Read this note for details of the forum on terrorism held on Sept. 17...
About 150 students, faculty and staff gathered Sept. 17 to discuss terrorism and other matters related to the attacks on New York City and Washington. The forum was moderated by associate provost Nancy Midgette and included a panel of faculty members including David Crowe, Brian Digre, Yoram Lubling, Jim Pace, John Sullivan and Rudy Zarzar.
Crowe said the political and social factors that led to the terrorist attacks are very complicated. He said some of the root causes relate back to U.S. involvement in the Gulf War and the frustration felt in Arab countries. He criticized media coverage of Islam and the concept of Jihad.
“I think, in the end, this is a time to build bridges, not create chasms,” Crowe said. “We need to take this opportunity to slow the emotional processes down and be thoughtful, because if all we end up doing out of this is creating more prejudices, then the terrorists have won.”
Zarzar explained that there are many types of terrorism, including cyber-terrorism, international terrorism, domestic terrorism, revolutionary terrorism, insurgency terrorism, technological terrorism, ecological terrorism, abortion terrorism, economic terrorism, and holy or Godly terrorism. “Each of these has different objectives,” Zarzar said. “When it comes to political terrorism, some groups fight against what they believe to be injustices, others fight for the establishment of human rights, others hate a dictator somewhere or want to unseat a government.”
Pace said terrorism is a power problem. “Those who don’t have the power try to substantiate their cause and will resort to anything,” said Pace. “The bottom line is to try to find out what the cause of the terrorism is.”
Sullivan worried about the loss of personal rights in the pursuit of the terrorists. “One of the horrible things, it seems to me, is when people say ‘whatever it takes,'” Sullivan said. “We’re already talking about major incursions on personal liberty. They’re always done, first of all, to combat some terror or other, and are very difficult to undo. We’re already beginning to talk about assassination as a political weapon. We have to be very vigilant about what we are willing to permit under the name of security against terrorism.”
Crowe advocates beginning the process of forgiveness. “This is a time for faith and love, and the first bridge we build is the bridge of understanding,” he said. “It’s hard to think of forgiveness in light of the horror that has happened, but remember that forgiveness is a very complex process. And the first part of that process is coming to grips with your hate, and then working with that. All of the great faith traditions have this idea of forgiveness and love. It doesn’t mean that you automatically go to forgiveness, but I think the spiritual context is the starting point for how we begin to cope with this, both within our own country and internationally.”