Sept 11 2002 – The terrorist attacks that occurred in the US on September 11 last year not only shocked the world but put the focus on Muslims and their religion. In Australia there were attacks on mosques and people started to question the values of the Islamic faith.
Never before in the history of civilisation has the world collectively shared a human tragedy as the orchestrated attack on the World Trade Centre in New York.
And never before in the history of civilisation has the world collectively focused on the religion of Islam, negatively and positively. Therefore, we must as Muslims share our thoughts and ideas with the rest of humanity thereby promoting understanding on both sides.
For Muslims this is an opportunity to express our grief and to stress that we too are a part of humanity and share the same basic values that all people share.
Although, the War on Terror has been identified as a war against many innocent civilians living in Muslim countries and regions we realise and appreciate the shock that Americans felt after the disastrous event.
And as Muslims living in Australia we have a strong desire to be a functioning and harmonious part of this nation. When Australians were shocked by the event it meant all Australians including Muslim Australians.
There have been many events that have moved the world in the past 50 years. I particularly look at the past 50 years because technology and communications have significantly developed making the globe a smaller and much more intimate place.
Since the great tragedies of the World War II there have been constant reminders that we are not perfect and that humans have the ability to carry out injustice and crimes of the most sinister magnitude.
We can easily label one another and criticise each other of our faults. However, for the state of humanity to improve we need to look within and to improve our own moral condition before looking at how we can improve the moral condition of others.
Only in the past decade, the global community saw two major wars in the Gulf and in the Balkans. In Srebinica the Serbians killed over 7,000 civilians and buried them in mass graves. In Africa hundreds of thousands of Rwandans were massacred without the international community doing a thing to prevent the slaughter. In our own backyard we saw East Timor explode into anarchy and again we failed to act in time to save those who perished in the onslaught. It seems that whatever we do there will be conflict in our lives.
The September 11 attacks were in the same vain as other conflicts and the victims in every case are the civilians who have no fault. The only difference in this case there was an invisible enemy and a new tactic.
This was probably the most disturbing revelation; that we are no longer immune from attacks.
The most significant lesson to be learned from 9/11 is that the imbalance that we see in the world today must be equalised and that somehow we need to restore justice and reason in our global policy.
The most dangerous thing we can do is to divide the world into two halves, us and them, civilised and uncivilised, democratic and fascist, right and wrong and so on.
If we are truly the children of Cain and Abel then we must learn to live as sisters and brothers, solving our disputes peacefully and appreciating each others differences whilst focusing on our similarities.
September 11 was a tragedy of mammoth proportions but it is behind us now and we must move forward by making this place we call home a place where we all feel safe, respected and understood.
KS Seyit is a spokesman for the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils
