Virginia Tech Student Trying to Forget Massacre

**Spiral** · #1 (**permalink**) 04-19-2007, 01:03 PM

WASHINGTON, 19 April 2007 — The following poignant words are from Abdulsalam Alsulaimani, president of the Saudi Student Club at Virginia Tech.

“We, as the Saudi community in Blacksburg, gathered with the community — males, female and children, in the campus stadium — there were so many people we couldn’t get into the building so thousands of us went to the stadium.

“There we met the head of the Saudi cultural mission, the Saudi Cultural Attaché, Dr. Mazyed Almazyed, who came down from Washington to meet us. He came to make sure that we were all okay and safe. We all attended the convocation together; we heard President Bush. We were part of the large community. The nice thing about it is that almost all the Saudis attended together, all the 40 students here and their families.

“There we heard the news confirming the death of our Egyptian brother, Walid Shaalan. Imagine it — he had just begun his first year Ph.D in civil engineering. He was so happy when he told us that his wife and child in Egypt had received a visa and were soon coming to Virginia Tech. So, when we got this bad news, it affected us deeply. We couldn’t help but cry over his loss, and many of our wives started crying deeply — because they imagined what it was like for his wife, for his family, for his mother.

“And also, out of the 32 people who died, at least 10 of them we either knew, or we knew about them. For example, one of them worked part-time in the pharmacy, we didn’t know his name, but we remember his face. He always helped us. Another guy had a sister who spent a lot of time at the Saudi student table during International Day, talking to our women; she had a good relationship with our wives. Now her brother is dead.

“It’s these small stories that make the full story of the tragedy. It’s a small community and we’re all close.

“After the convocation, we went to one of the public restaurants with the Saudi Cultural mission, and we all went there, it was crowded, we had to wait a long time — all the places around the university were crowded. Monday no one was in the streets, but Tuesday it was very active, and full of people, today it’s calmed down a little. We stayed there for about three hours, we felt that we were part of the city — even in the restaurant, people were gathering as a group, not as individuals. It was like public healing that took place for all of us to be together.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen next, or what we will do. Blacksburg is well-known for being a safe campus throughout the United States. This year has been an exception, a horrible exception. The first day of the academic year, a criminal escaped from the jail and killed a guard and a police officer. The campus closed on the first day of school. And just a few weeks ago, some halls in the university were closed because of bomb threats. And now this massacre happens, so it seems the whole image of Blacksburg is changed.

“I will be done with my studies in a few weeks, but I think that the Saudi students are going to stay. They love it at Blacksburg; it’s one of those places that if you live there, you really love it. I’ll tell you the truth, most of our community feel as though they belong here, so they feel that this tragedy directly hit their town. My wife has been very depressed since this massacre happened. We haven’t told our children about it; they’re six and four years old.

“The public school is closed for one week, so I told them it’s a holiday. So is Virginia Tech. But until now, we don’t what we’re going to do — we’re going to keep meeting with our colleagues, and we’ll see what the university is going to decide to do. There was a bomb threat early this morning. It really annoys me, all this has changed the whole concept of this Virginia Tech, as regards the campus and security. Sometimes Saudi students call me from Saudi Arabia about whether they should come here — the first word I use to describe this college is that it’s ‘safe,’ and now I don’t know what to say.

“One more thing, I want to speak about Reema Samah, the Lebanese-American girl who was killed, I just learned on Sunday, when we had the International Day that her family lives in northern Virginia, and they drove down here on Sunday, to see their daughter’s performance.

“Her family emigrated in 1990, and she went every summer to Lebanon, and it’s there that she took dabke dancing lessons; she was a great performer. Many of our wives talked to her, and joked with her about her great dancing. This is really very, very, very sad.”

source: aljazeera.com

reda_b · #2 (**permalink**) 04-19-2007, 03:07 PM

What arrived in Virginie is unhappy and shocking. But it is the hidden face of the USA. THAT GOD receive ALL DEATHS OF THIS TRAGEDY IN ITS VAST PARADISE