Axel Odelberg on 9/11as the start of a new epoch einer neuen Epoche

The terror attacks of 11 September 2001 have diverted attention from other important historic events like the end of the Second World War or the fall of the Berlin Wall, the writer Axel Odelberg writes in the daily Svenska Dagbladet: "11 September is ever more clearly marking the beginning of a new epoch. Currently there are two wars going on that are directly connected with the attacks: in Afghanistan and in Iraq. The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, which was basically always about land and wealth, has acquired a character of religious extremism on both sides. ... September 11 has poisoned the atmosphere and created a general mistrust of Muslims - not only among notorious xenophobics but also among ordinary, open-minded people who are well disposed towards foreigners. ... In the 1970s the Red Brigades and the Baader-Meinhof group tried to produce a revolutionary situation by sowing mistrust of the democratic state. They failed. Osama Bin Laden has been much more successful than they were. Mistrust of the Muslim world is growing and with it Muslim mistrust of the rest of the world. The fall of the Berlin Wall is increasingly becoming overshadowed by the fall of the World Trade Center."

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