Every year at about this time, my mind starts a countdown to September 11th. Like virtually everyone else in the world and especially the United States, that day irrevocably changed my life. For our country it brought irreversible changes in policies and added agencies that affect each citizen whether or not we are cognizant of those changes as we go about our lives, 23 years later.
Employed as a United Express customer service agent at FSD, the regional airport in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, it was an eye-opening time, to be sure. I’d never given much thought, before that day, to Islam and terrorism. Oh sure, I remembered events like the bombing of US barracks in Beirut, the hijacking of TWA flight 847 and the hijacking of the Achille Lauro, all acts of Islamic terrorism.
I remember feeling bad for everyone involved in each of those incidents as they happened. But I was immersed in working, raising kids, pursuing goals with my horses and writing freelance articles. Besides that, I didn’t know anyone who’d lost a loved one, so those acts of terrorism didn’t touch me personally.
Living far away from any areas affected by any kind of terrorist acts, I was naïve, ignorant, and oblivious to the threat posed to our way of life by Islamic radicals. You might say I’d grown up in a cocoon of false safety. To this day, I have never experienced violence in my life, other than a spate of bullying in high school that was mercifully short lived and fairly minor.
And yet, I’ve come to realize that the purveyors of violent jihad, the Islamists, inspired by a literal interpretation of the Quran, pose an existential threat to every freedom loving American. It took some time and lots of research, reading texts written by the Muslim Brotherhood and groups affiliated with that umbrella organization, to reach those conclusions.
I’m not talking about Muslim citizens who want to worship and live their lives in peace and freedom. One of my favorite authors is the late Nabeel Qureshi, a Muslim who became a Christian as an adult and wrote extensively about Islam and Christianity. I also have great respect for Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, a former Navy Lieutenant Commander and a physician specializing in Nuclear Cardiology and internal medicine. A devout Muslim, he founded the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. He describes it as “advocating for the preservation of the founding principles of the United States Constitution, liberty and freedom through the separation of mosque and state.”
No, I’m talking about the Islamists – who believe that Islam should guide social, political and personal life. They are the jihadists who flew planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a few who ended up as cinders in a field in Pennsylvania, thanks to the courage of a handful of American heroes. They take the Quran at its most literal and seek to make the United States their next Caliphate.
They never stop working toward that goal. As Americans, our collective society has a short attention span. That’s one of myriad differences between us and the Muslim Brotherhood, which seeks our subjugation. Inch by inch they infiltrate, achieving small, incremental changes in varying arenas, while the American populace sleeps.
I learned about all of this while working as an airline customer service agent post 9/11, reading United Airlines weekly security reports about threats to civil aviation by terrorists, dealing with Middle Eastern travelers upset because their names appeared on watchlists, along with finding “death to America” graffiti in the cargo holds of our airplanes. You’d be correct in thinking that all of this made an indelible impression on me.
Ever since I mastered the art of writing words, I’ve been a storyteller. The more I learned about what the radical Islamists intended for the United States, the more I felt an urgency to tell people. It became my passion. Thus was born the Rowan Milani Chronicles thriller series.
The Kindle version of the first in the series, Consummate Betrayal, is FREE from 8/20 – 8/25. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007UXFRJY
Here’s the back page summary of this thriller:
Established enemies of the United States have insinuated themselves into the upper echelons of the intelligence community, their influence reaching to the highest office in the land. As a decorated FBI Special Agent, Rowan Milani is a vital asset to the country’s premiere law enforcement organization. As the President’s terrorist assassin, he’s the main player in a very secret, very personal war on terror.
Betrayed by a trusted confidant, Rowan becomes the target of his own government and the jihadists he hunts. Despite the allegiance of loyal colleagues, a woman’s unconditional love and the sheer will to survive, he finds that there are breaking points for every man, no matter how strong.
Consummate Betrayal draws the reader into a twisting tale of treachery and betrayal in the midst of love and sacrifice. Wanted by both sides in the war on terror, Rowan is a man caught between two worlds; yet safe in neither.
“Absolutely loved it! With her first novel, Mary Yungeberg skillfully combines a carefully researched plot within a refreshingly high octane thriller. I was on pins and needles.”
-Nicholas Guilak, Actor, Screenwriter, Producer
“Terrific! Very exciting…Mary has created compelling, well-developed characters. Flows like the proverbial river – with plenty of plot twists and drama.”
-Joan Hall Hovey, award winning author of Night Corridor
“I couldn’t stop reading…finished it in less than twenty-four hours and hated to see it end. Everything else on the shelf seems boring now.”
-John R. Waltner, University of South Dakota Foundation
I hope you’ll check it out, as well as the rest of the series!
The ROWAN MILANI CHRONICLES 