February 1998 - Central Ohio was unknown as a Muslim community. Most people on the street considered Muslims to be people who lived overseas, not in Ohio, and they had no idea there was one mosque in Columbus, let alone three. The Clinton Administration wanted to stage a 'Town Hall Meeting" at St. John's Arena at Ohio State University. They wanted public support for their decision to bomb Iraq since Saddam Hussein was giving them such headaches about inspecting weapon sites in Iraq.
Up to this time, there had been 7 years of sanctions against Iraq that had caused more than 1 million Iraqis to die because of food and medical shortages, around 600,000 of them children according to UN reports. A UN Food and Agriculture Organization report of December 1995 stated that 12% of the children surveyed in Baghdad were malnourished, 28% had stunted growth, and 29% were underweight. Iraq had been heavily bombed during the Gulf War and after. Its infrastructure, particularly water systems, were in disrepair because of the sanctions. Clinton, and his Secretaries of State and Defense were proposing to drop more bombs.
The Town Hall meeting was aired exclusively on CNN, which at that time was THE international news media giant. There would be questions from the local audience and from the overseas audience to US officials, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Defense Secretary William Cohen, and National Security Adviser Sandy Berger. Although billed as a town meeting for exchange of views, it was actually set up for a few selected people to ask previewed questions for the government officials to answer. It was a staged performance.
Why Ohio ? They came to the heartland of America, and timed the meeting in the early afternoon, so retired veterans and college students could be the seated audience in the hall. They wanted to show the world that America was behind their policy.
Opps! This Town Hall Meeting was a total fiasco. The Dispatch headline read, "Town meeting turbulent". They ran a Washington Post article "In D.C., loud forum played like 'car crash'".
There were two kinds of tickets given out for the event, red and white. Red tickets were for Ohio State Students and specially connected groups. These ticket holders got to enter first and get the seats close up. They would be the only ones allowed to ask questions. And they had to write their questions on paper and get approval from organizers before they got time at the microphone. But they could address US officials on in front of the whole world on TV. Unknown to the Washington and CNN organizers, the Muslim Student Association (MSA) was one of the biggest student organizations on campus with around 200 members. It got a number of these red tickets for its members.
The MSA tickets went to people in the community who could hopefully ask questions in clear unaccented English. They were given a list of possible questions a committee had prepared in advance. Several of those ticket holders were Muslim sisters who wear hijab. Asma Mobin-Uddin sat in the front row where the cameras couldn't miss her. Relatives in Pakistan told her they saw her on TV. The third row back, right in front of the podium, had four Muslim women seated together, Norma Tarazi, Bonnie Awan, and two young teens. A CNN official dashed up to them, her nerves so frayed she could hardly speak. She couldn't believe they had red tickets. She ran away for about 5 minutes and then hurried back. She insisted that the group split up. Another CNN official came to back her up. The girls moved to some open seats on the west side of the podium. The two Muslim women stayed in their seats, directly in line with Dr. Albright's seat. If they had had more experience perhaps, and more determination, they might have been able to avoid being split, but then Muslims should be well mannered.
The first two people to ask questions, nicely dressed articulate professional men, were Muslims.
"I am an assistant professor in the Ohio State University. My question is to Secretary of Defense, Mr. Cohen. The American Administration has the might and the means to attack the Iraqi state, but does it have the moral right to attack the Iraqi nation?" Dr. Baha Alak
"I'm an ER technician here in Columbus. My question is, this Administration has raised concerns about Iraq's threats to its neighbors. Yet none of these neighbors seem to be threatened. They
haven't asked for help; and in fact, they've come out publicly against the bombings." John Kashubeck [These questions are quotes from State Department Transcripts of the event, available on line. Actually Dr. Kashubeck said 'physician', not 'technician'.]
Cohen and Albright wasted air time with answers that really answered nothing, as they did with most of the questions throughout the event. Many commentators and columnists mentioned this.
Outside the hall were crowds of demonstrators in the light rain, including members of the Muslim Student Association and Mark Stansbery with the Middle East Peace Committee, carrying signs and joining together in chants against the proposed bombings. They had their own speakers, including Ron Kovic, a decorated Viet Nam vet and author of Born on the Fourth of July and Gordon Clark, the executive director of the National Peace Action. More Muslims were in the arena, with the white tickets.
There were groups of people also who were very ill-mannered in their protesting. One was removed by police after getting into a screaming fight with one of the CNN anchors. One of the anchors said on TV that there were only about 12 who were yelling from the balcony, and a few media stories said there were only a few among the 6000 attendees, but that was hardly believable for those who were actually in the arena. There were crowds yelling, so loud that the show was stopped at multiple points, waiting for it to die down. You couldn't hear the anchors or panelists speaking into the microphones only two or three rows away from the podium because of the noise. It was hardly the noise of a few although some people tried to pretend it was a handful among the 6000.
