Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity (CGNews-PiH)
September 13, 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. “Two Catastrophes and a Summit” by Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban
Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban, Minister of Expatriates in Syria, and writer and professor at Damascus University since 1985, looks at the catastrophe in NewOrleans and the bridge stampede in Baghdad and asks what can be done about human disasters such as these. Looking at Malaysia, Turkey, South Korea and Germany, she points to the results of comprehensive development and prosperity initiatives.
(Source: Asharq Alawsat, September 5, 2005)

2. “Living together peacefully in heart of Arab America” by Pierre M. Atlas
Pierre M. Atlas, assistant professor of political science and director of the Franciscan Center for Global Studies at Marian College, talks about the experience of Arabs in Michigan. Here, not only do Arabs and non-Arabs coexist peacefully, but so do Arabs from all parts of the Middle East and from different religious affiliations - making it, he suggests, a useful bridge between the East and the West.
(Source: Indianapolis Star, July 28, 2005)

3. “The Western world through Eastern eyes” by Alan Riding
Alan Riding, a Paris-based journalist for the New York Times, considers a unique Barcelona art exhibit that suggests: 1) perhaps surprisingly, the West has paid more attention to the East than vice-versa, and 2) art can be a means for communication between the East and the West in ways one may have never imagined.
(Source: International Herald Tribune, September 1, 2005)

4. “Egypt's growing blogger community pushes limit of dissent” by Charles Levinson
Charles Levinson, correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, looks at one use of technology as a means for civil society to challenge the status quo in the Egypt. He shows the impact of blogging in Egypt and considers the potential utility of this online tool in other parts of the world.
(Source: The Christian Science Monitor, August 24, 2005

5. ~YOUTH VIEWS~
“Mindsets and lack of knowledge are the problem” by Nancy El-Gindy
Nancy El-Gindy, a student at the American University in Cairo and a former participant in the Soliya Arab-American online dialogue program, follows up an earlier article on the shortcomings of U.S. public policy, with a hard look at what Muslims, both in the Middle East and the West, can do to overcome the stereotypes and misunderstandings that are preventing constructive Muslim-Western relations.
(Source: CGNews-PiH, September 13, 2005)

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ARTICLE 1
Two Catastrophes and a Summit
Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban

Two catastrophes befell humanity at the same time, claiming hundreds of lives; the Katrina hurricane and the Baghdad bridge incident. In New Orleans it was nature’s uncontrollable disaster, in Baghdad, it was fear of a terrorist attack that wrecked the bridge under hundreds of frightened people running for their lives.

While both countries are still grieving their victims, preparations are proceeding for the United Nations International Development Summit on good governance and democracy. The horrendous footage from both New Orleans and Baghdad leave us with no doubt that reform anywhere in the world starts with providing the basic human needs, regardless of the varying political ideologies. The Iraqis and Americans struck by the calamities need nothing today more than shelter, water, food and a promise of a more secure future.

In the Middle East, especially Iraq and Palestine, human disasters are the daily norm not exception. Wars have been waged in the name of “freedom” and “democracy,” and brought terror, violence and suffering in stead. Democracy and freedom could have been more achievable through real human development, which could have been a sustainable shield against extremism and racism.

Malaysia stands a case in point. Over the past thirty years, the Malaysian government attained harmony and balance between the varying races and ethnicities through development, equality and social justice. Democracy and good governance undermined racial and religious extremism. Turkey is another Muslim country who reached democracy and undercut extremism through development and social equity over the last twenty years.

Interestingly enough, the West is fully aware of this constructive strategy. It fought communism through economic investment in South Korea and the Marshal Plan in Germany. Hearts and minds were not captured through war, but through promoting economic prosperity instead. It is only puzzling that when it came to the Muslim world, wars, regime change, and political interference were sought instead. The United States, in the mean time, has forgotten that the Islamism extremism it is fighting today is the same movement it sponsored in the past in its war on communism. If democracy in the United States means that each ethnic and religious group has the right to autonomy and sovereignty, would the American democratic system survive? Or is it that development, standards of living, equity and the rule of law what actually makes democracy? With the same logic, it becomes clear that democracy in the Middle East is only achievable through inclusive human development, economic prosperity and justice. Only then, the tide of extremism, anger, and violence will subside.

