9/11 Anniversary

Categories: Wormie Says

Five years ago, to the day, two commercial planes flew into the Twin Tower of New York after they were hijacked by terrorists. Thus marked the begining of a very volatile world where wars are no longer fought between nations and when armies are the shooting targets. Now the enemy is invisible and not bound by borders and the targets includes the young, the old, male and female from all walks of life, religious background and racial groups.

The terrorists who hijacked the two commercial planes and crashed them into the Twin Tower claimed themselves to be Muslims. Muslims who are fighting against the oppressions and exploitations of Western governments. Muslims who are fighting against Zionist and governments that supported them. And nearly all of them were of Arab origins.

Western governments lead by the US may have played into the hands of these extremists in their quest to fight terrorism. Based on unconfirmed intelligence report, the US invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. The invasion of Iraq and its sequelae in the Guatanamo Bay and the recent admission by President Bush on the existence of covert interrogation prisons in countries of friendly governments may have confirmed what the extremists had said all along - that Western governments are oppressing the Arab world. Hence such tactics in war against terrorisms may be counter-productive in the long run, only to push more moderates into the extremists path.

However it is also surprising that how a few people can claim to represent the more than 1.2 billion Muslims in the world? How can such extremists even claim to profess Islam when the majority of Muslims follow peaceful co-existence and denounce violence? When the vast majority of Muslims in the world are practising peaceful rituals, surely they cannot be wrong; and if the vast majority is not wrong, then these few extremists must be wrong when they used violence to further their cause. Common sense will tell you that you don't kill innocent civilians. If you want to fight a war, fight with the people who can fight back, people who carry weapons or people who command those with weapons; not those who cannot fight back, those who may not even agree with their government's policies. How can killing innocent civilians make the extremists any different from the real or perceived oppressions by Western government on the Arabs? It is even worse when some of the terror attacks are carried out on Muslims themselves; the very people such extremists claim to be fighting for.

In this anniversary, it is important to let the extremists know that they cannot win using terror attacks. Hence it is important that everyone work closely towards this end. Stereotyping and prejudices should be avoided. There shouldn't be any backlash against the Muslims every time there is a terror attack. The Muslims are victims themselves just like the rest. Just because the terrorists claim to be Muslims and of Arab origin, this does not make every Arab or Muslims a terrorist. If we become xenophobics, this will only push more moderates into the extremists camp and hence further fuel terror attacks.

The heightened security measures implemented after the terror attacks are understandable. However it must not be too disruptive and restrictive until normal daily activity cannot be carried out. Profiling should also be minimised, otherwise it will be seen as a prejudice to a certain section of the society.

If we suspect all Muslims or Arabs or if security measures are so restrictive as to limit daily activities, then unfortunately, the extremists have won and those who had died five years ago from the terror attack would have died in vain.