Students speak out against anti-Arab sentiments in U.S.

Students from the Johns Hopkins University and Goucher College rallied in front of the Civil War monument on the south end of campus last Saturday to protest President George Bush's call for a "war on terror." The rally was held in honor of the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon and attempted to call attention to the profiling Arab-Americans have faced since the attacks, according to organizers.

"There's been war rhetoric since the attacks," said Eric Leslie, a member of the Hopkins Student Labor Action Committee (SLAC), "but we don't have a clear enemy. It's not like Pearl Harbor and the Japanese."

Students at the rally interviewed by The Baltimore Sun said that they had "concern that efforts to weed out terrorism would impinge on civil rights and unfairly target Muslims" and that it is a citizen's responsibility to question its government.

Leslie was among the more than 100 Hopkins students that participated in the rally. Students from many other colleges and groups attended the event, including students from Goucher College, Towson University and Loyola College. The Baltimore Green Party and All People's Congress also had members at the event. Members of the Quaker Friends Congregation, who held a similar rally on Friday night, were also present.

"We wanted to put together a rally to talk [about] everything that's been happening," said Leslie. "[The attacks and the government's response are] something that's on everybody's mind." During the rally, students meet on 33rd St. and marched to the Civil War Moment on the south side of the Homewood campus. Several people beat on drums, and many more sang war protests that had been used during the 60s and 70s. The march ended at the Civil War monument, where on Sept. 12, the day after the attacks, the words "Kill all Arabs" had been spray painted.

"We wanted to respond directly to the [tagging]," said Leslie. "The Arab community has had to deal with so much harassment since the attacks."

At the Quaker Friends Congregation rally on Friday night, people held signs in a strip of road in the middle of Art Museum Drive. While most of the rally participants came from the Quaker Hall located across Charles Street, several Hopkins students also joined the demonstration.

Hopkins security estimated that between 150 and 200 people attended the Saturday rally.

No other events have been planned to protest the government's actions in response to the attacks, although it still remains a possibility, said SLAC members who planned the march.

"We're staying in connection with Baltimore groups," said Leslie. "If there's an outbreak of war then we'll act, [but] until then we'll just be preparing."

One concern of participants of the rally was that their voices are being ignored by a government driven by war hawks. Despite polls showing that the majority of Americans favor war, many people don't want the U.S. to engage a covert enemy with an attack meant for conventional wars, according to Leslie.

"When 250 people showed up, I was blown away and encouraged," said Leslie. "It was great to see that [the students] weren't going to stay quiet when so many people are planning for war.