The Common Ground News Service, November 23, 2004
The Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity, brought to you by Search for Common Ground, seeks to build bridges of understanding between the West and the Arab World and countries with predominately Muslim populations.
Please note: The views expressed in the articles and in CGNews-PiH are those of the authors, not of CGNews or its affiliates.
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UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, ALL ARTICLES ARE AVAILABLE FOR RE-PUBLICATION.
Article #1
Title: Silencing a modern Scheherazade
Author: Farzaneh Milani
Publication: The Christian Science Monitor
Date: November 17, 2004
Milani believes that "the time is ripe for a less homogenized, more diversified representation of the Iranian people." Concerned that U.S. views of Iran are based purely on the hostage crisis of 1979, and one-sided works such as "Not Without My Daugher", Milani believes that the voice of moderate, modern women in Iran, such as Nobel Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi, should not be silenced by the trade embargo.
Article #2
Title: Which way is west for Turkey?
Author: Soli Ozel
Publication: The Daily Star
Date: November 11, 2004
Ozel looks at Turkey's foreign policy "balancing act" between the EU and the U.S. particularly in light of the War on Iraq and with consideration to the large Kurdish populations in both Turkey and Iraq.
Article #3
Title: New surge of Americans studying in the Arab world
Author: Dan Murphy
Publication: The Christian Science Monitor
Date: November 10, 2004
Some of the over 480 Americans studying at the American Univeristy of Cairo explain why they decided to study in the Middle East, their experiences in the region, and how they are perceived by locals and fellow students both before and after 9/11.
Article #4
Title: Clash or Dialogue: Reality and perception
Author: Jason Erb and Noha Bakr
Publication: ~~Common Ground Series~~ in partnership with Al Hayat
Date:
Erb & Bakr's article is the third in a series on Arab/Muslim - Western Relations commissioned by Search for Common Ground that has been running in Middle Eastern publications over the last month. Arguing that inter-civilizational cooperation and coexistence is the norm rather than the exception, Erb and Bakr redefine Huntington's thesis as "a minority clash of fundamentalisms, whose followers exploit anxieties and frustration caused by genuine political conflicts to further their own ideological agendas."
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Article #1
Silencing a modern Scheherazade
Farzaneh Milani
(CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA.)In the old and turbulent history of Iran, women have relied on words as their weapon of choice to struggle for peace and justice. Their foremother, Scheherazade, knew the futility of fighting injustice through violent means. For one thousand and one nights, under the looming threat of having her head chopped off, she resorted to storytelling to cure a serial killer, her husband King Shahriyar.
Recognizing the formidable power of words, Shirin Ebadi, the modern-day Scheherazade, has also resorted to words to fight for human rights and human dignity. Ms. Ebadi - a human rights lawyer and one of Iran's first women judges - is however, forbidden to publish her memoirs in the United States because of a trade embargo against three countries: Sudan, Cuba, and Iran. Coming from a land that has no exact equivalent for the term "to sue," the 2003 Nobel Peace Laureate is suing the American government. Challenging the regulations imposed by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, Ebadi calls the ban "a critical missed opportunity both for Americans to learn more about my country and its people from a variety of Iranian voices and for a better understanding to be achieved between our two countries."
Ebadi has a point. Only a tiny percentage of the tens of thousands of new titles made available to the American reading public every year are translated works.
Furthermore, with no official relations with the Iranian government, with new prohibitions on direct access to the people, with travel and tourism virtually stopped, it is hard for Americans to see Iran beyond the headlines. Misunderstandings and misperceptions are rampant.
In spite of its long history of cooperation and friendship with the US, which was interrupted by the 1979 revolution, especially the hostage crisis, Iran is represented as an intractable enemy. Its dominant image
now is that of a country-turned-jailer; a country taking Americans, no less diplomats and emissaries, hostage.
Twenty-five years after the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979, Iranians are held hostage by the image of their own hostage-taking. This image is deeply etched in the collective memory of Americans. And it is the basis of the most popular movies and books on Iran. Consider the New York Times bestseller list, which was started in 1931: Not a single book about Iran appeared on it in the first 50 years. But the hostage crisis quickly changed that. A slew of new books, responding to the concerns of the time, revolving around the theme of captivity were published - eight of them scaled the Times bestseller list, attracting unprecedented attention from mainstream
newspapers, radio, and television.
