In the wake of last week's devastating bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, some SF State students accused the media of jumping to conclusions and perpetuating stereotypes of Middle Easterners as terrorists.
The explosion occurred Wednesday morning, destroying part of the nine-story building. At last count, authorities said that 81 people had been confirmed dead and more than 400 injured.
One suspect, a white man from Michigan named Tim McVeigh, was linked to the bombing Thursday, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno said. This contradicted earlier reports that Muslim terrorists were involved.
Shortly after the bombing, analysts in the media said the timing of the attack was similar to past bombings linked to Muslims, such as the 1993 World Trade Center attack in New York City. "The signature looks Middle Eastern," noted Sherman Teichman, an expert on terrorism at Tufts University, in a Sacramento Bee article.
That signature includes the immense power of the bomb, that it was delivered in a car and that the target was a federal building as some evidence that the Oklahoma City bombing was likely done by Middle East terrorists, according to San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Experts discounted American radical groups, according to Time Magazine because "few, if any, U.S. groups have the skills used in this bombing, and the car bomb is a signature weapon of several Islamic groups but no known American ones.
"In addition, perhaps coincidentally, there was a major national conference of a large Muslim group in Oklahoma City last weekend."
The media reported Wednesday night that an American citizen born in Jordan who now lives in Oklahoma City was detained in London Wednesday and then forced to return to the U.S. for questioning.
Many students questioned the media's readiness to pin the terrorist act on Middle Easterners when so much of the reporting was speculation.
"For two days the media had so-called experts on, claiming that the bomb must be the work of a Middle Eastern group. Where is the wisdom in this?" said Imran Hameed, Muslim Student Association member.
"The FBI, when they were interviewed, said that it was too early to put blame on anyone yet. But the experts the media used were jumping to conclusions," Hameed said. "We were happy when President Clinton said that we shouldn't be blaming anyone until we knew who did this."
"I don't understand where they got that information and wonder how it was decided that they would be the ones to blame. Maybe it was just easier to blame a group of people that could be classified as being capable of doing such a thing. It's unfair, but it happens," said Mohamad Jamai, a senior business student.
Psychology major Amy Donnelly said she felt the media has a responsibility to let the public know what is going on as soon as possible. Sometimes that may mean reporting unconfirmed theories. "It is their priority and their job to do this. The FBI doesn't have to answer anything. They can't comment until there is evidence," she said.
Jamal Parvez, an urban studies student, found it ironic when new evidence surfaced suggesting the bombers were white Americans from the Midwest, and not the Middle East.
"Many people thought that if a Middle Eastern person is involved, we should target the Middle East," Hameed said. "But now that it has come out that it was a white person who did the bombing, there is not the same outcry. What should we do now? Target all white Americans as terrorists?"
"I was really relieved that it wasn't them (Middle Easterners)," art student Alesia Massey said. "It would be an excuse for a racist backlash."
Students of Middle Eastern descent expressed both grief and anger about the bombing and the coverage following it.
"I feel sorry for the victims, but I'm angry at the media and whoever else was involved in the rumor that the suspects were Middle Eastern," Jamai said.
"In our own legend, in a state of war you can't harm a child or a woman. How can any sane person do this (the bombing)?" said Mohamad Ahmad, member of the Muslim Student Association.
The media's negative portrayal of Arab Americans leads to societal prejudice against all people of Middle Eastern descent, students said.
"The media, by accusing Middle Easterners as terrorists, have created racial tension. The media should apologize," Mohamad Ahmad of the Muslim Student Association said.
Freshman Joel Ahmad agreed. "It makes me mad that no one has ever apologized for putting the blame on the Arabs, it was treated as no big deal. Like it was OK to do it."
"The media perpetuated all of this Middle East scare, and I do understand to a certain extent American people's anxiety regarding the violence in those countries, but I feel the press was very unethical and unprofessional in their handling or laying the blame," social science student Pete Doktor said.
He compared the situation to the coverage of Proposition 187, the anti-immigration measure passed in last November's elections. "The Mexicans were pinpointed in Proposition 187 as the bad guys, just as the Middle Eastern people were scapegoated for the Oklahoma bombings."
Some students said the coverage was nothing new or unusual.
"It didn't surprise me, not because we are terrorists, but because the media has brainwashed the public to think that whenever there is terrorism, Mid-Easterners are to blame," Lina Baydoun, a senior studying microbiology, said.
"People are programmed to think automatically that it must be the Middle East. Even at my work, people would say about the bombing that it must be you guys who were responsible. There is the stereotype that all Arabs are terrorists," said Naseer Irfan, member of the Muslim Student Association.
"The past two days all the experts that have been on TV have said that the bombers came from the Middle East. People that I know have gotten phone calls," Irfan said Friday.
"Today we are in the process of calling the media to protest their misleading coverage. That creates discrimination," Irfan said.
"This bombing just proves that the United States has some sort of immense hidden hatred toward the Muslims," said Khan Arshad, a political science senior.
Staff writers Robert Gwathney, Mari Kaups, Alex Mullen, Craig Schmalz and Kirstin Warren contributed to this article.