our daily lives had now been weaponized? \u00a0We knew that the world had changed. \u00a0It seemed, frankly, that everything around us was collapsing.<\/p>\n

Confident that this had been a planned terrorist obscenity carried out by Arabs in the name of Islam, I remember thinking to myself as I watched the news coverage and the initial horror-struck commentary that there seemed little point in the still-fairly-new Islamic Translation Series that I had founded at Brigham Young University. \u00a0Beyond its obvious academic purpose of making classical texts from the golden age of classical Islamic civilization available to readers in the West, both non-specialists and scholarly specialists, the project was intended to build bridges with the Islamic world. \u00a0We hoped that it would enhance appreciation among non-Muslims for the mighty cultural contributions given to the world \u2014 in literature, philosophy, medicine, and the sciences \u2014 by those, whether Muslim or not, who wrote primarily in Arabic.<\/p>\n

But what good, I wondered, could my little candle do against what was obviously a looming worldwide hurricane?<\/p>\n

Almost instantly, though, a thought hit me powerfully and explicitly \u2014 and almost as if it were an audible voice \u2014 in these very words, seemingly from outside myself: \u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s more important now than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

I believe that to have been true. \u00a0And, although I had no illusion (and have no illusions still) that simply publishing dual-language editions of such authors as al-Ghazali, Ibn Sina, Suhrawardi, and the like would bring about world peace, I do believe that increased mutual understanding and mutual appreciation can move us significantly toward that goal. \u00a0To a considerable degree, my teaching at BYU and my many Islam-related public lectures were consciously dedicated to that end.<\/p>\n

Here \u2014 I\u2019ll need to check to be sure \u2014 is a fairly complete list of publications from the Islamic Translation Series:<\/p>\n

\n

Al-Ghazali. The Incoherence of the Philosophers<\/i><\/p>\n

Al-Ghazali.\u00a0 The Niche of Lights<\/i><\/p>\n

Qadi \u2018Abd al-Jabbar.Critique of Christian Origins<\/i><\/p>\n

Abu Hatim al-Razi. \u00a0The Proofs of Prophecy<\/i><\/p>\n

Avicenna [Ibn Sina].\u00a0 The Physics of The Healing, Books I and II<\/i><\/p>\n

Avicenna [Ibn Sina].\u00a0 The Metaphysics of The Healing<\/i><\/p>\n

Mulla Sadra.\u00a0 The Elixir of the Gnostics<\/i><\/p>\n

Averro\u00ebs [Ibn Rushd].\u00a0 Middle Commentary on Aristotle\u2019s<\/i> De Anima<\/p>\n

Classical Foundations of Islamic Educational Thought<\/i><\/p>\n

Averro\u00ebs [Ibn Rushd].\u00a0 Decisive Treatise and Epistle Dedicatory<\/i><\/p>\n

Suhrawardi.\u00a0 The Philosophy of Illumination<\/i><\/p>\n

Mulla Sadra.Metaphysical Penetrations<\/i><\/p>\n

The Alexandrian Epitomes of Galen<\/i>, vol 1<\/p>\n

Dawud al-Muqammas. \u00a0Twenty Chapters<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Posted from Moab, Utah<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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