911 Fifteenth Anniversary

This September 11th weekend was the 15th anniversary of the 911 terrorist attack on those New York twin towers.  Besides the symbolism of the massacre of innocent civilians in the name of religion it left some other legacies for the U.S and more importantly for Islam. If the assassination of President John Kennedy in 1963 was the "end of innocence" in the world, the 911 attack might be called the beginning of the war between Islam and every other belief system in the world.

I think one result of the attack was to forever stain the image of Muslims and the Muslim religion. It's not fair that so much of the world sees Muslims negatively, given the attack and other subsequent terrorist attacks are perpetrated by only the extremist sects of Islam or by people claiming to be Islamic when attacking non Muslims or Muslims of mainstream belief. But that stain might have been avoided had Muslims not been silent, failing to condemn terrorism by members of their religion, after that attack and many of the recent ones. Ironically, the Islamic terrorists have done more to destroy their religion in the eyes of non Muslims and non radical ones, that they have harmed others in their terrorist attacks.

I think that in the future Muslims will greatly regret their silence after the attacks. It gave many non Muslims the impression that all Muslims give tacit approval of the attacks. Silence in the face of injustice is as bad as the injustice itself. If Muslims are to ever retake their religion form the fanatics who have stolen it, they will have to muster the courage to not only speak out against terrorism but also be proactive in turning in and fighting against Islamic extremism.

If Muslims allow the west alone to crush the terrorists they will lose the trust of westerners and non Muslims everywhere. But it appears that most Muslim states that are capable of defeating the Islamic extremists have no desire to do so. Nations like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia act in complicity with the terrorists, giving sanctuary and financial backing to them. Everyone sees that.  The world will not easily forgive that, and instead expects mainstream Muslims to fight  the extremists instead.  So far, there is no indication that Islam will clean its own house.

I suspect that in another 15 years the enmity between the Muslim world and the non Muslim world will be the same.  The world will be worse of because of that.