TP O’Mahony: Dark outcomes when religion and politics fuse

Rulers have always been cognisant of the importance of having religion on their side, writes TP O’Mahony.

A fireball explodes from one of the World Trade Center towers after a jet airliner crashed into the building on September 11, 2001, in New York. Picture: AP/Carmen Taylor via KHBS/KHOG-TV

Images of the shocking attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC almost 20 years ago will live forever in the memory of all those who witnessed them on television. Viewers could hardly believe what they were seeing.

The geopolitical consequences of those attacks have been immense and far-reaching.