Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity (CGNews-PiH)
September 27, 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.

**********

ARTICLES IN THIS EDITION:

1. “The Ideas Battle with Islam Requires More than Spinmeisters” by David Ignatius
David Ignatius, syndicated journalist and frequent contributor to the Daily Star, suggests different means of making Islam a living and vibrant faith. He argues that the war of ideas can be won with the theological support of an Islam that speaks to the Muslims of today, along with U.S. efforts to make involvement in cult-like religious groups - organizations that prey on the vulnerable and confused - more dangerous.
(Source: Daily Star, September 17, 2005)

2. “UK Church Offers Apology for Iraq War” by IslamOnline.net
This IslamOnline.net article describes how Anglican bishops are taking the lead in reconciling with UK Muslims by suggesting that the Church of England apologize to Muslim leaders for the US-led war in Iraq in place of unwilling governments. The bishops also argue that US policy is being driven by Christian fundamentalists with mistaken interpretations of apocalyptic texts, with predictable results.
(Source: IslamOnline.net, September 19, 2005)

3. ~YOUTH VIEWS~
“Building Peace and Justice through Awareness” by Anna Belesiotis
Anna Belesiotis, a senior at Lewis & Clark College where she is studying international relations, writes about her experience as a Greek-American, and the similarities she sees between Greek and Arab culture. After an encounter with Arab Muslim exchange students at her school, she explains how “being a good representative of one’s religion causes every person you encounter to have a positive image of that religion,” and how this particular exchange has helped her to find deeper meaning in her own faith.
(Source: CGNews-PiH, September 27, 2005)

4. “Our Media is Scaring the World and Hurting our National Interest” – Daily Times of Pakistan editorial
This Daily Times editorial is concerned about the world’s negative image of Pakistanis and criticizes the Pakistani media for distorting world events and promoting negative images that perpetuate this view. The author argues that “our ‘free’ media must raise the standard of dialogue and discussion in the national interest. The world is already scared; we don’t have to play on this scare any further.”
(Source: Daily Times Pakistan, Sept 15, 2005)

5. “The Changing Faces of Islam” by Abeer Mishkhas
Abeer Mishkhas, a writer for Arab News, discusses the varied interpretations and practices of Islam around the world, including Pakistan, Indonesia, Turkey, Morroco and Malyasia, as portrayed in a documentary broadcast by BBC entitled “Battle for Islam.” For the first time, writes Mishkhas, a documentary about the Muslim world has been produced that “avoids reference to violence as well as the intolerant and one-sided ideologies of some Muslims.”
(Source: Arab News, September 15, 2005)

**********

ARTICLE 1
The ideas battle with Islam requires more than spinmeisters
David Ignatius

Rarely has a big idea gotten more lip service and less real substance than the argument that there is a war of ideas under way for the soul of the Muslim world. Do a Google search on the words "war of ideas" and "Muslim" and you get over 11 million hits. Yet four years after September 11, 2001, the real battle is only now beginning.

The Bush administration's response has been to throw former White House spinmeister Karen Hughes into the fray. The implication is that Muslims will stop hating America if we can just improve our "public diplomacy" through Hughes' new office at the State Department. Forgive me, but that idea strikes me as dangerously naive. This is not a propaganda problem, nor is it one that can be solved by the United States.

The war within Islam takes place every day in mosques, study groups and televised sermons. And although it's about ideas, it has deadly consequences, with hundreds dying from suicide car bombings this week in Iraq alone. It's hard for a non-Muslim like me to fully understand this struggle, but after years of reporting on the Middle East, reading and talking to Muslim friends, I'm beginning to see some connections.

Traditional Islam is under assault from a puritanical fringe group known as the "Salafists." The name is drawn from an Arabic word that refers to the 7th-century ancestors who walked with the Prophet Mohammad. For a Christian analogy to the Salafist extremists, think of the 15th-century fanatical monk Savonarola, who burned the books of Florence in his rage at the corruption of the House of Medici. The difference is that the Salafists have access to the Internet and car bombs - and perhaps far more dangerous weapons.

An important new book by Quintan Wiktorowicz, titled "Radical Islam Rising," makes clear that the Salafists operate like a cult. They draw in vulnerable young people, fill them with ideas that give their lives a fiery new meaning, and send them into battle against the unbelievers.

Combating this seductive Salafist preaching requires the same kind of intense "de-programming" used to wean away converts from other modern cults.

