Stop shielding the real killers behind 9/11 and Charlie Kirk

America revisited two open wounds this month. Sept. 10 marked one year since conservative icon Charlie Kirk was shot to death, and the day after marked 25 years since 9/11. Both events were terroristic attacks on our liberties.Kirk was slain in front of the whole world for the simple crime of trying to reason with an unreasonable group: young leftists. He wasn’t the only free speech champion who walked into the lion’s den of liberal college campuses — Steven Crowder started the trend and others built on it — but Kirk was the best at it. And the Left hated him for it.Every now and then, an enraged campus activist would assault a conservative with their bare hands or even hot coffee. But until that bloody afternoon, nobody ever thought something like this might happen. The message was clear: The Constitution might say you have the freedom of speech, but when your speech hurts the feelings or goes against the beliefs of an increasingly unhinged political demographic, you should fear for your life. Nobody thought much of air travel up until 9/11, too. But the Islamic terrorists had a message for Americans: This isn’t soldier-versus-soldier warfare — civilians are fair game any time, anywhere, because their taxes fund the fight against jihad.The immediate response to both tragedies was anger and disgust, followed by mainstream bipartisan unity — although many on the radical Left celebrated or justified the Kirk assassination. This unity didn’t last in either case, but it was particularly short-lived in Kirk’s case as engagement chasers such as Candace Owens attempted to hijack the narrative and make it all about themselves, dragging those grieving Kirk the most through the mud.When conspiracy theories dominate the public conversation about a tragedy, society loses the plot. Were there unanswered questions in both cases? Absolutely. On 9/11, how did World Trade Center Building 7 collapse in a free-fall despite not being hit by a plane? At Kirk’s murder, how was George Zinn able to take the blame so quickly in an attempt to distract the police from Tyler Robinson, the alleged shooter? What did he know? I have no doubt that in both cases, there is more to the story than we may ever know, but centering the discussion on such matters lets the real ideological culprits off the hook: Islam on 9/11 and so-called “progressivism” on Sept. 10.Not long before he was killed, Kirk declared that Islam is incompatible with Western civilization. A few years ago, I was denied from making that same argument in a mainstream publication. More than distrust of the Bush administration, that should have been the takeaway from 9/11. The problem isn’t “radical Islam” — the problem is Islam, the very teachings, commandments, and actions of Muhammad. Whether the average Western Muslim chooses to follow Muhammad’s example says nothing about the religion itself, which is inherently violent and backward.CHARLIE KIRK’S MENTOR REVEALS WHAT LATE TPUSA FOUNDER ‘WANTED PEOPLE TO KNOW’ ABOUT THE GOSPELSimilarly, Kirk’s killing should never have become a “whodunit” mystery, especially when the evidence that Robinson pulled the trigger is so strong. The real takeaway from Kirk’s killing is the Left’s increasing appetite for violence — not that Israel, President Donald Trump, his wife, or his friends wanted him dead, as some aforementioned click whores have suggested. Young leftists in particular justified Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in which Islamic terrorists killed, raped, tortured, and kidnapped over 1,000 innocent Jews. They justified the cold-blooded assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. They justified the attempts on Trump’s life. And polls show they see political violence — in other words, terrorism — as a legitimate means of furthering their agenda.Kirk wasn’t just killed by a person. He was killed by an ideology that glorifies terrorism — just like the roughly 3,000 innocent Americans murdered by Islamists on 9/11. It’s time to stop letting the real culprits off the hook and start holding them accountable by changing the national conversation.