The Common Ground News Service, March 30, 2005
The Common Ground News Service, CGNews-PiH, March 30, 2005
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.
Common Ground News Service- Partners in Humanity
Article #1
Title: An effort to rebuild US-Arab relations
Author: James Zogby
Publication: Middle East Times
Date: March 16, 2005
Demonstrating that there really are some individuals in the West who
are listening to the voices in the Arab world, Zogby summarizes the
CSIS "Advisory Committee on US Policy in the Arab World" report, which
gives a sober assessment of the challenges faced by the US in the
region. Providing insightful and unique recommendations for U.S.
engagement and interaction with the Middle East this report goes
further than the usual "spin" by bravely addressing the real
perceptions and challenges facing the U.S. in this region.
Article #2
Title: Shifts in Muslim opinion possible
Author: Lee H. Hamilton
Publication: Christian Science Monitor
Date: March 21, 2005
"A poll commissioned by the nonprofit Terror Free Tomorrow found the
first substantial shift of public opinion in the Muslim world since the
beginning of the war on terrorism." On this note, Hamilton considers
what caused this shift away from support for terrorism in Indonesia and
what can be done to maintain and extend this trend.
Article #3
Title: Lebanon is the hotbed of a new, liberal Arab awakening.
Author: Massoud A. Derhally
Publication: The Daily Star
Date: March 22, 2005
In anticipation of the expected release of the third UNDP report on the
Arab world, which addresses the pervasive lack of good governance
throughout the region, Derhally considers whether the recent events in
Lebanon are really contributing to any sort of tangible change in UN
development indicators.
Article #4
Title: The Problem with the Dialogue of Civilizations
Author: Sarah Eltantawi
Publication: ~Common Ground Commissioned Article~
Date: December 10, 2004
The eleventh and final article in a series on Muslim Western relations,
Eltantawi's article considers the limits of dialogue that is based on
simplistic and binary notions of identity clashes. In doing so, she
suggests that dialogue has limited value when it avoids controversial
topics such as the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and fails to consider
complex and evolving identities such as " the American-born woman of
Arab decent...the Anglo-American convert to Islam...the African-American
Muslim...the Pakistani Christian...the agnostic Muslim living in Baghdad."
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Article #1
An effort to rebuild US-Arab relations
James Zogby
While the Bush administration and much of the US media paint a rosy
picture of US success in producing "Freedom on the March", from
Afghanistan to Egypt, a more thoughtful assessment of the real problems
facing the US-Arab relationship came last week from a distinguished
group of former US government officials.
The group, convened by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and
International Studies (CSIS), released a report, "From Conflict to
Cooperation: Writing a New Chapter in US-Arab Relations". The effort
was chaired by former US secretary of defense William Cohen and former
US ambassador to Morocco Edward Gabriel, and included a distinguished
bipartisan group of former US government officials, academics and
business professionals, all with substantial involvement in the Middle
East. There were three former assistant secretaries of state, a former
Republican national security advisor, a former undersecretary of
defense, as well as a number of US Ambassadors.
Instead of the "spin" used by the administration to describe current US-
Middle East relations, the CSIS "Advisory Committee on US Policy in the
Arab World" begins their report with a sober assessment of the
challenges faced by the US in the region.
"US-Arab relations are at their lowest point in generations. We are
facing unprecedented opposition in the region. The number of Arabs
coming to the United States to study, do business, visit or seek
medical care is plummeting. Fear, anger and frustration between Arabs
and Americans are creating a dangerous trust gap that is growing wider
every day.
Our commitment to reverse these trends is not driven by starry-eyed
idealism, but rather a clear-eyed assessment that broken Arab-US
relations are a serious threat to the long-term security and interests
of both sides."
Critical to reversing this downward trend, the CSIS report states that
the US must take measures to stabilize and leave Iraq and show "active
leadership in forging a comprehensive solution that creates a
democratic, secure, state of Palestine alongside the democratic,
secure, Jewish state of Israel".
