Muslim students fear prejudices
By Megan Finnerty
Features
Editor
A Pakistani student said he's worried that Tuesday's
terrorist attacks could cause students on this campus to see Middle
Eastern and Muslim students as being involved.
"I don't even know how to put my horror into words,"
said Shahid Mazur quietly, his voice full of emotion. "Terrorist groups
are portraying that Muslim society is like this, but that's not at all
true."
Although U.S. government officials have yet to
comment on suspects in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon, intelligence analysts suggest the coordinated attacks have
the mark of Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, Al-Qaeda.
The international terrorist is suspected of residing
and running terrorist training camps in Afghanistan as a part of an
extremist Islamic political initiative, but members of Afghanistan's
ruling Taliban have denied bin Laden's responsibility.
Mazur, a junior in the Schools of Engineering,
said he doesn't consider bin Laden to be a Muslim because the man is
accused of numerous attacks around the world, something that Mazur said
is deeply against the teachings of Islam.
"I am Muslim and I hope that people don't let this
make them for negative stereotypes about Muslim students," he said.
"But today I think it's too early to tell how campus will react."
Fazrul Ismail, the president of the Muslim Student
Association, also shares Mazur's fears of retaliation and prejudice
against Muslim and Middle Eastern students.
Ismail, who is from Indonesia, said that he fears
people on campus will associate Islam with terrorism, something that
might lead to mistreatment of Muslims and students from traditionally
Muslim nations who are studying at Purdue.
"It is my hope that everyone can give fair judgment
and be free from prejudice about this thing," he said, concern and nervousness
audible in his voice. "If there is terrorism committed by Islamic people,
that is because of their personal problems and beliefs; it is not related
to all Muslims.
Ismail said the Greater Lafayette Islamic Center
will dedicate all of its prayer services during the next weeks to the
victims of the attacks. The traditional services are held five times
a day and are open only to Muslims.
Stephanie Goodwin, an assistant professor in the
psychology department, said that one of the biggest issues campus is
facing is uncertainty.
"When there's a lot of ambiguity and uncertainty,
people tend to rely on stereotypes," she said. "Assuming that some group
does take responsibility or the government finds who is responsible,
those people who might be perceived as belonging to those groups might
be at risk for being the targets of bias."
She said that to make sure no groups on campus
are targeted, students must treat each other as individuals.
"We can't assume that just because someone looks
like or is a member of some particular social group, that membership
means they can speak for that group," she said.
Wayne Hilson, the assistant director of the minority
engineering program, said he thinks it's important that students, faculty
and staff remain empathetic and protective of Purdue's students from
the Middle East.
"I think as a whole, our campus is full of intelligent
people who can discern between the acts of a particular group and generalizing
about certain groups of students or religions," he said. "Just because
you see someone who may be Islamic or from the Middle East, don't place
them in the category of terrorist and being affiliated or involved in
any way this kind of cowardly act."
Area Muslims will meet with each other and police
around 9:15 tonight at the Greater Lafayette Islamic Center, 1022 First
Street in West Lafayette.
Purdue Police asked for the meeting so they could
assure area Muslims that they will be safe from racist or prejudice
retaliation, said Arif Ghafoor, a professor of electrical engineering
and faculty adviser for the Muslim Student Association.
"The students want some assurance that they'll
be safe and some tips on how to be aware," he said.
Ghafoor, who is from Palestine, described Tuesday
as the worst day of his life because he has family in New York City
and he had, as of Tuesday night, been unable to reach them.
"I went to class for 10 minutes and then had to
cancel it; I just had to leave," he said.
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