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Bin Laden fascinates, repels scholars at VU
Professors' group studies terrorist's speeches, writing

By MICHAEL CASS
Staff Writer

Every few weeks this fall, a small group of Vanderbilt University professors has gathered to discuss a repulsive but fascinating topic: the speeches and statements of Osama bin Laden.

Getting inside the head of the terrorist mastermind who authored the deaths of almost 3,000 Americans on Sept. 11, 2001, is tough to stomach, to say the least.

But the group of about a dozen professors, who range from religion scholars to political scientists and historians, say it's crucial to try to understand a man who has become a featured player on the world stage, no matter how he got there.

"They're poorly written and poorly edited and yucky texts … but they're important texts," said Richard McGregor, an assistant professor of religious studies who specializes in Islam. "It's not enjoyable to read aesthetically, but what else should be the business of people on this campus but to read directly relevant, urgent material?"

But the federal government's intense interest in people who show signs of interest in terrorist activity may have turned away some professors who otherwise would have joined. The threat of having one's library checkout records combed through by FBI agents — as the USA Patriot Act, now up for reauthorization, allows under certain circumstances — has had a chilling effect on college campuses in general, McGregor said.

"Even at Vanderbilt, where the administration stands behind us and there's no interference in what you do, to go on record, it's a bit sensitive to say, 'Yes, I'm in an Osama bin Laden reading group.' "

George Bolds, spokesman for the Memphis field office of the FBI, which oversees the Nashville satellite office, said such worries are unfounded.

"People can read what they want to read," Bolds said. "If we have some reason to believe someone is doing something illegal, we would have an interest in that. But the way you're describing it, these people are just reading."

McGregor, who is Canadian, and others in the group said they have nothing to hide. Martina Urban, an assistant professor of religious studies and Jewish studies, is from Germany and still waiting to get her green card, which would make her a permanent legal resident of the United States.

But Urban said she isn't worried about jeopardizing her immigration status. A few jokes were the extent of her discussions with fellow professors about any potential legal trouble.

She said the faculty group is doing what academics are supposed to do. "I feel confident that in the academy one can still discuss anything," she said. "Nothing should be taboo."

Volney Gay, professor and chairman of religious studies at Vanderbilt, said "paranoia" on campus is greater than
he's ever seen before. "But I can't imagine someone hearing about this and thinking we're a bin Laden cell," Gay said. "We wouldn't be advertising it if we were."

McGregor said some professors turned down a chance to join because of the difficulty of fathoming bin Laden, the carnage he's responsible for and his efforts to advance his cause. He described the reading as "staring into the abyss."

Those who did work up the nerve have reacted in different ways. Urban said she's been surprised by how "intellectually uncompelling" much of bin Laden's writing is.

"It's basically political rhetoric," she said. "I'm not sure there's a deeper message. It didn't grab my curiosity so far."

McGregor agreed the work is "shallow" in its religious thinking but said it is "powerful to many, many, many people."

Gay, who helped form the group as co-director of Vanderbilt's Center for the Study of Religion and Culture, said bin Laden's speeches are compelling as visceral statements a large audience will react to — the work of a master orator.

Gay said the speeches use powerful metaphors and images; they invoke an "idealized past" that sympathetic listeners want to return to, and they talk of a lost Arab nobility. A group member who speaks Arabic told him the language bin Laden uses is "sensual," he added.

"The overall intelligence is bad news for us in the sense that he's not a fool," Gay said of bin Laden. "He's not ranting."

Gay said Adolph Hitler was another "brilliant writer and rabble-rouser" who spelled out his plans in Mein Kampf in the mid-1920s, years before he actually rose to power and initiated the Holocaust.

Bruce Lawrence, a Duke University professor who edited a new book, Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden, wrote in the Nov. 4 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education that countering bin Laden's arguments is a better strategy than censoring them.

"He has left a sufficient record that can, and should, be attacked for its deficiencies, its lapses, its contradictions and, above all, its hopelessness," Lawrence wrote.

Gay said he plans to have the Vanderbilt discussion group take its work public with a panel discussion or publication. He said he wants the product to be "something useful but not academic," appealing to an audience beyond experts.

Richard McCarty, dean of Vanderbilt's College of Arts and Science, is not a member of the discussion group. But he was in London when bombs exploded on the city's subways in July, and he said he fears the work of bin Laden and other terrorists will be part of the world we live in for a long time.

For that reason, understanding what makes bin Laden tick is crucial.

"I'm afraid we're in for a very long period of turmoil and disruption," McCarty said. "And I hate it."
Volney Gay, front, and Richard McGregor are among the Vanderbilt professors analyzing the words of Osama bin Laden. Gay said he hopes eventually to make the group's work public. (MANDY LUNN / STAFF)
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