But as important as resolving these two issues may be to improving US
standing in the Middle East, the report notes that much more than this
needs to be done.
Based on an evaluation of current US-Middle East initiatives and a
yearlong study tour that involved discussions with leaders, opinion
makers and citizens in nine Arab countries, the CSIS group recommended
a number of constructive programs to reshape US policy toward the
region. Some of these are worth noting.
The report recognizes that "political, economic and social reforms are
essential to long-term stability in the Arab World", but also
recognizes that, for the US to be helpful, administration efforts need
to be better informed and coordinated.
The first set of recommendations is, therefore, directed at this goal.
They propose the establishment of a Presidential Advisory Board on Arab
Growth and Development "to help determine and oversee the right package
of trade, aid, debt relief and other resources necessary to facilitate
long-term improvements in the region".
The report further proposes the establishment of country-by-country
interagency bilateral "task forces" that would include representatives
of relevant US agencies and representatives of the host Arab
governments. The purpose of these bilateral groupings would be
to "create common goals across a wide number of sectors, with future
levels of funding, trade and debt relief dependent on reaching those
benchmarks". While these ideas may seem simple, their importance cannot
be underestimated.
Because personal relationships between the Arab world and the US have
become strained in the post 9/11 era, the report recognizes this as a
serious problem, and, therefore, recommends efforts to dramatically
increase interaction between Americans and Arabs. The study proposes a
commission to remove roadblocks that impede Arab students from coming
to the US and calls for the establishment of an Arab Partnership
Foundation (APF), an independent publicly and privately funded
corporation to "foster education, entrepreneurship and reform among the
next generation of Arab leaders". Among its wide ranging
responsibilities, the APF would be charged with bringing 5,000 Arab
students to the US and would "forge relationships among a cross section
of Arabs and Americans", by organizing "reciprocal visits for
journalists, religious leaders, business leaders and others with common
interests".
In the end, what makes the entire CSIS effort so important is not the
high-level bipartisan composition of its drafters, or the fact that it
did not succumb to the administration's spin "that all is well" with
the US' Mideast policy. Rather, it is that such a prestigious group
developed such a far-reaching set of recommendations based on listening
to the needs articulated by Arab interlocutors.
By engaging in a year-long study, a nine nation listening tour and
recognizing the role that US policy has played in souring Arab
attitudes, the CSIS Advisory Committee has made an important
contribution to helping create a new climate where, as the report
concludes, "a relationship built on common goals and common ground has
the potential to improve the fate of us all".
**Dr. James J. Zogby is president of the Arab American Institute in
Washington, DC. Acknowledgement to Media Monitors Network
Source: Middle East Times
Visit the website at: www.metimes.com
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.
**********
Article #2
Shifts in Muslim opinion possible
Lee H. Hamilton
(WASHINGTON) In Its final report, the 9/11 commission said that the
United States must prevail over a "radical ideological movement in the
Islamic world." Recent news from Indonesia, the world's most populous
Muslim nation, shows that this can indeed happen.
A poll commissioned by the nonprofit Terror Free Tomorrow found the
first substantial shift of public opinion in the Muslim world since the
beginning of the war on terrorism. More people in Indonesia now favor
American efforts against terrorism than oppose them. In a dramatic
turnaround, support for Osama bin Laden and terrorism has dropped
significantly, while favorable opinion of the US has increased.
The poll, conducted by a leading Indonesian pollster, showed that the
reason for this positive change was the American response to the
tsunami. Its implications are both broad and profound.
First, Al Qaeda and its allies have suffered a major blow. The support
base that empowers global terrorists has declined in the largest Muslim
country. Now, the United States must sustain its relief and
reconstruction efforts in Indonesia in order to prevent the support
base from rebuilding. President Bush should be applauded for proposing
more than $1 billion in critical assistance to Indonesia; Congress
should approve this request quickly.
