University Community Holds Vigil for Paris Victims

More than 100 BU students gathered in the cold on Marsh Plaza Saturday evening to pay tribute to the victims of the Paris attacks. Photos by Chenyao Xu (COM’17)

A day after a series of deadly attacks by the Islamic State (ISIS) in Paris the shock had subsided, but Boston University students were expressing profound sorrow, fear, and concern that the attacks would fuel cultural and religious misunderstanding and hatred at home and abroad.

Mackenzie McGraw (SED’19) and her friend Bridget Baker (CAS’18) wanted to address these concerns, so they took to Facebook and worked the phones all day Saturday to organize a candlelight vigil to honor not just the victims in Paris, but those in Beirut and Baghdad, and terrorist violence that has, as one student put it, become emblematic of the divided world they are poised to inherit.

“Tonight we gather in peace and unity, and to show we are not afraid,” McGraw told the 100 or more students assembled at Marsh Plaza for the 9 p.m. vigil. As the students huddled together against a cold wind, a French flag was unfurled and candles lit. “Since the day we arrived here at BU we learned that there is more that unites us than separates us,” McGraw said. “We’ve been born into a world at constant war. We stand here in the belief that love can unify the world. Together we can change the world.”

Before standing for a prolonged moment of silence, several students recited short poems. An American born to Pakistani parents, Ibrahim Rashid (CAS’19), who has lived in South Africa and Nigeria, punctuated his wide-ranging speech to those gathered with the refrain, “I am a Muslim.” Rashid began: “I am a Muslim. I’m just like you. I might be a Muslim, but I am also a human being. But I’m not a terrorist. I’m someone who goes to class, someone who struggles to make friends, I’m someone who feels homesick every once in a while.” The international relations major continued: “Al-Qaeda, al-Nusra, ISIS, Hezbollah, Boko Haram—they don’t represent me. They don’t represent my faith. They are not Muslims.”

As a Muslim, he said, “I am scared that this tragedy will be used as an excuse to deny these refugees a home. As a Muslim, I am scared that, just like 9/11, this tragedy will take us into another war where more innocent lives on both sides will be lost. Because every time an innocent child is killed in a drone strike in what is known as collateral damage, we thicken the divide between the East and the West and we create more and more terrorists who see us as an invading force.”

Rashid’s fear of backlash against Muslims echoed the concerns of students interviewed around campus Saturday evening. Sitting with friends in a lounge at the Florence & Chafetz Hillel House, Erin Miller (CAS’17) spoke of being deeply disturbed by an anti-Islam Facebook posting she had seen earlier in the day. “I unfriended him,” she said, adding that she worries that the ISIS-perpetrated massacres in Paris will feed prejudice against Muslims.

“My sister’s roommate is Muslim and she’s afraid of being blamed for this,” said Kayla Seigel (SAR’18). Her friend Louis Fuller (SAR’18) said, “I feel bad for the majority of Muslims who are very peaceful people,” but that everyone should join in going after Islamic radicals. For Fuller, the thing that is most concerning about Friday’s terrorist attacks “is that this is no longer about beliefs—this is a group out to wreak havoc for no reason. They can pretty much do whatever they want.” He echoed the concerns of several students that something similar could happen here, although Europe’s borders are more porous and Paris itself has been a target numerous times.

Cassie Kramer (SED’17) was at Pinkberry at the George Sherman Union with a friend Saturday night. She said she’s been thinking about how attacks like this “can happen everywhere.”

International student Estelle Brun (CAS’17) described her family back home, a town near Cannes in the south of France, as being in a state of shock, saying that before they learned all were safe, they’d been frantic to connect with their many friends in Paris. The attacks “make us feel so powerless,” said Brun. “But we knew it was going to happen. France is an open target for ISIS.” Brun received messages of support all day from friends around the world. “I feel safe here,” she said. “But if I had the choice I’d be in France with my family right now.”

McGraw closed the vigil with a call for hope, understanding, and peace. In the shadow of the Marsh Plaza sculpture memorializing him, she quoted the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (GRS’55, Hon.’59): “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”