4A -The Michigan Daily - Monday,.November 12, 2001 OP/ED 0l ctbr Alkigtuu §ai'r 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 daily.letters@umich.edu EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS A 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 ofThe Michigan Daily. NOTABLE QUOTABLE We don't know anything about anthrax." - Osama bin Laden, laughingly responding to a question from a Pakistani news source regarding anthrax concerns in the U.S. RIi ti PRE ~TASAWS YOU N~kOW 101965S ARE BAD WIREk YOUR FAct READS EASTER TAW , THE R146S CA ATREE,. 4 The pointlessness of the Ramadan debate AMER G. ZAHR THE PROGRESSIVE PEN 6 ~The ongoing political debate as to whether or not we should continue our bombing cam- paign in Afghanistan during Ramadan seems to me to be useless, if not dangerous. Those who are anti-war and enter into this debate can be pulled into an undesirable position. What this public discussion seems to be achieving is one major thing: Quelling anti- war voices. When we engage in debating bomb- ing during Ramadan, we are implicitly supporting the larger concept of the bombing itself. Surely, it is not inconsistent to argue against the war while pointing out the cultural insensi- tivity of our government's inability to grasp the enotional weight of the month of Ramadan on the Arab and Muslim world. But in arguing the latter point, one must make sure not to get caught in the trap of advocating for a pause in the bombing during Ramadan rather than an end to the war altogether. Those of us who are against the bombing must make sure not to lose our paramount message and unintentionally cre- ate the impression that if bombing was halted during Ramadan only to continue after, that we would somehow be satisfied. Although it does not seem that the Bush team will halt "America's New War" during Ramadan, imagine if they did. From a political standpoint, it would be crippling for the anti-war movement. How could anyone who was anti- war attack the war effort after such a display of America's compassion and cultural understand- ing? It is precisely for this reason that getting caught up in such a debate can be so dangerous. Would those of us who are anti-war be con- tent with a bombing pause only? Of course not. The debate is not whether or not to stop bomb- ing during Ramadan, but rather the debate is the same as it has been all along: Why should we be bombing at all? What are we achieving? And more importantly, what are we creating? These are the questions we have been asking, and these are the questions we must continue to ask, whether it's Ramadan, Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa, whatever. In an international arena, however, such a debate only hurts our image. It makes the American people appear as insensitive to Mus- lim holy times, which I don't believe the major- ity are (I have found that the vast majority of my fellow Americans that I have talked to have become more interested in broadening their learning about Islamic and Arab cultures and traditions). It also allows the dictatorial regimes throughout the Arab and Muslim world that are supporting our bombing campaign to strengthen their hold on their peoples. Leaders in Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the like will surely use the issue to gain support among their popula- tions, who are largely against the war in Afghanistan, all the while continuing to provide quiet support to America. And for those simi- larly corrupt dictators in the nations that are against the campaign, such as in Iraq, they will only be able to fortify their already choke-like holds on their citizens. It is also interesting to note how Ramadan has been constructed in major media circles during this whole debate. On Oct. 23, as this debate was getting underway, CNN ran a headline entitled "Ramadan looms large in Afghan strikes." I have never heard of a reli- gious holiday "looming." But according to some at CNN, Ramadan "looms." There are other recent CNN headlines that have con- tained "looming" prospects, like "Japan jobs vanish as recession looms" (Sept. 28), or "N. Ireland assembly deadline looms" (Sept. 21), or "Kabul aid workers trial looms" (Sept. 3). So deadlines "loom," recessions "loom," and trials "loom." "Loom," if you have not figured it out yet, has a somewhat ominous connota- tion. To loom is to be mysterious. Only dis- comfort, uncertainty, and anxiety are to follow "looming" events. According to a thesaurus, some of the synonyms of "looming" are "impending," "imminent," "hanging over somebody," and "threatening." The connec- tion is quite dangerous. If Ramadan is "loom- ing" or "threatening," then what kind of people could celebrate such a holiday? The same CNN article proclaims "the importance of the fasting month of Ramadan on the psyche of the Muslim cannot be underesti- mated. One of the five pillars of Islam, the pres- sure on all Muslims to remain faithful to Islam is never more obvious than at this time." Pressure? It gets better. Rahul Bedi, an analyst from Jane's Information Group, a consulting firm specializ- ing in defense-related matters, stated in the arti- cle that the issue will be used by bin Laden in an attempt to create support among Muslims. That is most certainly sure to happen. But he goes on to call Ramadan a "fault line," stating "if the U.S. was to wage war dur- ing Ramadan, it could be seen as being com- pletely insensitive to Arabs worldwide." This may be the largest problem of all. If well-paid analysts like Bedi and our U.S, government offi- cials refuse to acknowledge what they have already done to offend Arab and Muslim sensi- bilities worldwide, then some ephemeral talk about being sensitive during Ramadan means nothing at all. Amer G. Zahr can be reached via e-mail at zahrag@umich.edu. 6 6 S Y LETTERS TO THE EDITOR V IN PASSING REDS UNDER THE BED? The Miami Herald reported last week that Goodwill Industries of South Florida fired Michael Italie, a minimum wage worker who sewed military jackets. He was laid off because he was a member of the Socialist Workers Party and a candidate in the Miami mayoral election. Dennis Pastrana, the CEO of Goodwill, defended the decision by saying, "We cannot have anyone who is attempting to subvert the United States of America." He also stated that Italie's "subversive" beliefs included support for the Cuban Revolution and firm opposition against the bombing campaign in Afghanistan. Unfortunately for Italie, Miami labor attor- neys and the local branch of the ACLU agree that he does not have a legal point against the company, because there is no law barring a pri- vate business from practicing political discrimi- nation. Though no laws have been broken, the situa- tion sets a dangerous precedent for the coming months and possibly years in this "new war." If it is the interest of this country to protect its citi- zens from terrorists that hate this nation and its ideals, then it is also imperative to preserve such ideals that define this country. One of those ideals is the freedom of speech and