When she heard of the terrorist attack in Brussels, Valentina Hartarska, professor in agricultural economics, said her daughter was scared for her friends who live there.
“I have a young daughter who is horrified because she lived there for three months ... she asked me, ‘Why is ISIS so mean?’” Hartarska said.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attacks at an airport and subway station that killed 35 people on Monday, March 21.
Hartarska spent spring 2015 studying microfinance at the Brussels Free Universities as the visiting Fulbright scholar and occasionally taught classes in rural development at the University of Mons-Hainaut in Belgium from 2008–11.
Hartarska was shocked when she heard about the bombings on the radio and rushed to check on her friends via Facebook.
“I know the places where this happened, and I imagined myself being there,” Hartarska said.
Hartarska spent most of the day emailing with friends and colleagues in Brussels to make sure everyone was all right. She said there was a tone of sadness in the emails.
“They say, ‘We have to carry on,’” Hartarska said. “Frankly, I think they feel a little bit of helplessness.”
Hans van der Reijden, managing director of The Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center and native of the Netherlands, said he was shocked, but not altogether surprised about the attack.
“It wasn’t a complete surprise, and that’s a sad state of reality today, especially in Europe,” van der Reijden said.
Van der Reijden said there is an underlying fear in Europe, but terrorists’ actions cannot be justified or tolerated. He said Brussles is a historically diverse city in the center of Belgium.
“Everyone I speak to who lives in Europe says the same thing: It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when,” van der Reijden said.
Brussels is about a two-hour train ride from Paris, the site of a terrorist attack that killed 129 people in November.
Van der Reijden said the number of attacks in recent years in Europe is “mind-boggling.”
“It’s not an incident,” van der Reijden said. “It’s a coordinated ideological war that’s being waged.”
A friend of van der Reijden’s family took the day off the day of the attack. He works approximately 300 feet from the subway station that was bombed, according to van der Reijden.
“That was a chilling realization,” van der Reijden said.
However, van der Reijden believes there is a sense of resilience among the people.
Hartarska feels especially empathetic toward the students.
“The students, I can imagine that they are most vulnerable and scared because they have to use the most public transportation,” Hartarska said.
Hartarska thinks the attack will make people think twice about traveling there. She has plans to go there soon, and she said her family doesn’t want her to.
“Brussels was a great place, and now I don’t know how to think about it,” Hartarska said.
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