Racism and Terrorism

Aftermath of 9/11

But through all these pandemonium, one thing has kept bugging my mind. Why 9-11? Why did Bin Laden and his terror brigade chose that particular September morning to unleash their terror on America and the contemporary world. I mean, only a little hyphenation separates it from the largely fateful and awe-inspiring emergency code 911 that often signals a dire situation in America. One can speculate that the terrorists settled on that fateful date for the mundane reason that the monumental tragedies they would wrought on the so-called western civilization would serve as an unforgettable warning to the Americans and the world at large of more tragic terrors ahead and hence of many more reasons for the citizens of the world to dial 911. As you can see, this is mere speculation for it is not a gift given to any sane human being to decipher what goes on in the mind of a suicidal terrorist. But whatever way you view it, 9-11 has ceased to be just a calendar day. It has become an end and a beginning of a new era, a watershed to a new life of modified freedom and abbreviated openness that has dawned on America - land of the free and home of the brave. Hence one often reads and overhears, even as I write this book, a pre-9-11 and a post-9-11 America or world. And I have every reason to suspect that for many centuries to come this earth-shattering event of September 11, 2001 will be chronicled with the ancient formulary of groundbreaking events.