Condemning terrorism
September 11, 2011
On the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, Germany's President Christian Wulff roundly condemned the attacks as "profoundly inhuman."
"It is contrary to the true nature of religion and cannot be called as such," Wulff said Sunday on his website.
The president, whose role in German politics is largely ceremonial, attended a memorial service for the victims of the attacks in the American Church in Berlin at the invitation of US Ambassador Philip D. Murphy.
The memorial service was designed by Christian, Jewish and Muslim clerics.
"The common prayer of world religions is a signal," said Wulff. "We will not bow to terrorism, we stand against terrorism and will not put up with people falling victim to malicious attacks."
Ten years ago
On September 11, 2001 Islamist terrorists killed nearly 3,000 people by flying hijacked planes into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. Another hijacked plane crashed in Pennsylvania.
Visitors to the church service in Berlin, including Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich, spent a minute in silence, commemorating the victims of the terror attacks.
The anniversary was overshadowed by reports of alleged terrorist threats in the United States. Similarly, ongoing investigations of terrorist suspects in Berlin had the German capital on edge.
On Sunday afternoon, Wulff participated in a memorial service at the annual meeting of the Peace Community of Sant'Egidio, in Munich. The service was linked to the ground zero memorial in New York via a live connection.
Author: Stuart Tiffen
Editor: Sean Sinico