The model of South Korea, Germany, Malaysia and Turkey show that improving the living, educational and cultural standards for the society as a whole is the mechanism that brings about change in society, and that the political profit of development exceeds the economic one. What is needed, therefore, is more investment, not more wars, in the Middle East. Development, not siege and sanctions, is the means to fight oppression, corruption and terrorism. This is especially when it is coupled with social equality. Poverty, poor education and unemployment, on the other hand, breed extremism, oppression and corruption. We should aspire that the UN summit will demonstrate enough responsibility to reverse the prevalent international trend that seeks freedom and democracy through wars and aggression. Only comprehensive development and prosperity will bring about sustainable and healthy democracy. A certain road, therefore, would be intensive investments war in the Middle East.

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*Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban is Minister of Expatriates in Syria, and writer and professor at Damascus University since 1985.
Source: Asharq Alawsat, September 5, 2005
Visit the website at www.asharqalawsat.com/english
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.

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ARTICLE 2
Living together peacefully in heart of Arab America
Pierre M. Atlas

DEARBORN, Mich.-- I traveled to Dearborn with my friend Charlie Wiles, a third-generation Hoosier and Lebanese American, to soak in what might be called America's "Arab street."

About 300 miles northeast of Indy, Dearborn is home to the largest concentration of Arabs outside the Middle East. Thirty percent of Dearborn's residents are of Arab origin, as are half the kids in its public schools.

Storefronts have signs in Arabic as well as English and shopkeepers bid goodbye to customers with "Allah Ma'ak" or "God be with you." Arab markets, bakeries and halal butcher shops line West Warren Street, and many shops display large inventories of narghilas, the traditional water pipe smoked in the Middle East.

The sights, sounds and smells reminded me of my visit to Jordan last summer. But Dearborn is unlike any city in the Arab world -- because it is also American.

The first Arab-American museum in the country recently opened here. Its wall of fame identifies notable Arab Americans in various fields. Famous sports figures include pro football stars Darren and Doug Flutie, Indy car champ Bobby Rahal and bowler Eddie Elias. Famous political figures include Ralph Nader, John Sununu, former U.S. Sens. George Mitchell and Spencer Abraham, and Gov. Mitch Daniels.

America has always attracted people from around the world because of its religious and political freedom, tolerance of difference, and economic opportunity. Dearborn epitomizes these traits. The Arab population is Christian and Muslim, Sunni and Shia, pious and secular, and they live, work and eat side by side. Dearborn has a palpable sense of "live and let live," and we were told this also applies to relations between Arabs and the non-Arab majority.

"Arabs came to the U.S. to realize the American Dream," says Adnan Baydoun, president of the Bint Jebail Cultural Center and editor of the Arabic language section of the community's newspaper, the Arab-American News.

Neal Abu Nab, a Palestinian American originally from Ramallah, agrees. He has filmed a documentary about the Arab-American experience called "The Arabian Dream."

Abu Nab is Sunni and Baydoun is a Lebanese Shiite. These distinctions made little difference to them as they sat in Baydoun's office smoking cigarettes and talking of Dearborn. Abu Nab suggests that "Dearborn is a model of how Arabs can get along in a democracy."

The largest Arab community here is from Lebanon, followed by Iraq and Yemen. Dearborn's Iraqis are mostly Shiites, refugees from the failed uprising against Saddam Hussein after the 1991 Gulf War. In typically American fashion, the Dearborn community has held pro- and anti-war rallies.

Dearborn is home to the largest mosque in North America, the Islamic Center of America. The massive, $14 million structure opened this May and is nestled between Armenian Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches. It is technically a Shiite mosque, with an Iraqi imam. But as several people at the mosque told us, Sunnis also pray here and people of all faiths are welcome. Worshipers leave any political differences at the door.

The city came under intense scrutiny after 9/11. But federal law enforcement and the Dearborn community have since come to terms. The Michigan chapter of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the local U.S. attorney hold monthly meetings to air problems and ask questions, often stemming from the Patriot Act.

Rana Abbas-Chami, the ADC's Michigan deputy director and an American-born Lebanese, says that the locals and the Feds "don't always see eye to eye, but we meet and discuss community concerns. The monthly meetings keep the lines of communication open and help establish a sense of trust."

Our visit to Dearborn occurs in the shadow of the London bombings, perpetrated by British-born Muslims (who were Pakistanis, not Arabs). Are there any concerns of a parallel development in the heart of Arab America? Everyone we spoke with rejected such a possibility out of hand. Dearborn is not Leeds.

Abu Nab's words were typical. "Arab-American youth are not disconnected from society as were the Pakistani Brits. They are a lot more integrated here and see the promise of America."

