Letters to the Editor

Horrible attack calls for compassion instead of hatred

As a concerned Muslim and Arab-American student, I stand in deepest sympathy with the students and other members of the campus community who have relatives and friends who have suffered in the senseless attacks in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.

As an anti-racist student at Princeton University, I call on all members of this diverse and multicultural community to oppose and stand against anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hysteria in response to the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.

Remembering the attacks on Arab Americans in the wake of the Oklahoma city bombing, I urge all of us not to resort to anger or hatred in this time of crisis. The terrorists who struck yesterday are not representative of the Arab or Muslim community in America. As a New York resident, I have Arab and Muslim friends and relatives who worked in the World Trade Center Towers and family members who work in the financial district. Arab and Muslim Americans are citizens who work and live in this country, serve in its armed forces and contribute to its multicultural and progressive society.

Evil comes in many forms and today, it has blemished the name of Arabs and all Muslims across the world. The attacks we all suffered are not in the name of any religion or any God, but in the name of senseless, irrational behavior no one would condone or suppport. Terrorists, in the name of whatever cause they abuse, are a scourge upon the lives of all religious people, of every ethnic or religious group, perhaps most especially their own.

This is a time for us to look deep within ourselves for the humanity and compassion that we will need to get through this, to search for the natural inclination towards peace and understanding that is, ultimately, our only hope. Princeton Graduate Student