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G. Simon Harak, S.J., will speak on “Killing the Media Arab: The Demonization of Arabs in the American Media” at 4:10 p.m. Wednesday, February 17, in the Interfaith Chapel of Lafayette’s College’s Hogg Hall.
The talk, sponsored by Lafayette’s department of religion, is free and open to the public. Harak will also interact with Lafayette students in religion classes that day.
Harak, who has been active in the peace movement for many years, recently resigned his professorship at Fairfield University to work full time on peace and justice issues. He has traveled to Iraq with “Voices in the Wilderness: A Campaign to Break the Immoral Sanctions Against the People of Iraq,” where he openly and publicly violated U.S./U.N. sanctions against bringing medicine and toys to Iraqi hospitals. He has given more than 75 presentations across the U.S. on the effects of the sanctions on Iraq, most recently addressing a Congress of Non-Governmental Organizations at the United Nations.
Along with the other members of “Voices,” Harak received a “pre-penalty notice” from the U.S. Treasury Department announcing that body’s intention to assess the members of “Voices” more than $150,000 in fines for violating U.S. laws which sanction Iraq.
Harak entered the Jesuits in 1970 and has served as a missionary in Jamaica and the Philippines. He joined Fairfield University, where he taught ethics and attained the rank of full professor, in 1986. He was John Early Visiting Professor at Loyola College in Maryland in 1992-93.
Harak has authored and edited numerous works on religion and the peace movement. He has written Virtuous Passions: The Formation of Christian Character (Paulist, 1993), edited Aquinas and Empowerment: Classical Ethics for Ordinary Lives (Georgetown University Press, 1996) and Nonviolence for the Third Millennium (Mercer University Press, Fall 1999), co-edited Beyond Boundaries: Student Volunteers in the Developing World (JASPA, 1998), and is currently writing Vicious Passions: The Deformation of Christian Character.
For information, contact the religion department, (610) 330-5520.