Opinion | Remembering 9/11: as extremists exploit rifts between communities, we must make ourselves more resilient
- Twenty years on, it is crucial to develop our understanding of terrorism and violent extremism, and identify solutions within our contexts
- We must build new bridges that connect diverse communities to prevent the spread of violent extremism, writes Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah
But two decades on, the memory of the attack continues to serve as a painful reminder that we still have a long way to go in building bridges.
There still exist wide rifts that separate communities of different faiths, cultures, and even civilisations. This divide is being abused and exploited by terrorist and violent extremist groups that seek to forcibly impose their way of thinking upon the masses.
The most troubling development has been the ability of some of these groups to inspire those not directly related to or affiliated with them to carry out violent attacks on their behalf. Some of these individuals have been known to self-radicalise exclusively through reading and viewing terrorist material online. By showing how to use everyday things such as knives and trucks, the modus operandi of this new breed of terrorists makes them even harder to detect and prevent via traditional means.
This is why it has become crucial for us to find ways to prevent and counter the spread of the influence and propaganda of terrorist groups, particularly on the internet and social media, before it translates into action.