While scholarly works on Iran reach the hearts and minds of barely a few thousand Americans, "Not Without My Daughter," for instance, sold more than 12 million copies, to become the most popular book ever written about Iran in the US. The "true" story of Betty Mahmoody and her daughter imprisoned in Iran by her husband, it fully sensationalized the theme of hostage-taking. Bookjacket notes state:"Imagine yourself alone and vulnerable, trapped by a husband you thought you trusted, and held prisoner in his native Iran; a land where women have no rights and Americans are despised."
Fanning the flames of antagonism between the two peoples, the majority of these books are claustrophobic nightmares. They evoke images of Iranian women drifting zombie-like in their all-enveloping veils portrayed as prisons shrunk to the size of a woman's body. They depict countless chest-pounding men who burn effigies of American presidents, desecrate the American flag, scream "Death to America" in unison.
These politicized and polarizing accounts disregard the variety and complexity of perspectives inside the country and do not promote a better understanding between the two nations.
The time is ripe for a less homogenized, more diversified representation of the Iranian people. Ebadi - praised by President Bush for her efforts to fight for human rights - is no friend of extremism. Her memoirs almost certainly will portray how women are reorganizing the political and cultural landscape of Iran.
For well over a century, women have been a moderating, modernizing force in Iran with Shirin Ebadi as one of its most articulate and successful representatives. Her voice, like Scheherazade's, is a beacon of hope and temperance. It should not be silenced. It ought to be heard.
**Farzaneh Milani, a native of Iran, is director of Studies in Women and Gender at the University of Virginia.
Source: Christian Science Monitor
Visit the website at: www.csmonitor.com
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
(c) Copyright 2004 The Christian Science Monitor. Copyright permission can be obtained by contacting lawrenced@csps.com.
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Article #2
Which way is west for Turkey?
Soli Ozel
When Turkey's Parliament voted in March 2003 against allowing American troops to open a northern front against Iraq, Turkey's traditional strategic partnership with the United States ended. The two countries still recognize many mutual interests, but now they manage these interests on a far different basis.
The vote shocked "old Europe" and the Arab world as much as the Bush administration. Europeans who considered Turkey a potential Trojan horse for America within the European Union were forced to reconsider. For many Arabs, the vote showed that Turkey was not an American lackey and would not cooperate with American imperial designs, despite close Turkish-Israeli relations.
Long-simmering disagreements between Turkey and the U.S. came to a boil with the emergence of the Kurds of northern Iraq as the Pentagon's main allies in the Iraq war. The American administration made it clear that military intervention by Turkey in Northern Iraq would not be tolerated.
That message was confirmed on July 4, 2003, when American forces arrested several Turkish Special Forces in the town of Sulaimaniya, humiliating them by putting sacks over their heads as they took them into custody. Only intervention by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney two-and-a-half days later secured the release of the soldiers, who were alleged to have been planning clandestine operations within the Kurdish zone.
Despite ongoing tensions, the Turkish government has been eager to mend relations with America, as it is anxious to have some influence over developments in Iraq. So the authorities responded quickly to the Bush administration's request for Turkish troops to join the coalition, although the idea was stillborn - rejected by both the Kurds and the American-appointed Governing Council in Iraq.
America has its own reasons to patch up the relationship. Turkey's secular, capitalistic, democratic order has become especially valuable to the Bush administration as it seeks to integrate the wider Middle East into the world system by liberalizing its economy and democratizing its polity. Thus, America trumpeted its continuing support for Turkish membership in the EU, notably in President Bush's speech in June at Istanbul's Galatasaray University - at a bridge that joins Asia and Europe.
But serious bilateral problems remain. The government is irritated by U.S. occupation forces' neglect of the northern Iraqi bases of the PKK, the Kurdish separatist insurgents who have fought a 15-year-war against Turkey. More broadly, the government regards the U.S. as too complacent vis-a-vis Kurdish political developments and unmoved by Turkey's concerns about Kurdish independence. The U.S., for its part, is unhappy with the government's objections to unrestricted American use of the Incirlik airbase in southeastern Turkey, as well as by recent tensions with Israel.
In the meantime, Turkey is moving closer to the EU, with the government overcoming nationalistic objections in the Parliament to push through comprehensive reforms. Turkey also showed its good will over Cyprus, removing a nagging political obstacle to EU membership. These steps led to the European Commission's recent recommendation to begin accession negotiations with Turkey.
