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THE QUESTION
9/11: Have we healed?
After 9/11 President Bush reminded Americans that the attack was the work of a few terrorists and not the Muslim people. "The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam," Bush said a few days after 9/11. President Obama reached out to Muslims worldwide in his 2009 Cairo speech, where he insisted that "America is not -- and never will be -- at war with Islam." Yet partly because of the furor over the "mosque" near Ground Zero, a new wave of anti-Muslim feeling has arisen. Gen. Petraeus recently spoke out against a planned burning of the Qur'an by a church in Florida, an act which Petraeus says threatens American operations in Afghanistan and harms America's image in Muslim countries.
Did we (Muslim and non-Muslims) do enough after 9/11 to heal the nation? If not, what should we have done? What more can we do now?
Posted by
Elizabeth Tenety on September 7, 2010 12:01 PM
FROM THE PANEL
We need love, faith and forgiveness
When we forgive al Qaeda, when we put our effort into deeds of compassion and peace, we defeat the idea of al Qaeda.
Posted by Valerie Elverton Dixon, on September 9, 2010 6:45 PM
Why do Americans fear Muslims?
It is only in Islam where members fear for their lives if they criticize their religion or what is occurring in its name.
Posted by Ramdas Lamb, on September 9, 2010 4:40 AM
Wounds of 9/11 will never heal!
The wounds of 9/11 will never heal because we lack genuine commitment to find common ground.
Posted by Arun Gandhi, on September 8, 2010 5:15 PM
Fair and equal treatment for Islam
Hating Muslims for no other reason than their religion of birth or choice is indeed "Islamophobia." Holding Muslims and Islam to the same standards of inquiry as other groups, on the other hand, is in fact perfectly legitimate.
Posted by Shmully Hecht, on September 8, 2010 3:41 PM
Lack of theology as the root of evil
I trust that Protestant spokespersons better skilled than in their theology will not only point out the folly of this Qur'an burning, but take the moment to clarify that there is more to Christianity than individuals making it up as they go along.
Posted by Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo, on September 8, 2010 12:05 PM
Countering the surge of Islamic fear with clarity
Too many moderate Christians, especially clergy, have been muted or confusing in their comments about Islam and Muslims. They have been silent or vacillated. Awash in a culture of fear and soaked in confusion, we need more faith leaders with courage and clarity for the common good.
Posted by Robert Parham, on September 8, 2010 9:07 AM
Healing needs more than time -- and more time
No, we have not healed and we won't heal until such time as reconciliation is pursued from both sides, on terms that are equivalent but certainly not equal.
Posted by Jack Moline, on September 8, 2010 8:59 AM
Human condition makes healing impossible
It is ugly and it is dangerous, given the capability of enemies to not only "hate" each other but annihilate each other, but it is part of the human condition.
Posted by Susan K. Smith, on September 8, 2010 1:30 AM
Is healing even possible?
What all groups must remember is that while we can rebuke Islam all we want, that doesn't mean we ought to treat Muslim-Americans improperly. We need to defend their right to worship, build mosques, and run for public office. We need to remember that our respect for people (whatever their religion may be) is more important than our respect for their faith. If we can keep these things in mind, we may not "heal the nation," but we'll be building a nation that's hospitable to people of all religious and non-religious backgrounds.
Posted by Hemant Mehta, on September 7, 2010 11:43 PM
What "we" can say depends on who "we" are
Just as a physician does not heal a patient, but sets up conditions in which the body can heal itself, so will interfaith groups not heal the nation. And it is quite possible that the national body has now become so infected that even the most devoted interfaith groups can only sit and watch the patient die.
Posted by Gene Davenport, on September 7, 2010 11:34 PM
Analogy overkill: justice not healing
The nation has not healed from the attacks on 9/11, because an act of war is not a wound or a disease. Terrorists attacked our nation and killed Americans on September eleventh motivated by a radical form of Islam. Until we win the war against terrorism and make radical forms of Islam as unattractive as we have made Nazi ideology, we will not have finished the job that 9/11 started.
Posted by John Mark Reynolds, on September 7, 2010 7:43 PM
Where the rubber hits the road for our Christian faith
So what should have been done? "Do to others as you would have them do to you," says Jesus in Luke 6:31. Fear has trumped love in our society in the years since 9/11 and what we can and need to do now is recommit ourselves to the hard work of loving our neighbor.
Posted by Janet Edwards, on September 7, 2010 5:33 PM
Healing? It's more urgent to understand the problem
9/11 was a faith-based initiative. Well-meaning bromides that try to separate this attack from Islam as the terrorists understood it make the events of that terrible September day incomprehensible.
Posted by Tom Flynn, on September 7, 2010 5:04 PM
Repudiate terror, then work together
It is not easy to live with others. It never has been.
Posted by David Wolpe, on September 7, 2010 1:50 PM
The enemy is us
What part of separation of church and state and "freedom of religion" don't we understand?!
Posted by Max Carter, on September 7, 2010 1:29 PM
We need frank conversations about 9-11 with Muslims
We need to have some very frank conversations about 9-11 itself and how we are coping with it. Much of the Muslim world, including sizable portions of the American Muslim population remain mired in the denial stage of grief. Thus the popularity of 9-11 conspiracy theories.
Posted by Pamela K. Taylor, on September 7, 2010 12:33 PM
