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Desensitizing a nation Peter Koven
“When you live with apes, man, it’s hard to be clean. ” —Marilyn Manson In 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, killing thousands. A truly horrific attack, one of the worst in modern world history. In 2001, the story of what hap pened was adapted by Hollywood into a romantic drama featuring Ben Affleck of all people, and utter disregard was given to what hap pened for the benefit of some good ol’-fashioned entertainment. In 1912, the Titanic sunk, killing hundreds. Another tragic event, although all was apparently forgiven when James Cameron’s 1997 “adaptation” of the catastro phe made over one billion US dol lars. Last Tuesday, terrorists killed thousands in America and left the country in chaos. Jesus. Any attempt to fathom, or make sense of what happened last Tuesday is literally a lost cause. Not because we do not understand what happened, but because we literally cannot put it in words. The horrible knowledge of what happened, the images we’ve seen repeated so many times on CNN exceed any possible effort to make sense of them, to dis cuss them or to draw some sort of understanding and acceptance out of them. We refuse to believe that in our so-called enlightened times that such a thing may happen, and when it does, we are left in such states of shock and disbelief that we watch in a morbid sort of stunned Please see RECONCILING, page 12
U.S. incidents may lead to surge in anti-Arab prejudice Ian Speigel
Nearly a week after two of the tallest buildings in the world were destroyed by hijacked aircraft, legions of firemen, police, troops, and medical personnel are still pick ing through the rubble. Though they are unlikely to find anything living, this terrible tragedy has birthed, among other things, a backlash against Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims. At the time the Tribune went to press, there was still no definitive proof as to the identity of the ter rorists, or that Osama bin Laden — a wealthy Saudi terrorist and arguably the world’s most wanted
criminal — was involved. Preliminary reports, however, have pointed at Islamic fundamen talists and bin Laden. Civilian repercussions have already begun in the United States, where a Texas mosque came under gunfire. Though no racially motivated violence has been reported on cam pus, McGill’s Muslims and Arabs are wary. “I stayed home last [Tuesday] night, trying to stay away from public places. I was given looks in the metro and I have heard a lot stories going around,” said Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights President, Ahmed Abu Safia. Though the McGill and
Montreal communities have hither to remained free of any racially motivated violence, there have already been reports of slurs and discrimination. “A guy came up to our infor mation table and we asked if he wanted to join our mailing list. And he goes, ‘Ya, send me an e-mail on how to make bombs,’” said Abu Safia. “And yesterday I was walking by on campus and there were three girls talking. One of them said we should sweep away the entire Middle East.” This is not the first time that the world’s one billion Muslims have been held accountable for the
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actions of a tiny extremist fraction, but it may become the most acri monious. Arab discrimination was preva lent during the 1991 Gulf War , but world opinion was split after the month-long war ended. Notable countries like France and Russia opposed the continued US military operations in the region. This time, however, the entire world —minus Iraq and select oth ers —united to condemn the WTC strike as an affront against humani ty. Never before in its 52-year exis tence has NATO invoked Article V, unanimously declaring the hijack attacks on the U.S. to be an assault Please see POTENTIAL page 11
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