Muslims were there, as active participants in our American community. The Dispatch carried a half page ad from the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus, "Don't Bomb Iraq, Don't Kill More Children, 7 years of killing innocent civilians is enough." A lead story February 18th in The Lantern, the OSU newspaper, about preparation for the event highlighted the MSA and included an interview with its president, Sultane Salim. "The lives of the civilians are very important," he said. "You can't just write them off. If you want to kill civilians, it's through bombing. But with bombing you cannot destroy weapons." Mouhamed Tarazi was interviewed by the Dispatch, among local religious leaders. "Nobody is for the regime of Iraq," he said. "Everybody would be happy if they go, but does bombing take care of it? Does it eliminate the weapons of mass destruction? It does not." John Kashubeck was quoted by the Dispatch, "While the U.S. administration portrays the Iraqi regime as a monumental threat to world security, it is the Iraqi people who suffer the impact of the most comprehensive economic sanctions in history". The message was put out. The Muslim community felt only the people of Iraq would suffer from the bombings and Sadaam would not be hurt.
Media stories after the event focused on the rude protesters who interrupted the meeting over and over again with their shouting, but the folks there saw the Muslim demonstrators and the numerous hijab dressed women in both the inner circle of red ticket seats and around the hall and some of that got on TV and in the news. The Clinton team had come to the heartland of America and found Muslims aplenty in their 'carefully picked' crowd.
In the aftermath of the Town Hall Meeting, the country debated the government's Iraq policy back and forth. Members of the Columbus Muslim community continued to express their concerns about U.S. bombing plans, including a few street demonstrations in front of the Federal Building in downtown Columbus in concert with local peace groups. The Ohio chapter of The Council on American Islamic Relations was started, in part to assist the community in getting more involved in such important discussions.
The Columbus Dispatch front page, December 20, 1998 has the headline "Clinton Impeached" and an article about the impeachment the day before in the House of Representatives. The article just below it is headlined: U.S. halts attack on Iraq. Clinton did bomb Iraq for 4 days, ending the day he was impeached, which was also the first day of Ramadan. An article on pg 3A that day quoted an analyst saying the bombing cost around $500 million. Analysis in the New York Times by Steven Erlanger after the bombing noted that Saddam "has emerged from the rubble like a jack-in-the-box, alive and shouting defiance, his position strengthened in Arab public opinion." On December 22, 1998, columnist Robert Novak charged that Clinton had "wagged the dog", bombing not because it would do any good to our Iraq policy but because of his political problems that lead to his impeachment.
Another interesting description of the Town Hall meeting is presented in "Three Dead in Ohio" by Jon Strange, a protester with a white ticket who actually got time at the mic to question Albright.
Up to this time, there had been 7 years of sanctions against Iraq that had caused more than 1 million Iraqis to die because of food and medical shortages, around 600,000 of them children according to UN reports. A UN Food and Agriculture Organization report of December 1995 stated that 12% of the children surveyed in Baghdad were malnourished, 28% had stunted growth, and 29% were underweight. Iraq had been heavily bombed during the Gulf War and after. Its infrastructure, particularly water systems, were in disrepair because of the sanctions. Clinton, and his Secretaries of State and Defense were proposing to drop more bombs.
The Town Hall meeting was aired exclusively on CNN, which at that time was THE international news media giant. There would be questions from the local audience and from the overseas audience to US officials, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Defense Secretary William Cohen, and National Security Adviser Sandy Berger. Although billed as a town meeting for exchange of views, it was actually set up for a few selected people to ask previewed questions for the government officials to answer. It was a staged performance.
Why Ohio ? They came to the heartland of America, and timed the meeting in the early afternoon, so retired veterans and college students could be the seated audience in the hall. They wanted to show the world that America was behind their policy.
Opps! This Town Hall Meeting was a total fiasco. The Dispatch headline read, "Town meeting turbulent". They ran a Washington Post article "In D.C., loud forum played like 'car crash'".
There were two kinds of tickets given out for the event, red and white. Red tickets were for Ohio State Students and specially connected groups. These ticket holders got to enter first and get the seats close up. They would be the only ones allowed to ask questions. And they had to write their questions on paper and get approval from organizers before they got time at the microphone. But they could address US officials on in front of the whole world on TV. Unknown to the Washington and CNN organizers, the Muslim Student Association (MSA) was one of the biggest student organizations on campus with around 200 members. It got a number of these red tickets for its members.
The MSA tickets went to people in the community who could hopefully ask questions in clear unaccented English. They were given a list of possible questions a committee had prepared in advance. Several of those ticket holders were Muslim sisters who wear hijab. Asma Mobin-Uddin sat in the front row where the cameras couldn't miss her. Relatives in Pakistan told her they saw her on TV. The third row back, right in front of the podium, had four Muslim women seated together, Norma Tarazi, Bonnie Awan, and two young teens. A CNN official dashed up to them, her nerves so frayed she could hardly speak. She couldn't believe they had red tickets. She ran away for about 5 minutes and then hurried back. She insisted that the group split up. Another CNN official came to back her up. The girls moved to some open seats on the west side of the podium. The two Muslim women stayed in their seats, directly in line with Dr. Albright's seat. If they had had more experience perhaps, and more determination, they might have been able to avoid being split, but then Muslims should be well mannered.
