It's strange, looking back, to remember that in fact the worst of what might have happened didn't - in as much as the general public showed much more understanding and restraint than might have been expected. The mosque burnings didn't happen. At a governmental level, however, much of the worst that one might have feared happening was indeed set in train, and the forever war on 'terror' was begun. Just goes to show. When it comes down to it I would rather trust the common sense of a community of people than trust the judgement of those of their number who have the inclination to govern in their name. 

By accident, I caught it live on TV when the towers came down, and watched with shock, but unfortunately little surprise. I had been voicing my fears about just such an event for some time. With security-free internal flights and that size of a target, it had always seemed too obvious and too easy. Some martyr for a cause was going to go for it one day. It had seemed inevitable – and so it turned out.

After the shock came that sinking feeling in the stomach at the thought of the usual mosque burnings, and a scary time on the streets for a lot of muslims and anyone who might be mistaken for one. If it happened after Oklahoma, what could we expect after the carnage of New York. But the worst of what might have been triggered didn’t happen, and to a large extent that was due to a shift in the language used by public figures over the following weeks. From talk of ‘Islamic terrorism’ and a ‘Crusade’, suddenly almost every politician in sight was trying to find something nice to say about Islam. Very strange.

And someone finally suggested to the media that it is not necessarily a good idea to link the words ‘muslim’ and ‘terrorist’. Hallelujah - at last someone listened. How can terror be part of a faith in which the most commonly used words are Mercy and Compassion. In Islam there may be no distinction between religion and politics, but that doesn’t mean that every political action is Islamic. To accept the Islamic self-definition of the bombers is to legitimise them in their own terms. We need to reclaim the muslim language they usurp and distort. 

As for ourselves, we need a new term for this ‘war’ that we are told is unlike any we have fought before, a struggle without end for justice, freedom, and social  welfare for humanity, not just in battle, but permeating through a whole life. In fact, the language of Islam already has a word for such a fight for liberty and justice, with combatants forbidden to target innocents. It is ‘Jihad’. I think it is time we reclaimed the term from those who use it to justify their actions, while ignoring the self-restraint of its Islamic definition.