Ten Years since 9/11 – Re-shaping my Worldview

Ten years have elapsed since 9/11. When I think back, a series of flashbacks reels before my eyes. But regardless of the events and incidents that have occurred in the wake of this condemnable act, one question always intrigues me: Is religion, as propagated, so poisonous and dangerous a concept that it can strain the physical and mental lives of hundreds of thousands of people around the globe? 9/11 has complicated my ideas of religion and nationalism. I often think that if such concepts are so detrimental to humanity that they can sway the hearts and minds of millions of people and provoke them to enmity and bloodshed, then perhaps we are better off without any such philosophies or religions that societies continuously push us to live by.

The consequences of 9/11 have changed my views about the world. I now no longer see it as compartmentalised. In my opinion, there are no damn justifications for genocides like 9/11, and other terrorist/militant attacks on people (which have been routine in Pakistan until now). The people who commit such brutal acts cannot be members of “humane” societies – no matter whether such acts are committed in the name of private organisations or as part of a “war” declared on specific religious communities by the superpowers ruling the world. If religion enjoins us to take the lives of human beings, I think it should be condemned; if nationalism provokes us to murder other people belonging to other nations in order to establish our own superiority,  such nationalist boundaries across the globe should be abolished.

After all these years, it makes me feel very sad to see that things still haven’t changed. This pain inspires me to work toward the betterment of the world and I often think how can I be a part of a campaign trying to change the minds of people and helping them to get rid of prejudices, biases, and hatreds that cause losses not only for individuals or groups but for the whole humanity in general?

I am a teacher and my goal has now become to influence the minds of my students in a positive way so that they can become “protectors” of this world. This is the best contribution I can make, I believe. So I can wholeheartedly say that despite the pain that 9/11 and the events following it gave to me, I have emerged as a more constructive and positive individual. I still believe in the goodness of humanity and the power it has to shape the world constructively! In order to inculcate a constructive approach among the masses, in my opinion educaters should come forword and play their part in dismanteling the prejudices harmonising the biases we develop against “the other”.