“Twenty-five years ago today, we watched the first reports flicker across the screen, disbelief turning to horror the moment the second plane struck. Our thoughts are with the victims, their families and loved ones. Within hours, a friend in Hong Kong called me from a room full of strangers, all listening in, waiting for the only Muslim any of them knew to explain the unexplainable. That burden of ordinary Muslims made to account for a crime that was not theirs has never fully lifted.
Today we remember all those who lost their lives that morning. We remember, too, what followed: the hundreds of thousands of innocent victims who lost their lives worldwide as a response to this tragedy.
We also remember those who refused to let fear replace judgement, who could differentiate between a violent few over a billion ordinary Muslims. New York, at the very centre of that grief, has since elected its first Muslim Mayor. On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, we must redouble our commitments that violence is not the answer and that hostility is never the final word.”
Dr Wajid Akhter, Secretary General Muslim Council of Britain
[ENDS]
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