What could possibly motivate 18 terrorists to bomb three buildings and kill thousands? A panel discussion of the origins of the United States' war on terrorism held last night offered analysis into that and other such presumably unanswerable questions.
"We must explain the factors that make it possible for Osama bin Laden to exist," said Professor of religion at Dartmouth, Kevin Reinhart, who is an expert on Islam.
Reinhart explained that as the spokesman for a group of people who share grievances against the West, and America in particular, "Osama bin Laden is kind of a hip-hop Muslim ... His Islam is like Jim Jones' Christianity -- self serving."
The Islamic fundamentalist aversion to the United States' foreign policy is not a new issue, the panelists stressed.
"The Iranian Revolution of 1979 encouraged Islamic movements throughout the Middle East," said Professor of Sociology at Dartmouth, Misagh Parsa, a scholar of the politics of developing countries and the Iranian Revolution.
Such movements have been inspired by internal factors in the region, such as economic inequalities, as well as by external ones, such as what Parsa called the "tragic history of the Middle East with American intervention."
But while the panelists agreed that definite discontent did exist in the Muslim world, they also pointed out that people who practice Islam do not all share the same angry ideology.
"There is no single Islam," said Gene Garthwaite, a panelist and Dartmouth history professor. Garthwaite discussed "irreversible trends" in Islamic states that are making the Middles East more westernized.
He added that at the same time as some Muslims embrace western ideals, others, including the fundamentalist groups that were allegedly responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, have responded angrily to what they see as American hegemony. This wave of growing incense, he said, has increased the power of groups like bin Laden's Al-Qaida terrorist organization.
The panelists shared a general consensus that flaws in United States' foreign policy exist and contribute to some negative sentiment abroad. Though not blatantly condemning U.S. attempts to globalize, Parsa commented that the United States "has a colorful history of intervening in foreign policy ... American economic interests play a huge role in foreign policy."
Brian Didler, a Post-doctoral fellow in Anthropology, said some of the anti-American sentiment among terrorist and other organizations overseas stems from discontent about global capitalism.
Didler stressed that it is important to initially "assume the participants are rational and socially healthy," and then to consider the factors that lead them to resort to such ends and justify their actions.
A mob of about 200 people flooded Collis Commonground at 7:30 p.m. last night to listen to the first in a four-part series of discussions on the United States' War on terrorism. Professor of War and Peace Studies, Ronald Edsforth, moderated and coordinated the event , which was sponsored by the Dickey Center.
The four panelists each spoke for 12 minutes, focusing in their field, then answered questions from the audience. Although one enraged attendee demanded an explanation for why the speakers were saying that "the U.S. is Satan," the rest of the audience was receptive to the speakers' insights.
