The Attacks of 9/11: Evidence of a Clash of Religions?

clared that the coalition war in Afghanistan is not a war against Islam. Islam, however, was a feature of the events of 11 September 2001 and of the events that followed. Should the conflict between the United States and Osama bin Laden and between the coalition forces and the Taliban be seen as an example of a conflict between two religious traditions in the way Professor Samuel Huntington prophesied in his seminal "Clash of Civilizations" essay? 1 This article aims to unravel some of the religious background to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on what began as a "perfect day" in September in New York and Washington. 2 It looks too at the religious background to events that have followed on from those attacks. Much of the latter part of the article will be devoted to examining any perceived "clash" from the Muslim point of view in an attempt to generate a better understanding of how at least some Muslims view the West in general and America in particular. It will look, again from the Muslim point of view, at how any perception of a clash might be either ameliorated or neutralized.