Some generations are defined beneath the canopies of foreign jungles or on the grains of foreign sands, and perhaps now in the rubble of a skyline. Still reeling from the Sept. 11 acts of terrorism that may define their own generation, Northwestern students gathered in Cahn Auditorium Monday afternoon to struggle with their emotions together.
Nearly filling the auditorium, students and faculty sat transfixed by representatives of 18 student and university groups as they spoke of unity in the face of adversity.
The campuswide memorial gathering, originally scheduled for Deering Meadow until rain forced its relocation, was the largest NU response to date to the hijacking of four planes two weeks ago.
University Chaplain Timothy Stevens, who helped organize the event, said he realized the need for a campuswide service just days after the attacks. At the memorial he applauded student response to the events.
“I would say there is an awareness, but at the same time a desire to experience New Student Week and have things return to as normal as possible,” said Stevens, who said he has not had to counsel many students since the incidents.
Many felt the memorial was a way to show support for the victims, if not the country.
“I’m not particularly religious. I just thought I’d come and pay my respects in some small way to the people that were killed,” said Mary Dunn, supervisor of medical records with university health care.
“We’re all in a difficult situation because school started and everything seems to be happening all at once,” said Ishani Mukherjee, a Weinberg freshman who left for school the day of the attack and was scheduled to stay at a hotel near the Pennsylvania crash site. She said Monday’s service was a big step in trying to move on, and that ignoring the terrorist acts would be un-American.
Others focused closer to home and on the need to unite as a campus .
“I felt it was a good opportunity to show support for our nation and to come together as a campus,” said Education sophomore Danielle Fisher, whose friend’s father remains unaccounted for after he reported to work Tuesday morning at his office on the 99th floor of one of the World Trade Center towers.
Student speeches showcased a spectrum of beliefs and cultures. Representatives from groups such as Alianza and the Buddhist Study Group were flanked by American and NU flags as they sat alongside members of the Muslim-cultural Student Association and For Members Only in a symbolic show of solidarity.
“Rarely do we hear the word ‘together,'” said Associated Student Government President Jordan Heinz. “For the first time in my memory students are speaking about our similarities.”
University President Henry Bienen read aloud the names of NU alumni missing or confirmed dead in the attacks, painting portraits of victims with families and their own recollections of guarding The Rock. Acknowledging that the events of Sept. 11 would reverberate though the lives of many, Bienen encouraged students to maintain an atmosphere of civility and free discourse.
“We must support Muslim Americans and ensure their safety and their ease in this community,” he said.
Again and again, speeches echoed concern over the mistreatment some Muslim and Arab Americans have endured following the attacks.
FMO Coordinator Tiffany Berry likened the events of Sept. 11 to the assassinations of Malcolm X and John F. Kennedy. She implored audience members to remember the hate crimes that already litter the pages of America’s history and to avoid repeating them.
Perhaps Monday’s most powerful words were spoken by medical student Saquib Rahim, Weinberg ’01, who began his portion of the service with a moment of silence. Emerging from the calm to be answered by a standing ovation, Rahim’s voice crescendoed as he drew the audience into a Muslim American’s reality.
The events of Sept. 11 stand contrary to Islam or any other religion, said Rahim, who cited a Koran passage saying he who kills one kills all.
To say that the attacks were part of the jihad is a misrepresentation, he said.
“Holy war is not an accurate description of jihad, which refers to a person’s struggle to practice one’s religion,” he said.
Calling the terrorists mass murderers, Rahim condemned them.
“In two hours those terrorists may have set Muslims back 20 years,” he said.
Despite sharing in the grief and anger experienced by fellow Americans, Rahim has not escaped being singled out because of his religion. An emotional Rahim read aloud sections of a letter that threatened he might not make it to his own graduation.
Rahim called on students to act and use their educations to wage their own war on ignorance.
“As Northwestern students it is now our struggle, our jihad,” he said.
