Reeling from the disasters in New York and Washington, D.C. for the past ten days, the Pomona community has been forced to confront the same issues and cope with the same visceral emotional reactions that virtually the entire world community has had shoved to the forefront of their daily lives.

To begin understanding some of these issues, David Brown ’02 moderated a panel of experts in the Blue Room of Frank Dining Hall on Monday.

About 100 students turned out to see and interact with the panel, which included the director of the Asian-American Resource Center, Daren Mooko; Dean of Campus Life, Matt Taylor; and professors Zayn Kassam, Tahir Andrabi and Shahriar Shahriari. Brown solicited questions and comments from the audience and used those questions as a starting point for the panelists to speak on their areas of expertise.

The discussion began with a question about whether the media’s response to the attacks was appropriate. Taylor said that the network television news media did well at times, but was irresponsible in what he characterized as their excessive display of horrifying images purely for shock value in the first 24-36 hours following the attack. He also disapproved of the media’s publishing of unconfirmed–and untrue–reports of survivors.

Most of the rest of the discussion related to reports of a possible backlash against the Arabic and Muslim communities. Students wanted to know what they could do to stop discrimination and violence against these groups. Andrabi suggested that campus-wide discussions about Islam could help prevent much of the hatred. "At the institutional level, I don’t think we’ve ever had a discussion on Islam," he said.

Kassam was also concerned about the dangers of stereotyping Muslims. "We cannot assume that the 1.2 billion followers of Islam feel the same way as Osama bin Laden," she said. Kassam listed several demographic facts about Islam that many in the United States may not be aware of: Arabs comprise only 20 percent of the world’s Islamic population, in fact the largest bloc of Muslims in the world are from Malaysia and Indonesia. Also, fully 50 percent of U.S. Arabs are Christian.

Since September 11, and as of last Friday, there have been at least 210 hate crimes committed against perceived Arab Muslims, according to Kassam. Ironically, the first person killed from this backlash was Sikh, she said.

Several other panelists expressed concern that apathy towards the problem of stereotyping worsens the situation.

Students too were concerned about the indifference displayed by many Americans this week. "I’m glad that groups are forming, like the letter-writing and purple ribbon ones, but I don’t like the silent apathy (towards racial and religious stereotyping) that’s still around," Marc Duyungan ’04 said

Another question related to the meaning of the term jihad, which led to a discussion of the historical background that led to the most recent terrorist attacks.

Unlike many of the events related to the attacks, this forum was intended to be an opportunity for students to learn about the tragedies rather than simply discuss their feelings about them, said Natalia Goldberg ’02, one of the event’s organizers. "We wanted to look at this from an academic perspective," she said.

"I was really worried that people might bring more negativity into the Claremont community and unfairly take out their emotions on the Muslim community or people that they perceive to be a part of the Muslim community. I just wanted to make sure that we did everything we could on campus to keep each other aware and to prevent ourselves from adding more negativity to the situation," said Sunil Watumull ’01, another of the forum’s organizers. Watumull added that the impetus of the forum sprung in part from a conversation that took place between Professor Andrabi and himself.

Student reaction to the meeting was generally positive, with the majority expressing support for more meetings of the same type. Organizers hope to make the meetings a weekly event.

While this academic forum allowed students to learn more about the background leading up to the attacks, earlier programs provided more of an outlet for students’ emotions. Many of those programs took place last Friday, the day President Bush declared a "National Day of Prayer and Remembrance."

In response to the declaration, the college chaplains sponsored an interfaith service in the Garrison Theater on Friday to remember those who had died. The theater nearly filled to capacity as members of the Claremont Community filed in.

During the service, leaders of the Catholic, Islamic, Jewish, and Protestant faiths said and chanted prayers, and read from holy books to express their sorrow at the enormous loss of life.

Music also played a prominent role, including a duet by Professors Hao Huang and Rachel Vetter Huang, and the singing of "Let There Be Peace on Earth" by the entire congregation near the end of the service.

On Tuesday, the chaplains had also sponsored an interfaith prayer service during the lunch hour.

So many students, faculty and staff attended the program that many were forced to stand in the halls because all of the seats were filled. The service included scripture readings from the Torah, the Bible and the Koran, prayers for the victims and their families, and a moment of silence for reflection and silent prayer.

Claremont University Consortium C.E.O. Brenda Barham Hill said that interfaith services like these help to bring members of the community closer together. "Community members are taking steps to say, ‘you’re a part of this community, and we care about you,’" Hill said. "Something like this sweeps away all of our day-to-day differences and really brings the community together."

On Friday afternoon, Claremont Graduate University sponsored a forum titled "Attack on America: Impact, Response, and Implications" in Albrecht Auditorium. Professor Lewis W. Snider moderated a panel of experts that also included professors Jacek Kuegler and Ram Roy. All three are professors with the Department of Politics and Policy at CGU.

Most of the discussion centered around ways to determine the difference between a terrorist and other people who hold extremist views, how best to fight terrorism, and how U.S. foreign policy may change as a result of the attack. Kuegler also expressed concern that President George Bush will attack other countries as a unit and harm innocent civilians rather than singling out the in-