The EU accession process has also underpinned a shift in Turkish policy on Iraq. Previously, Turkey viewed Iraq solely in the context of its domestic Kurdish problem. But widespread European opposition to the war removed the possibility of Turkish military intervention, forcing the government to develop another vision of Turkey's interests.
At the same time, the Iraqi Kurds also appear to appreciate how much they need a friendly Turkey. The northern border with Turkey is their lifeline to the outside world. As a result, Turkey no longer considers a federalized Iraq a threat to its security, as long as each federal unit maintains a measure of ethnic diversity.
Of course, Turkey remains opposed to an independent Kurdistan. But now its concern is more closely tied to regional politics than to the Kurdish issue. Turkey has no desire to serve as a strategic counterweight to Iran and believes that only a territorially intact Iraq can continue to play that role. Furthermore, Turkey is concerned about the possibility of civil war in Kurdistan between the two largest Kurdish factions.
But, unlike either Iran or Syria, Turkey genuinely wishes to see a strong and representative government in Baghdad. Thanks to EU pressures, Turkey's domestic Kurdish problem is well on the way to being resolved democratically, with most Kurdish leaders in Turkey expressing their commitment to Turkish unity.
For Turkey to consider military intervention in Kurdistan, EU member states would first have to renege on their commitment to negotiate Turkish accession. Equally dramatic would be any attempt by the Kurds to forcibly change the demographic balance of the multiethnic city of Kirkuk.
Turkey would prefer that Kirkuk, with its large Turkmen population, be given special status in the forthcoming draft Iraqi constitution. The U.S. also shows signs of understanding the importance of maintaining a multiethnic Kirkuk and is putting pressure on its Kurdish allies.
Turkish diplomacy has thus become a well-calibrated balancing act, moving closer to European positions in the Middle East, but eager to maintain close relations with the U.S. If this approach succeeds, Europe's bridge to Asia may also become its bridge to America.
**Soli Ozel teaches in Bilgi University's Department of International Relations and is a columnist for the Turkish daily newspaper Sabah. This article was first published in the Daily Star in cooperation with Project Syndicate.
Source: The Daily Star
Website: www.dailystar.com.lb
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.
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Article #3
New surge of Americans studying in the Arab world
Dan Murphy
(CAIRO)Growing up in an observant Jewish family outside Boston, Mimi Asnes was always interested in the Middle East. Not surprisingly, her focus was on Israel, a topic of almost daily conversation at the Jewish day school she attended until the ninth grade.
But as a sophomore at Harvard, the diminutive Ms. Asnes struck up a friendship with a Palestinian-American woman who shared her love of hiking and the outdoors. That bond - and her friend's different perspective on Israel - sparked an interest in the broader Middle East. "I'd never met anyone who I liked and respected who had any animosity toward Israel,'' says Asnes. "I began to question the assumptions I grew up with."
Today, Asnes is one of a record number of Americans studying Arabic and the Arab world. They are on the leading edge of an educational boom that has seen the initial shock and anger at the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks feed a greater engagement with a region long neglected by US students and universities.
This fall about 480 Americans are studying Arabic at the American University in Cairo (AUC), more than double the pre-9/11 enrollment. A Modern Language Association survey from fall 2002 found that 10,600 American students were studying Arabic, up from 5,500 in 1998. Educators say that number has continued to rise, with dozens of universities adding Arabic to their curricula.
Interest even pre-9/11
The numbers are still modest when compared to the estimated 350,000 US students studying German. The surge in interest now mirrors the numbers of Americans who studied Russian during the cold war. But even before
Sept. 11, the absence of Arab students reflected an American blind spot, given the Arab World's long history of conflict, vast oil reserves, and its 280 million people. In testimony to Congress this year, Edward Djerejian, a former ambassador to Israel and Syria, said the State Department has only five diplomats with Arabic strong enough
to defend US policies on Arab TV.
While many of the more advanced students like Asnes began their studies before Sept. 11, almost all say the increased US focus on the region has deepened the incentive to learn, with a surging number of job opportunities back home for people with proficiency in the language. "I just found myself really drawn to the language,'' says Khalid Wulfsberg, a rangy grad student from Murfreesboro, Tenn., who prefers his Arab first name to his given name, Paul, which sounds like an unpleasant bodily function in Arabic. "But as an American, the context of the war is inescapable."