Dearborn presents not a threat, but an un-seized opportunity to serve as America's bridge to the Arab and Muslim worlds.

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* Pierre Atlas is assistant professor of political science and director of the Franciscan Center for Global Studies at Marian College. Contact him at patlas@marian.edu.
Source: The Indianapolis Star, July 28, 2005.
Visit website at www.indystar.com.
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained from the author for publication.

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ARTICLE 3
The Western world through Eastern eyes
Alan Riding

Barcelona - For well over 1,000 years, Europe has been engaged with the Muslim world. The Moorish conquest of Spain and the Crusades eventually led to the fad for all things Turkish of the 18th century, while the colonial occupations of the 19th and early 20th centuries climaxed in the postwar addiction to Mideast oil. In that sense, then, the present crisis over Islamic fundamentalism is just one more chapter in a very old story.

Yet, remarkably, over much of this period, Europe has paid little heed to how it was viewed in the Muslim world. "West by East," a groundbreaking exhibition in Barcelona, tries to make amends. It records a complex love-hate relationship marked by cyclical attraction and repulsion, proximity and confrontation. And it reaches a surprising conclusion: "Easterners have paid a lot less attention to Europeans than we have to them."

The show, which runs at the Center for Contemporary Culture in Barcelona through Sept. 25 before traveling to Valencia, was born of the perceived "clash of civilizations" that followed 9/11, but it goes far beyond today's headlines. "Islam and Europe appear to constitute two separate entities that are antagonistic, irreconcilable, radically different," its catalogue notes. "Now that millions of inhabitants of Muslim origin live in Europe, the story we wish to recount is another."

True, so vast a subject can hardly be covered in a single exhibition built around historical texts, objects and images. But, as Jordi Balló, the center's director of exhibitions, put it: "We've so often seen shows about the West's fascination with the East. We ourselves did one called 'Fantasies of the Harem.' This is an attempt to see things from the other side."

By definition, it had to be organized by a Muslim. So the center ceded full control of the exhibition to Abdelwahab Meddeb, a Paris-based Tunisian poet, writer, university professor and, most recently, author of "The Malady of Islam" (Basic Books). He in turn recruited nine artists and five writers from the Muslim world to contribute a contemporary view to "West by East."

For the purpose of this show, the West is principally Europe, with the United States a newcomer, and the East is the Islamic world. Even here, though, the lines are blurred because Meddeb and the guests artists straddle this divide.

"In everything I do or write, I try to say what I feel, that I am deeply Western and Eastern, that I am the son of a double genealogy," Meddeb explained. "I was raised in this spirit. And with the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, I try to demonstrate the East and West are reconcilable."

To explore this premise, the show engages in what Meddeb calls "archeological soundings," starting with maps and writings of a 12th-century Arab geographer, Al-Idrisi. He was in the service of Sicily's Roger II, who drove the Muslims from the island but retained Muslim scholars in his court. How far Al-Idrisi traveled is unclear, but he wrote with admiration of Rome's 1,200 churches, 1,000 baths and "the palace of a prince called pope."

Even earlier, Sicily was already an important crossroads. On display from Palermo is a page from a Greek-Arabic version of the Gospel According to St. Luke as well as an 11th-century tombstone inscribed in Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Arabic. To illustrate the Crusades, Meddeb chose Usama Ibn al-Munqidh, a Syrian who fought the Christian invaders but who, in his autobiography, described the Westerner as "an enemy one can be friends with."

The physical - and religious - proximity of Christianity and Islam influenced sacred imagery, notably in the way some Muslim artists borrowed from Christian tradition to paint scenes from the life of the Prophet (although in some cases the face of Muhammad was later obliterated to conform with prevailing iconophobia). By the 16th century, Ottoman rulers were themselves eager to be painted in the Western style.

But it was only in the early 19th century that the Western way of life began to transform the Muslim Orient, not only through technology, architecture and fashion, but also through philosophy and political meddling. The response was ambivalent: Some Muslim leaders adopted the new ways, with photographs in this show recording their "grand tours" of Europe, but so-called "Occidentalists" also began resisting European domination.

Then, in 1928, with the creation of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the stage was set for the ongoing struggle between the modern and the traditional in much of the Islamic world. Since then, this show's catalogue proposes, "the history of the Islamic countries has been marked by a dividing line that separates Occidentophilic and Occidentophobic tendencies."

Still, "West by East" suggests, art can serve as a bridge of communication. "Given that whenever you speak of us, it is to evoke 'The Thousand and One Nights' or terrorism, it will be interesting to see if we have ideas as fixed as yours," noted Marjane Satrapi, author of "Persepolis," an acclaimed comic book autobiography, who painted a cheerful mural called "The Magnificent Occident" for this show.

