Forum to discuss terrorism issues

Panelists and students will discuss some of the many facets of terrorism at a forum titled "Terrorism & War on Terrorism" from 1 to 5:30 p.m. today in the Frangipani Room of the Indiana Memorial Union. The forum will center around three moderated panel discussions, each addressing a different aspect of terrorism.\nThe first panel, "Public Discourse on Terrorism," will deal with the ways Americans look at and talk about terrorism. Panelists on the second panel, "America's Security Consumption and Consequences," will discuss the role civil liberties play in the war on terrorism and the effect war has on American life. The final panel, "International Perspectives," will deal with the way terrorism is seen and dealt with internationally.\nGraduate student David Baker and freshman Mohamed Yunus Rafiq organized the forum because they felt students needed an outlet for intelligent discussion of terrorism.\n"My colleague and I shared thoughts on these things, and we noticed a lot of discussion on campus of long-term solutions to either terrorism or the war on terror," Baker said. \nStudents organized the forum; the panelists are all students; and the forum is moderated by students. No professors or other "experts" on terrorism were invited to the forum, Baker said.\n"The average student doesn't listen to experts, and the experts assume you have a certain level of knowledge of terrorism," he said. "We wanted to speak to students at their level and leave assumptions out of the forum."\nBaker said he contacted all of the IU departments and student groups that have an interest in terrorism to find panelists for the event. \nRafiq said he hopes students who attend the forum walk away with a better understanding of the relationship between the Muslim world and terrorism.\n"I would like (students) to see that within Islam there are people who hate and abhor this kind of senseless killing of human life," he said. "These acts are committed by a few people who are crazy."\nGraduate student David Schwab, who will be both a panelist and a moderator for the forum, said discourse on terrorism is important because it is such an emotionally charged and important issue.\n"Terrorism is a very polarizing issue, and it's very difficult for people to talk calmly about it," he said. \nGraduate student Adrian Borbely, a panelist and a French citizen, said looking at terrorism from an international perspective is also important.\n"The information we get in Europe is too one-sided. The information over here is one-sided, too," he said. "It's interesting to look at how people feel in the international perspective on terrorism."\n-- Contact nation & world editor Michael Zennie at mzennie@indiana.edu.