Second, the poll shows that the size and strength of the global
terrorist support base can dramatically change in a short period of
time. Thus, we must consistently monitor public opinion to see whether
sympathy for anti-American terrorists is growing, shrinking, or
staying the same.
Indeed, the 9/11 commission recommended that the US set "standards for
performance" in the struggle against Islamic terrorism. And the
Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 requires the
president to establish "benchmarks for measuring success" in winning
the "struggle of ideas in the Islamic world." Foreign public opinion
surveys, conducted regularly in every key country, will be essential to
measuring such success in an objective manner. Moreover, these polls
must be provided to the Congress and to the American people to
facilitate accountability. Congress should appropriate sufficient
resources for these surveys, and mandate that the State Department
publish the results in a timely manner.
Finally, and most important, the poll proves that US actions can make a
significant and immediate difference in eroding the support base for
global terrorists. This rebuts the claim that hatred of the United
States is based on some unalterable feature of either the United States
or the Muslim community. As such, we must immediately identify other
steps America can take in each country where global terrorists are
making headway.
We must fight the terrorists with guns and spies, but we must also
fight them with ideas, foreign aid, educational initiatives, open
markets, and vigorous public diplomacy. We must convey to the world's
Muslims that we - and not the terrorists - are on their side, just as
we have demonstrated thus far in the wake of the catastrophic Indian
Ocean tsunami.
This will not be easy, and it cannot succeed if we do not have
mechanisms to understand what the world thinks about us, and how people
are responding to our actions. We should pursue additional research to
provide the empirical data we need to make sound decisions. And we must
pursue a public diplomacy strategy that engages in a dialogue with the
Islamic world, so that we hear their concerns just as we express our
message.
Just as we focus on potentially seismic Middle East developments, we
must also be heartened that the influence of global terrorists is
waning in Indonesia. More hard work is needed to sustain and build on
this success, and to achieve similar results throughout the Muslim
world. The good news is that success is possible.
* Lee Hamilton was vice-chair of the 9/11 commission, and co-chair of
the National Commission on US-Indonesian Relations. He is also
president of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.
Source: The Christian Science Monitor
Website: www.csmonitor.com
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
(c) Copyright 2005 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights
reserved. Please contact Lawrenced@csps.com for copyright permission.
**********
Article #3
Lebanon is the hotbed of a new, liberal Arab awakening.
Massoud A. Derhally
When I came to Lebanon two weeks ago, I watched with awe, and at times
envy, as the Lebanese took to the streets striving to recapture the
freedom they were robbed of for so long. Their efforts represented to
me an epic struggle against the impotence of the Arab world and a
condemnation of the failings not only of the Lebanese leadership but
that of the Arab world in its entirety.
On my way to a demonstration commemorating the assassination of former
Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, I saw Egyptians enthusiastically making
their way to Martyrs' Square, where the opposition rallies have been
held, all too eager to participate in solidarity with the Lebanese
people, but also perhaps out of frustration with the status quo at
home.
The winds of change in Lebanon are not necessarily the result of Iraqis
and Palestinians going to the polls, or because of U.S. President
George W. Bush's manifesto of spreading freedom and democracy in the
region. All these variables, while certainly interlinked, are not the
overarching causes for the unfolding events.
Instead, change is in the air because of a thirst to live a democratic
life with dignity, to speak freely, and above all to repudiate the
ominous and abhorrent conditions Arabs have lived under since the fall
of the Ottoman Empire.
In a sense, what is taking place is a new "Arab awakening" that is
different from the one which George Antonius, the historian of Arab
nationalism, wrote about decades ago. He concluded that the Arab
nationalism that emerged from the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century
was influenced by the West. Today, however, the awakening is largely a
response to domestic woes and exigencies, and is sparked by a desire to
say enough is enough to bankrupt regimes.