Khosrow Hassanzadeh, another Iranian artist, gave his answer by looking at himself in a Western mirror: He presented a self-portrait and portraits of members of his family, each identified by name, nationality, age and profession under the word "Terrorist" as they might be identified on a "Wanted" poster.

Shadi Ghadirian, also from Iran, offered a satirical view of how she saw the West by photographing herself in Western dress then blacking out all evidence of flesh. Thanks to Iranian censors, she explained, that is how she grew up seeing Western women in imported magazines. The Moroccan video artist Bouchra Khalili turned the tables by dressing in traditional costume, in one sequence, summoning Western men to a casting and, in another, removing her costume in public.

Accompanying the show on television monitors, interviews with five Muslim writers provide a kind of ongoing commentary.

Each is asked to respond to the same questions about their perception of the West, among them, what they like - rationality and efficiency were applauded - and what they dislike - the poverty of human relations was lamented.

The most original answer, however, came from Sorour Kasmai, an Iranian writer.

To the question why the West is democratic and the East often despotic, she responded: "I think democracy exists in the West because the West has had the novel. And despotism reigns in the East because the East has had poetry. The novel develops the democratic imagination because it offers various paths, various destinies, while poetry is despotic."

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* Alan Riding is a Paris-based journalist for the New York Times.
Source: The International Herald Tribune, September 1, 2005.
Visit the website at www.iht.com.
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.

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ARTICLE 4
Egypt's growing blogger community pushes limit of dissent
Charles Levinson

CAIRO - With unkempt black locks and a laptop tucked under his arm, Alaa Fattah has a voice that carries further than those of other antigovernment activists.

Mr. Fattah, just 23, is one of Egypt's leading bloggers, part of an online community that acts as a virtual megaphone for Egypt's burgeoning opposition movement. Other countries in the Middle East have started cracking down on the Internet, arresting bloggers and imposing strict censorship regimes.

As bloggers gain clout in Cairo, observers say it is only a matter of time before Egypt follows suit.

At a recent demonstration in Cairo's Opera Square against the 25-year rule of President Hosni Mubarak, activists distributed placards that read "Freedom Now" and "No to Oppression." Fattah, on the other hand, passed out lists of websites to a dozen or so local bloggers who act as an unofficial media outlet for Egypt's disparate opposition.

"You just can't rely on the mainstream media here," he says.

The connection between the Internet and dissent is not new. In the late 1990s, Zapatista rebels in southern Mexico gained international attention for their plight, largely because of a savvy Net campaign. Similarly, the antiglobalization protests that rocked Seattle in 1999, and have hit other cities since, were organized largely online. Today, blogs, or Web journals, have taken up the charge.

The number of blogs worldwide has doubled in the past five months, and a new blog is created every second, according to a recent report by the blog-watchers Technorati. The Middle East is witnessing its share of that growth.

Many Arab bloggers are tackling sensitive political and human rights issues rarely broached by the state-controlled media. They are proving to be a powerful source of information, capable of reaching a few hundred like-minded activists, or of rallying international attention to a cherished cause.

After government supporters attacked and beat protesters in late May, Egypt's blogging community led the effort to publicize what had happened.

“I had never heard the word blogger until May 25," says Rabab al-Mahdi, a political science professor at the American University in Cairo, and an opposition activist. "But now I know them well because of all the amazing coverage they had of the protests. My friends overseas all followed what happened through the blogs, because they have more credibility than the mainstream media."

Activists in Egypt rely on blogs like Fattah's to find out the time and place of future demonstrations, to learn who has been arrested and where they have been taken, and to debate the effectiveness of opposition strategies. In short order, Egypt's bloggers have become a political force, capable of more than merely commenting from the sidelines.

In early June, Fattah and two other bloggers decided they were tired of protesting in the same tired locations, with the same hackneyed slogans. Acting independently of opposition elders, they used their blogs to organize a protest in a working-class Cairo neighborhood, which attracted a respectable 300 people. The young bloggers' innovative logos, slogans, and choice of location prompted a sweeping debate among the Egyptian opposition.

Similarly, after three suicide bombers pounded the Sinai resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on July 23, three other Egyptian bloggers organized an antiterrorism candle light vigil. It attracted so much interest that the government banned it at the last minute.

