a milestone in history

Opinion: 9/11 a decade later: Viewed from Istanbul, ‘a milestone in history’

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

BY AYDOGAN VATANDAS

AYDOGAN VATANDAS IS AN INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST AND THE MEDIA REPRESENTATIVE OF TURKISH CIHAN NEWS AGENCY IN NEW YORK SINCE 2006.

ON Sept. 11, 2001, the United States was attacked by a group of terrorists who believed in a holy war, called jihad.

Nearly 3,000 victims died.

They were Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and atheists.

They were human beings working for their lives and families.

On that day, at that moment, I was in Istanbul, at the headquarters of my newspaper.

A friend of mine in the newsroom just screamed in a daze: “The World Trade Center was attacked by airplanes.”

Confused, a colleague ran to the window to check and see whether our World Trade Center, which was a building just across from us, was still out there.

It was in its place.

The entire newsroom gathered around the TV screen.

We all watched with an astonishing fear and sadness as the airplanes hit the Twin Towers in New York, again and again. We called our New York bureau chief to get more information about the incident. He said that it was probably a terrorist attack, but the perpetrators were unknown yet.

A friend who was working at the foreign desk said that the usual suspect was al-Qaida.

Another colleague surmised that “Aum Shinrikyo,” an apocalyptic cult in Japan, could have done it as well.

Yet another colleague speculated that al-Qaida couldn’t afford to do such an organized and well-planned evil action.

It was, to us, a milestone in history.

It was one of the most evil acts of all times.

We were willing and wishing (and praying) that Muslims were not involved in this act.

To be honest, we never wanted to believe that this was possible.

We would have preferred to believe that it was an inside job, which would be used as an excuse to attack the Muslim world and control the energy resources in the region.

On the other hand, there stood a chance of another reality. Some Muslims believed terrorism is the only way to fight and defeat the western world culturally and politically.

What was the reason for this hatred?

Most definitely, these Muslims were affected by an era of colonialism in the region.

Due to the colonialist era, like other newly created states, Egypt was faced with the problem of how to govern itself. Egypt, like Turkey, chose a totalitarian secular nationalism as opposed to Islam as its new national identity. These regimes were encouraged and endorsed by Western governments. Islamic opposition lived under the oppression of their totalitarian government for years and, according to the rhetoric, America and its allies were primarily responsible for that.

But the difference between Turkey and Egypt was that Turkey was never colonized. Therefore, the tone of the Islamic opposition to their totalitarian secular regimes was not the same.

It can be argued that three ideologues have been most influential in the development of radical Islam: Hassan al-Banna, Mawlana Mawdudi and Sayyid Qutb. Mawdudi was from Pakistan. Benna and Qutb were from Egypt. We should remember that Pakistan was also colonized as well.

Hassan al-Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Mawdudi Jamaat-e-Islami in Pakistan. Members of those groups believed that their totalitarian secular regimes were the extension of Western capitalism and imperialism. This notion was to be strengthened later by Sayyid Qutb.

It is definitely not a coincidence that the second man of al-Qaida, Ayman Al Zawahiri, was from Egypt and had close ties with the Muslim Brotherhood in his past.

It is definitely also not a coincidence that Osama bin Laden was found and killed in Pakistan.

As a Turkish Muslim journalist, I was frustrated by what happened in Manhattan on Sept. 11, just like thousands of Norwegians today are frustrated by Anders Behring Breivik.

What was the word that both Bin Laden and Breivik hated most?

Dialogue.

Sept. 11 triggered the interfaith dialogue efforts of Muslims all over the world.

I believe that the era of dialogue has just begun.

via Opinion: 9/11 a decade later: Viewed from Istanbul, ‘a milestone in history’ : page all – NorthJersey.com.