The Common Ground News Service, August 30, 2005
Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity (CGNews-PiH)
August 30, 2005
The Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity (CGNews-PiH) is distributing the enclosed articles to build bridges of understanding between the West and the Arab World and countries with predominately Muslim populations. Unless otherwise noted, all copyright permissions have been obtained and the articles may be reproduced by any news outlet or publication free of charge. If publishing, please acknowledge both the original source and CGNews, and notify us at cgnewspih@sfcg.org.
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ARTICLES IN THIS EDITION:
1. "A Sensible Path to Arab Modernity" by Rami G. Khouri
Rami G. Khouri, editor-at-large for the Daily Star, asks all the controversial questions about Arab and Islamic societies. Why are they violent and unstable? Why do they spawn terrorists? Why are they underdeveloped? Based on the comments of his co-panelists at a recent Beirut Conflict Resolution workshop, he argues that the answer is simply dysfunctional enterprises of citizenship and statehood in the Arab world.
(Source: Daily Star, August 20, 2005)
2. "Science and diplomacy" by Michael B. D'Arcy and Michael A. Levi
Despite the negative view of the United States, Arabs still look positively at American technology. Michael B. D'Arcy, Science and Technology Fellow at The Brookings Institution and Michael A. Levi, Nonresident Science Fellow at The Brookings Institution, that the United States reach out with scientific cooperation as a tool of diplomacy with the Islamic World.
(Source: The Washington Times, August 16, 2005)
3. "Needed: Arab leadership and vision" by James J. Zogby
James J. Zogby, founder and president of the Arab American Institute, looks one-by-one at the hot spots in the Arab world, and outlines how Arab leadership and vision can make a difference in each unique context.
(Source: Jordan Times, August 23, 2005)
4. "London: Resilient, Forgiving" by Lubna Hussain
Saudi writer Lubna Hussain gives her experience as a veiled woman visiting London after this summer's bombings. Although critical of the anti-Islamic acts that unfolded in the aftermath, she still has a number of reasons to love London.
(Source: Arab News, August 26, 2005)
5. YOUTH VIEWS "Iraq and morality" by Justin H. Schair
Justin Schair, a graduate of Hofstra University and former Editor-in-Chief of Hofstra's student newspaper the Chronicle asks when and how the United States will withdraw from Iraq. He suggests that civil society must step up to condemn the type of violence and killing that is taking place and redefine what is morally and socially acceptable.
(Source: CGNews-PiH, August 30, 2005)
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ARTICLE 1
A Sensible Path to Arab Modernity
by Rami G. Khouri
BEIRUT -- What's wrong with the Arabs? Why do so many Islamic societies spawn terrorists? Why are our societies so violent and unstable? What is needed to transform the societies of the Middle East, North Africa and west-central Asia into stable, prosperous countries?
These are the sorts of sweeping, big sticker questions that many people within the Middle East ask every day, looking simultaneously at internal factors as well as external causes of our many excesses. It was heartening and instructive for me earlier this week to have the privilege of sharing in a panel discussion with two of the clearest thinking, most articulate analysts in the Arab world - George Corm and Clovis Maksoud, both Lebanese -- as we discussed the impact of the last three Arab Human Development Reports published by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
The issues they raised and the analytical suggestions they made deserve a wider hearing than the students and staff participating in a summer course on conflict-resolution organized in Lebanon by UNDP and Lebanese American University. I suspect their way of thinking correctly identifies the key challenges facing the Arab world, reflects the views of the vast majority of Arabs, and offers a practical, realistic route out of the Arab world's current dilemma of stagnation, frustration and confrontation.
Corm, a professor of economics at St Joseph University in Beirut and a former Lebanese cabinet minister, makes the point that the Arab region undoubtedly needs real reform, but there is no consensus on the reasons for this. Is current and historical foreign interference the main problem, he asks? Domestic power distortions? Patriarchal social culture? Polarized societies fragmenting into smaller and smaller units based on ethnicity, religion and ideology? Hostility among Arab states and leaderships?
A combination of these and other reasons explains the burdensome, humiliating fact that the Arab region is the only part of the world where foreign armies today still regularly invade, occupy, and try to remake societies. More troubling is his observation that Arabs today face virtually the same challenge that confronted our societies around 150 years ago, in the late Ottoman period: why are Arab societies underdeveloped, and dominated by foreign influences, interests and forces?
