Zawaya

Forever distressed by the 9/11 attacks

By: Mohamed Mohamedou Khattat

What hasn’t changed, in the world, on the heels of the 9/11 terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda in the United States of America?

Nothing is the same ever since. This includes the international fight against terrorism with local and global imbalances (the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, Pakistan, the axis of evil, al-Qaeda, and AQIM plaguing the Sahel…), as well as our daily behaviors as individuals and nations, the attitudes of other countries that we visit, and the conduct of foreigners we meet in our countries or abroad.

In a nutshell, we lost control over this new world that resulted from the 9/11 attacks, and which is dominated by fear and chaos. These terrorist acts have brought deep and lasting changes to global politics and international relations, and have imposed a new rule consisting of the right to intervene in countries that constitute a threat, since a country is “either with us or against us” in the fight against terrorism and its future.

Although these events took place in the USA, in a continent far from ours, our North African countries were not spared the contagion.

The Great Maghreb is enduring the consequences of these events, especially Mauritania that has become a battlefield where the fundamentalist movement of al-Qaeda is recruiting fighters, committing terrorist attacks and unprecedented atrocities, killing peaceful citizens, carrying out attacks with explosive belts and cars, sowing terror and destabilizing our customs, whereas our holy Islamic religion forbids the taking of innocent lives.

The anti-terrorism war is not limited to the USA, because this is a cross-border phenomenon and the enemy is invisible. This will entail tightening immigration policies, if not a border closure, almost everywhere in the world. The counter-terrorism fight made our countries realize the need for a more comprehensive approach to security in general, internal security, and policies toward our neighbors.