4A -The Michigan Daily - Monday, September 17, 2001 OP/ED Uwe E iigzu & tig 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 daily. letters@umich.edu EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 GEOFFREY GAGNON Editor in Chief MICHAEL GRASS NICHOLAS WOOMER Editorial Page Editors Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of the Daily's editorial board. All other articles, letters and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. NOTABLE QUOTABLE I was so peaceful in my heart that I fell asleep. This experience has been written about in our earliest books. I saw a 120 millimeter mortar shell land in front of me, but it did not blow up. Four more bombs were dropped from a Russian plane on our headquarters, but they did not explode.... No, I was never afraid of death. As Muslims, we believe that when we die, we go to heaven. Before a battle, God sends us sequina-tranquility." - Osama Bin Ladin commenting on an experience he had while battling the Soviets in Afghanistan, in a 1997 interview with Robert Fisk The interview appeared in the Sept. 21, 1998 issue of The Nation. Th~ere I*: no room ffor Arabs nA~e1c kick +~mot~~ David Plasta-ik I I Sejl'e beer 114Vs stoicsook thou satds of irocenf leyes dpT s ento ' ritbouh U hJNow, more tJb4n ever, use ,,wff ook ur-'4e,,u, ,s an +o e; c~s Americao. f ea+re4 (A ever6 jus+fie. Ominous prospects ahead AMER G. ZAHR THE PROGRESSIVE PEN s the eldest son in my family, I fre- quently had the responsibility of taking vis- iting relatives to American tourist attractions. I can remember one time in par- ticular, about five years ago, when I left one morn- ing from my house just out- side Philadelphia with three of my cousins who were visiting from Palestine. My mother and father were both working that day, so it was just the four of us, heading to New York City. I can remember going to Brooklyn, Fifth Avenue., and having a late lunch on a lower Manhattan pier before going to finish our day by climbing to the heights of the World Trade Center. I can remember my youngest cousin crying in defi- ance. She was scared. The sheer sight of the twin towers from the ground was enough for her. Nevertheless, as she grasped her mother's hand the whole way, we reached the observa- tion deck and caught that spectacular view from America's most famous buildings. Although I was born abroad, and although America is a land of refuge for me, I have always felt a bit of ownership over those build- ings. They are, for better or worse, a staple of the American culture I have experienced, criti- cized, and contributed to. So, as an Arab-Ameri- can, as an individual who owns parts of two distinct cultures, I was acutely affected by last Tuesday's tragedies. Of course, I felt the same kind of grief and horror at the loss of life as any right-minded human being would. But as an Arab-American who disagrees with much of America's foreign policy, I find the kind of hysteria that our government and media are whipping up very disturbing. For too long, in almost all arenas of our society, Americans have accepted types of bigotry against Arabs and Muslims that would be intolerable if directed against almost any other, group. As a direct product of our govern-. ment's foreign policy, Arab and Muslim her- itages have been painted in direct counter-distinction to American values and culture. This constant barrage on these cul- tures has desensitized the American public to the humanity of Arabs and Muslims. Take for example the widespread belief that Palestinian mothers send their children to die in return for money and exposure, or that all Palestinians celebrate the deaths of American civilians. Arabs become animals, incapable of human emotion, and worthy of destruction. As a result, American politicians, media and the talking heads that so ineptly occupy our air- waves possess some of the responsibility for the backlash Arab and Muslim Americans are now undergoing and will continue to receive. Also, unfortunately, our media and govern- ment are creating a quite alarming dichotomy. If we were, as has been suggested, attacked because of dislike for our foreign policy, then Americans must now stand in one of two camps: either one is for our foreign policy, or for the attacks. This opposition is, of course, absurd. It will, however, lead to the justification of our attacking sovereign countries and perhaps killing thousands of civilians. Let us not forget when in response to our embassies being bombed in Kenya and Tanzania, we launched 60 Tomahawk cruise missiles, killing a few of Osama bin Laden's followers in Afghanistan and taking out a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan. Six months later, our State Department admitted that it mistakenly bombed the plant with no credible pretext, destroying one of the.oi4y fac- tories that was creating vaccines for that desti- tute part of the world, and probably killing tens of thousandof people. We don't know for sure how many were killed, though, since our gov- ernment blocked an inquiry at the U.N. to count the dead and assess the damage. If we are to attack this problem, it must not be with military responses. We have seen that it does not work; it simply leads to more attacks against our country. We need to recognize the root of this problem: Our policies in the rest of the world. I do not mean here only our Middle East policy, which is abhorrent in its own right, but I mean also our abandonment of internation- al law, our refusal to sign conventions and inter- national treaties that we yell and scream for everyone else in the world to sign, from land mine agreements, to support for the internation- al criminal court and the convention on the rights of the child. (Yes, we have yet to sign the convention on the rights of the child). These causes of hate for the U.S. must be addressed. This is not to say that we deserve what hap- pened, for there is no justification. No just cause is forwarded by terrorism. The cause of ending our sanctions