AllMovie

The winner of three Pulitzer Prizes, Thomas L. Friedman hosts this one-hour documentary, originally shown as part of the Discovery Channel's monthly Spotlight anthology. In his efforts to understand why 19 young Muslims would willingly sacrifice their lives to destroy the World Trade Center and seriously damage the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, Friedman explores not only the events leading up to this unspeakable act of terrorism, but also the reason why this act was curiously accepted as par for the course by many otherwise rational and non-violent members of the Muslim community. Special emphasis is given to the resentment felt towards the U.S. by predominantly Muslim nations, with wealth and power being chief among the catalysts for that resentment. Searching for the Roots of 9-11 was produced in association with New York Times Television.