Syracuse University professors and a graduate student shared their thoughts on the meaning of terrorism and resolutions to terrorism issues at a panel held Wednesday.

Melissa Chessher, chair of the magazine department and director of the magazine, newspaper and online journalism graduate program at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications; Assil Alnaser, an SU graduate student studying international relations; and Biko Mandela Gray, an assistant professor of American religion at SU, were panelists for the event.

The panel, “Challenging Narratives of Terrorism,” held in Shemin Auditorium at SU’s Shaffer Art Building, was part of Remembrance Week, a campus initiative to honor the 270 victims of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.

Chessher, one of the authors of “Looking For Lockerbie,” a book about Lockerbie beyond the attack, described her experience of living in Lockerbie for six months and how that time influenced her view of the attack.

“I began to understand the benefit of the relationship forged between these two communities out of this one terrible, awful act,” Chessher said, referring to Lockerbie and Syracuse University.

Alnaser is a human rights activist who focuses on Syria. She said she was arrested and imprisoned there for 45 days for her activist work.

Terrorism involves states and governments violating individual rights and purposefully terrifying people, she said.

Gray, the assistant professor at SU, spoke about the terror that minorities in the United States — especially black  Americans — face daily. While many people from the U.S. picture the 9/11 attacks when they hear “terrorism,” there are smaller events that should be classified as terrorist acts, he said.

When you are a black person, “terror is a way of life,” Gray said.

Mass shootings, the riots in Charlottesville, Virginia, earlier this year and incidents of police violence are example of terrorism, he added.

The discussion then moved to what can be done to combat terrorism and change the narrative that revolves around it.

“People become numb to (violent) events. Violence all over the world increased, so people start to feel like it is something normal,” Alnaser said.

Chessher described the events following the Lockerbie bombing to explain how individuals can help solve the problem of terrorism.

People must take action and remember, she added. Out of the 3,500 people in Lockerbie, 1,400 offered their assistance to assist the victims, Chessher said.

“The word terror has become a political dog whistle,” Chessher said in reference to narratives of terrorism.

Terrorism has different meanings for different people, Gray said. It is important to listen to those who are experiencing terror to see what can and needs to be done, he added.

To combat the tensions surrounding terrorism, everyone should “be willing to talk with people who are different than them,” Gray said.

Published on October 25, 2017 at 11:54 pm

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