In the wake of the horrific terrorist attacks on our nation, the Christian extremist group Operation Save America (OSA), a militant anti-abortion group formerly known as Operation Rescue National, released a statement September 11 claiming that the attacks were retribution from God. According to OSA, because of the United States’ “basic disregard of the Law of God and for life…blood is coursing down the corridors of our schools, workplaces, and streets.” This misguided statement is an ill attempt to forward OSA’s anti-abortion message, rooted in violent extremist rhetoric.
OSA’s statement makes clear the similarities between American extremist Christian groups and those who use Islam as their cover. Both groups use religion as a tool to promote fear and terror as they attempt to dismantle basic human and civil rights. Both groups target feminism as a symbol of Western progress, and ultimately, both groups threaten democracy itself by attempting to force their distorted religious views onto the modern world in an effort to dismantle freedom and civil liberties.
While the U.S. prepares its response to the recent attacks, OSA’s statement emphasizes the need for the nation to combat domestic terrorism and global terrorism simultaneously. Reverend Carleton Veazey, president of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, warned that OSA’s “vengeful statement reminds us of the profound danger of extremists, whatever their weapons, their ideology and their geography.”
