The Glenn Beck Program
The Glenn Beck Program

Best of the Program | Guests: Frank Turek & Danny Burmawi | 9/11/26

September 11, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Glenn Beck sat on the air in Manhattan, roughly 18 minutes from the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7, reading quotes he had been collecting all day. Not headlines from wire services, but the words of ordinary Americans—a construction worker watching people jump, a fire marshal calling it a war zone, a woman in Denver saying the whole country was on edge. Twenty-five years later, Beck argues that America still does not know who the enemy was that day, and that the refusal to name the ideology behind the attacks is itself a betrayal of the country’s founding principles.

The same ideology, rebranded

The central argument of the episode—developed in conversation with Frank Turek, author of The War on Reality, and Danny Burmawi, a former Muslim who cheered on 9/11—is that the attacks were not an isolated act of terrorism but an expression of a specific political ideology: jihad, grounded in the Quranic concept of dividing the world between believers and infidels. Burmawi, now a Christian and founder of the Ideological Defense Institute, insists that this is not a matter of interpretation. “Sharia is a political system,” he says. “It governs everything.” He points out that the word “infidel” appears in the Quran roughly 200 times, and that the term “jihad” is not a spiritual struggle but a doctrine of armed conquest. The same theol

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (00:50) **Opening: Glenn Reflects on 9/11 and the Fragility of Freedom** - Glenn introduces the episode by recalling the raw emotions and quotes from Americans on 9/11, setting the stage for the day's themes.
  • 2 (08:35) **The Betrayal of American Ideals** - Glenn argues that America has betrayed its founding principles by failing to defend its Judeo-Christian values against a clear ideological enemy.
  • 3 (10:57) **Introducing Danny Burmawi: From Cheering 9/11 to Warning America** - Glenn introduces Danny Burmawi, a former Muslim who cheered the 9/11 attacks and is now a vocal critic of Islamic ideology.
  • 4 (12:52) **Danny's Transformation: From Jihad to Christianity** - Danny details his personal journey from celebrating the attacks to becoming a Christian missionary and founder of the Ideological Defense Institute.
  • 5 (14:55) **The Ideological Defense Institute and the "Infidel Awareness Month"** - Danny explains his organization's mission to educate policymakers and the public about the ideological threat of Islam, separate from individual Muslims.
  • 6 (19:21) **Danny's Challenge to Americans: Wake Up to the Invasion** - Danny directly challenges Americans to recognize that the same ideology that caused 9/11 is now infiltrating the United States and its institutions.
  • 7 (20:12) **Glenn's Personal Mission: Standing Against Antisemitism and Sharia** - Glenn reveals his divinely-inspired purpose: to stand for the Jewish people and against the imposition of Sharia law in America.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Guests on this episode

Frank Turek

Show Notes

25 years ago, Muslim terrorists attacked America by hijacking airplanes and crashing into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and almost hitting Washington, DC. Glenn was live on air in Florida, and he plays audio from that show as he watched that tragic day unfold. Ideological Defense Institute founder and CEO, Danny Burmawi, joins to discuss his past as a former Muslim who cheered on 9/11 to an anti-Jihadist who’s warning America about the dangers of radical Islam. Glenn speaks with Charlie Kirk’s pastor and close friend, Frank Turek, who shares how to speak with conviction in a culture that is desperate for truth.

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