Students, faculty hold teach-in to try to understand roots of terrorism

By David Brand

"I am a Muslim, I was born in America, I exist," said an emotional student, riveting a packed Call Alumni Auditorium in Kennedy Hall on Monday. "I do not know what this man [Osama bin Laden] speaks of when he speaks of Islam. He makes me want to cry when he does these things in the name of God. How can my God be different from his?"

Senior Fariba Yassaee, 21, an economics major from Demarest, N.J., and the daughter of Iranian immigrants, was among the Islamic students and faculty who spoke with emotion at a "teach-in" to discuss last week's deadly terrorist attack on the United States.

Faculty panelists at the teach-in Sept. 17 in Kennedy Hall include, from left: Shawkat Toorawa, assistant professor of Near Eastern studies; Muna Ndulo, professor of law and director of the Institute of African Development; and Henry Shue, professor of philosophy. Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography

Organizer Isaac Kramnick, vice provost for undergraduate education and professor of American studies, recalled the teach-ins that Cornell helped to pioneer during the Vietnam war. "I thought I could bring this about again because there must be an intellectual assessment of the horrible event's causes and implications. We are trying to start a process," Kramnick said.

The faculty panel that addressed the hundreds of students anxious to ask questions both about the cause of the terrorism and the likely U.S. response included Theodore Lowi, professor of American studies; Rose McDermott, assistant professor of government; Michele Moody-Adams, the Hutchinson Professor of Ethics and Public Life; Muna Ndulo, professor of law and director of the Institute of African Development; Henry Shue, professor of philosophy; and Shawkat Toorawa, assistant professor of Near Eastern studies. The panel was moderated by President Hunter Rawlings.

In 90 minutes several themes emerged from the both the questioners and the questioned: a fear of precipitate United States retaliation that could only create new militants; an urging that Washington not act without multi-national consultation; a concern that American civil liberties will suffer; the need to reject simple solutions to the challenge facing the country; the huge economic gap between the industrialized and developing world, which was seen as a major breeding ground for terrorism; and a call to bring an end to the economic sanctions against Iraq, which were described as "heartless and cruel."

There was loud applause for Moody-Adams when she stated, "Vengeance is not the answer here." The real outcome of vengeance, she said, could be the end of everything worth fighting for -- "even the end of the species."

But the loudest applause of all came not for a student of politics or government or history, but for a philosopher, Shue, who observed that indiscriminate threats from U.S. leadership "are irresponsible, not only because they are empty ... but because they pave the way for indiscriminate killing. ... The fact that U.S. citizens have suffered great harm does not entitle us to go around the world inflicting great harm on people who have not harmed us and do not threaten us." And he urged that "the word 'them'" be removed from the English language.

Toorawa responded: "I am 'them'." The terrorists, he said, "did not just hijack four planes, they hijacked one billion Muslims." Replying to a student's question, he reminded all present that Islam categorically forbids suicide and killing of anyone not engaged in direct conflict.

"I want to say they (the terrorists) are just evil people. I suspect they think that this is a divinely sanctioned aggression against the enemy, and I fear that much of that rhetoric they have learned from the pulpit," Toorawa said.

But amid the many concerns about a U.S. over-reaction, there was an understanding that Washington has little choice but to react to the terrorism in some fashion. "There is a world of difference between doing nothing and a having a massive retaliatory attack," said McDermott. And Moody-Adams stated forthrightly, "Regrettably, I have no objection to the thought that some military response may well be necessary."

Perhaps, though, said Lowi, it is America's leaders who need educating. He suggested that everyone send e-mails to Washington saying, "Please, for God's sake, stop."