Among the answers to his questions, Corm mentions the devastating impact of the Arab rentier economies that are not productive or creative, but live off "rent" derived from foreign payments or protection, or from oil and gas production. Rent economies make it impossible to develop liberal, democratic regimes, he says, and so must be replaced with job-creating, productive economies.
Arab nationalists never sufficiently focused on the economic dimension of nationalism, independence and statehood, he says, and Arab intellectuals today spend too much time responding to Western accusations and focus too much on day-to-day politics. Instead, our intellectuals and activists should ignore Samuel Huntington, Bernard Lewis and others of their ilk, and spend more time building our culture and society. We should especially draw on the rich but neglected Arab tradition of thinkers who have sought in the past century to prod reform, modernity, prosperity and genuine national sovereignty anchored in dignity.
The Arab people need and deserve a "second Nahda of Arab freedoms", he says, referring to the broad intellectual, cultural, political and religious movement in parts of the Arab world around 1880-1920 that has been called the Arab Awakening or Renaissance, el-Nahda in Arabic. Our own continuous quest for modernity and liberalism can be compatible with key religious and cultural values. He defined modernity as that which allows you to promote prosperity, compete globally, defend yourself militarily, and defend the overall integrity of your society from foreign domination.
Clovis Maksoud, university professor, columnist, former Arab League ambassador and current director of the Center for the Study of the Global South at American University in Washington, D.C., approaches the same challenge through the eyes of the team that wrote the Arab Human Development Reports, of which he is a member.
"The Arabs are a wealthy nation of poor people," he notes, who recklessly engage in either confrontation with the West or submission to it, with both options leading to self-destruction. We need to find a way to reconcile the legality of the modern Arab state system with the legitimacy of the wider Arab national idea, he says. The Arab Human Development Report offers an action-oriented analysis that aims to spark a dialogue between the Arab citizen, civil society and the state authorities.
One of our common weaknesses -- very evident in Lebanon, he says -- is that the individual Arab citizen does not have a direct relationship with his or her state except through the intermediation of ethnic, religious or tribal groups. The narrow identities and interests of sovereign states have come to dominate the two other important dimensions of people's lives in the Arab region -- their rights as citizens of a state, and their sense of belonging to a larger Arab national identity of some sort.
He says that "the weakness of patrimonial Arab consciousness has given way to the strength of legal state sovereignty." Consequently, Arab countries wave their flags vigorously, advocating "Jordan first", "Lebanon first", "Syria first" and "Egypt first"; yet their citizens steadily become increasingly angry with life conditions at home and the international double standards they suffer from Israel and the West.
"Anger is an invitation to dialogue," he suggests, and one of the aims of the Arab Human Development Reports is to spark dialogue that can also plant the seeds of an Arab Renaissance.
George Corm brings the argument back to the historical legacy of an Arab region that wants to change, reform and modernize, but has always resisted doing so under foreign pressure or threat. Totally adopting or rejecting Western reform agendas is not useful, he says, and instead we need to spur a genuine Arab reform agenda for modernity and freedoms that primarily builds on our own values, analyses, and priority goals.
These are sensible and timely ideas, doubly significant because they are not unique or unusual; they reflect the richness of the debates that take place every day in homes, schools, coffee shops and offices throughout the Arab world. They also provide a powerful, appropriate antidote to the prevailing nonsense that we hear from quarters of the West, especially the United States, about clashes of civilization, the need for Islamic reformation, hatred of the West, the madrasa problem, or the inherent violence of Arab and Islamic culture.
The matter is much simpler, and should not be muddled by tangential intellectual fantasies or the silliness of confused, angry small town politicians from abroad: In the past century or so, citizenship and statehood in the Arab world have become mutually dysfunctional enterprises, due to a combination of local and foreign factors that must be treated simultaneously.
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* Rami G. Khouri is editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper, published throughout the Middle East with the International Herald Tribune.
Source: The Daily Star, August 20, 2005
Visit the Daily Star at 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 2
Science and diplomacy
Michael B. D'Arcy and Michael A. Levi
From the beginning of the war on terrorism, both the Bush administration and its critics have touted the value of public diplomacy -- the art of bringing peoples, rather than governments, to America's side. The recent confirmation of Karen Hughes, a close confidant of the president, as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs puts an influential figure in charge of leading a revamped effort. As Mrs. Hughes seeks to make headway in the Islamic world, she should take advantage of an unlikely tool: the appeal of American science and technology. Just as the United States worked through scientific networks to promote its values during the Cold War, it should be reaching out through scientists and engineers today.