Freedom in the Middle East has been assailed on several fronts. The
Arab world isn't merely fragile politically, but also economically and
socially. Economic growth in the region has stagnated since the 1980s.
Why is that? Because despite the presence of oil, the region has been
unable to tap adequately into the integrated world economy or attract
foreign direct investment. These are the conclusions of the Arab human
development reports published by the United Nations Development Program
(UNDP), and of reports published by the World Economic Forum.
They show that poverty, gender inequality, extra-judicial killings,
arbitrary arrests, increasing unemployment, a deficiency in human
rights, religious extremism, lack of innovation and the implementation
of education curricula that encourage nothing but rote learning is what
the Arab world is all about today.
These documents, which should have galvanized Arab governments to do
more to empower their people, have, instead, largely been ignored.
There is still no conscious drive in the region toward pluralism or
establishing full-fledged democratic systems, where people can credibly
participate in governing themselves. Yes, Arab governments have
implemented bits and pieces of reform of late, but this has been
cosmetic and used to deflect criticism and avoid dealing with the real
issues. Bush is right when he speaks about the need for Arab leaders to
address fundamental deficiencies in their countries.
This month, the UNDP is expected to release its third report on the
Arab world, in which it addresses the pervasive lack of good governance
throughout the region. The dynamics on the ground are changing, but the
impotence that has pervaded the region for so long and continues to
hold development hostage can no longer be attributed to U.S. hegemony
or to Israel. Arab societies are in an evolving tug of war. That's why
what is happening in Lebanon is historic by all proportions. America is
right to encourage the emergence of a strong, democratic, free and
independent Lebanon. But it should leave it to the Lebanese people, who
have thus far exhibited more courage than any of their Arab brethren,
to decide their own future.
Lebanon is today the flowerbed of hope in the Arab world, and has been
and remains the only country in the region displaying the
characteristics of a democracy. If the courageous Lebanese people
succeed in their struggle for self-determination they will make it all
the harder for other autocratic regimes in the region to pursue the
continued subjugation of their own people. What the world is seeing in
Lebanon today is a rude Arab awakening - the coming of a new dawn.
**Massoud Derhally is a former correspondent of Agence France Presse
and is the business and diplomatic editor of a Dubai-based magazine.
The views expressed here are his own. He wrote this commentary for the
Daily Star.
Source: The Daily Star
Visit the website at: www.dailystar.com.lb
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained from the author for publication.
**********
Article #4
The Problem with the Dialogue of Civilizations
Sarah Eltantawi
One byproduct of the widespread "clash of civilizations" discourse
overtaking discussion of US-Islamic/Middle Eastern relations is the
idea that world citizens are either positioning themselves in agreement
with or in opposition to the notion of a colossal clash of values
between two distinct peoples. Peoples, here, are defined by religious
faith and predispositions of thought and attitude based on ethnicity
and geographical location. It is on the basis of this essentially
binary and simplistic understanding of identity that the conflict
between the "Muslim world" and the "West" is understood. It is also
along these lines that much well-meaning dialogue is based.
This model of engagement is inherently limited. For western Muslims
born and raised in the United States, for example, harsh binaries of
fixed identities do not resonate. For what is to be made of the
American-born woman of Arab decent? The Anglo-American convert to
Islam? The African-American Muslim? The Pakistani Christian? The
agnostic Muslim living in Baghdad? And so on.
Meta-narratives describing a clash between "the Muslims" and "the West"
have certainly been useful for pundits and politicians wishing, for
various reasons, to frame the very complex state of today's
international affairs in 30-second sound bytes which often replace the
West with the word "good" and the Muslim world with the word "evil."
But for those of us living with increasing discomfort in an
increasingly polarized world, it is becoming ever more imperative that
we move beyond these caricatures.
First, it's important for dialogue partners to understand the material
basis of this conflict.
