Harvard senior's 'American jihad' draws applause, protest

Speech was concern for commencement

By Patrick Healy, Globe Staff, 6/7/2002

CAMBRIDGE - Speaking under tight security at commencement yesterday, Harvard University senior Zayed Yasin compared the ideals of the American Dream to the Islamic concept of ''jihad,'' telling the audience of 30,000 that the struggle against poverty, oppression, and terrorism was ''our American jihad.''

The speech received energetic applause from many in the audience, but a few students said afterward they remained silent to protest Yasin's conception of ''jihad'' - a word used by some Muslims to justify ''holy war'' against enemies and the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

Yasin's plan to ''redefine'' jihad with his speech had offended some Harvard students, faculty, and alumni in recent weeks and led them to organize a silent protest during commencement yesterday, where audience members were given red, white, and blue ribbons as a symbol of protest.

Only a smattering of people wore them. In a bit of subversion, Yasin pinned one of the ribbons to his commencement gown and wore it as he delivered the senior English Oration from the dais.

In his speech, Yasin also denounced the ''corruption'' of the word jihad by radical Muslims and others, and described the deaths stemming from Sept. 11 as the ''results of this corruption.'' He called on classmates to undertake their own personal jihad, which he characterized as a civic-minded endeavor.

''Whether on our way to an investment bank in New York, or to Sierra Leone to work with orphans, Harvard graduates have a responsibility to leave their mark on the world,'' he said. ''So let us struggle, and let us make our mark.''

During yesterday's ceremony a total of 6,409 degrees were conferred, including 1,569 for undergraduates in Harvard College. The next-largest group of graduates came from the Business School, with 916, while the smallest number came from the Dental School, with 99 students.

About 90.4 percent of seniors graduated with honors - fewer than last year's record of 91 percent, but far more than the 50-60 percent who will be eligible for honors under a new cap that will take effect with commencement 2005.

Among the honorary degree recipients were former US senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan; Ruth Simmons, president of Brown University and the first African-American leader in the Ivy League; and Neil Rudenstine, who led Harvard from 1991 to 2001.

Shortly after Yasin started to deliver his address, rain began to pour on the audience squeezed into the Tercenterary quadrangle, and many family members ran inside nearby buildings to watch the event on cable television.

A few people in the morning audience noted that the weather conditions defied Harvard tradition that the sun always shines on commencement. One man, so wet that his eyeglasses were rendered useless, was moved to quote a Yale president who said, at a rainy Harvard commencement a half-century ago, ''So this is how Harvard soaks the rich.''

The afternoon ceremonies, including a speech by university president Lawrence H. Summers, were cut short, however, and people were encouraged to read the remarks on the Harvard Web site.

In his speech, Summers reviewed his first year in office and singled out professors, four students, and one Kennedy School fellow who had impressed him - with one nod going to Afro-American Studies Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who is considering a teaching offer from Princeton, which has hired away his two closest colleagues this year.

Patrick Healy can be reached at phealy@globe.com.

This story ran on page B5 of the Boston Globe on 6/7/2002.

© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.