Today’s massacre in Sydney showed that we are still living in the era of September 11. An era that, as the opening of a new century and millennium, began a quarter-century ago with the attack on the World Trade Center towers.
Kabul 24: Americans called it the global war on terrorism.If we accept this naming, setting aside ideological considerations and political evaluations, we must admit that this ill-fated struggle continues.In contemporary history, we have World War I and II, and the Cold War, each with a beginning and an end when weapons were laid down.But in the war on terrorism, there is, for now, no news of bidding farewell to arms.
Every few years, a Western capital or a city in the Middle East becomes the target of terrorist attacks.
The situation is so dire that after October 7, 2023, and the horrific atrocities of the Gaza war, it is hard to still consider September 11, 2001, as a symbolic origin. 100,000 dead and disabled in a small land among a limited population—it’s hard even to imagine.
Thus, talk of ending this situation is still premature.At least until the Arab-Muslim world calms down and returns to the balances and tranquilities of the past, time is needed.When and how will this calm be achieved?
At least one or two generations are required.This is an optimistic prediction that prevailing political discourses do not favor.Extreme identity-seeking is at its peak, and right-wing nationalism and religious fundamentalism are fanning the flames over the ruins of today’s fragmented world.
The atmosphere is so poisoned that cosmopolitans, liberals, and freedom-lovers are often forced to speak with embarrassing shame about the virtues of dialogue, moderation, universalism, and centrism.
Hatred toward the extremist and genocidal Israeli government is permissible and legitimate, but to avoid falling into deadly identity traps, it must certainly be blended with love for Jews like Einstein, Chomsky, Karl Marx, Durkheim, Freud, and even the free-thinking columnists of Haaretz.
The bitter irony of the matter is not just that we have all somehow become captives of identity wars, betting on contradictions and countless points of hostility.Worse is that, more than in the past—much more—we have become similar to each other, and thanks to or despite technology, we are losing our diversity and differences moment by moment.
From styles of dress and nutrition to thought and ideology, it’s as if we came out of one machine. But in particularism and hostility toward the other, we are in no way comparable to the past.
Truly, what difference exists between the thoughts and behaviors of Trump and Putin, each belonging to different intellectual and cultural traditions?
Was Bashar al-Assad’s brutality in suppressing civilians greater than Benjamin Netanyahu’s?What difference do the terrorists who today sprayed Jews in celebration with bullets have from the Zionist settlers entrenched in the occupied West Bank, who routinely resort to violence against Palestinians?
The discussion is not to find justification for today’s terrorist operation and see it as a natural result of the Gaza war. By no means! Rather, it is about a world that, as it progresses, increasingly seems to have lost its moral compass.The vision of the utopia after November 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall has turned into a distant dream.
It seems that historical progress is not linear but full of spirals and, in some cases, regressions.The powerful and the Cold War victors, who squandered the opportunity to build a more humane world for the sake of political interests and geopolitical ambitions, are more guilty than others. Or at least bear greater responsibility.The restless Arab-Muslim world is not entirely innocent either.
At least at the level of its elites, intellectuals, and educated class, who sometimes out of excessive irresponsibility and sometimes due to ignorance neglect to see internal ailments.Always pointing the finger of blame at the West, imperialism, and global arrogance is shirking responsibility. Internal factors and dynamics should not be forgotten either.
Salahuddin Khadiv
