Don’t blame ‘others’ or ‘cycles of violence’ for the 9/11 attacks

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Sep 13, 2019

On September 11, while Americans remembered the victims of an Islamic terrorist attack, Pope Francis met with a members of a joint Catholic-Islamic committee dedicated to peaceful dialogue. (This is the group whose formal statement, endorsed by the Pope, proclaimed: “The pluralism and diversity of religious… are willed by God…”) “The date was chosen as a sign of the will to build life and fraternity where others sowed death and destruction,” the Vatican press office said. But there was no mention of the 9/11 attacks, nor of the “others” who perpetrated it.

On the same day, the Vatican’s representative to the UN, Archbishop Bernardito Auza, did speak about the terrorist attack on America. He said: “The 9/11 attacks were preceded and followed by many horrendous acts of violence, proving that violence begets more violence, hatred begets more hatred, and revenge perpetuates the cycle of violence.”

Oh, so it was a “cycle of violence” that spawned the attacks? Not an aggressive and violent ideology? The archbishop’s statement seems to suggest that the attack on the World Trade Center was a response to an earlier act of violence. By whom? Against whom?

By speaking in vague generalities about “others” and “cycles” that allegedly cause violence, Church leaders are drawing critical attention away from the real cause. The problem, the cause of the violence, is militant Islamic ideology. The sooner that problem is acknowledged by all concerned— and especially by any peaceful Muslims who genuinely abhor violence— the sooner we can work toward a real common response.