A Pew survey of six predominantly Muslim countries, released last month, confirmed that majorities in all the countries surveyed had negative views of the United States. Yet last June, a Zogby International poll of six Arab states found that in all but one, American science and technology were viewed favorably by a majority (often overwhelming) of the population. (Even in the exception, Saudi Arabia, 48 percent approved; in Morocco, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates, over 80 percent admired American science and technology.) No other aspect of American society -- not movies, not education, not even democracy -- attracted as much support. Such disparities suggest an important opportunity for the United States to leverage the positive image of its science and technology as it seeks to improve its standing in the Islamic world.
Indeed, science and technology are ideally suited to fostering the "four Es" -- engagement, exchanges, education, empowerment -- that Mrs. Hughes has emphasized as being the core of public diplomacy.
The United States has an encouraging track record of engagement in science and technology with the Islamic world. Seismologists have been working with partners in the Middle East and Central Asia to anticipate earthquakes. Scientists in Morocco have worked with American universities under grants funded by the National Science Foundation. USAID has worked with food scientists in Sub-Saharan Africa to harness biotechnology. This cooperation, though laudable, is but a start; the United States can do better. Many opportunities remain unexploited, from cooperation in developing science education and research networks, to promoting clean water, to equipping Islamic world industrialists to join the high-technology world, as a few of them -- most notably in Malaysia -- already have.
The next two "Es," exchange and education, work closely together. The United States has been strong here -- in the 2000-2001 academic year, more than 70,000 students from majority-Muslim states studied in the United States, and, by our estimates, between 10,000 and 30,000 of those studied science or engineering. Those who return home enrich their societies' scientific bases, while those who stay in the United States provide links for their compatriots who remain abroad.
However, despite being a shining example of American efforts, this area has seen problems since September 11. Reacting to the genuine and troubling dangers posed by advanced technology in the wrong hands, the United States clamped down hard on student visas, and the number of visitors sharply declined. In the short term, such crude measures may have been inevitable, but with time to reflect, a more nuanced policy that balances the real, and mutual, benefit from exchange should be possible. The State Department has taken important steps in this direction, but must do more.
There can be little doubt that strengthening the science and technology capacities of Islamic-world states, through engagement, exchange and education, can empower their populations. By helping solve basic societal problems, whether in health or safety, science and technology can help to provide the social stability needed for economic and political development. Scientific education permits economic progress. And by engaging with industry, American science and technology can help Islamic-world societies build upon this base. Of course, caution is essential: the wrong technology in the wrong hands can be empowering in far more threatening ways. But the great promise of empowering whole populations demands that we meet this conflict head-on and develop creative solutions, rather than withdraw.
Almost every obstacle faced in using science and technology to reach out to the Islamic world was confronted and surmounted before, when the United States used science to reach behind the Iron Curtain. Then, the United States was able to craft a careful but effective policy for harnessing science and technology's appeal, to mutual advantage. It can do the same today.
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* Michael B. d'Arcy and Michael A. Levi, science fellows at The Brookings Institution, are co-authors of "Untapped Potential: U.S. Science and Technology Cooperation with the Islamic World."
Source: The Washington Times, August 16, 2005
Visit the Washington Times at www.washingtontimes.com
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
For permission to reprint, please contact the Washington Times at www.washingtontimes.com.
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ARTICLE 3
Needed: Arab leadership and vision
James J. Zogby
The Arab world is facing critical challenges in Iraq and Palestine. Passivity will not do, nor will merely blaming others, even if they justly deserve blame for having created these crises in the first place. It is past time for demonstrations of leadership and vision.
What can be done?
Let's start with Palestine.
Israel's evacuation of its colonies in Gaza presents challenges and opportunities that must be addressed - and quickly. The Israelis are carrying out their plan largely unilaterally, showing little inclination to move forward on the roadmap towards negotiations. In addition, critical issues remain unresolved.
Israel is leaving Gaza, but will remain the occupying power over this congested and impoverished Strip, since it will continue to control all land, sea, and air routes into the area. Without unimpeded access to the West Bank and the outside world, Gaza cannot be considered free, nor will it be possible to develop a viable and sustainable economy.
Nevertheless, it is critical that work begin to build Gaza's infrastructure, to radically transform the conditions of daily life by providing jobs and hope to Gaza's young and to assist the Palestinian Authority in meeting its responsibility to provide services and security for Gaza's over one million people.
The wise decision of the UAE's Sheikh Khalifa Ben Zayed to invest $100 million in building a new city for 30,000 - 40,000 Gazans shows the way. But more must and can follow.
