English 101

Yaolee chen

Glenn Simshaw

Criticizing An Address

     On the first day of the Spring Quarter of 2002, an address by President Bush was handed out to each student in the classroom of my Western Civilization.  The professor, Robert Blackey, read out loud the paper: the address was about to promote the safety on the campus, "we must stop the hate and violence on the campus," said president Bush.  By the address, an Islamic classmate was an enemy of our classroom automatically.

     Any member of the Islamic society was threatened by the address.  The Islamic fundamentalists served the only true god, they banned the sinful behaviors, they made a greater religious application in their daily life, they disrespected to the wealth, they searched for an Islamic moral unity, and they struggled to resist the Western-predominant role both direct and indirectly.  More clearly to say was that any member of the Islamic Community was suspected to have the portion of "hate and violence" because they valued not the ways of others' thinking and/or others' action, but the belief of "Allah" only.

     I remembered quiet clearly about an event in the classroom was that my Islamic classmate was threatened by the students and the professor on the campus.  It was quiet an ordinary day.  A black young student dressed in the traditional Islamic clothing, which was with black suits and a black veil, sitting next to me.  He drew near his body and his head toward me, he was to speak to me, I ignored him because the professor was delivering his lecture.  The black young man sat back into his seat.  He shook his head and bowed down his face on his armchair. Then all of a sudden, Professor Robber Blackey stopped to talk in the classroom.  The whole classroom was quiet.  Then the professor looked straight at the young man and said, "Muhammad, do you have any question."  Every student in that classroom look at him.  I will never forget the eyes of Muhammad, he lifted up his face to the professor and he looked at the students around who were also looking at him.  His face was so frightened.  The lecture was about the Islamic-Christian wars during the time of Philip II, 1553-1598.  Poor Muhammad must be thinking about the terrorists' attacking the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001.  And the lecture from President Bush, particularly, had made him an enemy of our campus.  No mater what he was doing his action was suspected to be an action of hate.  I felt so sorry about the Islamic student in the classroom.  He had actually done nothing, but he was suspected to be an enemy of the U.S. because of the address by President Bush on the first day of the classroom.  The address from President Bush had increased the atmosphere of "hate and violence" on our campus.

Our shared sense of decency, established policy, and the University's very mission statement dictate that hate behaviors are, with no exception, throughly unacceptable.  We will accept no bashing, no barassment, and no intimidation, regardless of the target. (President Bush Jr.)

Works Cited

President Bush. "President Karnig's Statement to the Campus for the Opening of Class".  March, 2002 in CSUSB.