Attack on London--how to stop the cycle

In the days following 9/11, our organization joined with Danny Glover, Harry Belafonte, the Institute for Policy Studies, and others to circulate a petition calling for "justice, not vengeance." Our belief was that those who were involved in the 9/11 attacks should be treated as criminals and brought to justice. But those who are innocent -- civilians who happen live in Afghanistan and Iraq for example -- should not be punished because they share a religion or a region with criminals. To do so would be no different than bombing Chicago for harboring Mafia families or bombing Kansas because Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh, once lived in Junction City.

The Bush administration was intent on attacking both Afghanistan and Iraq, a move that played right into the hands of the 9/11 planners. Bin Laden has said he was bent on provoking warfare between the Islamic and Christian worlds, something his small, ill-equipped group of fanatics could not have accomplished had they been treated as the criminals they were. Remember, at the time almost no one had any sympathy for them or their aims. Now, however, the Iraqi insurgency continues to grow, and many observers believe Iraq is in fact becoming a training ground for thousands of new recruits to terrorism.

So what do we say to our friends and relatives in Britain? Our deepest sympathies are with you today as you grieve your losses and begin putting your lives back together. No one should have to experience what you have been through. I heard one school girl on BBC radio crying out, "We are innocent!"

Yes, you young people are innocent. But we adults, in your country and in ours, have allowed our governments to use our tax money and our sons and daughters to attack and kill others who are as innocent as you. History tells us that further vengeance, further killing, even further security measures will not stop the carnage. What stops the killing is the long-term hard work of building a more just world, one in which all innocent people can expect to live in dignity.

Note: The issue of YES! published immediately after 9/11, Can Love Save the World includes insights from a number of perspectives, religious and otherwise, including the words of a Muslim (Sufi) teacher who is committed to nonviolence. Once again, we need to remind ourselves and our friends, the Islamic faith is not the problem.