9/11 Trauma

The effects of 9/11 continue to reverberate throughout the world. The event was a terrible tragedy which resulted in the murder (there is no other way to describe it) of thousands of innocents. Without doubt, this was a traumatic moment for Americans. The question is why is this event still such a major trauma on the psyche of Americans 10 years after the event?

America has faced far more dangerous and traumatic situations in its history. The civil war was a defining tragedy which played a decisive role in forging the nation. The two World Wars resulted in the deaths of thousands of Americans under conditions far more terrible than those of 9/11 in New York. The civil rights movements had far greater implications for American development. Why then has the US reacted (and continues to react) so hysterically to 9/11? Forget about what the US is doing to the rest of the world. America has eviscerated its vaunted domestic freedoms; something it did not do during the Civil War when its very existence was at stake.

Why is the US population still afraid? What exactly is it afraid of? If the situation is considered objectively, the US is still the largest and richest economy in the world. It has the largest and most sophisticated military. No matter what its present economic troubles, there is currently no country in the world that can seriously threaten its existence or its integrity. Its way of life is in no danger of being overwhelmed by anybody. Indeed, the opposite is true. Other countries are afraid of the cultural juggernaut that is Hollywood. Its news broadcasters and other forms of cultural exports are eagerly snapped up by people around the world.

Given all this, why has a section of its population been demonised because of their religion? Why does the general population seem afraid of Muslims? Where is the fear coming from?

Related articles

• 9/11 Mental Health: What We Now Know About Trauma (huffingtonpost.com)
• Human Resiliency and Trauma (bigthink.com)

Fear of Sharia

It seems that Western civilization requires an other; an outside enemy which is then identified to be implacably evil. Nowadays, that role is served by Muslims. Not only are Muslims and Islam in general under attack in a lot of circles, various aspects of a Muslim lifestyle are also under attack. For example, what exactly is so terrible about the niqab that the French (and other European countries) tremble in fear for their civilization? Or take the whole issue of building mosques. What is so terrible about a mosque that people are up in arms against their construction? Are they afraid that these mosques will serve as bastions of terrorism?

The current flavour of the month as far as fear of Islam goes seems to be the Sharia. Many people and organizations in Western countries see a sinister agenda that Muslims have of imposing Sharia law over their countries through force and deception. For many Westerners, Sharia is the proverbial big bad wolf out to impose harsh, punitive punishments for the slightest transgression. Most people in the West react in a visceral fashion regarding Sharia. The fact of the matter is that by definition, Sharia law is only applicable to Muslims. It is not, indeed cannot be applied to non-Muslims. In this respect, Sharia law is perhaps more liberal than secular law. The latter insists on its universal applicability; everyone must perforce submit to it. Sharia law on the other hand affects only Muslims. Other religious groups are governed by their own set of laws. So perhaps instead of non-Muslims being afraid of Sharia, it should be the other way round. Perhaps Muslims should be afraid of arbitrary imposition of secular law.

Related articles

• Spread of Islamic sharia law in Germany far more advanced than previously thought (creepingsharia.wordpress.com)
• CBC 'chieftess' can't even do Sharia law right (fawny.org)
• The Racists Are Coming! Campaign Against Sharia Law a Threat to Indian Country (indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com)