Union Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar said on Sunday that he wonders how those who lived through the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States forget about the threat of terrorism.

“The 9/11 terror attack was one of the events that shaped the conscience of the 21st century,” Akbar said at an event, ‘India’s Foreign Policy for the 21st Century’, in Goa, PTI reported. “It opened the eyes of those who insisted on keeping their eyes closed to the danger of terrorism.”

But he added that the same people now choose to ignore the problem. “It often surprises me that those eyes which were open on that day, so often relapse into sleep again, as if it has never happened,” he said. “I wonder why they seem to be waiting for it to happen [again].”

Akbar contended that terrorism, far from being an act of random barbarism, has serious political motives. “The terrorists believe that nations are created not for people but for religion,” he said. “For them the latest danger lies when there is a nation such as ours, which gives equality to every citizen, which gives freedom of faith to every citizen, which treats every faith as an equal not only in law but also in a social way.”

The minister claimed that India’s foreign policy under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is based on the idea that the world is one family. He said India does not believe in “big nations and small nations”. “But more important is the fact that world is a family of equals,” Akbar added.