The UAE's action should not stand alone. An emergency Arab Reconstruction and Development Fund for Gaza should be established. Even before solutions are found to the many real problems that remain (the closed borders being only one of those), Arab leaders should announce that help is on the way and take quick steps to provide some immediate relief.
A decade ago I proposed the creation of the Gaza equivalent of the US' Depression-era Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Together the WPA and CCC created hundreds of thousands of government-funded make-work jobs provided hope and needed cash to the nation's unemployed. The Palestinian Office for Disengagement Affairs, headed by Mohammed Dahlan, reports that something akin to this is under way, with 1,800 being employed making flags and T-shirts for a Gaza celebration/clean-up campaign. With broader Arab support, this endeavour can be expanded to hire 50,000 and can engage in a number of labour intensive reconstruction projects. All that is required is leadership and vision.
Simultaneous with these largely economic efforts designed to bring hope to Palestinians and demonstrate concrete support and buy time for the Palestinian Authority, additional efforts can take place on the political front as well.
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia should breathe new life into his Arab League-endorsed peace initiative. Simply announcing it, after the 2002 Beirut Summit, was never enough. The Arab League, after embracing the peace offer, needed to embark on an international campaign focused primarily at transforming US and Israeli opinion. The plan needs to be elaborated and sold. In doing so, Arabs will take the initiative away from Sharon, providing a real vision of a comprehensive peace. By projecting such a vision, Arab leadership will not only help to impact the policy debate in the US and Israel, they will also inspire and empower the forces for peace and give hope and a political horizon to Palestinians.
That Sharon will reject this Arab peace offer is a given, but this should not stop Arabs from taking the high road and demonstrating leadership and vision. In the end, none of this is being done as a favour to Sharon. Making Gaza work, giving hope to young Palestinians and challenging Israel's resistance to a comprehensive peace, these are Arab interests.
Iraq requires Arab attention and action as well. The US, it is clear, has made a mess of the situation and still has no plan to move the country forward. But, especially in light of the problems being dealt with in Iraq's debate over a new constitution, realities must be faced.
A new and potentially explosive situation has been created in the heart of the Arab world. The Kurdish leadership has a vision for their region and the Iranians, as we say, are "sitting pretty." But besides worrying about outcomes, debating the identity and unity of Iraq, or bemoaning the present state of affairs, where is the Arab vision and leadership for Iraq?
An Arab-led effort at "Reconstruction and Reconciliation" can be launched to engage all of Iraq's communities in a collective discussion about the future of the country and its role in and relationship with the broader region.
It is imperative that Arabs not wait for the US to solve Iraq, it cannot. And, if left alone, the centripetal forces of ethnic and sectarian divisions will continue to pull Iraq apart, encouraged by some groups determined to foment internal strife. But a concerted, positive, and independent Arab effort to engage Iraq's new leadership, coupled with offers to assist rebuilding the country's infrastructure and proposals as to how Iraq can take its rightful place in the region, can help provide a new direction.
The choice here is a simple one. The long beleaguered Kurdish people have been empowered and Iraq's majority Shia community are now in a strong position as well. It is imperative to recognise these new realities. What Arab leadership and vision can provide is a bridge between the old Iraq and this new Iraq that is in formation - helping the country's complex constituency to find their place in the Arab family.
What is needed is leadership and vision.
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*James J. Zogby is founder and president of the Arab American Institute.
Source: The Jordan Times, August 23, 2005
Visit the Jordan Times at www.jordantimes.com
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.
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ARTICLE 4
London: Resilient, Forgiving
Lubna Hussain
(Source: Arab News, August 26, 2005)
"But why London of all places?" implored a friend of mine more perturbed than necessary over my choice of holiday destination. "I love London!" I effused passionately, much to her disapproval, as if my fickle admiration for the place under the current political circumstances was insufficient to justify my trip. I wondered if I would have sounded as convincing had I said "I love Baghdad!" or "I love Kabul!"
"I just don't know about you," she said in defeat rolling her eyes. "And I suppose that you're thinking of traveling the subway wearing that hijab of yours? Just to add insult to injury," she speculated idly. I thought seriously about crawling under her all too sensitive skin with the statement "I love hijab!" and watch in glee as she squirmed in agony, but refrained from doing so.
"How can a length of black cloth insult or injure?" I asked rhetorically.
