Six years after terrorists brought down the World Trade Center, a plane in Pennsylvania and damaged the Pentagon, dignitaries will give speeches about honoring the heroes of that day – firefighters, airplane passengers, office workers. The public would honor the dead on this anniversary by attempting to understand the complex range of forces that make up terrorism and urge that the nation’s resources – its intelligence and military, but also its economic and cultural – be used to eliminate it.

This goes beyond remembering the firefighters, stock traders, waiters, secretaries, vacationing families who were killed on Sept. 11 to honoring their memories through policies that preserve longstanding freedoms while effectively combating terrorism. It also involves considering U.S. policies and actions and how they can inflame, rather than ease, anti-American sentiment.

It is sobering to consider six years after the terrorist attacks, that large numbers of people do not believe Muslims played a role. A poll done earlier this year by the Pew Research Center found that only 40 percent of Muslim-Americans believe Arabs played a role in the 9-11 attacks. The percentage is even lower in many Muslim countries, where many believe that the Israeli intelligence service and U.S. Central Intelligence Agency carried out the attacks as a justification for military operations in the Middle East.

The Pew poll, which was of Muslims who live in the United States, found that they generally had a favorable view of life here, with nearly three-quarters believing that people here can get ahead through hard work and that their communities are good places to live. And, while more than 60 percent of Muslim-Americans are concerned about the rise of Islamic extremism in the United States and globally, they do not support the U.S. War on terror. Only 26 percent of U.S. Muslims believe it is a sincere effort to reduce international terrorism. Worse, 53 percent of Muslim-Americans say their lives have gotten more difficult since Sept. 11, 2001. Examples cited include people acting suspicious of them, being singled out by airport security and being called offensive names.

While Muslim-Americans have reservations about American policies, Muslims in the Middle East mostly feel outrage. Another Pew poll found that majorities in the predominantly Muslim countries of Turkey, Jordan and Pakistan had unfavorable views of the United States. They also doubt the U.S. motives behind the war on terrorism, with large percentages believing it is about world domination, targeting Muslim countries, obtaining Middle East oil and protecting Israel. Worse, nearly half the Pakistanis asked and 70 percent of Jordanian believed suicide bombings against Americans and other westerners were sometimes justified.

Reversing these perceptions is a slow process that can’t be measured by simple benchmarks or regions secured. It involves building long-term relationships with national and regional leaders, some of whom the U.S. supports and others it doesn’t.

Taking such practical, nonideological steps will do more to reduce the chances of future attacks than stricter airport screening and passport checks.