When a doomsday cult meets our modern world

When I rounded the corner onto Fifth Avenue on Sept. 11, 2001, and saw black smoke rising from gouges in both towers of the World Trade Center, my immediate thought was: "This will change everything.” I'm sure most of us had the same reaction earlier this month, as we began to grasp the scale and savagery of the terrorist attacks on Paris. There have, of course, been many other acts of terrorism over the past 15 years, but this coordinated bloodbath — with assassins raking machine-gun fire over crowds at cafés, restaurants, and a rock concert — was designed for maximum psychological impact. Here, in the City of Lights, were the same Dark Age barbarians who've gleefully crucified, beheaded, and butchered thousands of people across Syria and Iraq.

Within days, France's Socialist president asked to amend the country's constitution; a shaken Europe was pulling back its welcome mat to Syrian refugees and Republican governors and presidential candidates were insisting that the U.S. should turn away all Syrians or accept only Christians. At a meeting of world leaders, Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama spoke to each other without rancor for the first time in years about the need for a coordinated, international response to ISIS and Syria's chaos.

You have to wonder: Why would ISIS leaders provoke France, the U.S., and Russia into joining in "a grand coalition” to rain 500-pound bombs on their heads? ISIS is losing territory, and some experts speculate it needed a spectacular act of terrorism to boost its recruiting. But perhaps there is no rational explanation: ISIS is a doomsday cult, organized around the belief that it is engaged in a final, apocalyptic struggle with the Crusaders and their sinful modernity. This ideology may belong in the 7th century, but before it fades or is extinguished, it will leave the modern world greatly changed.

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