By Nathan Rubbelke, College Fix:
Of all the events one could use as an ‘outside of the box’ thinking exercise, this professor chose the events of 9/11….
A recent assignment in an international studies course at Iowa State University asked students to write a historical account of the 9/11 terrorist attacks from the perspective of Al-Qaeda.
“Write a paper that gives a historical account of 911 from the perspective of the terrorist network. In other words, how might Al-Qaeda or a non-Western historian describe what happened,” stated the assignment, a copy of which was obtained by The College Fix.
“Don’t worry about the fact you don’t agree with the terrorists, the point of the exercise is to consider completely different perspectives,” the assignment adds.
A university spokesman told The Fix the assignment doesn’t diminish the “tragic events” of 9/11 and equates the essay prompt to work undertaken by America’s diplomatic and intelligence agencies.
The assignment is part of an International Studies course taught by lecturer James Strohman, who’s taught multiple political science and public administration courses at Iowa State over the years.
The assignment aimed to view history from “different contexts.”
“Let’s focus on the 9/11 terrorist attack and how it might be interpreted differently by different people around the world,” the instructions read. “For this exercise, you have to ‘get out of the box’ of our thinking about what happened on 9/11 and view it from a completely different perspective.”
The assignment tells students this may be difficult to do, but that it’s an exercise examining the differences of people, cultures and historical perspectives.
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