Feature

Amid the confusion, fear, media coverage and massive military response following the tragedy of September 11, we must not lose sight of the need for genuine justice, both in terms of due process and, more broadly, in terms of social justice in our world.

In two other recent cases of mass murder and crimes against humanity, Bosnia and Rwanda, the international community has established criminal courts at The Hague and Arusha. Slow, painstaking, they nevertheless function, and the public can see justice done in an accountable way. Surely fighting terror with terror is revenge, not justice.

I have been very surprised how the violent response to the September 11 attacks has mobilized action in the small English rural town where I live. People have been sickened at the thought of more killing. It is so obvious to them that if you respond by dealing death and violence, many more extremists will arise to take the place of those who die. They have protested against the war but have also linked this to broader issues. There is growing recognition that the prevailing ideology of globalization, which claims that everyone is now entitled to drink Coca-Cola, wear brand-name jeans and use computers, obscures a reality in which, from Jakarta to Cairo, the poor increasingly feel the impact of the debt crisis, economic restructuring and collusion among global elites. 

For me, the world may increasingly be seen not as a chessboard of state powers but as a series of layers. There is the first world, the second and the third, but now I see the existence of the fourth--the network of little black holes, of people who feel dispossessed and excluded, pockets amid the mainstream which exist in every country. Of course terrorist networks can organize in that way, but there are also positive potentialities in such networks of globally-minded citizens. Around the world, women are becoming particularly active and outspoken and feel acutely their need for a stronger voice.

The current groundswell of protest will probably slow down, but ordinary people are continuing to recognize that changes in lifestyle can make a difference, that their consumption decisions are directly related to the lives of people in other countries. They are aware of exploitative labor conditions, the need for fair trade and direct trade, and they see that the world is one interconnected, living system. We must avoid falling into the trap of thinking in terms of "camps," of "two cultures" or the "with us or against us" dichotomy. 


Key Challenges Now
I believe we must now take up the following challenges:

Perhaps in future we will look back and say not that the world changed on September 11, 2001, but that we saw it clearly for the first time--as though a curtain was pulled away. We must turn this crisis into an opportunity to reach out and understand other viewpoints, to learn about other cultures, to take a stand on injustice. By fighting terror with terror, we risk becoming exactly what we oppose.

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