“There is an interestingly increasing concern about the degree to which the government may be overstepping the bounds of propriety in regard to U.S. suspects,” Little says. “U.S. courts have been pretty forthcoming in underlining that attitude.”

Americans, he says, exhibited a similar pattern in terms of religious observance: They began attending services in “great numbers” after the attacks, but observance is now returning to pre-Sept. 11 levels.

Swanee Hunt, executive director of the Kennedy School’s Women and Public Policy Program and adjunct lecturer in public policy, says this religious shift is normal.

“When there is some kind of catastrophe like we’ve had, you’ll see it creates openings in the way people are thinking,” she says. “You see some movement toward religion as people look for security.

But Hunt says she would not be surprised if religious interest was returning to normal levels.

“People have short memories,” she says. “After all, this is the country that invented instant tea. The important thing is that there are lasting changes as well.”

Little said one of these “lasting changes” is the dialogues that have begun among different religious groups.

“Americans want to understand Islam and what it means,” he says. “This is a very healthy thing.”

Roots and Symptoms

This increased interest in Islam provides perhaps the best approach to preventing future attacks, experts say, because it provides a chance to address the underlying cause of the Sept. 11 attacks.

“We’ve obviously made a bit of headway in significantly damaging the corporate headquarters of al-Qaeda, but this is really a Band-Aid approach,” says Jessica Stern, a lecturer in public policy at the Kennedy School, whose book The Ultimate Terrorists became a best-seller in the weeks after last year’s attacks.

“We’ve been addressing the immediate danger, and we haven’t had time to think about the long-term efforts that would get at the root causes,” Stern says. “We’ve been addressing the symptoms.”

Ziad Munson, a lecturer on sociology, who is teaching Sociology 167, “The Social Origins of Terrorism,” this fall, says that it is necessary for the U.S. to address both the roots and the symptoms in order to prevent future attacks, but also says that the U.S. has only focused on the symptoms.

“Making high-rise buildings stronger is important to save lives, but the U.S. has absolutely rejected the path of going after root causes,” he says.

And according to Reppert, the U.S. has a long way to go.

“The ongoing mission for many decades ahead is improving the U.S. image overseas so that we don’t become the target for people who hate,” Reppert says. “That will be the biggest challenge we face in the future.”

—Staff writer Jenifer L. Steinhardt can be reached at steinhar@fas.harvard.edu.