"Can't you just buy a nice looking hat?" she pleaded. I shook my head defiantly as she raised the white flag in surrender. Her parting shot was, "Well to any Londoner riding on the tube, or foreigner for that matter, you will come across as the personification of Mrs. Osama Bin Laden. Carriages will clear at the sight of your head scarf and you may even be shot dead for looking like a potential suicide bomber!"
Her last statement made me chuckle inside. How ironic that all these years I spent traversing the Piccadilly Line I cowered in terror at the prospect of being followed, mugged or raped by some destitute weirdo from the swelling ranks of criminal elements within the city and now I would become a source of fear myself.
Much as I am loathe to admit it, my friend's sensationalistic lamentations did have a subliminal impact upon my psyche and when I disembarked at Heathrow Airport I expected inherent hostility from the immigration guys, topped with a possible cavity search to ensure that I was not importing any semtex, or other explosive derivative, along the length of my gastrointestinal tract.
My Saudi passport has a special stamp on it that effectively renders it an EC passport whenever I am in the region and I prepared myself for having this privilege instantly revoked.
I shuffled in the queue trying not to look suspicious and was greeted by a kindly Indian gentleman who flicked through my passport to the correct page, grinned in my direction (even though I looked stupefied and as guilty as sin) and shooed me onward. There were no sniffer dogs to greet my luggage in the baggage hall. No untoward groping in customs. In short I was out in half an hour trying to hold onto the fast evaporating image that I may be seen as a palpable threat to national security. A man even held the lift doors open for me and another walked the entire length of the building in an attempt to show me how to exit it.
As I write this I am sitting on a packed Central Line tube donning my Saudi garb and have yet to clear a single seat adjacent to me, leave alone an entire carriage.
As has been the case for as long as I can remember, people on the London underground never make eye contact with fellow commuters, unless of course they happen to be foreigners unversed in the etiquette of public transport.
It is as if the entire compartment full of people are working toward a PhD in advertising judging by the duration, intensity of concentration and tremendous interest they exhibit whilst reading and re-reading the overhead billboards.
No. There is no perceptible difference between this trip and any other I have made. I thought that I would be spat at, verbally abused and tried about my complicity in crimes that I didn't commit.
But no. No such excitement. People were as detached, impersonal, friendly or unfriendly as they have ever been. That is why I still love London. The considerable fallout after the London bombings is highly unfortunate, but, nonetheless entirely understandable. It proved extremely painful to read accounts of how mosques, Islamic Centers and Muslim-owned houses and shops had been targeted and desecrated by those who had hijacked the opportunity to serve their own political ends.
Such an incident always allows the more extreme elements in any society to vent freely with little or no repercussion. That's not really surprising. What is surprising though is just how resilient and forgiving the average Londoner is.
The tube, to most people is the nerve center of the city. This attempt to paralyze a universally used conveyance by people of all faiths was more than just symbolic. It was meant to serve a blow to the equanimity and multiculturalism of the city. What it actually did, in effect, was to damage the essential image of the faith in whose name the atrocity was allegedly committed the in the first place.
The most oft-forgotten element of the whole equation is that invariably the brunt of any of these terrorist-inspired attacks by so-called "Islamists" is borne by the entire length and breadth of the Muslim world. Violent misinterpretations to further the political agendas of a few have set back the aspirations of over a billion Muslims world wide.
The aftermath of the tragedies of 9/11, the Madrid Bombings, the Bali Bombings et al have affected the Muslim community more than any other. We suffered and still suffer the consequences of these acts and our future looks bleak with a guarantee of further persecution yet to come.
We steel ourselves daily for another onslaught by strangers we have never countenanced, have nothing in common with and who have become our own worst enemies. We are expected to apologize for these crimes on their behalf as if we are somehow communally responsible for them.
But why is it that we are so afraid to examine and identify the root causes of this reign of terror?
The bitter irony of the whole situation is that this monster of terrorism that we have watched grow and thrive in the world has been neither created nor inspired by any of us.
It was the Americans who played the part of Dr. Frankenstein when they promoted the spread of jihadist ideology during their struggle to eliminate the 'Godless Soviets' from Afghanistan. They encouraged the propagation of madrasas rallying the young to abandon their lives in favor of the sweet rewards of martyrdom. Much of the literature guiding innocent minds to pursue such a dangerous path was published and distributed by their agencies in an endeavor to achieve their own self-satisfying political ends. So it's okay to sponsor and abet that kind of activity. Murdering Russians using the strategy of Holy War is absolutely justified.
