The New Nation - Internet Edition

New York city Mayor Michael Bloomberg said yesterday the anniversary of 9/11 was about "New Yorkers, Americans and global citizens remembering the innocent people from 95 nations and territories that lost their lives that day." He said the day would "live forever in our hearts and our history".

Later, the US presidential candidates, Senators Barack Obama and John McCain, were scheduled to attend Ground Zero, after they agreed to suspend their campaigns for the White House for 24 hours.

The downtown Manhattan went silent four times, twice to mark the time when each plane hit the Twin Towers, and twice at the time when each tower fell.

In Washington, President George Bush said history would look back at America's response to the attacks and that "we did not tire, we did not falter and we did not fail".

A total of 2,974 people were killed on September 11, 2001, when terrorists hijacked four aircraft.

Two hit the World Trade Centre towers, one crashed near the Pentagon and the other came down near Pittsburgh.

The whole world shares with the Americans the grief, and the condemnation of the perpetrators of the terror attacks that triggered a global change that none did imagine ever before.

Unfortunately, the blame came on the Muslims although it has by now been proved beyond any iota of doubt that followers of the religion of Islam are essentially peaceful and civilised and oppose terrorism.

The Muslim World by and large sided with the war on terror but they cannot come to terms with the fact that the lone superpower of the world would not mind the discomfort created in their hearts by blindly supporting only one state that has so long been sabotaging the interests of the Muslim World in general and of some countries in the Middle East in particular.

Ideologically, Muslims should have been natural friends of the promoters of liberal thoughts and ideas. But initiatives taken from the West antagonise them instead of earning their confidence. This scenario should change which is possible only through a just solution of the Palestine problem.