Legacy of 9/11 - Call for new cultural tolerance

THIS IS the sixth anniversary of the most dramatic terrorist atrocity of modern times — the spectacular attacks on New York’s Twin Towers, which left nearly 3,000 people dead.

The consequences are with us today and no where do they have a more dramatic impact than in Iraq.

Countless tens of thousands of Iraqis have lost their lives or homes since the Bush-led administration intervened to depose Saddam Hussein. It is sadly all too predictable that many more will die before some semblance of normality is restored to that unfortunate country.

America stands increasingly isolated in Iraq and there is growing trepidation regarding the potential for calamity when they finally and inevitably go home.

Ironically more Americans have died in Iraq than in the 9/11 attacks.

It seems tragic that an operation with such a plausible objective — the removal of a brutal dictator — should end with such tragic and seemingly endless consequences for the people it was designed to help.

It may be foolish to hope that conflict will not bring out the worst in mankind and America cannot expect that its reputation as the policeman of the civilised world is enhanced by its behaviour at Guantanamo Bay — behaviour that remains an affront to the most basic principles of justice and decency.

Even though they were punished by American courts the behaviour of some US troops at Abu Ghraib prison should not have been allowed to happen in the first place. It was an unacceptable collapse in military authority.

Today’s ceremonies in New York will be the first that will not be held on the site of the Twin Towers — the site cannot host the events now because it is a building site.

In a poll taken last Friday and Saturday, 71% of Americans called 9/11 the most memorable news event of their lifetime.

However, a mere 6% said they would observe today’s anniversary in a formal way. Most — 71% — said they would mark it informally. Almost a quarter said they didn’t intend to observe it at all.

When these figures are contrasted with the emotional outpourings in the immediate aftermath of the great tragedy, they are reassuring.

The jingoism and aggressive nationalism apparent in America in September, 2001 could easily have led to a disproportionate response, one that might have had even more dramatic and destabilising consequences.

The lasting legacy of 9/11 though has to be that it has once again shown us how little the cultures of the pluralist West and Islam understand each other, or indeed, care to understand each other.

The fraught relationship is as old as the religions themselves, each trying to conquer, each seeking domination at the expense of the other.

We cannot accept some of the intolerance of those who advocate the extreme Sharia law. Some Muslims cannot accept the implications of a liberal, democratic society.

The West finds it especially difficult to accept that women should play a subservient role. Islam finds same-sex unions abhorrent.

There are many issues that divide us but in reality we have to share the same world and with an ever-increasing flow of immigrants from East to West we will have to share the same space.

It is important that the cultures develop a relationship that will allow them to co-exist in harmony and to grow to each other’s mutual benefit.

There could be no better way to remember the victims of 9/11 and Iraq than to try and reach a new understanding between the West and Islam, one strong enough to isolate extremists and forge a new tolerance.