Chronicles in Zealotry aims to publish articles/chapters of various series consistently on Wednesdays. However, today we publish our next Chapter in Dark Years of al-Qaida to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the tragic London Undergroun bombings of July 7, 2005. We want to continue to honor the victims and their families. We want to continue to recognize those murdered in a spree of senseless violence directed and conducted by extremists.

The article in question remains within the parameters of the rest of the Series and details the al-Qaida involvement in this unfortunate episode of London history. We believe it is important to emphasize that despite the initial government denial of outside responsibility, and the insinuation that al-Qaida merely inspired the perpetrators, these assailant acted under direct orders from senior al-Qaida operatives and commanders. Displaying this as a fact helps to establish the necessity in the continued conflict against the organization, its affiliates, and its dangerous radical ideology. Despite losing territory, equipment, and hundreds of operatives, the jihadists associated with, and directly sworn to al-Qaida, were eventually able to conduct an attack in a Western capital.

On a personal level it was a startling event to watch unfold on television. It is almost equally startling to comprehend that this crime was committed 20 years ago. At the time, I was a few months shy of 20 years in age. I could not fathom the terror and sense of loss that this wonderful city was experiencing. In less than a year, I began to suffer my own personal losses, but that summer in 2005 was one of special significance and mirth for me. Yet this event reminded me, and I believe it reminded the Western world, that the violence and hatred we chose to believe would not affect us at home, was truly just beyond the threshold at any given moment. Those transiting to work and living their lives in London on July 7, 2005 were transported suddenly into the type of unbridled hatred and destruction that was common place in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Palestine, and elsewhere. Our sense of collective security was shattered. The images forced us to reckon with the horror that we previously mentally compartmentalized into only belong within foreign theatres. Combined with the Madrid bombings, Casablanca bombings, the persistant jihadist threat in Saudi Arabia, and the constant barrage of bombings in Iraq and Afghanistan, the London attacks represented a pinnacle of religious extremist violence in the mid-aughts. We must not forget these victims, and we must not forget these crimes, because surely we are fated to experience the same again and again if we do.

We can chose to pretend that religious fanaticism will not touch us in our lives, but it will, it has, and if we do not stand against this scourge, it will continue. By choosing to use this next chapter to delve into the personalities involved in orchestrating this attack, its follow on assault, and another plot aimed at Britain, we get a portrait of these young men during vulnerable times in their lives and just how susceptible they were to nefarious influences. We observe just how evil they became in preparing for and perpetrating the assaults, all in the name of their religious zealotry.