Asnes also says her interest in the language has little to do with Sept. 11 or the war in Iraq. She says that after a year spent working at a Palestinian women's shelter in Nazarath, she came to see language as crucial to understanding. "We've seen the importance of words in spinning the Middle East conflicts,'' she says. "I want to be in control of my own spin, and that puts less distance between me and what's happening. When I was in Nazareth, just after a year of Arabic, I was able to make connections with people that would have been totally different if I only spoke Hebrew."
Zeinab Taha, director of the AUC's elite Center for Arabic Studies Abroad, or CASA, says that not only have the numbers of students risen, but so has their overall standard. "Five years ago, half of our applicants couldn't finish the entrance exam,'' she says. "This year, every single question was answered in Arabic. Long responses in
complete paragraphs."
CASA, funded by the US government, is an advanced course that gives a full ride to students who already have some proficiency in Arabic, and this year it has 40 students, up from about 15 before 9/11.
The students in Cairo represent the broad spectrum of American
education. Many of the students at CASA are working toward advanced
degrees in Middle Eastern studies with an eye toward jobs in academia
or with development organizations. Some speak of working for the CIA or
the US defense establishment.
Nora Cundy, a CASA student from Paris, Maine, who worked in rural
Jordan after graduating from college, says her interest in the region
grew after working at a peace camp for Palestinian and Israeli children
near her hometown in Maine. "What I came to understand in Jordan was
that language was the most important root to understanding this region."
US undergraduates - there are about 300 spending a semester or a year here - are typically less certain about what they will do in the future, but almost all say they expect the region to remain a focus of US interest for decades to come.
Trae Stephens, a junior at Georgetown's school of foreign service, is spending the fall in Cairo before hustling back to Washington for classes and the start of the spring ultimate-frisbee season. He says he hopes to work for US intelligence when he graduates and recalls a guest lecture to his class by former CIA Director George Tenet as a pivotal moment. "It was very clear to me that this man knew a lot more than we know, and that seemed a good thing. It was sort of the epiphany,'' he says. "As globalization grows, our national security is more at risk every day. I want to be one of those people helping to make policy recommendations that can keep us out of international messes."
For some, their engagement is already yielding broader perspectives. Mr. Wulfsberg was living with a Palestinian-Jordanian family on Sept. 11, when a news broadcast interrupted an episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch. "Everyone was immediately denying that Muslims could have been involved, though this quickly moved to a lecture on US foreign policy," he says. But that evening he also visited another Jordanian family who seemed personally overwhelmed by the tragedy. "They were crying and distraught. Until the invasion of Afghanistan started, I couldn't get in a cab without the driver apologizing for what had happened at home."
Khalid the Norwegian?
Wulfsberg tries to limit his time with other foreigners, socializing with Egyptian and Afghani friends who study at Al Azhar, the ancient university that draws Muslim students from more than 90 countries. He tells people on the streets that he's Norwegian, mostly so people don't try to practice their English with him, but also because he's grown tired of becoming a stand-in for the US government.
"Sometimes I feel a little guilty about it, because I could be making a dent in some people's impressions of the US,'' he says. "You know, here's this American guy, and he's interested in learning about Islam and our culture."
**Dan Murphy is a staff writer at the Christian Science Monitor.
Source: Christian Science Monitor
Visit the website at: www.csmonitor.com
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
(c) Copyright 2004 The Christian Science Monitor. Copyright permission can be obtained by contacting lawrenced@csps.com.
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Article #4
Clash or Dialogue: Reality and perception
Jason Erb and Noha Bakr
After 9/11, Americans showed a renewed interest in Samuel Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations." In it Huntington argues that future wars will be fought not on ideological or even interest-based lines, but due to cultural and 'civilizational' differences and affinities.
To look at the rhetoric of militant extremist groups like al-Qai'da is to wonder if Huntington and his supporters might be right. There are many examples of Muslim preachers who teach that there can be no reconciling between the 'world of Islam' and the 'world of unbelief.' Muslim extremists do indeed take verses of the Quran and sayings of Muhammad to justify atrocities against non-Muslims.
There are also less well-known preachers of hate. For example, the United States has its share of 'holy men' who claim that Muslims are evil and that morality has no place in a war against an evil enemy. Christian preachers of hate claim they are in the midst of an apocalyptic and existential war between good and evil, and so violence against non-Christians is a Biblical imperative.
Over the centuries Christians and Muslims have indeed fought each other on numerous fronts. They have also cooperated and coexisted on countless others. We are not facing a clash of civilizations, where religious and ethnic identities determine the fault lines. We are facing a minority clash of fundamentalisms, whose followers exploit anxieties and frustration caused by genuine political conflicts to further their own ideological agendas.
