Today”s peace rally in front of the Ann Arbor federal building, sponsored by the Alliance for Peace and Justice, is part of an anti-war campaign distinctly separated from the protest led last week by the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary.
Since the United States was attacked by terrorists on Sept. 11, BAMN, which has traditionally held strong stances on the nation”s most heated issues, has led campaigns against going to war and against the scapegoating of Arab and Muslim students.
But its recent anti-war rally and disbursement of fliers has been met with some backlash.
At the last Michigan Student Assembly meeting, BAMN sponsored two anti-war resolutions, asking for the assembly to take action against war hysteria and to support a green armband campaign against racial scapegoating. Both were voted down.
BAMN member Luke Massie said the organization”s anti-war campaign has ignited the most intense backlash the group has yet received.
“We”ve not experienced this kind of smear and baiting before,” Massie said.
But he quickly added that it was to be expected.
“Any time you try to improve society, you will be slandered,” Massie said.
LSA junior Fadi Kiblawi said that it is not BAMN”s platform he has a problem with so much as the organization itself.
Kiblawi, who is an executive member of the University”s Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee, said he was upset that BAMN did not talk to any of the Arab or Muslim community on campus before initiating their campaigns.
“They didn”t ask the Arab and Muslim leaders, the people who represent me,” Kiblawi said.
“I personally feel it”s disrespectful to the groups affected most,” he said. “I don”t like BAMN speaking for me.”
Kiblawi also said he believes BAMN”s anti-war efforts are insincere.
“I personally feel they hijack issues and exploit them to push their own cause,” he said.
But RC freshman Emily Bate, a new BAMN member, said the racial inequality in the U.S military connects BAMN”s fight for the preservation of affirmative action and the anti-war movement.
She noted that there is a disproportionate number of minorities who do not have any other choice but to enlist in the army.
“BAMN really understands that all these political movements are tied together,” Bait said.