9/11

It's hard to know what to write about 9/11. I don't have a theme, which encapsulates the whole thing, more a series of comments and questions. For what it's worth, here they are.

Will the annual ceremony in Manhattan, which marks the destruction of the twin towers, turn into a national day of mourning for all those killed in war, a bit like Remembrance Day in the U.K., which is held on 11 November each year? I hope it does. For although what happened was terrible, it doesn't seem right to elevate the 3,000-odd killed and give them almost mythical status. Ordinary people have been killed in terrorist attacks elsewhere - indeed, they are still being killed in such attacks today - and their lives were just as important, the grief of their friends and relatives just as strong.

9/11 has a peculiarly American feel to it, starting with the date (the opposite of that used in most of the rest of the world). Perhaps it is that uniqueness that makes Americans want to cling on to remembering it so fervently. Europeans, and other nations, have after all experienced bouts of terrorism and destruction before, not least during the Second World War. This was for America not only a terrible event, but pretty much a first. That's bound to have an effect.

I am dismayed by the attempt of many, both Americans and foreigners, to equate terrorism with Islam, as evinced by the row over the building of a Muslim cultural centre on Lower Manhattan, not far from Ground Zero. If 9/11 teaches us anything, then it is (in my view) the need for mutual respect between cultures and religions. The witless American pastor from Florida, Mr Terry Jones, has had his 15 minutes of fame, but it is sad that supposedly religious people can be so stupid; returning to the prejudices of the Reformation does not make the modern world any better. President Obama has tried to make this point, but he needs to keep on making it.

I hope that the eventual redevelopment of the Ground Zero site will make the process of reconciliation easier. As long as there was a big hole in the ground, it was like a scar that refused to heal. But new buildings, including a memorial, will in time demonstrate more clearly than anything else that life can, and does, move on.

Walter Blotscher