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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
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MARIJUANA
From Page 9