Why we remember Sept. 11

If you °were to ask any Canadian the exact date that Canada declared war on Germany at the start of the Second World War, she would probably respond with a look of blank puzzlement. Perhaps this week the looks would not be so universally puzzled, because the date was actually yesterday, Sept. 10, 1939, and all the newspapers have been full of that fact, but two weeks from now, no one is likely to recall it.

Ask Canadians, however, when the War on Terror began, and the odds are they will say 9/11 -- Sept. 11, 2001 -- when four airliners were used as weapons by Islamic fundamentalists to declare war on the Western world. Two of those planes crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York City, killing thousands of civilians. One crashed into the Pentagon, and one, destined to destroy the White House, was heroically diverted by its passengers who overpowered their hijackers and died when their plane, as a result, crashed in a Pennsylvania field. Ironically, those heroes are the least remembered of the victims of 9/11 today.

Sadly, the significance of 9/11 seems to be in danger of being forgotten as well. Eight years ago, Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist organization did declare war on Western civilization in as dramatic a fashion as could be imagined. Islamic extremists had previously targeted Western interests, or more specifically, American targets because of the United States' close relationship with Israel, but Mr. bin Laden's goals are historically and dangerously different.

Yes, he abhors the existence of the state of Israel, as many Arabs and Muslims do, and longs for its destruction. But Israel is an infant nation, hardly more than 60 years old in its current configuration. The Islamic extremists of Mr. bin Laden's ilk have memories that go far further back than that --he still dreams of Andalusia, an Islamic Spain -- which means that Western minds must travel far further forward if they are to deal with this continuing threat to civilization.

It is probably impossible to completely separate politics and religion, but the West has managed it better than most. We still have the proudly religious right and the arrogantly atheist left as political movements, but they are not much more than exotically eccentric ensembles. Religion rarely predicts voting patterns here.

The Muslim world has never made that separation and the existence of al-Qaida and other Islamic extremist organizations embodies the idea that religion and politics cannot be separated, that, in the words of the Prophet Muhammad, Muslims must "strive for a universal order in which the whole of humanity would embrace Islam or live under its domination."

Mr. bin Laden said much the same thing in 2006: "I was ordered to fight the people until they say there is no god but Allah, and his Prophet Muhammad."

The separation of politics and religion is, wisely, considered a good thing in the Western world, but it is not a concept that is internationally shared and Canadians need to remember that. It is why they need to remember 9/11 and the attacks that occurred that day, not just on the United States, the Great Satan as many Muslims and even some Canadians think of it, but attacks on the very concept of freedom as the West -- including Canada -- conceives it, as the freedom to believe what one chooses, the freedom to live without fear of oppression, the freedom to speak one's mind freely. Osama bin Laden would deny us that, and that is why we should remember the message he sent so clearly on Sept. 11, 2001.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 11, 2009 A12