Moving on

From mourning to retaliation to long-term prevention, moving on from the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 continues to be an agonizing process for America.

Moving on is equally painful for millions of people in other countries whose lives were changed forever by 9/11 and America’s response to it.

For many Americans, the grief remains profound, 10 years after the attacks. You see this in things big and small, from the “Reflecting Absence” memorial that has just been formally opened at Ground Zero, to New Yorkers who still refuse to go near the area, to the tributes paid to the 2,983 victims by American cartoonists in syndicated newspaper comic strips starting yesterday.

The attacks launched two wars that have left thousands dead, many of them non-combatants. Those behind the wars, however ill-conceived these might look in hindsight, point out that there has been no terrorist attack on American soil in the past 10 years.

Public safety came at the cost of certain civil liberties. Debates continue on what constitutes a reasonable price for security.

Iraq’s Saddam Hussein was ousted, tried and executed, but for crimes against his people rather than 9/11. The Taliban was dislodged from Afghanistan, but it is reasserting its influence. A few months before the 10^th anniversary of the attacks, Osama bin Laden was finally found and killed. It reinforced American public opinion favoring the complete withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The wars, and the generally negative global reaction to them, have made an impact on US foreign policy. One positive thing that has come out of 9/11 is a greater effort, and not just among Americans, to understand and reach out to people of other faiths and cultures.

US security officials, studying extremism around the globe, realize that while there are people dissatisfied over many issues in various societies, only a tiny minority will actually resort to violence to advance a cause.

Washington has also learned the folly of going it alone when it comes to supporting or “stabilizing” emerging democracies.

These days US diplomatic and security officials talk of the ineffectiveness of “whack-a-mole.” They will tell you that the kill-’em-all approach will simply create more extremists.

Promoting enduring freedom, Washington now realizes, takes more than killing all the bad guys. It requires good governance, the rule of law – all those things that even our exuberant Pinoy democracy continues to struggle to achieve.

After the mess in Iraq and Afghanistan, after the blood shed and money spent, American taxpayers are happy to get out, but Washington doesn’t like to look foolish as it exits.

Ten years after 9/11, the buzz phrase in Washington is the “whole of government” approach in US engagement overseas. The approach combines defense, diplomacy and development in providing US assistance and promoting American interests.

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Muslims in America have also learned lessons in the 10 years since 9/11.

Efforts to promote religious understanding have not ended stereotyping and discrimination against Muslims in the US. An extensive study conducted by the Washington-based Abu Dhabi Gallup Center showed that 48 percent of Muslims in the United States reported suffering from discrimination in the past 12 months – the highest among religious faiths.

A plan to put up an Islamic community center two blocks away from Ground Zero triggered such a firestorm that its main proponent, New York imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, has put the plan on indefinite hold.

During my recent visit to New York, the imam’s wife Daisy Khan, executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA), gave visiting Asian journalists an idea of how painful the soul-searching could be.

Among the top four questions asked by non-Muslims, Khan told us, is why women are treated so badly in certain Islamic societies. Why was an Afghan mother of five shot in a soccer field? “I don’t have an explanation for that,” Khan told us.

“During moments like that, I feel that if such perceptions are so deep, there must be some truth to it… there must be some aspects of our community that have gone wrong,” she said.

ASMA is also often asked where Islamic leaders are and why they do not speak out against terrorism. Khan acknowledged non-Muslim perceptions that “every imam is his own free agent.”

Another perception that ASMA often confronts is that Muslims can’t separate politics from religion and can’t handle democracy.

ASMA has initiated an international effort to put together common Islamic ideals. Starting with 60 men and women 22 to 45 years old, the group now counts 1,000 “peace leaders of tomorrow” from different countries.

Khan’s husband is also coming out with a book early next year on how Islam can be practiced in the US in accordance with Shariah Law. Khan said she was told by several Bahraini citizens that what Muslims do in the United States influenced those in other countries.

The book is being put together in consultation with scholars on Shariah Law from around the world.

“It’s going to be so coherent when it comes out nobody’s going to be able to challenge it,” Khan said. “It’s going to pull the rug from under the extremists.”

Perhaps the best response to terrorism will come from the communities themselves whose faith is tarnished by those in their midst who resort to extremism.

That response is among the positive developments as the world moves on from 9/11.