The Muslim community of American University has been astounded with the recent news of vandalizing the Muslim prayer room in the Kay Spiritual Life Center. Despite the appreciated tremendous support of many students organizations and the condemnation by all the Kay Spiritual Center's faith groups, the question that is to be raised is, why now?
After the crime of Sept. 11, a possible internal or external offense against the Muslim community was anticipated. However, the community here has proven to stand against all calls of retaliation, collective punishment and racism due to the afforts of the AU administration at all levels.
On April 15, 2004, The Eagle published the second article in a series of controversial articles and editorial sections in an effort to tie the Muslim chaplain to extremist "Saudi Wahabism." None of the Eagle editors have supported his claim based on a given campus sermon or lecture done by the chaplain. The Eagle also published anti-Semitic quotes translated from a book that was published 30 years ago. The published article had copies of an Arabic text and a picture of the author - definitely not smiling - with Arabian attire. It is impossible to comprehend why a campus newspaper would translate an anti-Semitic book and present it on its pages. I believe the cause was not to educate the public about a book published 30 years ago, simply for the fact that no single Muslim student on this campus has heard about the book. Also, the book is not taught or used by any group on campus.
As I spoke to many campus directors about this concern and with University President Benjamin Ladner, few have realized the impact of a whole month of publishing explosive materials that did not contribute anything but fuel hatred and cause the destruction of a tolerant environment that AU has built over the previous years. And sadly, it is not the media on the TV, an outside newspaper or a controversial Islamphobic speaker who strives for such cause, but our campus newspaper. Whatever were the motives of the Eagle, it resulted - from its position as the campus newspaper - in fueling the abhorrence against the Muslim community
I am confident that The Eagle has given fair publication opportunities over the past years, including publishing this article. However, the materials published have to be weighted in terms of their harm and good. Nevertheless, the recent vandalism of the Muslim prayer room cannot be assumed to be solely an outside offense. Yes, it is possible that an outsider has committed this act of hate, yet not all AU students are walking angels. If the vandalism incidence and the past controversial articles of The Eagle were not a mere coincidence, a possible correlation should not be neglected nor excluded from the answer.
Wael M. Qassim graduated from the Kogod School of Business in 2004 and is a member of the AU MSA community.
[EDITOR'S NOTE: Please see The Eagle's response in the Opinions section at TheEagleOnline.com.]
