14th September, 2011
Since the dismantling of the political bi-polar system of the world, the United Staes of America has remained the uni-polar power of the globe. This was in the aftermath of the crushing of 75-year old Communist rule by President Mikhail Gorbachev through the introduction of ‘Glasnot’ and ‘Perestroika’ i.e. Openness and Restructuring respectively in the mid-1980s.
Hence, America became the policeman of the world. The champion of the world through democratic polity. The most powerful economically through the fledging economy. The most secured nation through the nuclear power. The
most social and entertaining through music, film and global media of the internet.
Whether you like it or not, America is the darling continent of the world. God’s own country that attracts excellence politically, economically, and socio-culturally through free market place of ideas, liberty, freedom, and justice. It governs the world polity through the
control of United Nations. It directs the world economy through the control of World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). It dictates the pace of world economy through its dollar as the global currency. It controls the social system through the manifestation of the ‘Global Village’ theory of Canadian Professor Marshall McLuhan.
But since everything in life must obey the law of gravity, suddenly the nine-eleven came at the threshold of the 21st Century to challenge the sole-leadership of America in the world. Like a jolt and Tsunami, the terrorists were on the rampage to take their pound of flesh from America.
On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, the Al-Qaeda men of Osama Bin Laden struck in the United States of America at 8.46 a.m. With just 19 suicide hijackers they killed over 3,000 people from 70 different countries and injured more than 6,000 people. It was aircraft hijacking simultaneously in America, mass murder, suicide attack, and terrorism.
Indeed, the nine eleven is a day of rage. A day of terror. A day of deaths. A day of revenge. A day of challenge. A day of fight. A day of attacks. A day of casualties. A day of destruction. A day of waste.
For three days, the American air space was short down. All flights were grounded and diverted to neighbouring countries. The 110-storey Twin-Tower of World Trade Center were brought down at active economic hour with Flight 175 crashes. The power base of American Pentagon was shattered with Flight 77 crashes.
Truly, America prepared for everything, it didn’t prepare for nine-eleven. It was a case of a lillipute challenging a giant. Or the manifestations of David against Goliath.
But why should a people set out for suicide attack? Why should a people kill in the name of religion? Why should a people of religion of peace – Islam decide to go into terrorism to kill, maim and destroy? What could have enraged the Al-Qaeda to embark on these terrorist attacks? What does nine-eleven portend for America and indeed the world?
Should terror beget terror through American reaction with attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq? Can two wrongs make a right?
How do we achieve peace in the world? Is nine-eleven not having multiplying effects with more terrors around the world? Is nine-eleven not engineering political agitations in North Africa and the Arab world?
Is nine-eleven not engineering the Boko Haram terror in Nigeria against western education and values? How do we stem the tide of terrorism in the world?
Can the supposed killing of Osama Bin Laden on May 1, 2011 in Abottabad, Pakistan by American forces kill the idea of terrorism by Al-Qaeda and its cohorts?
These are the Socratic thoughts that worries the mind of great thinkers in the world today.
At least, the nine-eleven has proved to be fighting against the injustices of America around the world. The September 11 has proved to be the symbol of protest against American soldiers’ presence in Saudi Arabia and around the world after the Gulf war.
The nine-eleven has proved to be an emblem of resistance against the foreign policy of America on Israel and the Palestine. The September 11 has proved the nothingness of power. The nine-eleven has proved the futilities of global leadership. The September 11 has proved that the uni-polar power will soon shift.
But this is an unfortunate metaphor as the terror attack cannot be justified in the Holy Book of Islam, the Qur’an. The collossal waste of people and property cannot be justified in the principles of faith and practice of the religion of Peace.
The enormous waste of over 5 trillion dollars in stocks and shares, infrastructure and others because of the attacks cannot be proved in the tradition of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW), who was humble, humane and homely in his preachings and approaches to injustices, persecutions and humiliations.
The social effects on rebdering over 6,000 children fatherless and motherless suddenly cannot be justified in the doctrines of Islam as a religion of peace for the tenderly.
The health effects of the toxic from the debris of the collapse of the Twin Towers and the Pentagon among other amenities cannot be proved in the religion of Islam that considers man’s emergence on earth is to make it a peaceful place to live.
Now that the American attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq as form of reactions against the nine-eleven have not helped matters but compounded it, one hopes that the uni-polar power of the world will allow reason to prevail that two wrongs don’t make a right.
Indeed, nine-eleven is a metaphor.
•Osho is a researcher and Scholar, University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom.