Twenty-five years ago today, Islamist terrorists hijacked four US passenger aircraft and attacked key symbols of American power. Nearly 3,000 people died. The attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon brought about lasting changes to international security and foreign policy. Europe’s press discusses the knock-on effects which are still felt to this day. Growing Islamophobia and anti-AmericanismJOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. The terrorist attack marked a turning point for the US and the world, writes Visão (Portugal): “11 September 2001 was a watershed in terms of security, forever changing procedures at airports and in public places. It also led the US down a radically polarising path where traditional diplomatic language was swiftly replaced by moral and religious proclamations. ... The climate this created has ultimately redefined the social fabric, civil liberties and institutional architecture of Western democracies. And it has fuelled both Islamophobia on the one hand and hatred of America on the other.” No longer a bulwark of democracy The country has lost its way, Corriere della Sera notes (Italy): “America has forfeited its role as a bulwark of Western democracies. Domestically, the drive for national unity that emerged following the al-Qaeda terrorist attack has crumbled, eroded by the Bush administration’s colossal and reckless ‘War on Terror’. ... An ‘imperial’ reaction and failed attempt to export democracy: both have damaged Washington’s image as the guarantor of the global balance of power in the eyes of both allies and adversaries, while setting in motion a series of undesirable developments at home that ultimately culminated in the sovereignist populism of an increasingly authoritarian Donald Trump.”