The attack on 9/11 was truly a tragedy of historic proportions in many ways. It was on this day that a group of terrorists bombed the World Trade Center, killing, maiming and wounding around 300 innocent US civilians, and changed the equation in critical ways. "America at War" became the rallying cry of the US government and people.

US civilians were exposed to the risk of outside attack from a faceless enemy in the name of Islam. And to arouse the real fear of US non-Muslim citizens about Islam the attack shrewdly and calculatedly targeted the key elements of US power — the World Trade Center, which symbolises the might of US economic power; the Pentagon — the symbol of US military might; and the US Capitol building — the symbol of US democracy.

Much has been written on the possible motives and conspiracy theories surrounding the attack abound. I, however, feel that instead of getting into a futile and even counter-productive debate about this tragedy it is of crucial importance for us to realise that the attack of 9/11 unleashed unprecedented fear of Islam and Muslims, not only amongst non-Muslims, not only in US, but around the globe, giving birth to the "Islamophobia" currently sweeping the West.

This has seriously affected the relationship between the Muslim world and the West, where a significant number of Muslims live, and has been compounded by the rise of the neo-cons, religious intolerance and the retaliatory invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The current controversy surrounding the construction of the so-called mosque — project Park 51 on ground zero — is a manifestation of this new phenomenon. It is neither a mosque project nor on ground zero. It is basically an Islamic cultural project for promoting interfaith understanding, which was overwhelming approved by an advisory board consisting of Muslims, Christians and Jews.

It was conceived by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf an internationally respected Muslim scholar living in the US who has dedicated his life to promoting interfaith understanding. I have the honour of knowing him personally. He is proud to be both, a Muslim and an American, as he strongly believes that US ideals of democracy, pluralism, tolerance, individual rights, liberty and justice as embodied in the US constitution coincide with the Islamic ideals which were practiced in the days of Prophet Mohammed (PBUB) and saw the finest flowering of Islamic civilisation in Spain

during 800-1200 CE, characterised by the richness of art, culture, philosophy and science.

When Muslims ruled Spain, many Jewish and Christians artists and intellectuals flocked to Cordova to escape the oppressive regimes that reigned over Europe's Dark middle ages. Notably among others, great Jewish philosophers such as Maimonides worked freely to produce their historic works within the liberal and pluralistic culture of Islam.

Prince Charles in his address at the Oxford University and President Obama in his Cairo address, among others, acknowledged the contribution of Islamic civilisation to the renaissance in Europe.

After the 13th century onwards, Islamic civilisation reached a plateau and then gradually went into a decline, while European and Western civilisation entered the age of enlightenment and progress. The plight of the Muslims was further compounded by the crusade and colonialism, which saw an unprecedented decline of Muslims in all areas, most significantly in education and intellectual fields, coinciding with their political decline.

It is not necessary or possible to go indepth into the impact of this turn around in the fortunes of the two civilisations, which form the background of much of today" s dysfunctional relationship between the Muslim world and the West.

What is of relevance is to concentrate and bend all our energies to bridge the unacceptable divide between Muslim world and the West, which is in the interest of both for achieving a peaceful, equitable and democratic world order based on human rights, freedom and dignity.

The ideals of democracy and pluralism for Muslim countries in particular cannot be imposed from outside or through use of force, as experience shows. It is an evolutionary process and the Muslim world and the West will have to work collectively through peaceful means to achieve this shared vision and objective.

I will briefly touch on what I feel are the responsibilities of the Muslims living in the West as well as outside in this historic process of bridging the breach between Islam and the West. Instead of finding fault and even scapegoats for our lack of progress in achieving liberal democratic societies, and economic, educational and intellectual progress, we should start with internal purification and serious reform of our societies.

Today, most of the Muslim societies are backward and totally dependent on the West for all their needs. Even to acquire knowledge and intellectual pursuit of our own religion Islam we have to go to the

West, particularly, USA, UK, Germany, French, Japan etc. Not to speak of acquiring knowledge of science and technology. This speaks of the state of our decay.

To get out of this rut we will need to commit ourselves seriously to the process of building democracy and democratic institutions characterised, inter alia, by free media, freedom of expression, impartial judiciary, neutral civil service, rights of the minority and the vulnerable section of the society, full government support to private enterprise, education, health and employment with topmost priority to education for all. "No child should go to bed hungry and no child should be without education" should be the bedrock of our development plan and eradication poverty.

Democracy, to be sustainable, requires, among others, a functioning parliament, tolerance of dissent, an opposition something akin to Her Majesty's Opposition, rule of law; zero tolerance for corruption, and above all good governance backed by an active civil society. These are, to my mind, some of the essential prerequisites for institutionalising democracy and democratic practice as a way of life.

In the context of Bangladesh, given its history characterised by repeated failure of political process, we need to achieve minimum consensus between the government and the opposition on key domestic and foreign policies issues for uninterrupted development of democracy and democratic practice.

The West can significantly help the process by reorientation of its foreign policies and resolution of the outstanding international issues of conflict involving Arab-Israel, Afghanistan, Iraq, Chechnya and other flash points of conflict. The focus has to shift from seeking a military solution to such conflicts to diplomacy and negotiations to address the core issues underlying such conflicts.

The huge savings which would result from eventual withdrawal of troops from foreign countires and decreased military expenditure should be diverted for wining the hearts and minds of the people by

meeting the critical development needs of the people in Muslim countries. This should be followed by vigorous public diplomacy and interfaith dialogue at all levels, and greater people to people contact and exchanges. Formal diplomacy should be supported by Track II diplomacy.

I am aware of the formidable challenges for bridging the growing chasm between Islam and West for achieving a harmonious and mutually friendly relationship. We have no option but to try and succeed by mobilising political will and exploring all possible avenues to achieve the goal. Failure to do so will be catastrophic to both and to world peace and stability.

To quote Wilfred Cantwell Smith: "A healthy, functioning Islam is crucial for world peace because for centuries it helped Muslims cultivate values and ideals that we in the West also share, because they spring from a common tradition. Muslims must learn to accommodate the West and not fall prey to the lure of extremist rejection of Western power. But the peoples of the West must also realise that they share the planet not with inferiors but with equals. If they fail both will have failed to come to terms with the actualities of the this century."

I wish to conclude with a poem by Sheikh Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi, one of the greatest Sufi masters, which can form the basis of new humanity and humanism embodied in all religions,

"There was a time when I took it amiss in my companion if his

Religion was not near to mine;

But now my heart takes on every form; it isapasturefor gazelles,

A monastery for monks,

A temple for the tables of the Torah, a Ka'bah for pilgrims and

The holy book of the Quran.

Love is my religion, and whichever way its riding beasts turn, that way lies my religion and belief."

S.M. Rashed Ahmed is a former UN Regional Administrator/Representative in Kosovo and former Bangladesh Ambassador to Japan.