9/11, Charlie Kirk, and Modern Terrorism

9.11.25

Twenty-four years ago today, the United States was attacked in the biggest and most brazen act of terrorism in our nation’s history. “Never Forget” became the mantra. We swore we’d never forget the attack itself, the loss of life, the loss of normalcy, the chaos, confusion, and grief. But as a nation, we’ve forgotten the lessons we learned about religious extremism and nationalism. We’ve forgotten the inevitable conclusion of religiously-motivated nationalism, which always has been and always will be massively violent, anti-democratic acts of terror.

For many Americans, the trope of the terrorist is an easy one: it’s a brown man from the Middle East, a Muslim, wears a turban and a tunic, and has a long beard. But in the last 24 years, that has changed, even if the American perception of what a terrorist looks like remains stagnant. George W. Bush, the President who built his legacy on 9/11 and the War of Terror, said on the 20th anniversary of the attacks that there is “growing evidence that the dangers to our country can come not only across borders, but from violence that gathers within,” that domestic and foreign terrorists share a "disdain for pluralism (and) determination to defile national symbols.”

Today’s terrorists resemble al Qaeda in their religious extremism, desire to appear victimized, fetishization of martyrdom, and steadfast belief in their own God-given superiority to those who disagree with them. 

On January 6th, 2021, domestic terrorists attempted a coup and brought guns, knives, ropes, zip-ties, neo-Nazi merch (reading phrases such as “six million wasn’t enough”) to the Capitol building. Elected officials and government employees hid under desks, barricaded doors, and feared for their lives as the President watched this unfold for several hours. When he was reelected in 2024, he pardoned the terrorists that were tried and found guilty in the court of law. 

This year, the day before 9/11, a religious extremist and proud Christian Nationalist was shot dead on a college campus. Violence of any kind is not to be condoned; murder is murder whether it’s Charlie Kirk, someone on death row, or a victim of police brutality. But it’s disingenuous to imply that Kirk was a patriot, despite President Trump awarding him a posthumous Medal of Honor. Kirk fanned the flames of divisive, racist, misogynistic, and homophobic discourse, but perhaps most insidious was wrapping anti-democratic beliefs in the Shroud of Turin.

In 2001, we agreed on the inherent goodness of democracy, equality, and religious freedom, which were unquestionably seen as not only a touchstone of civilized society but as human rights that must be defended. In 2024, Kirk called the separation of church and state “fiction,” despite the Constitution and Thomas Jefferson begging to differ. He framed that year’s election as a “spiritual battle,” embraced the Christian Nationalist view of dominionism, created “watchlists” of college professors and school boards that promote “dangerous” ideology, called the Civil Rights Act of 1964 a “huge mistake,” referred to MLK as “not a good person,” insisted that Black Americans kill white Americans at a disproportionate rate (he did cite his sources), claimed that burning Pride flags was actually super cool and that transgendered people have a “mental disease,” stated that the COVID-19 pandemic was a “Democratic plot against Christianity” and told people to drink bleach, and has promoted the Great Replacement Theory as a “reality.”

No one deserves to die the way Kirk died. But over 3,000 people were murdered on 9/11 and even more in the War on Terror. The way to honor these lives is to continue to fight for the American values as stated in the Constitution and as understood post-WWII. There is no America without democracy. Freedom is fragile. Extremism and Nationalism only lead to pain, suffering, and loss. This nation is held together, ever so delicately, by the idea of mutual respect for all citizens and the right to pursue happiness. The vile rhetoric spouted by Kirk devalued, defaced, and desecrated the very values he claimed to defend. On this anniversary of the largest attack on American soil, perhaps it is worthwhile to reflect on this irony. The movement that Kirk led was antithetical to everything about America that is beautiful and wonderful and worth defending. Perhaps we, as a nation, need to gut-check the kind of country we want to be, what we truly value, and the kind of leaders we feel will act in those interests. There’s no better time than a 9/11 anniversary to reassess our nation’s ethical compass.