L’Islam e l’Occidente dopo l’11 Settembre 2001: la percezione del conflitto e la rivisitazione dei significati attribuiti alla coesistenza culturale

Abstract

This paper aims at analyzing the effects on public opinion, in the US and in Italy, of the dramatic events of September 11th 2011. Images and articles published by the most important papers from the 12th to the 30th September of the same year are taken into account, as they convey to the readers the representations of those facts which are at the basis of later interpretations. The many questions posed, though, haven’t got adequate answers and one question above all has been almost completely unanswered: “Why?” Many critics and scholars have tried to an­swer it, exposing some contradictions in the media, the real meaning of terroristic war and war of religion, the problems coming from the existing conflict of cultures, while at the same time investigating the real terrorist objectives, the responsibilities come to light and the effects of these events. The consequences of the American events have here been examined on the educational level, taking into account also the effects of terrorist attacks in the rest of the world, particularly in Europe in the following years. As to this, the role of images, the characteristics of sanguinary ac­tions and their spreading through the media, multiculturalism and multicultural ed­ucation have been discussed. In short, three precise directions for educational ac­tion have been proposed: critical education based on knowledge; multi-prospectic education, engaged in comparing different viewpoints; education resulting from agreed upon and shared actions leading to what Morin defines “peace-enforce­ment”.