It was Al Qaeda, not a religion that attacked us: Obama

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama Saturday asked Americans to observe the 9/11 anniversary as a day of “unity and renewal” as “it was not a religion that attacked us that September day, it was Al Qaeda”.

“They may seek to spark conflict between different faiths, but as Americans, we are not - and never will be - at war with Islam,” Obama said during a memorial service at the Pentagon.

Alluding to tensions over a pastor’s now aborted plans to burn the Quran and a proposal to build an Islamic center near the Ground Zero of the Sep 11, 2001 terror attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, Obama called for religious tolerance.

“The perpetrators of this evil act didn’t simply attack America, they attacked the very idea of America itself,” Obama said.

“The highest honour we can pay those we lost - indeed, our greatest weapon in this ongoing war - is to do what our adversaries fear the most: to stay true to who we are, as Americans.”

Stressing that the ongoing war against terrorism was not against Islam, but against radicals who pervert religion and threaten society, he said: “They may seek to spark conflict between different faiths, but as Americans we are not - and never will be - at war with Islam.”

“It was not a religion that attacked us that September day, it was Al Qaeda,” Obama said adding, “We champion the rights of every American, including the right to worship as one chooses.”

Obama, who spoke as planes flew over the Pentagon en route to nearby Reagan National Airport, told surviving families that their loved ones will never be forgotten.

“They were Americans and people from far corners of the world,” he said. “And they were snatched from us senselessly and much too soon - but they lived well, and they live on in you.”

“We gather in a gentle Pennsylvania field, where a plane went down and a ‘tower of voices’ will rise and echo through the ages,” Obama said.

“And we gather where the Twin Towers fell, a site where the work goes on so that next year, on the 10th anniversary, the waters will flow in steady tribute to the nearly 3,000 innocent lives.”

“For our nation, this is a day of remembrance, a day of reflection,” Obama said. “And, with God’s grace, a day of unity and renewal.”

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)