Serious observers of the root causes that fuel recruits for Middle East-
based terrorism concur that the political problems are rooted largely
in 1) the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and 2) dictatorships in the
Muslim world, and the support that has been given to them now and in
the past by the United States. To state this another way, if these two
problems were solved, beginning with the first, there would be a
measurable reduction in rancor and violence between the two parties in
question. At the same time, terrorism is a terrifying, immoral
methodology whose horrors must also be fully understood.
Unfortunately, in the United States today, these first two points of
contention continue to be relegated to a "problems that can not be
named" status in public discourse, the open secret fueling much of this
conflict. The unnamable status of these conflicts has perpetuated
massive confusion and misinformation in the United States about the
grievances, concerns and worries of our interlocutors in the Middle
East.
Also underlying the problem is a profound misunderstanding between the
so-called Muslim world and the West at the level of culture. Here,
there seems to be two basic problems:
On the "western" side, what is needed is a realization that concepts
like freedom, justice, a decent standard of living, safety for
children, and a good life are not the exclusive domain or desire of the
West. For too long, many in the West have been deluding themselves
with absurdist notions that "Muslims," "Arabs," or those in the "Middle
East" are simply not interested in such lofty concepts or do not have
such basic human needs. This attitude is only possible through
dehumanizing the other, a perennial problem that must be addressed as a
prerequisite to conducting all other work.
Seizing on what they know is this bigoted strain in American culture,
neo-conservative pundits have been making the very argument I just made-
it's racist to assume Arabs don't want to be free -- to justify
aggressive military expeditions in the region. Hence, the sane middle
ground must be understood and supported - Arabs, Muslims, those in the
Middle East, like people around the world, want freedom - but, these
same people have their own histories and, therefore, their own
methodologies for attaining freedom. Arabs and Muslims need neither
arrogant dismissal of their concerns nor aggressive, unpopular military
adventures to address them, but support for indigenous solutions
emerging from within their own contexts.
On the "Muslim" or "Middle Eastern" side, instances of freedom in the
West, such as the struggle for women's rights, or the political freedom
found through American democracy, should not be discredited simply
because these advances have either been developed or are most widely
practiced in "the West." For too long, words like "gender equality"
or "democracy" have been blithely dismissed, simply because such
concepts have been developed and/or practiced in the West. This
attitude is the medieval equivalent of the West rejecting algebra
because it is "Arab." There are, of course, historical reasons for
such distrust - chief among them the legacy of colonialism, in which
foreign ideas were used to prove the native inferior, as a cover for
violence and economic exploitation. Yet the baby still can not be
thrown out with the bath water when it comes to the principles of
freedom and equality informing the movements themselves.
Dialogue is also only useful when both parties are truly committed to
listening to the problems and grievances of the other. After
listening, it then becomes important to exercise empathy - an emotion
that can only be called upon when there is an assumption of sameness
and common humanity among the parties. We must strive to develop
methodologies of engagement and utilize terms of reference that are non-
exclusive. Herein lies the problem with the dialogue of civilizations
alternative: it assumes that we can speak based on the same relatively
crude understandings of identity outlined by Huntington-strictly along
religious or ethnic lines. Importantly, however, this is not to say
that the solution is the opposite extreme, or exclusivist secularism,
in which no religious perspective is allowed.
A solution is dialogue based first on knowledge of facts of the
material problems of war, occupation, and terrorism that are fueling
this problem. Dialogues that avoid these issues have limited value, as
these material concerns are the basis of the conflict. Recognizing our
common humanity and concomitant basic needs and desires as human
beings, we must work on exercising empathy for the grievances of all
sides of the conflict. This methodology and understanding of people is
simultaneously more pragmatic and simpler than attempting a meta-
dialogue between generalized symbols of religion or culture -
called "civilization," in which people and their needs tend to get lost.
Source: Common Ground News
Visit the website at: www.sfcg.org
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained from the author 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
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Muslim populations. This service is one result of a set of working
meetings held in partnership with His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan
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