association. It is believed that the terrorists seek to destroy our way of'life, and if we decide to dismiss this basic right, then they have taken the next step towards their goal. If companies and law enforcement agencies feel that it is necessary to discriminate against people that hold views that are different from our domestic elite in order to fight the war against terrorism, then the terrorists are winning. - Ari Paul OREGON V. ASHCROFr Twice in the last seven years Oregon has voted to allow assisted suicide. It has been legal there since 1997. Now that the Bush Administra- tion is in place, the eternally vigilant conserva- tive crusader Attorney General John Ashcroft has directed his attention to the law. Last week, Ashcroft attempted to halt the practice by authorizing federal drug agents to revoke the license of doctors who prescribed life ending medication. On Thursday, a federal dis- trict court temporarily overturned Ashcroft's rul- ing. Things like this are what we feared would come from Ashcroft. During his confirmation hearings Ashcroft expressed his belief that abor- tion should be an individual state's decision. By that same logic, he should feel the same about assisted suicide. Apparently what he meant was that it should be a state's right to decide on these issues as long as they are opposed to them - otherwise the attorney general should step in and decide for the states. -.Jess Piskor In Passing views are those of individual members of the Daily's editorial board and do not necessarily represent the views of The Michigan Daily Atheists openly discriminated against To THE DAILY: The recent resurgence of patriotism that has been displayed in the wake of recent events is not surprising and is nice to see, however, it has lead to some disturbing trends. One phrase that has been coined to describe our nation's response to these attacks is "Religious Patrio- tism." It is definitely understandable that in times of uncertainty, many will seek answers in their faith. I am not against this method of seeking comfort, however, I am deeply concerned with the way in which this patriotism and religious resurgence has manifested itself. Many times over, I have heard people state that our nation is unified in its belief in God; whether we are Hindu, Jewish, Muslim or Christian, we all believe in a higher power. This could not be fur- ther from the truth. Survey after survey show that as much as 10 percent of this nation consider themselves atheist. Since Sept. 11, atheists have been attacked in the public arena. Star Jones of The View, Kath- leen Parker of USA Today, Jerry Falwell and Ben Stein (although Stein intelligently apolo- gized for his comments) have blamed atheists for the attacks, stated that they would never vote for an atheist, and Kathleen Parker went as far as to write "There were none (atheists) in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, we can guess." A recent Gallup Poll asking whether someone would vote for a particular person for president, showed atheists to be the group most discrimi- nated against with a mere 49 percent suggesting that they would ever consider an Atheist candi- date (see www.gallup.com for the results). In fact, there are still seven states that have laws restricting atheists from even running for public office! The fact that this discrimination against atheists is accepted, I find appalling. Recent legislation has sought to allow schools to display "God Bless America" with supporters stating that it, along with "In God we trust" are not religious, but patriotic statements. I find that laughable. In addition, a new bill is attempting to reinstate prayer in public schools, something that was thought to be unacceptable before the attacks. These statements do not reflect the entire population and are an obvious violation of State-Church separation. TO THE DAILY: Chalk covering my shoes, posters stran- gling my door, my pockets teeming with a deciduous forest worth of paper scraps. All of this to promote the names and political careers of my peers, those who wish to lead and alter the course of this great university. They will leave this month either with an esteemed posi- tion among the greatest students in the coun- try or a surly impression of our judgmental student body. I, however, will leave these elections with one emotion and one emotion only: Befuddlement. I am destined to vote, for I feel it the duty of everyone who will be affected by the results, but as the situation stands now, I am also certain that I will have no idea what I am supporting. This University has no public forum to approach, debate or even present the views of our potential deci- sion makers and representatives. We have. fallen underneath the'strife of the modern American political world, represented most recently by our current president, where sim- ple name recognition will deliver an electoral victory, regardless of public opinion, political climate, or in o' Georgie's case, candidate incompetence. This problem is not an insur- mountable one, with the extensive resources provided to us at this institution.- The auditori- ums are large enough and accessible enough to provide adequate access to speeches, debates, or other displays of platform and ide- ology. If this is infeasible, or, more likely, poorly attended, we have six university chan- nels with hdurs upon hours of available time, especially for a program with heavy campus implications. The "kiosks," message boards, and every other imaginable space have been bombarded with unnecessary, environmental- ly damaging, and furthermore, uninformative flyers. What began as a theoretically sound DEBBIE MILLf/Daily Diag chalkings mark coming MSA elections. and simple practice has quickly turned into an ugly campus wide epidemic. Despite this, it too can be easily stopped within the bound- aries of our university resources. Simply allot each registered candidate a certain amount of space in each pivotal location, optimally grouping by the position being contested. This way, the weaker, less financially stable groups have an equal shot at the title, and, our cam- pus remains pretty and presentable. In addi- tion, we can use the widely popular Michigan Daily as a vehicle for platforms and campaign jargon, again, applying the equal distribution theory. In our nations time of utmost political distrust, we at the University, the finest public education network in the country, do not even have the opportunity to be lied to. In order to represent the students' beliefs and interests, we must have access to those of the candi- dates. PETE WOIWODE Kinesiology freshman MSA elections - a lot of chalk, few ideas 0 I Curtin accepts apology from Independent To THE DAILY: I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you pus to know that sometimes when issues of sex- ism are raised and struggled over they will be responded to in a serious, open and conscien- tious way. I also want to applaud the courage of the many women who spoke out at the assembly meeting about their experience and assessment ..I