"Egypt's bloggers seem to have been able to make the transition from spouting hot air, to political organization and political work and that's impressive," says Marc Lynch, a political science professor specializing in Arab media at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass.

The new threat is only beginning to dawn on Middle Eastern regimes, long accustomed to tightly regulating the flow of information. Bloggers and online journalists have been imprisoned in Iran, Syria, Bahrain, and Tunisia. Several others closely monitor and restrict access to Web content. Media observers expect the region's bloggers to face growing intolerance from governments.

"In the Middle East, the mechanisms of oppression are already there, and the number of bloggers is growing," says Curt Hopkins, director of the eight-month-old Committee to Protect Bloggers. "There's going to be a convergence in the not too distant future with a lot of cracking down on bloggers."

In 2001, Hossein Derakhshan, an Iranian emigrant to Canada, published directions on how to make a blog in the Farsi language. Seven months later there were 1,200 blogs in Iran.

Today, there are an estimated 75,000 to 100,000 Iranians blogging, including former vice president Mohammad Ali Abtahi. During the 2003 student uprisings in Iran, Internet blogs and chat rooms allowed students to mobilize, organize, and communicate with one another, free of prying government eyes.

Iran has since adopted "one of the world's most substantial Internet censorship regimes," according to the Open Net Initiative, a partnership of researchers from Harvard, Cambridge University, and the University of Toronto.

But government resistance isn't thwarting this new generation of Middle East activists, who are finding that the pro-democracy sit-ins, and decades-old slogans of their parents, may not be the most effective avenue for change.

"I help people build websites," says Fattah, the Egyptian blogger. "This is the biggest contribution I can make to the movement."

Bahrain's bloggers make a mark

Bahrain is another Middle Eastern country where bloggers have butted heads with the government in recent months. Bahraini bloggers' relentless calls for a new constitution, the separation of powers, and greater political liberties seem to have rattled the government.

"The fact that there are so many bloggers out there speaking freely and expressing themselves with no inhibitions or restraints is unheard of," wrote Amira al-Hussaini in a recent post to her popular blog, "Silly Bahraini Girl."

Earlier this year Bahraini authorities arrested a blogger and two website technicians from the Internet forum Bahrain Online, which had posted a United Nations report critical of the government's discrimination against the Shiite majority.

The country's largest opposition movement had used the website to organize protests and evade police. The arrests were followed by an edict from the Ministry of Information requiring all bloggers to register their websites with the government.

Bahrain's bloggers rallied to the cause. They organized a protest demonstration, and vowed not to register with the ministry. As they wrote about the plight of their electronic brethren, bloggers across the globe - and then media heavyweights like The Wall Street Journal, and international aid groups such as Human Rights Watch - picked up on the story.

The media campaign was largely effective. The three have since been released from prison, though they could still face charges, and few expect the Ministry of Information to follow through with its new policy of requiring all bloggers to register with the government.

"Without the bloggers of Bahrain escalating this, and trying to pressure the government, I don't think anyone would have ever cared or heard about these guys," said Haitham Sabbah, a prolific blogger since 2003.

Egyptian blogs
• www.egyptiansand monkey.blogspot.com
• www.bigpharaoh.blog spot.com
• www.baheyya.blog spot.com

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* Charles Levinson is a correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor.
Source: The Christian Science Monitor, August 24, 2005
Visit the website at www.csmonitor.com
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission can be obtained from the Christian Science Monitor by contacting Lawrenced@csps.com.

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ARTICLE 5
Mindsets and lack of knowledge are the problem
Nancy El-Gindy

"What is needed is a move beyond tradition," states well-known British Indian Anglo-Indian author/novelist Salman Rushdie in a London Times article in early August 2005, "nothing less than a reform movement to bring the core concepts of Islam into the modern age."

Because of terrorist acts perpetrated by Islamic fundamentalists, demands for revolutionary reform of Islamic traditions, Sharia (Islamic law), new interpretations of the Quran, and changes to the Muslim way of life in order to bring the Islamic world into the "modern age" have been very popular with the media and the subject of much public debate in recent years.

Why is it that the faith of Islam is always brought into question when a very small minority of Muslims actually commit these crimes of aggression? Why is it assumed that Islam itself is actually driving these murderers to such levels of hatred and ignorance? Islamic terrorism has no roots in the religion itself, rather it grows out of individuals' own interpretation of it, personal intolerance and hate, and in some cases, perhaps even insanity.

