Al-Ahram Weekly | Opinion

Two years on
The tremors from the collapse of the twin towers of the World Trade Center continue to destabilise the world. Mohsen Zahran takes stock

More than a decade ago Egypt called for an international conference on terrorism that would define its meaning, scope and dimensions. The call came as part of a wider demand for an international commitment to the fight against terrorism of which Egypt had itself been a victim. The convening of such a conference is needed now more than ever before if world peace, safety, stability, and security are to be protected and legitimate national rights safeguarded.
The terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 awakened Huntington's contentions concerning the clash of civilisations. Government leaders, media pundits and thinkers quickly joined the chorus condemning Muslims and Arabs as at best anti-West and therefore anti-civilisation, and at worst as natural terrorists, conveniently forgetting that fundamentalism cuts across religions and that extremist religious groups exist within Christianity and Judaism as well as within Islam.
The events of that fateful day inevitably impacted on the world economy, destabilising markets in the US, Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia. Rising unemployment -- at least one billion youth as reported at the Youth Employment Summit held by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in September 2002 -- is but one aspect of a recession that has brought with it major bankruptcies, the uncovering of corporate fraud on a massive and hitherto unsuspected scale, a slowdown in international trade, a sharp decline in air travel and the consequent collapse of some major airlines. The aftershocks have shaken the world economy and national development plans across the globe.
At the international level the widening gap between the rich and the poor, the North and the South, has resulted in divisions, frustrations, disappointments and disagreements that surfaced so dramatically at the Second Earth Summit held in Johannesburg in September 2002. The post-11 September world has become one of tension, division, suspicion, conflict, instability and insecurity which have erupted in various regions of the globe, including those that in the past were considered comparatively docile and stable.
Events since 11 September have exposed the inadequacies of many international and regional organisations charged with maintaining world order and global security. Indeed, in the intervening years more conflicts and eruptions have occurred, and none has been quite dissipated. The much lauded war on terror has patently failed to destroy extremist groups such as Al-Qa'eda, in Afghanistan or elsewhere. Global peace, security and stability have never been more elusive in the wake of military intervention in Iraq, and in the future perhaps elsewhere along the "axis of evil" spuriously identified by a US administration whose anti-terrorist slogans Israel has adopted to suppress the struggle for legitimate Palestinian rights.
It is vital for world peace and security that international and regional organisations reassume their role and obligations and that all nations abide by the rules of international legitimacy, in deed as well as in word. Measures to reinstate trust and cooperation are urgently called for. The major international powers must shoulder their responsibilities, recognising that there are limits to the exercise of power. They must become engaged in redressing rather than exacerbating grievances, in assisting the poor and the beleaguered rather than compounding their hardships. A useful start would be the cancelling of debilitating debt, and greater assistance in promoting sustainable development.
The Earth Summit in Johannesburg in 2002 also betrayed a rift between government and civil society. There must be a greater involvement and empowerment of people regardless of sex, colour or creed. It is high time it was recognised that we live in one boat and that a tremor in one part of the boat inevitably reverberates in others.
The aftershocks of 11 September in the Arab world and Egypt have been profound and far- reaching. While President Bush visited the Islamic Centre in Washington for the first time in order to assure America and the world that the war on terrorism was aimed not at Muslims but at the terrible acts of fundamentalist extremist groups, US citizens of Arab or Islamic origins were nonetheless subjected to systematic harassment. In the Arab world writers and the media quickly recognised that a concerted campaign to rectify the ugly picture of Islamic culture painted in the West, was urgently needed. Egypt and Al-Azhar initiated a media-campaign to emphasise Islam's message of peace, equality and tolerance. And for the first time positive and constructive dialogue between religious leaders began in Cairo, London and Rome.
Meanwhile the Palestinians found themselves hounded by Israel as terrorists. Though supported by innumerable international treaties and agreements the Palestinian cause has regressed. The Palestinian people find themselves subject to reoccupation, and to daily oppression. The Palestinian cause has suffered a painful setback, and at the same time Arab countries, for the first time in decades, face accusations and demands for reform.
The status quo in Egypt, indeed throughout the Arab world, can never return to its pre-11 September dispensation. Educational, medical, social, economic and cultural reforms have already been adopted, and plans for action set in motion. Radical Islamist groups and movements have shrunk, suffering their greatest setback in decades. However, public sympathy and understanding of the causes that have fuelled the anger and desperation of Arab societies subjected to decades of suffering, poverty, injustice, inequality and oppression have been expressed by many prominent analysts. They have emphasised that the September tragedy was a symptom, not a cause, and that the West must deal with the causes, and not wage wars on the symptoms.
Meanwhile, there have been rising demands by thinkers and writers in Egypt, and in other Arab countries, for a radical self appraisal. The demise of Arab society and culture is partly to be blamed on local custom, conservative tradition and a distortion of Islamic doctrine. The West cannot be blamed for everything. Some responsibilities are local and regional.