What We Have Learned from 9/11

The terrorist attacks that took place 10 years ago have changed the global political landscape forever. But for better or for worse?

The 10th anniversary of 9/11 is upon us. The tragedy surely changed the global political landscape forever. The shockwaves it sent throughout the world, most notably through the United States, raised hopes that the tragedy would encourage people to probe the causes of the event, and that it would help change western governments’ foreign and military policies and undertakings in the interest of reducing global tensions.

That has hardly happened. If anything, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and, more recently, Libya have escalated tensions, conflicts, and lawlessness in parts of that region. The policies of the so-called war on terror, the extensive buildup of intelligence and surveillance apparatuses and security measures in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and other western countries, have also proved tension-inducing. Racial profiling, severe restrictions on the liberties of ordinary citizens, and the widespread interrogation and detention of individuals of Middle Eastern and North African origin have harmed a sense of belonging and instigated destructive radicalism among youth of Muslim origin.

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All of these things have opened an ever-deepening psychological, emotional, and, increasingly, cognitive gulf between western and Muslim-majority nations, and, by extension, between citizens of European ancestry and diasporas of Muslim origin in the West. This is one of the most tragic and, perhaps, lasting calamities caused by 9/11, as the live-and-let-live attitude that once prevailed among citizens in these societies has now been replaced by a mutual sense of resentment, distrust, fear, anxiety, and psychological insecurity.

Western democracies’ celebrated national narratives about human rights, the rule of law, equality before the law, civil liberties, and democratic rights have also been discredited and mocked. The larger society’s climate of fear and the Muslim populations’ out-of-proportion reactions have made life more insecure than ever before. Hence, from country to country, security-driven immigration and settlement policies focus on how to watch, contain, and control Muslims, and thus protect societies from cultural contamination.

To be sure, 9/11 did infuse interest in Islam and Muslims. It instigated more curiosity as to the distinctive qualities of Islam that so powerfully define the life choices of so many people within and outside of the Muslim-majority countries. Tons of scholarly and pseudo-scholarly materials have tried to analyze whether Islam promotes violence and, if so, what the implications are for the societies that receive sizable numbers of Muslim immigrants. This curiosity could be applauded as a search for knowledge and understanding about such huge sections of the global population.

Political literacy may have convinced and comforted some people that Islam, like any other religion, can be both mercilessly violent and mercifully compassionate, depending on who represents it and for what purpose, and that the blind, brutal terror that we watch daily on television screens, which primarily victimizes Muslims in the Middle East and South Asia, is committed by a tiny minority of self-appointed defenders of Islamic values who are propelled by objectives other than faith.

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But in the post-9/11 world, there seems limited space for political sensibility and reasoning, or for an appreciation of the fact that the politics of oil and geopolitical colonial interests in the Middle East bear the blame for the rise of Muslim zealots, and for the fact that their messages appeal to disgruntled Muslim youth. In fact, western governments and the media seem determined to promote the punishing, unforgiving, and violent voices of Islam. Worse, taking them as the authentic and representative voices of Muslims worldwide, they are made legitimate partners at negotiation tables whenever there is a need to address the interests and grievances of Muslim populations.

By making religion the guiding principle in their foreign policy – and in their dealings with their own ethnic minorities – these western governments follow, in a sense, the agenda of conservative Muslims, rather than stressing and protecting the hard-won secular political values and practices of their societies. From my perspective, it is hard not to worry about some ill-advised government policies, such as allowing Friday prayers in publicly funded middle schools in Toronto, a practice that includes hiring an imam to lead the prayers for 13- and 14-year-old students. Many people see such policies as the irresponsible participation of popularity-driven politicians in the process of radicalization of Muslim youth.