This essay was begun a few days before the date marking the passing of ten years since the attacks of 9/11. I was unable to finish it until now.

Charles Dickens opens his classic, A Tale of Two Cities, with this famous anaphora: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way…”

For Muslims in the United States, in many ways, 9/11 inaugurated what could be described as the best of times. The heinous attacks of that day stimulated an unprecedented, genuine interest in Islam. Churches, civic and community organizations, law enforcement offices, schools and universities were all reaching out to Muslim organizations to send speakers to explain the faith to their constituencies.

However, in a sense, the post 9/11 world has been the worst of times. Even as doors were being opened to receive Muslims, draconian policies were being put into place that held troubling consequences for the Muslim community. Dragnet operations led to the arbitrary arrest and deportation of thousands of innocent Muslims. The Patriot Act and related “anti-terror” legislation was rammed through Congress with scant thought as to its implication for the freedom and openness of American society. Perhaps, most ominously, the seeds of a defamatory movement to foster deep hatred of Islam were being sown.

The wisdom and foolishness mentioned by Dickens are both illustrated in the actions of President George W. Bush. Bush displayed great wisdom when he visited a mosque in the immediate aftermath of the attacks of 9/11 and called for respect for Arab Americans and Muslims. There are many who will dismiss the impact of those gestures, but had the American president sent another message at that time of great tension, fear and anger a horrible bloodbath might have ensued.

However, in launching an ill-defined war on “terror” and ill-conceived invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, Bush displayed tragic foolishness. One cannot fight terror, a concept, with bombs and bullets. Furthermore, wars that result in a tremendously disproportionate number of civilian casualties while tearing apart the social fabric of the targeted countries only aid in the creation of conditions that will lead to more conflict and “terror.” The greatest victims of that terror, as has tragically shown, are innocent Muslims.

The sympathy and goodwill displayed by the nations and people of the world towards the United States in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks could have been translated into an enlightened new era of international cooperation. Instead, the possibility of a season of light has been replaced by the dark reality of legalized torture, extrajudicial rendition, preemptive war, black sites and a global network of drones perched to deliver extrajudicial, remote controlled murder anywhere on earth.

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11 it seemed everything was before us –new possibilities and promises. However, the rapidity with which a growing tide of hate literature and bigoted radio hosts have been able to create a groundswell of anti-Muslim sentiment illustrates the degree to which nothing may have been before us other than the same old prejudices and xenophobic attitudes that have led in the past to too many episodes of exclusion, discrimination, and in some instances, terrible violence.

Perhaps the deeper message of Dickens’ novel is that the cruelties the aristocracy and peasantry visited upon each other during the French Revolution would ultimately prove redemptive as a new society was brought into being. That was then. Now, in an age where the wedding of modern industrial technology and war provide us with the means to bring about unprecedented human and ecological destruction in the name of “politics by other means” only a fool would think that there is some redeeming quality in war.

Maybe, the way ahead for us is found in the heroic sacrifice undertaken by Sydney Carton, one of the central characters in Dickens’ novel. After a loathsome and meaningless existence he is able to give life to others by sacrificing his own. Only by giving preference to the lives and interest of others will we be able to escape the grasp of the greed, self interest, insecurity and apathy that make it so easy for us to be turned against each other.

In George W. Bush’s famous words, “You’re either with us or against us…” The dichotomy mentioned by Bush needs to be transcended. The sooner we realize this the sooner we will be able to set aside the delusional thinking that leads some of us to believe that “we” will be able to impose our agenda on “them,” without any consideration for their interests and well-being. Some of us may even think that this is the direct path to Heaven. History has shown it usually leads directly the other way.