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Palestinian Students Feel Warmth, Not Hostility
By Bob Smietana
CHICAGO, IL (September 27, 2001) - When Amjad Al-Dajani first arrived at North Park University in early September, one of his professors asked him what he thought of the United States.
"The first thing I noticed was peace and quiet," said Al-Dajani, who has lived most of his 26 years in Jerusalem. That all changed following the terrorist attacks on September 11, says Al-Dajani. "The other day he (the professor) said to me, 'Amjad, it seems you came to search for peace and quiet and you are not going to get it.'"
Twenty-seven-year-old Estephan Salameh also arrived at North Park from Jerusalem this fall. "When my friends heard I was going to the United States, they all said, 'you are lucky because you are going to a safer place,'" Salameh said. "Later on, they sent me emails and they told me that I was not lucky - 'All the problems are following you, and you are still living in fear and troubles.'"
Al-Dajani and Salameh are among a number of Palestinian students at North Park who are trying to cope with the after affects of the terrorist assaults. They were both quick to reject any suggestion that these attacks were accepted by Palestinians of any faith. "These people do not represent all the Muslim people or all of the Arab people," said Salameh, a Catholic. "Islam is not about this," said Al-Dajani, a Muslim. "Islam says - very clearly in the Qur'an - if you kill one man, you have killed a whole nation. Even in a state of war, they (Muslims) are not allowed to target any civilians."
The attacks brought back many of the feelings Al-Dajani had while living in Jerusalem during the unrest there. He transferred to North Park after the closure of the Jerusalem university where he was studying. "You leave your house," he says, "and you really don't know if you are going to come back or not. You have bombs blowing up on the eastern side and the western side of Jerusalem all the time."
Some of those feeling were exacerbated in the first few days following the attacks. Al-Dajani says he knows of several incidents in which American students targeted their anger at Middle Eastern students. He says he appreciated the fact that Don Wagner of North Park's Center for Middle Eastern Studies responded quickly, as did other university leaders. Wagner and several of the students are shown in the accompanying photo.
"As soon as the bombings took place, we felt a need to get around our Middle-Eastern students," says Wagner, "because we began to pick up that there were some ugly comments here and there. We did a teach-in that night - we combined a bunch of classes and gave an historical perspective, and others made comments to put things in context."
In the days following the terrorist assaults, the university held prayer vigils and meetings to help students deal with the after effects of the attacks. There have been no other incidents since that time, according to Wagner. Instead, students have felt supported by the North Park community. "There has been a lot of prayer at vigils, but also in the classroom, and then chapel," Wagner said. "I have heard from our Middle Eastern students that they have really appreciated the sensitivity
across the campus."
Wagner also organized outreach efforts into the local Arab-American community. He has encouraged students to visit local merchants and show them their support during this time. A group of North Park students, including Al-Dajani and Salameh, joined an interfaith group in visiting a local Muslim community center on September 21 to show their support.
The group lit candles, shared refreshments and stayed for the Friday evening prayers. That evening's event was one of a series planned by local interfaith leaders after a series of attacks on Muslims and Arab Americans around the United States. An angry crowd of 300 marched on a mosque in suburban Bridgeview, Illinois, waving flags and shouting racist slogans. In Parma, Ohio, a man rammed his car into the front doors of a mosque. In Mesa, Arizona, a gunman shot at several Arab-Americans, then killed a Sikh man in Arizona because he was wearing a turban.
At the Muslim community center near North Park, there were prayers and warm gestures of support. "We are touched by all of you sharing your good will," said one of the center's leaders. In the parking lot across the street from the center was a reminder of the seriousness of the threat. Chicago Police officers are stationed there around the clock. "We haven't had an incidents," said one of the officers. "We are just here as a preventative measure."
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