Sustained Dialogue hosted an interfaith dialogue forum last night to bring together a diverse group of students and facilitate a discussion to reflect on the Sept. 11 attacks as a human experience, not merely as a story of one single demographic group.
The dialogue began with a five-person panel, which featured speakers from different backgrounds who talked about their experiences in relation to the Sept. 11 attacks and the impact they had on their lives.
The room was then divided into three sections, creating a space where students could voice their opinions about Sept. 11 and its aftermath or listen to others share their experiences.
"There was a lot of education, debunking," Sustained Dialogue Chair Maria Malas said. "There were students who had not previously been exposed to Islam. There were students who were curious about different stereotypes portrayed in the media of Muslim students. Instead of deferring to those stereotypes, they would ask, 'Is this true? Where does this come from?"
In Malas' group, for example, participants discussed whether Muslims wear turbans. The group learned that wearing a turban is not actually part of the Muslim tradition, though people have a tendency to take a "specific group of Muslims and generalize to the whole population," Malas said. "There's so much diversity within the Islamic tradition."
In this way, the dialogue constituted a form of social action, Malas said, because people left the discussion more informed about what it means to be a Muslim in the United States after Sept. 11.
In this welcoming environment, individuals felt safe to disclose past experiences of racial profiling and discrimination. Some spoke of verbal abuse and being bullied at school. One person recounted an incident in which he was escorted off an airplane on the basis of having an Arab-sounding name. As he left the plane, he heard the rest of the people on the airplane cheer, "We got 'em this time" - something Malas called "an insult to someone's human dignity."
For people who have experienced such discrimination, the dialogue served as an outlet for their frustration and emotions.
"I can speak for myself as a Muslim-American - I think this experience was cathartic in many ways," Malas said. "To share my story with someone who's maybe never encountered someone who is Muslim ... it felt really good to be able to share that."
The dialogue concluded on an encouraging note.
"We started talking about how we can reflect on 9/11 as a human experience," Malas said, "to see the common threads that tie us all together and bring us back to our common humanity"
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