The Madisonian Ideal

The attacks of Sept.11 were tragic on a scale previously unknown in the United States. Today, as the friends and family of the innocent men and women killed in the attack mourn the second anniversary of their loss, the Islamist group Al-Muhajiroun, based in Britain, is holding a commemorative conference to honor the 19 terrorists who hijacked the commercial jets used in attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.\nThe conference is being held in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Lester. A poster advertising its four locations displays photographs of the 19 al Qaeda hijackers and refers to them glowingly as the "Magnificent Nineteen" (a pun on the American movie, "The Magnificent Seven," released in 1960).\nThe conference posters also exhibit pictures of the United Nations, citing it as a "legitimate target." Omar bin Bakri Muhammad, the leader of Al-Muhajiroun, told the London Arabic newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat that participants will discuss the motives of the hijackers, whom he called "heroes." \nThe conference intends to examine the root causes of the Sept. 11 attacks and warns that if they still exist "the results might be similar to what happened in September but in different methods," said Bakri in the article. In regard to the U.N. reference, "They are legitimate targets because it represents the right-hand tool of the world Crusades led by America and its allies against Islam and the Muslims," explained Bakri. \nThe conference will also feature a message from al Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden "Jawami al-Kalam," or compilation of words, drawn from bin Laden's earlier televised statements. \nOne British parliamentarian has called on the government to forbid the conferences. However, the conference is protected by British free speech laws, which maintain that anyone can express an opinion so long as it stops short of inciting violence.\nThis is the first occasion in which mass murderers have been publicly exalted. Holding this conference is a slap in the face to all victims of terrorism. Calling Sept. 11 terrorists heroes is similar to suggesting that Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist regime was the triumph of Marxist thought. The terrorists' motives should indeed be examined, perhaps in a class called Deviate Psychology combined with Politics of the Middle East. But the timing is unfortunate. Despite the obvious implication of the date, the increasing instability in Iraq, a neo-Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan, the deterioration of the "road map" and the bombing in Bombay, among others, holding a conference -- the leader of which warns that the attack on the United Nations in Iraq will not be the last -- is tantamount to shrieking "Fire!" in the proverbial theater. \nThe issue at hand is, as always, freedom of speech. We all unanimously agree that it is one of the pillars of democracy and can simultaneously recognize hate speech when we hear it. On a minor scale, recent developments at IU have vividly demonstrated this notion. The United Kingdom is to be lauded for its much-vaunted British sense of fair play in holding freedom of speech to be the sacrosanct guarantee that it is, and allowing the conference to continue. \nIt can only be hoped that in its sense of fair play, Britain will see it fit to host other conferences to commemorate analogous dates. For instance, Dec. 15, Dec. 17, Feb. 7, Feb. 9 and June 15 should all be honored as the dates of IRA bombings, and be used as an opportunity to examine the motives of Sinn Fein and the IRA. The analogy is not a strong one, since the body count tended to be a low one and the IRA was in the habit of phoning in warnings of its attacks. In that case, perhaps Britain should consider honoring May 10, when the brave men of Luftwaffe claimed more than 3,000 lives on the last night of the Blitz of London during World War II.