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Thursday, July 14, 2016
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
NEWS
Vigil held to recognize lost lives from attacks in Iraq
CAMPUS LIFE
Attendees state
frequency of Islamic
State attacks does
not lessen tragedy
By ANDREW HIYAMA
Daily Staff Reporter
More than 100 students and
community members attended
a vigil Friday night on the Diag
to mourn the losses of the more
than 290 people killed in the July
3 bombing of a shopping center in
Baghdad, Iraq’s capital city. Many
of the people at the shopping
center were shopping for Eid
al-Fitr, a major Muslim holiday
and the conclusion to a month of
fasting.
The explosion was the deadliest
in
Baghdad
since
2003,
but
it follows a growing trend of
violence in Iraq. Since January
2014, the Iraqi Civil War between
the Islamic State and the Iraqi
government has taken the lives of
more than 45,000Iraqi civilians.
The Islamic State claimed
responsibility
for
the
recent
attack and said it was motivated by
religious differences, according
to the group’s statement. Karada,
the district of Baghdad effected
by the bombing, is made up of
mostly Shia Muslims, a sect
which the Islamic State labels
as heretics. The Islamic State is
composed of Sunni, a separate
sect of Islam.
Speakers at the vigil, however,
said the polarization of the Sunni
and Shia communities portrayed
in the coverage of the attacks
was inaccurate and politically
motivated.
“I’ve noticed from the names
there are Shia Muslims, Sunni
Muslims,
Kurds,
Turkmen,
much of the Chaldean Christian
community,” Mehmed Yaqubi,
an Iraqi refugee and recent U.S.
citizen, said as he read a list
of names of the victims of the
bombing. “It was disheartening
to say the least.”
Attendees
of
the
vigil
expressed displeasure over the
disparity
in
media
coverage
between the Karada attack and
others also perpetrated by the
Islamic
State.
Following
the
November 2015 attacks in Paris,
there was an explosion of people
taking to social media to express
their sympathies, overlaying the
French flag on their Facebook profile
pictures,
largely
overshadowing
the reaction to the bombings that
occurred in Beirut earlier that day.
LSA alum Banen Al-Sheemary,
who organized the vigil, said one
of its purposes was to give victims
of the attack the recognition they
deserved but had not yet received.
“I think it was important to
organize this vigil to, one: raise
awareness, but also talk about the
double standard that, when these
type of things happen, when brown
or Black bodies are the ones being
killed in such violent ways, that
they’re not recognized by the
media,” Al-Sheemary said. “So,
I didn’t hear anything from any
type of media source for the most
part about this attack. To have
nearly 300 people, the total is
now –– I don’t like speaking in
numbers, but almost 300 people
died in that way, and just to
not be recognized is just a very
inhumane response. I think it’s
unacceptable that the world isn’t
saying anything. The world isn’t
showing their support for the
Iraqi people.”
Al-Sheemary
pointed
out
that there was another bombing
just the night before in Balad,
Iraq, which took the lives of at
least 40 more, and for which
the Islamic State again claimed
responsibility.
Participants at the vigil stated
that the frequency of the violence
does not lessen the tragedy, and
speakers encouraged attendees
not to become desensitized to the
loss of human life.
“Iraqis are human too, and
we still suffer regardless of how
many times we are attacked,”
LSA senior Asma Ali, who has
lost several family members to
similar occurrences of violence in
Iraq, said.
“I couldn’t get the voice of the
4-year-old out of my head,” Elias
said. “I can’t be okay with the fact
another generation is experiencing
these things because this colors
(the child’s) world. She won’t grow
up ever feeling safe again.”
Elias
added
that
she
felt
frustrated during the vigil because
people who should be at the vigil,
such as people who are not aware
of the current events or are against
the Black Lives Matter movement,
were not present.
“I have been to many events like
this, and, even more powerfully
this time, I thought the wrong
people are at this event,” Elias
said. “The people who need to be
here are not. And I need to know,
as an ally, as a human and as an
advocate, what the next step is.
How do we get people who are
not our allies here?”
On the same night, snipers
opened fire at a Black Lives
Matter protest in Dallas, where
a primary suspect was believed
to have frustrations with police
brutality and the Black Lives
Matter movement. The snipers
are believed to have targeted
white people, specifically white
police officers, and fatally injured
five
officers
after
shooting
twelve.
The shooting has sparked
national conversations about the
Black Lives Matter movement
and has drawn further attention to
the victims of police brutality, such
as Sterling and Castile.
At the vigil, a petition calling
for civilian oversight of police
was circulated. Miller said the
organizers
were
motivated
to
start this petition because it is
dangerous for one group to have
control of the justice system.
“The justice system should not
(be) placed in just one group’s
hands,” Miller said. “We hope more
can be done (with the overseeing
group).”
Miller
added
that
different
groups
would
need
to
come
together in solidarity to make such
changes.
“The recent killings started
getting a lot of publicity and now
everybody’s getting on board,”
Miller said. “We need more people
onboard — we need police officers
on board, we need Congress on
board, we need the president after
Obama to be on board … it can’t just
stop here.”
is a widely debated issue in our
society,” Martz said. “Marijuana
is the most commonly used illicit
drug in the U.S., and perception of
harm is decreasing.”
Martz said the research about
long-term marijuana usage and
response to rewards will add to
the discussion about marijuana
legalization and may or may not
have the potential to modify the
public perception of the drug.
“Our study does not necessarily
show that marijuana is good or
bad,” Martz said. “Instead, it
provides evidence that, over time,
marijuana use may impact the way
the brain responds to reward.”
VIGIL
From Page 3
MARIJUANA
From Page 9