against Iraq, which kill 5,000 chil- dren monthly, will not forwarded by these attacks, as will not the cause to end Palestinian suffering. In fact, Israeli actions have only esca- lated since Tuesday morning, free of world criti- cism. The only cause that will be forwarded is, unfortunately, that of the American jingoist right, people like Henry Kissinger who have said we must respond to this as we responded to Pearl Harbor. Let us remember that we respond- ed to Pearl Harbor by interning Japanese-Amer- icans. Military attacks will cause two things: the deaths of more innocent civilians, and more attacks against our population. The frightening truth is that the prospects that now lie ahead are mre jnenaicng than those that existed before Sept. 11. Amer G. Zahr can be reached via e-mail at zahrdg(a mch.efdu Y LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Comparing atrocities downplays others' suffering To THE DAILY: In his column ("At what price?" 9/14/01), Steve Kyritz stated that neither Chinese or Israelis have suffered anything near the equal of this week's horrible events. This is a truly absurd statement. The Chinese were brutally attacked by the Japanese and millions were murdered, including hundreds of thousands in a few days in Nanking. During failures of Mao's programs, tens of millions of Chinese literally starved to death, a far worse fate than dying quickly. Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Chi- nese were killed in a few weeks in Indonesia in 1965. And many Israelis observed the Nazi invasions and the Holocaust in which many millions of Jews and others were murdered. All these events occurred in living memory of some of us. One should not be so quick to dis- count other horrors or even to try to compare them to each other. ERIC ESSENE Geological sciences prof Statements, column 'spread negativity; 'disregard civil rights' To THE DAILY: As a Muslim-American, I was deeply dis- turbed when I read Steve Kyritz's column ("At what price?" 9/14/01) "calling for the United States to use torture and any other means nec- essary to gather information vital to national security" and his open-willingness to disregard civil rights. It is comments like these that spread negativity and serve to create an envi- ronment in which hate-crimes and harassment towards Muslim- and Arab- Americans are perpetuated. Kyritz's statements stand in sharp con- trast to the words of many government offi- a 0 0 Ufe goes on at the 110th Street subway station on New York's Upper West Side, but reminders of last Tuesday's attacks will leave their mark on the city and nation. P IN PASSING REMEMBER SEPT. 11 Yes, the media coverage is consuming. Everywhere one turns there is news of last Tuesday's tragic events. Whether you turn on the television, listen to the radio, look at a newspaper or just go to class, you are going to hear about the "Attack on America." The discussion of this violence and its conse- quences has filled our lives and now many students don't want to hear about it anymore. Perhaps they want to watch their TRL or morning soaps without interruption, maybe they want to move on and get past the devas- tation at Ground Zero or it could be that they are too frustrated at their own helplessness. It doesn't matter why but many students just won't pay attention any longer; they've let the dialogue harden them. We need to bring them back to attention. No one should feed on or obsess over the coverage, but aware- ness is important. The way these events have permeated our lives could dull the shock of it and make it less personal, but we have to remember it all. Imagine your three best friends from freshman year, they probably lived on your floor in your dorm. Now jump forward seven years and imagine how close you could have grown in the passing time. A 25- year old elementary school teacher lost those three friends in the World Trade Center col- lapse. At her school on the Upper East Side, a third to a half of the student body lost one parent. The media and discussions in our lives are a small part of these terrible events, don't let them make you callous. -Lauren Strayer Views expressed in In Passing are those of individual members of the Daily 's Editorial board, but do not necessarily represent the opinion of The Michigan Daily. American Muslims." Muslim and Arab Americans are law-abid- ing U.S. citizens who denounce these terrible attacks on innocent lives and join the nation with our prayers for all of the victims and their families. We firmly believe that there can be no justification for such horrible acts. We join with the nation in calling for the perpetrators of this terrible crime to be brought swiftly to justice. Furthermore, I urge my fellow students, peers, neighbors and friends to follow the example of these senators and not assign any form of collective guilt against communities for the crimes of individuals. Let us join together to stand up for the freedom and justice that we are privileged to possess. SARAH MOHIUDDIN Medical School The letter writer is a representative to the Michigan Student Assembly. U.S. foreign policy fuels hatred abroad To THT nATn V. Russians dictated to us how we had to live our lives just because they were economically and militarily superior to us? This is exactly what the United States does to other countries throughout the world (e.g. The Middle-East, Korean Peninsula, China/Taiwan, etc.). Thus, to end the hatred, I feel that we must stop act- ing as the world's policeman. President Bush proclaimed that "freedom" was attacked. I suggest that freedom was not attacked, but rather our intermeddling foreign policy was attacked. BRIAN MASTEE Law School student Ignorance has no place after tragedy To THE DAILY: On Thursday, while walking home from class, my roomate was approached by two stu- dents who called him a "camel jockey" and proceeded to spit at him. I cannot even begin to imagine what my roomate was feeling as this occurred. I assmed that sines the Universitv is known for