Arab media gave the shocking killings at Virginia Tech top coverage. It was right up there, the next top item of newspaper front pages, after the usual daily dosage of the noble and magnanimous activities of Presidents-for-Life, Monarchs, and their potentates. Even television stations gave it some extended coverage, after the usual daily film clips of Presidents-for-Life, and Monarchs shaking hands, making the correct noises, promising utopia, and kissing each others’ cheeks (no, not THOSE!).

Interesting how some in the United States, mostly media types in need of substance to fill the long minutes on the air, have been talking about college lockdowns. You might as well lock down a whole town like Intercourse (PA), or Hooker (Arkansas). And yes, they do exist. I won’t even mention LLANFAIRWLLGWYNGLLGOGERYYCHWYRNDROBWILLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH (I hear it is in Wales), or Had El-Hmara (The Donkey’s..........) somewhere in the (Persian) Gulf region. By the way, the famous Sharm El-Sheikh (Egypt) means the Sheikh’s ‘sharm’. I’ll let you know someday what ‘sharm’ means, and you probably don’t have to be over 18 either.

Universities and Colleges in the Middle East, the ones I’ve seen, are perfectly equipped for lockdowns, and they are locked down every day. They are usually fenced within high walls, with a few iron gates for access. These gates can, and often are, shut and locked. After hours, the campus, such as it is, is locked down. Fraternization with society at large is not only frowned upon, it is actively discouraged. I recall the time when I taught some courses at a university in the Gulf area, how the guard outside the gate peered at me as I approached, before swinging the gate open slowly, grudgingly. At another campus, which used to be my old high school before being upgraded to a college, the guard would always ask me what my business was before letting me in. So: traternization is verbotten.

These walls and gates are not there to prevent criminals from the outside from entering and committing crimes on campus. They are there to prevent potential (political) criminals, the students, from spilling out and expressing themselves loudly. Any massacre a la Virginia Tech will happen if and when the students spill out in large groups (there are laws in most Arab states regulating mass public gatherings of more than 10 or so people, and some governments even regulate private gatherings but I understand that it doesn't apply to polygamy).
I suspect the story is the same all across the Arab parts of the Middle East and Iran: keep them fenced in and keep everybody else fenced out.
Cheers
Mohammed