It has been nine years since those awful terrorist attacks that shook our nation. And, in relation to our federal government, they have shaped every day since.
I was in seventh grade, in the middle of the CTBS standardized testing. As soon as the testing was over for the day, our principal came on the PA system and announced to us what had happened. He only said that there had been an attack on the World Trade Centers in New York, and I, a young, clueless thirteen-year-old did not realize in the slightest how big of a deal it was.
In the nine years since that day, I have grown up a lot. I have expanded my horizons exponentially. Last year, for one of my classes, we read the statement Osama bin Laden gave after the attacks. He said, "What America is tasting now is something insignificant compared to what we have tasted for scores of years. Our nation (the Islamic world) has been tasting this humiliation and this degradation for more than 80 years. Its sons are killed, its blood is shed, its sanctuaries are attacked, and no one hears and no one heeds." He then continued to list his grievances: the sanctions in Iraq killing millions of innocent children, the Israeli tanks in Palestine killing millions of innocent Palestinians, the bombing of civilians at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He called us hypocrites. And I can't say that I disagree with him on that point (although, I would point out that these are the actions of our government - which is separate, though influenced by our individual actions). Of course, I obviously disagree with his means. Killing thousands of Americans to protest the killings of Arabs and Muslims doesn't quite line up. But then again, neither does attacking Iraq again, and Afghanistan, killing more civilians and combatants, in response to the attacks.
It has been nine years since September 11, 2001. Yet our nation is still doing those precise things that caused others to attack us. We have simply ignored their comments, preferring to think that there is no possible reason for them to attack us. They must just be crazy. Are that many people that particular kind of crazy? Or have they just been driven to a need to react? I happen to put faith in the latter option. I don't think they just blindly thought, I want to attack someone. It would be really great if I could be a suicide bomber (or aircraft pilot). Who should I attack? Oh, the United States is so free; their people have it so good. I'll attack the U.S. I don't think that happened. Furthermore, a friend pointed out that the particular buildings they attacked is also significant: the World Trade Center, a sign and implementation of our economic imperialism, and the Pentagon, the military power that helps to enable that. The people who organized the attacks and attacked us had legitimate grievances.
Now we see this whole thing come out in a new way, nine years later. The wounds have been reopened like I don't think they have any year since 2001. It probably all stems from the plans to build the Islamic Community Center in New York. We have a preacher in Florida who had plans to burn the Quran as a response. We have viscous slurs being thrown out and comments about Islam as inherently evil. Arabs in the United States suffered enough racial profiling following September 11. Muslims in the United States suffered enough religious profiling following September 11. Now we bring it all back up. It's not only that people are objecting to an Islamic Community Center built somewhat near Ground Zero. It's the Quran-burning planned in Florida; it's the protests outside the mosque construction site in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. These actions, while only done by a small minority of Americans, show the world that the U.S. is intolerant of Islam. It's the same as a small proportion of Muslims being seen to represent all of Islam.
We have come to a critical crossroads in Muslim-U.S. relations. We have no direct control about what others will do, but what road will we take? I point now to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This commission allowed grievances to be aired and the truth to come out, but emphasized forgiveness. How else will we move beyond a world of constant revenge. Constant revenge is how Israel and Palestine got to look the way they did today. Constant revenge is the family feud we all scoffed at between the Montagues and Capulets in ninth grade English. We need a Romeo and a Juliet to save our "families." Constant hate and revenge will not save us; it will just make things worse.
Call me a crazy liberal, but I happen to believe all people, whether they be Arab or Chinese, Indian or American, have a basic dignity and a right to life. And, as our Declaration of Independence declares, these rights are inalienable for all people. (Granted this Declaration comes out of a liberal tradition that I don't wholly agree with, but I do believe in basic human dignity.)
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