Construction continues at Seven World Trade Center, which was destroyed during the attacks on September 11, 2001.

Ambassador Rooney on 5 th Anniversary of September 11th, September 11, 2006

The fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks serves as a poignant reminder of the shared challenge we face as an international community to confront an ideology that promotes hate, destruction and death.

The anniversary is also an appropriate occasion for the international community to reaffirm our unequivocal condemnation of all acts of terror. No faith condones the deliberate targeting and killing of innocent civilians, and nocause or grievance - no matter how legitimate – can ever justify it.

Pope Benedict XVI echoed this sentiment in a message to interfaith leaders gathered in Assisi September 4-5 for a summit on peace when he said, “no one is permitted to use the motive of religious difference as a reason or pretext for bellicose behavior toward other human beings.”

The victims of September 11th were citizens of more than 90 different countries and adherents of many faiths, including Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

Terrorism is indiscriminate. It affects us all.

It has brought tragedy, destruction, death and untold grief to innocent people across the world, from Indonesia to Morocco, Spain, Jordan, England, India and Egypt. The terrorists, such as those who were responsible for September 11--and those who may be behind the most recent mass murder plot targeting airplanes in London--have long targeted innocent people. Terrorists have repeatedly exercised their contempt for human life, regardless of race, ethnicity or religion.

We at the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See are convinced that religious freedom, enhanced by frank and open dialogue between different religions and cultures, is a powerful antidote to religious extremism and terrorism.    It is a conviction we share with our colleagues at the Vatican, who, led by Pope Benedict XVI inspire the world with their commitment to these values.  

In the end, the fight against terrorism is a concerted fight for values and principles that are universal. Extremists wield a perverted religiosity to justify murder, terror, and violence. Yet such actions are always abhorrent and always wrong, and the international community, the interfaith community, and all men and women of good will everywhere, must come together against those who advocate hate, violence and terrorism.

In the great Assisi tradition initiated by Pope John Paul II 20 years ago, this year’s Interreligious Meeting of Prayer for Peace, sponsored by the Rome-based Catholic lay Community of Sant’Egidio, the Umbrian Bishops Conference, and the Diocese of Assisi brought together more than 200 religious, government and community leaders for discussions on how to end conflicts and improve dialogue between religion, cultures and nations.

In facilitating inclusive and open dialogue, we hope that the meeting’s fruits might also include an advancement toward world peace. But as Pope Benedict said in his recent message, that “moment of general peace” is a “dream that has not come true.”

At least, not yet.