Rushdie, one of the most active advocates of Islamic reform, is the writer of the The Satanic Verses, the publication which made him a heretic in the eyes of the late Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who put a price on his head. He argues that (the) Muslims in the West seclude themselves in their own neighborhoods and are isolated from the community at large, to such an extent that this isolation leads youngsters to embrace terrorism. He also believes that if the Quran was viewed as a historical document, rather than simply the word of God, then it would be legitimate to reinterpret it to suit the conditions of the present time.

Rushdie has acknowledged that there are millions of Muslims who are indeed tolerant and "civilized", but adds that there are also many more that have anti-Semitic views and do not support the concept of freedom of expression.

Though this may be accurate, I would hardly agree that Islam is the driving force behind isolationism, anti-Semitic views and a lack of freedom of expression.

If enough people read the teachings of Islam they would understand that it promotes tolerance, patience, kindness and understanding toward both Muslims and non-Muslims. The killing of innocents has been and always will be a major sin, as in any other religion or belief system. Some religious leaders, however, take liberties in interpreting certain verses of the Quran or sayings of the Prophet Mohammad pbuh, taking them out of context to suit their own political agendas, and sometimes managing to brainwash others with false promises of paradise in the afterlife. Islam itself does not sponsor or condone the terrorist acts of these Muslims, and thus should not be held responsible for them.

Islam is not uncivilized, outdated, or intolerant; it is the people that promote radical, unconventional beliefs and practices of Islam and live this way that create these misconceptions. Reforming Islam itself is not going to solve the problem of terrorism perpetrated by extremists, because no matter how much theology and doctrine change, people themselves probably will not. Reinterpreting holy texts would fail firstly because of the widespread and strong opposition it would receive, and secondly because extremists will always manage to find something in the texts of Islam that they can twist to fit their agendas.

Unfortunately, it seems in all societies there exists a minority of narrow-minded fanatics. For example, Christianity is widely seen as a moderate religion which promotes peace, and is what it is today because of many periods of reformation, schism, and soul-searching, yet there are still groups of people all over the world who promote extreme views in its name, for instance, the once powerful Ku Klux Klan, a self-proclaimed Christian organization. What changed was not the religion, nor interpretations of core religious texts, rather, popular support for the organization eroded as the hearts and minds of the population at large turned against bigotry and discrimination of all kinds, thanks in large part to the civil rights movement in the United States.

Mindsets are the problem, not what is written in Islam's holy texts. Altering this state of mind should be the focus of intellectual efforts to end terrorism, not modifying or reforming Islam.

What gives rise then, to this unfortunate and misplaced perception? Simple lack of knowledge about Islam. There is a vital need to raise the awareness in the Western countries on some simple facts about Islam. The states of the Middle East and Muslim world should do much more in terms of public diplomacy. Their current utter lack of the most basic public relations skills is one of the biggest reasons the teachings of Islam are hardly known, much less properly understood, in the West. Western journalists and analysts often know no more than their audiences, making it difficult, if not impossible, for them to put events in the Middle East and acts of terrorism in proper context.

Credible intellectual and religious figures should also make more efforts to reach out to national and local media in the West. Scholars, sheikhs and other religious figures should swallow their pride and pay special attention to more conservative media outlets such as the Fox News Network, often criticized for its bias, to reach those sectors of the American population that tend to be unthinkingly anti-Islam. They will need to have a strong grounding in Western history and politics so they can help define for Western audiences the difference between Islamic principles, on the one hand, and the actions of a few, on the other, in terms they will understand. And they should not let Westerners forget that dangerous, extremist movements claiming to draw on religion have existed in the West as well.

There is no need to apologize as many Muslims have in the UK. Instead, the efforts of Islamic nations should be concentrated on education. Many religious specialists and leaders around the world have condemned the September 11th and July 7th terrorist attacks, as well as many others, and have publicly stated that these crimes are not motivated by Islam. But they have failed to actually educate Westerners about Islam itself to show how little basis there is in Islam for terrorism, and to give specific examples from Islamic history and the Hadith (sayings of the Prophet), the Prophet's teachings and anecdotes about how he lived his life.

Only when Islamic religious leaders and governments take their role of representatives of Islam seriously will the image of Islam in the West have a chance of changing. Otherwise, Westerners will, quite naturally, only continue to pay heed to the loudest voices in the Islamic world, the voices of the terrorists and extremists.

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* Nancy El-Gindy is a student at the American University in Cairo and a former participant in the Soliya Arab-American online dialogue program.
Source: CGNews-PiH, September 13, 2005
Visit our website 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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Posted by Evelin at September 14, 2005 12:08 AM