September 18, 2001

WKU Faculty Panel Says U.S. Must Weigh Options In Response To Last Week's Terrorist Attacks

Bowling Green, Ky. - The Bush administration must use caution and carefully weigh its response to last week's terrorist attacks, a group of Western Kentucky University faculty members said Monday night.

While U.S. citizens and leaders urge retaliation and military strikes, a better option would be to find the criminals and prosecute them in court, said John Long, head of the Department of Philosophy and Religion.

Government professors George Masannat and Roger Murphy agreed that a war on terrorism couldn't be fought in the short term when the network of terrorists is scattered worldwide.

The complexities of the region that include the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan compel the United States to seek diplomatic and economic solutions along with military solutions, Dr. Murphy said at the forum at Van Meter Auditorium.

"The real war against terrorism is in the diplomacy," said Dr. Murphy, an assistant professor of government who specializes in international relations.

Dr. Masannat said America shouldn't bring itself down to the terrorists' level. "Terrorists want to change the universe in their own way," he said.

While Americans and the world view the terrorists' actions as irrational, senseless and barbaric, the terrorists view their attacks as rational acts to accomplish their goals, said Dr. Masannat, a government professor who teaches a course in political terrorism.

"Political terrorism is a calculated act," he said. Terrorism is intended to produce fear, create anxiety, gain publicity and undermine confidence in government, he added.

Congress could help terrorists achieve one goal by restricting freedom, such as changing laws to allow wiretapping, Dr. Masannat said. There's a difference between Americans' civil liberties and their privileges, such as airport travel, he said.

"We can restrict conveniences, but we ought to be careful about civil liberties," Dr. Masannat said.

The panelists also urged U.S. citizens to respect the civil liberties of Islamic believers and immigrants from the Middle East.

"We are living in an age of ignorance," said Muaz Redzic, Muslim Imam at the Bowling Green Islamic Center. "Once you don't know something, you become its enemy."

Dr. Long said the media help to "demonize Muslims." As the Cold War ended and the Iranian revolution began, Islam became a new enemy, he said.

Most Americans don't understand Islam or Muslims and are told by the media that terrorism is part of the faith, Redzic said. Even the word jihad is misused by the media, Redzic and Dr. Long said. Jihad does not mean holy war; it means striving or struggling on the path of God, they said.

"Terrorism and Islam are totally against each other," Redzic said.

What people do in the name of Islam is no different than what people do in the name of Christianity and Judaism, Redzic said. "There is no such thing as Islamic terrorism," he said. "There is simply terrorism."

Dr. Masannat agreed. In the United States, militia groups use their faith to practice intolerance. "We don't call them Christian terrorists," he said. "We call them white supremacists."

Also on the panel were Matt Dettman to discuss engineering aspects of why the World Trade Center collapsed and Richard Greer to discuss the psychological impact of the attacks.

Dettman, an associate professor of civil engineering, said the towers were designed to withstand the impact of a 747 but not designed to withstand the inferno.

Dr. Greer, director of the WKU Counseling Center, said making sense of last week's attack from a psychological standpoint can be difficult.

"How do you and I explain the behavior of persons who would fly planes into the World Trade Center or the Pentagon?" he asked. The answer, he said, can be found in the survival of the self-image.

The image of the psychological self survives even when the physical self is destroyed, Dr. Greer said. The hijackers believed their self-image would live on by making the suicide attacks on the buildings, but the self-image of the firefighters, police officers and others who gave their lives Sept. 11 survived as well, Dr. Greer said.

More WKU news is available on the World Wide Web at www.wku.edu. If you'd like to receive WKU news via E-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.