25 years after 9/11, world still fighting Islamic terrorism threat

On September 11, 2001, four commercial aircraft were hijacked and turned into weapons, killing nearly 3,000 people. Two planes struck the World Trade Centre in New York, another hit the Pentagon, and passengers on a fourth fought back before it crashed in Pennsylvania.

The attack exposed a fundamental vulnerability: determined extremist organisations could exploit modern societies' openness to wage large-scale violence. Twenty-five years later, that threat persists. While Al-Qaeda's leadership was degraded, the organisation was not defeated. The ideology behind 9/11 has mutated and spread across different geographies and organisations.

Islamist terrorism—an extremist political ideology invoking an absolutist interpretation of Islam to justify violence—has proved remarkably resilient. Experts have repeatedly predicted Al-Qaeda's demise, yet the threat endures despite decades of military interventions, security reforms, and intelligence operations.