On September 11, 2001, the United States of America faced one of its most devastating events through its history. “The Battle of the World Trade Center lasted about 99 minutes and cost 20,000 lives in two hours (according to unofficial estimates as of midnight Tuesday.” (Thompson 161) A group of terrorist known associated with Al Qaeda hijacked a few American planes and crashed them into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon which caused a vast number of American deaths. Millions of Americans were devastated and felt angry which brought out a lot of patriotism within the American population. A lot of people kept asking and conspiring reasoning regarding why Al Qaeda would attack the United States. In Don DeLillo’s essay “In the Ruins of the Future”,…show more content… The novel goes through Keith, Lianne, and Justin’s lives and the challenges they face along with secondary characters such as Lianne’s mother Nina and Martin, Nina’s boyfriend. DeLillo also writes about members of Al Qaeda planning the attacks and associates a humanistic image with the attackers through the character Hammad, who has reservations the beliefs of Al Qaeda along with the Islamic religion he has believed his entire life. The challenges that a lot of the characters face, in the scheme of the aftermath of September 11th, revolve around the understanding of the world around them. People question the event of September 11th, how art appears in relation to September 11th, how the United States’ government responded to the Al Qaeda and their attack on the country, and the role God played in the attacks on the United States. As an example, in the beginning of the novel Justin and his two friends (known as the Siblings) did not understand that Bin Laden was the leader of Al Qaeda and how the United States was attacked. Justin and the Siblings think that the attacks were caused by a super being by the name of Bill Lawton who attacks from the skies. The children strongly believe and fear this idea that they stand in front of one of the Sibling’s window staying vigilant for the next attack…show more content… She was taught to believe that religion makes people compliant. This is the purpose of religion, to return people to a childlike state.” (DeLillo 62) This is the first time the God and religion are mentioned in the novel, Lianne doesn’t understand the idea of what God is and why people follow religion for their sense of morality. Nina taught her that religion is just meant to stop creativity and produce conformity. What leads to Lianne’s ignorance of the presence of God is whether or not she believes that there is even a God to believe in. As Lianne has these confusions on her spiritual health, her patients in the Alzheimer disease support group argue about the existence of God and his role in world events. One patient Eugene A. says “I don’t forgive God what He did” (DeLillo 63) and another patient Omar responds to the rant about how God is responsible by implying that God has the right to shake the world up. So, is God responsible for the event of September 11th? Here is the theoretical concept, if God is so omniscient and omnipotent then he could prevent malicious events from occurring. This is why some of the members in the support group are angry that and blame