This same exception for Americans can be seen in the call by Pat Robertson to assassinate Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez. How can a nice American be seen as perpetrating an act of terror? No. That can't be right. After all, we as Muslims have a strict monopoly on all terrorists. Not forgetting, but of course, that those of us who have engaged in conflicts to promote American hegemony in the past, are also exempt from the general definition.
As Muslims we are desperately trying to dissociate ourselves from the acts of a few misguided individuals. However, when it comes to someone like Pat Robertson, would that make him representative of all Christians? I guess that's a fair assumption judging by how our community is evaluated.
I personally find it absolutely amazing that no other religion is held accountable for the acts of a few of their deviants. Massacres of innocents take place all over the world and yet no followers of any faith other than that of Islam are called up to denounce, ask for forgiveness and grovel in contrition the way that Muslims are forced to. Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time, but regret for the things we didn't do leaves us inconsolable.
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* Lubna Hussain is a Saudi writer based in Riyadh.
Source: Arab News, August 26, 2005
Visit the Arab News at www.arabnews.com
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.
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ARTICLE 5 - YOUTH VIEWS
Iraq and morality
Justin H. Schair
The question seems to just keep on looming. How will the United States ever leave Iraq? Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld recently said that the insurgency could last as long as 12 years. That's not what the Bush administration promised a world skeptical of a sea change in Iraq.
Iraq has been so mismanaged from get go it's hard not to be concerned about its future. On a visit to Egypt and Jordan last month I found the Arab street still had its fair share of criticism of American policy in Iraq, but I never heard from anyone with a plan that would actually help the Iraqis move forward. The critical tone there was neither constructive nor effective, it was about what America is doing wrong and how they need to leave Iraq. The Arab street appears more focused on looking at what went wrong and who's to blame instead of offering viable solutions. The argument that America should leave the country sooner rather than later holds considerable merit, but it's ludicrous to ignore the dire situation of Iraq's security, which Iraqi officials have said they cannot manage on their own.
But the Arab street isn't alone in missing the big picture.
Whoever is officially in charge of security in Iraq is missing what is clear to any outsider observing the ongoing violence. For every insurgent killed there is another ready to give their life for that fight, and the continuing clashes are only deepening the wedge between the insurgency and reformists, and military force is proving insufficient.
There needs to be an ideological assault on the notion that it's okay to kill innocent people. Bombing schools, voting booths and police stations has somehow become "socially acceptable" in certain circles there. Courageous Iraqis are taking a vested interest in reforming their country, but they are so far from enjoying reasonable security that it's hard to imagine how things will ever change.
A message that says it's unequivocally wrong to kill innocent people must come from all religious authorities in Iraq. A social condemnation is much more effective when it comes from civil society, instead of the government. Iraq is undergoing a civil war and the progressives will win, but at the expense of an unnecessary bloody battle. This civil war would be much better fought through dialogue not only because bombs will stop going off but also because those opposed to a Shiite government will in fact accomplish much more using public discourse instead of public panic.
Right now these suicide bombers and even the more moderate members of the opposition have little credibility - much of that stemming from the boycott of the January 30 elections by a large number of Sunnis.
There are already many examples of imams elsewhere standing up to terror - even before the London bombings, one recently emerged. In London, the Finsbury Park Mosque community, after a police raid looking for evidence on imam Abu Hamza al-Masri's involvement was terrorism, organized his removal last year. The new imam has radically changed the tone and tenor of the mosque, formerly a hornet's nest of terrorist wannabes, and surprisingly to those who think Muslim communities in the West are home to nothing but seething rage, attendance at prayers has tripled since al-Masri's ouster, showing that the mainstream Muslim community wants nothing to do with terror.
If and when there is a change in the violence in Iraq, it will most definitely begin with a redefinition of what is socially and morally acceptable.
I recently met the Afghan Ambassador to the United States, Said Jawad. In the initial stages of Afghanistan's reconstruction, Jawad served as President Hamad Karzai's chief of staff. I asked him how Afghanistan was dealing with the remaining supporters of the Taliban. He explained to me that their policies allowed anyone to participate in the political process as long as they had not been involved in any sort of terrorism or murder.
This is exactly the message Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, needs to be sending: the individual is more powerful and has more credibility when they engage in the democratic process and respect the basic principals of humanity.
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*Justin H. Schair is a graduate of Hofstra University where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Chronicle, the university newspaper. You may e-mail him at jschair@aol.com.
Source: This article was written for CGNews-PiH Youth Views.
Visit Search for Common Ground at www.sfcg.org
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.
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