WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Saturday recalled “that awful morning” nine years ago when “a sorry band of men” who pervert religion attacked the U.S. in hopes of demoralizing and dividing the country.
“Today we declare once more we will never hand them that victory … for our cause is just, our spirit is strong and our resolve unwavering,” the president said at the Defense Department’s headquarters, where a hijacked plane slammed into the Pentagon, killing 184 people on Sept. 11, 2001.
“They may seek to exploit our freedoms, but we will not sacrifice the liberties we cherish or hunker down behind walls of suspicion and mistrust. They may wish to drive us apart, but we will not give in to their hatred and prejudice,” Obama said, despite the terrorists’ efforts to spark conflicts among faiths. “As Americans we are not – and never will be – at war with Islam.”
This year’s remembrances of the 2001 attacks took place with growing public suspicion of Muslims, an emotional dispute over an Islamic community center and mosque planned near ground zero in New York City, and a Florida pastor’s threat to burn Qurans.
“This is a time of difficulty for our country,” Obama said before the ceremony, in his radio and Internet address. “And it is often in such moments that some try to stoke bitterness – to divide us based on our differences, to blind us to what we have in common.