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Pearl's murder raises more concerns about terrorism
By Kathryn Spangler
Student Columnist

The day after I learned that Danny Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who had been kidnapped in Pakistan, was confirmed dead, I was in the public library reading the New York Times when an older gentleman approached me and asked if he could have the sections of the paper that I had already read. As I handed him the newspaper, I commented that I had been reading about Pearl, and how sad the situation was. The man remarked that he was especially angry about Pearl’s murder because he himself was Jewish, and he thought that all Muslims should "get out of that system." His anger elicited my sympathy, but it also made me uneasy, reminding me that Islam is not to blame for the actions of a few fanatics, even if some prominent U.S. religious leaders say otherwise. The Rev. Franklin Graham, son of the Rev. Billy Graham, called Islam "a very evil and very wicked religion," and the Rev. Pat Robertson said, "I have taken issue with our esteemed president in regard to his stand in saying Islam is a peaceful religion. It’s just not."

However, groups such as the Council on Arab Islamic Relations, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, the American Muslim Council and the Islamic Society of North America have condemned Pearl’s murder. History shows us that Christians and Muslims alike have repeatedly turned to extreme violence in defense of their faith against the "infidels" or the "heathens" and calls to arms can be found in the Bible as well as in the Koran, but these things are hardly the point. A debate over religion will always be futile, an unending merry-go-round of finger-pointing and pious fervor. Within nearly all religious groups there are thousands aligned by faith, yet divided by politics; just as most animal rights activists would reject the violent measures of the Earth Liberation Front and most right-to-lifers would be abhorred by an abortion clinic bombing, for every Osama bin Laden there are the approximately one billion other Muslims worldwide that would denounce terrorism in the guise of a holy war.

It was an Islamic extremist, the British-born and educated Ahmed Omar Saaed Sheikh, who is accused of masterminding the Pearl kidnapping. Sheikh is also the leader of the Jaish-e Mohamed (the Army of Mohamed), a banned Islamic organization.

Pakistani president Gen. Pervez Musharraf has struggled to eradicate Islamic radicalism from Pakistan since he took power two years ago, but he is fighting a beast of his country’s own creation — many of the extremist groups, including the Jaish-e Mohamed, were created by Pakistan’s own military spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, to wage guerilla warfare against Indian troops in Kashmir. Many with ties to ISI have denounced Musharraf’s support of President George W. Bush following Sept. 11th because of their own anti-American sentiment and ties to the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

Whether Pearl’s captors succeeded in gaining momentum for their cause remains to be seen, but if they honestly believed that the United States would comply with their demands, they were mistaken. "Those who murdered him gained absolutely nothing," said Terry Anderson, an honorary co-chairman of the Committee to Protect Journalists who was kidnapped in 1985 and held by Islamic militants in Lebanon for nearly seven years. "There was no purpose to his death, political or otherwise ... it’s just such a senseless and pointless murder that it’s outrageous."

I have hope that the tactics of Sheikh and his accomplices puts them in the ideological minority in Pakistan. "Like all patriotic Pakistanis, I am deeply saddened by the assassination of Mr. Pearl," Farakh Mir, a Muslim Pakistani, said in an e-mail to CNN. "May God rest him in peace." Pakistani Shahzad Aftal Chaudhry echoed Mir’s sentiments in another e-mail to CNN. "I am heartbroken like any true Pakistani would be," Chaudhry said. "Certain elements portray us as fundamentalists and ruthless people. We are not. Mr. Pearl was an honest, upright and very brave American journalist."

So where do we go from here? How do we deal with the violent murder of Pearl, a man described as "a musician, a writer, a storyteller and a bridge-builder ... a walking sunshine of truth, humor, friendship and compassion" whose "engaged mind and open mind" make him the opposite of his killers? How will this tragedy fit into our post-Sept. 11 consciences? I myself was taken aback at the anger I felt when I learned of Pearl’s death, and thrown by the terrible irony that a man who had devoted the last years of his career to bringing the Arab and Muslim perspective to a Western audience and helping his readers to avoid painting all members of the Muslim world with the same brush fell victim to the sort who give it a bad name. I have faith that the men responsible will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, but how can we prevent something like this from ever happening again? Realistically, no matter our military might or diplomatic aplomb, we can’t.

"Governments should take even more responsibility in fighting against terrorism, but (people should) ask themselves questions like, ‘What do I know about my country’s foreign policy? Is my country fighting terrorism? Am I making efforts to promote dialogue?’" Pearl‘s widow Mariane Pearl said in an interview. To "promote dialogue" is hardly a satisfying answer for any of us, but I believe the Pearl family’s legacy of promoting understanding between civilizations Mariane spoke of in her appeal to her husband’s captors should be a lasting one.

Recently major American media outlets have slashed their international news coverage and abandoned international news bureaus. Before Sept. 11 it was easier to find coverage of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? than bin Laden. The morning of Sept. 11 we were caught with our pants around our ankles — what exactly is Islam all about? Osama who? Al-Qaeda what? Even our own president asked, "Why do they hate us?" We realized that we knew next to nothing about the world we claim to lead, the world our culture is permeating. This must change. We should not be satisfied with a mainstream news media that gives us a superficial view of the world, or satiates us with one-name scandals (O.J., Monica, Jonbenet, Chandra) while the rest of the world rolls their eyes at the "ignorant Americans." We should not settle for a president who paints us a black-and-white world and whittles an international crisis down to an "axis of evil."

I fear that as long as there are people in the world broken by poverty, war and religious extremism, the voice of terror will find an audience. I fear that any military response will only serve as a Band-Aid, crushing one faction of a movement that will, in time, rise up again. I by no means claim to be informed of all world affairs — I’ll admit I hadn‘t even heard of bin Laden before Sept. 11 — but I believe that one of the best things we can do in our imperfect world is what Pearl did and his captors did not — learn as much as we can, keep an open mind and hold fast to ideals of peace, tolerance and freedom.