By IANS/WAM,
Abu Dhabi : After 10 years of the 9/11 terror attack, a senior UAE minister feels there is no better way to honour the victims of the incident than by spreading hope that a peaceful future will prevail.
Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE foreign minister, wrote in Gulf News that after the attack, “the world united in horror” and “geographical distance vanished”.
“Differences in culture or political systems faded away in our common grief. The images the world witnessed on that day instantly impressed on us all that this was not just an act of terrorism against a sovereign nation — it was an attack on the universal values upheld by the global community,” he wrote.
He said that in the decade since 2001, nationals from many countries including the UAE have been drawn towards violent extremism.
“Today, all countries share the concern that their citizens could become either the victims or the perpetrators of acts of terror,” Abdullah wrote.
After the attack, the international community came together under the principle that “terrorism strikes at the heart of everything that we stand for”, he wrote.
Countries agreed that a truly concerted international effort was required to combat terrorism in all its manifestations.
He said that in 2001, the UAE joined this global effort by being one of some 60 countries involved in the international operation in Afghanistan.
“The UAE stood alongside a number of Arab and Muslim nations demonstrating to the world that this was not a conflict between religions or civilisations, but an international effort united behind a humanitarian and political cause – to defeat violent extremism in all forms and under any ideological banner.”