Coexistence and cooperation among civilizations is not just possible, it is by far the historical norm. Historically, large Christian and Jewish communities prospered and were crucial actors in the economic and social life of places like Baghdad, Damascus and Istanbul; Muslims, Jews and Christians coexisted for centuries in Bosnia and Spain; Muslims, Christians, Buddhists and animists lived together peacefully in South East Asia, as they generally do now throughout the world; art forms, cuisine, language, music and institutions of one 'civilization' frequently bear the direct influence of another civilization. The degree of modern international trade and commerce shows that, despite conflicts and differences, different people still build cooperative, mutually beneficial and peaceful relations.
Efforts at promoting the benefits that derive from a dialogue of civilizations have long gone beyond the needs of basic survival and material concerns. Prior to 9/11, the United Nations declared the year 2001 to be the year of dialogue among civilizations, and in May 2002 1,350 representatives of over 1,000 civil society organizations from more than 100 countries gathered to build upon a common vision of coexistence.
Even with oft-publicized rants from preachers of hate, interfaith organizations and initiatives regularly bring different people together to discuss ways to help ease the suffering of the underprivileged, build peaceful societies and solve conflict. The World Conference of Religions for Peace, for example, regularly meets to pool the resources and develop the capacity of religious leaders to address these common humanitarian concerns.
Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks American Christians formed protective cordons around American mosques and some even wore headscarves in solidarity with conservative American Muslim women; Iraqi Muslims condemned extremists who recently attacked Iraqi Christian churches and vow to protect this unique and vital part of their community; and Jewish and Palestinian activists still work together to protect the human rights of all residents of the Holy Land.
Most Americans are aware of Christian and Jewish involvement in nonviolent movements in America. Many, however, would be surprised to learn that Muslims have been active and crucial participants in pluralistic nonviolent civil resistance movements with Buddhists in Thailand, Hindus in India, Blacks in South Africa and other religions in Indonesia and sub-Saharan Africa.
There is indeed a growing divide in the world, but it is not a timeless, intractable or divinely inspired conflict. It is a conflict driven by xenophobes based on anxieties and existential fears generated in a rapidly changing world. Proponents of clash theories make sense of their basic alienation by making the 'Other' the focus of all that is wrong with the world. So while there are differences in values, perspective and opinion on many issues, that has not taken away from the existence of common human desires, needs and values of our shared humanity, nor does it mean that current political differences are beyond human capacity to solve.
Dialogue and communication for understanding are among the first steps towards peace and such dialogue efforts are crucial bridges between cultures. When conflict exists, it is easy to dismiss the Christian imperative to 'turn the other cheek,' the Muslim imperative to 'repel evil with good,' or the Jewish imperative to 'love thy neighbor as thyself.' Most people, however, continue to live by these rules and see the value of continuing the dialogue of civilizations.
Dialogue and cooperation occurs despite the differences between peoples and the tug of fear-induced xenophobia or fundamentalism. In this time of growing insecurity, however, we must redouble our efforts to listen to what the other side is in fact saying, to really understand what the other side means. We need to continue building the global civic-fabric of our world to increase opportunities for relationships of trust and dialogue of respect. We need to push new audiences to get to know the Other from the Other, to learn about each other's differences and similarities on a firsthand basis.
Through increased dialogue and understanding we will strengthen and develop ties that allow for open communication. Such dialogue and communication can lessen the chances that our fears will take over and that these perceived differences will result in violence or conflict. This is a wellspring of peace and where our real security rests.
**Jason Erb and Noha Bakr are International Affairs Representatives for Quaker Service-AFSC and are currently based in Amman, Jordan. Quaker Service-AFSC is an international peacebuilding and development organization that seeks to promote reconciliation, sustainable development and non-violence.
Source: This article is part of a series of views on the relationship between the Islamic/Arabic world and the West, published in partnership with the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.
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The Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity, brought to you by Search for Common Ground, seeks to build bridges of understanding between the West and the Arab World and countries with predominately Muslim populations. This service is one result of a set of working meetings held in partnership with His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal in June 2003.
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E-mail: cgnewspih@sfcg.org
Editors:
Emad Khalil
Amman Editor
Oussama Safa
Rabat Editor
Juliette Schmidt
& Elyte Baykun
Washington Editors
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