Students acquire insights on world terrorism

Imtiaz Hussain stood quietly against the wall in the back of a crowded Southeast Missouri State University lecture hall as 125 people, mainly students, looked for answers in a nation at war with terrorism.

Several Southeast political science professors talked about Muslim terrorists and the Sept. 11 attacks on the East Coast that killed thousands, mostly in New York.

In the end, Hussain, a British citizen who is a Muslim, felt compelled to speak, making clear that he doesn't agree with terrorist Osama bin Laden's terrible brand of violence and his call for a holy war against the United States.

Hussain, who is a forensic scientist at Southeast's crime lab, is one of a handful of area Muslims to speak up at a time when angry Americans in other parts of the country have lashed out at those of Middle Eastern heritage.

Following the terrorism symposium, Hussain said: "I feel for the people in New York. I have friends who work in the New York medical examiner's office."

He said he understands the need for heightened security in the United States. He previously worked in Birmingham, England, for the British Forensic Science Service. He's seen the deadly force of terrorism. The Irish Republican Army killed his uncle.

While there have been threats and violence against Arabs in some parts of the country in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the East Coast, Hussain said he has felt no animosity from area residents.

The 2000 census shows there are 92 Asian Indians in Cape Girardeau County, which would include people of Pakistani descent. Others may have listed themselves under different racial or ethnic categories.

No backlash

"I personally have not experienced any backlash against Muslims here," said Hussain, who was born in Peshawar, Pakistan, near the Afghanistan border.

Southeast officials say none of the school's international students have left school since the attacks. Southeast's international enrollment includes a student from Yemen and seven from Pakistan.

In contrast, at least 45 international students have left the University of Missouri-Columbia because they feared ethnic violence or their native countries encouraged them to come home.

At the lecture room in Crisp Hall on Wednesday, political science professors Alynna Lyon, Russell Renka and Peter Bergerson talked about terrorism. Bergerson chairs the political science department.

The professors took questions from the audience. Hussain asked if President Bush's war on terrorism included going after the IRA.

Lyon, Renka and Bergerson said the IRA isn't on Bush's radar screen right now. The focus, they said, is on exiled Saudi terrorist bin Laden and his Middle East-based terrorist group, al-Qaida.

Renka said the terrorist attacks on the United States have drawn the world's legitimate governments closer together.

There was more to the terrorism than killing thousands of civilians. "They attempted to assassinate the American government," Renka said. "Other governments understand they could just as readily be targets as ourselves."

Bergerson said, "The Arab world feels very threatened by this terrorism as well."

"He wants to take over the Arabian peninsula," said Bergerson, suggesting that bin Laden wants to overthrow the Saudi government.

Lyon said the United States has sent mixed signals to the Arab world over the last several decades, supporting different factions when it suited its needs during the Cold War.

During the Afghan War, the United States supported militant Muslim groups fighting the Soviet Union. "We gave them money, we gave them training, and we gave them weapons," said Lyon.

Alarming culture

While most Muslims don't support bin Laden, the professors said many Muslims are alarmed about Western culture.

Hussain echoed that thought, speaking up from the back of the crowded room. He said it's not just women who cover up in Muslim countries. Men in Pakistan wear hats and dress modestly.

Hussain spent years living in England. But his grandmother wouldn't leave Pakistan. Hussain said his grandmother told him that in England "the women go around naked."

But the terrorist attacks have done more than educate Americans about the Middle East. Renka said the terrorist attacks have unified citizens of this country.

"We have learned we are of strong fiber," he said. "We have learned we are a more civic-minded people than we thought we were."

The nation, he said, also is learning that it can't fight terrorism alone.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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