The first two people to ask questions, nicely dressed articulate professional men, were Muslims.
"I am an assistant professor in the Ohio State University. My question is to Secretary of Defense, Mr. Cohen. The American Administration has the might and the means to attack the Iraqi state, but does it have the moral right to attack the Iraqi nation?" Dr. Baha Alak
"I'm an ER technician here in Columbus. My question is, this Administration has raised concerns about Iraq's threats to its neighbors. Yet none of these neighbors seem to be threatened. They
haven't asked for help; and in fact, they've come out publicly against the bombings." John Kashubeck [These questions are quotes from State Department Transcripts of the event, available on line. Actually Dr. Kashubeck said 'physician', not 'technician'.]
Cohen and Albright wasted air time with answers that really answered nothing, as they did with most of the questions throughout the event. Many commentators and columnists mentioned this.
Outside the hall were crowds of demonstrators in the light rain, including members of the Muslim Student Association and Mark Stansbery with the Middle East Peace Committee, carrying signs and joining together in chants against the proposed bombings. They had their own speakers, including Ron Kovic, a decorated Viet Nam vet and author of Born on the Fourth of July and Gordon Clark, the executive director of the National Peace Action. More Muslims were in the arena, with the white tickets.
There were groups of people also who were very ill-mannered in their protesting. One was removed by police after getting into a screaming fight with one of the CNN anchors. One of the anchors said on TV that there were only about 12 who were yelling from the balcony, and a few media stories said there were only a few among the 6000 attendees, but that was hardly believable for those who were actually in the arena. There were crowds yelling, so loud that the show was stopped at multiple points, waiting for it to die down. You couldn't hear the anchors or panelists speaking into the microphones only two or three rows away from the podium because of the noise. It was hardly the noise of a few although some people tried to pretend it was a handful among the 6000.
Muslims were there, as active participants in our American community. The Dispatch carried a half page ad from the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus, "Don't Bomb Iraq, Don't Kill More Children, 7 years of killing innocent civilians is enough." A lead story February 18th in The Lantern, the OSU newspaper, about preparation for the event highlighted the MSA and included an interview with its president, Sultane Salim. "The lives of the civilians are very important," he said. "You can't just write them off. If you want to kill civilians, it's through bombing. But with bombing you cannot destroy weapons." Mouhamed Tarazi was interviewed by the Dispatch, among local religious leaders. "Nobody is for the regime of Iraq," he said. "Everybody would be happy if they go, but does bombing take care of it? Does it eliminate the weapons of mass destruction? It does not." John Kashubeck was quoted by the Dispatch, "While the U.S. administration portrays the Iraqi regime as a monumental threat to world security, it is the Iraqi people who suffer the impact of the most comprehensive economic sanctions in history". The message was put out. The Muslim community felt only the people of Iraq would suffer from the bombings and Sadaam would not be hurt.
Media stories after the event focused on the rude protesters who interrupted the meeting over and over again with their shouting, but the folks there saw the Muslim demonstrators and the numerous hijab dressed women in both the inner circle of red ticket seats and around the hall and some of that got on TV and in the news. The Clinton team had come to the heartland of America and found Muslims aplenty in their 'carefully picked' crowd.
In the aftermath of the Town Hall Meeting, the country debated the government's Iraq policy back and forth. Members of the Columbus Muslim community continued to express their concerns about U.S. bombing plans, including a few street demonstrations in front of the Federal Building in downtown Columbus in concert with local peace groups. The Ohio chapter of The Council on American Islamic Relations was started, in part to assist the community in getting more involved in such important discussions.
The Columbus Dispatch front page, December 20, 1998 has the headline "Clinton Impeached" and an article about the impeachment the day before in the House of Representatives. The article just below it is headlined: U.S. halts attack on Iraq. Clinton did bomb Iraq for 4 days, ending the day he was impeached, which was also the first day of Ramadan. An article on pg 3A that day quoted an analyst saying the bombing cost around $500 million. Analysis in the New York Times by Steven Erlanger after the bombing noted that Saddam "has emerged from the rubble like a jack-in-the-box, alive and shouting defiance, his position strengthened in Arab public opinion." On December 22, 1998, columnist Robert Novak charged that Clinton had "wagged the dog", bombing not because it would do any good to our Iraq policy but because of his political problems that lead to his impeachment.
Another interesting description of the Town Hall meeting is presented in "Three Dead in Ohio" by Jon Strange, a protester with a white ticket who actually got time at the mic to question Albright.
No comments:
Post a Comment