It is widely understood that the 9/11 attacks were acts of terrorism and involved certain Islamic individuals who were against the liberty, democracy and freedom practiced in the United States of America. The reality of the attacks and their motives are completely different from the claimed reasons. The attacks were mere reciprocity of their years of wrongdoing in Middle East through American foreign policies. Years after the attack and several first hand interviews of the attackers, it can be proven that the attacks were related to the American wrongdoings related to their foreign policy such as, supporting Israel, poor treatment of Palestine and deployment in Saudi Arabia.
Deployment in Middle East
The hatred for American social policy started with the prolonged deployment of U.S. armed forces in the Gulf, especially in the Saudi Arabia. Since the Gulf war, the American forces had around 5,000 troops in Saudi Arabia and the numbers increased to 10,000 during the Iraq war. Saudi Arabia is the home of some of the holiest shrines of Islam and deploying US forces in the country was a historic treachery by several Islamists, most notably Bin Laden. For very long after the 9/11 attack, Osama Bin Laden blamed Washington and their foreign policy for justification of violence on 9/11.
Support for Israel
In 1996, Osama Bin Laden took out a fatwa in a London based newspaper stating: “the people of Islam had suffered from aggression, iniquity, and injustice imposed on them by the Zionist-Crusaders alliance” (Glain, 2011). This fatwa was in reference to the close relations of America with the Jewish state of Israel and the pliant and oppressive Arab regimes. In addition, considering Israel as another extension of American foreign policy in the Muslim world, Bin Laden claimed that the conflict in Palestine is the strategic component of the U.S. aggression for which they will pay.
Treatment of Palestine
Osama Bin Laden also said: "Your position against Muslims in Palestine is despicable and disgraceful” (Glain, 2011). Bin Laden believed that Israel’s occupation and oppression of Palestinian Muslims and the United States attacking Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan were crimes against Muslims. With any action taken by Palestinians to avenge themselves causing a great amount of agitation in the western world, and leading to censuring of the tyrannized and wronged. Such actions and support of the Zionists in the United States built years of hatred for the United States.
Conclusion
Although, actions such as 9/11 are tough to justify, but in the eyes of Osama Bin Laden, America’s foreign policy was the central cause of the attack. For years, the United States and their foreign policy supported occupation of Israel and actions against oppressed Palestine when they attacked. In addition, deployment of the U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia since the Gulf War, gave Jihadists like Osama Bin Laden the just cause to conduct 9/11 attack.
References
Glain., S. (3 May 2011). What Actually Motivated Osama bin Laden. Retrieved 5 February 2016 from, http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/stephen-glain/2011/05/03/what-actually-motivated-osama-bin-laden
