This is the timeline for The Fires of Terrorism.
2000-2009[]
2001[]
- September 11: The 9/11 attacks, perpetrated by Al Qaeda, occur. The collective designation for hundreds of linked terrorist attacks spread out across 32 countries on 6 continents, 9/11 was by far the deadliest terrorist attack in modern history at the time, with an estimated 105,000 casualties and another 750,000 injuries, and still ranks as one of the deadliest terror attacks ever. The 9/11 attacks shaped a significant portion of the political situation in the early and mid-21st century, and led to the War on Terror, and subsequent endemic strife between the West and the Muslim world.
- September 13: US President George W. Bush officially declares war on Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, starting the Afghan War and the greater War on Terror. The rest of NATO, as well as Russia, the CIS, China, India, and South Korea, join the war soon after.
- September 20: Nuclear bombs are detonated over the cities of Kabul, Kandahar, and Herat. 1.3 million people die. After the nuclear attacks, US President George W. Bush warns the rest of the Muslim community to not “mess with America, lest our revenge be exacted upon you like it was exacted on the filth and scum that is the Taliban”. This is considered the tipping point of relations between the West and most Muslim-majority nations, and the majority of the Middle East would regard America and NATO with outright hostility from this point onwards.
- December 16: On the Muslim holiday of Eid-Al-Fitr, the Vardhamaan ka Tootana (lit. “Breaking of the Crescent”) riots occurred. The riots occurred in both rural and urban areas throughout India. Muslims were killed, mosques were desecrated and in some cases bombed, pigs were let out into Muslim homes, and Muslim-owned businesses all over India were robbed and/or burnt. Reports indicate the police force and military in several areas either did nothing to stop the riots or even actively participated in the riots. By December 18, an estimated 1,213 people had been killed. The Vardhamaan ka Tootana riots have often been compared to Nazi Germany’s Kristallnacht massacre of Jews, and is considered to be one of the main events leading up to India’s Muslim Genocide of 2004-2011, where upwards of 100 million Muslims were killed. Similar but less extreme anti-Muslim riots occurred throughout the world, including in the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany.
2002[]
- March 21: The Alabama State Legislature passes the Anti-Terrorism Bill, ostensibly to curb terrorism in the state. However, it was an extremely discriminatory law, designed to strip Muslims and people of Arab descent of their civil rights, and has been compared to the Jim Crow laws of the first half of the 20th century. Similar laws against Muslims and Arabs would later be passed in Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana, and South Carolina. These "Anti-Terrorism Bills" would not be fully repealed until the mid-2040s.