Wiktorowicz researched his book by embedding himself with "Al-Muhajiroun," an extremist Salafist group based in London. He found that the group preyed on disoriented young Muslims - not poor or oppressed, themselves, but confused and looking for meaning. Recruitment often involved a personal crisis that provided the Muslim cultists with a "cognitive opening."

"To many young Muslims, their parents' version of Islam seems archaic, backward and ill-informed," Wiktorowicz explains. Into this spiritual void march the Salafists. They provide a structured life, through a mandatory study session every week in the halaqah, or prayer circle, and a new set of life rules. Among the prohibited activities Wiktorowicz discovered in his research were "playing games," "watching television," "sleeping a lot and chilling out," and "hanging out with friends."

Frankly, Hughes and her public diplomats aren't going to be much help in deprogramming a young Salafist. Governments can contain the violent cults by making it riskier to join - so that the confused young Muslim must weigh the danger of deportation or even arrest before joining an extremist group. But the real battle of ideas requires theological ammunition, and that's where there are some interesting new developments.

Traditional Islam is finally starting to fight back against the Salafists and their self-taught, literalist interpretations of the Koran. One of the leaders in this effort is Jordan's King Abdullah II, heir to a Hashemite throne that traces its lineage back to the prophet Mohammad. He convened an Islamic conference in Amman last July that concluded with a communique on "True Islam and its Role in Modern Society." It re-emphasized the traditional faith - the four schools of Sunni jurisprudence, the orthodox school of Shiite jurisprudence, the canon set forth over centuries of fatwas and other orthodox interpretations of what Islam means.

Rather than running scared, as mainstream clerics sometimes do when facing the Salafist onslaught, the Amman declaration was proud and emphatic. It drew together fatwas from the leading clerics in Islam, including the sheikh of Al-Azhar in Cairo and Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in Najaf. Another backer was Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi, who has a weekly show on Al-Jazeera and is probably the best-known television preacher in the Arab world.

These Islamic leaders sense that their religion is being kidnapped by Salafist radicals with a grab-bag theology, and they are finally beginning to push back. It's a war of ideas they should win, if they can make traditional Islam a vibrant, living faith. Young Muslims don't want to go back to the 7th century; they want to live with dignity in the 21st.

###
* Syndicated columnist David Ignatius is published regularly by the Daily Star of Lebanon.
Source: Daily Star, September 17, 2005
Visit the website at www.dailystar.com.lb
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.

**********

ARTICLE 2
Islam-online.net
UK Church Offers Apology for Iraq War

LONDON- Four Church of England bishops said on Monday, September 19 that the Church should take the lead in reconciling with UK Muslims by apologizing to their leaders for the US-led war in Iraq if the British government fails to do so.

"We do believe that the church has a visionary role for reconciliation, beyond that of any government," the Bishop of Oxford, Right Reverend Richard Harris, told BBC radio.

The proposal was contained in a report, entitled "Countering Terrorism: Power, Violence and Democracy Post-9/11," written by a working group of the Church of England's House of Bishops, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Leaders of the Church of England, which lies at the heart of the worldwide Anglican community, including Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, had been critical of the war, insisting the invasion failed to meet the criteria of a "just war," reported AFP.

The report will be submitted for debate within the church, but it was not clear what the next step would be, a church spokesman told AFP.

Political Repentance

As governments are unlikely to apologize, according to the Associated Press (AP), the report suggested a "truth and reconciliation" meeting between Christian and Muslim leaders for a "public act of institutional repentance" to apologize for the way the West has contributed to the tragedy in Iraq, including the March 2003 invasion led by the United States and Britain.

The bishops say to pull out of Iraq without a stable democracy being in place would be irresponsible and compound the misery of the Iraqi people. But to stay suggests collusion with a "gravely mistaken" war.
If collusion is a necessary evil, the report says, there needs to be a degree of public recognition of the West's responsibility for the predicament.

The report highlights a "long litany of errors" in the West's handling of Iraq which includes its support of Saddam Hussein over many years as a strategic ally against Iran, its willingness to sell him weapons and the suffering caused to the Iraqi people by sanctions.

"It might be possible for there to be a public gathering... at which Christian leaders meet with religious leaders of other, mainly Muslim, traditions, on the basis of truth and reconciliation, at which there would be a public recognition of at least some of the factors mentioned above," it said.

The report added that the invasion appeared to be "as much for reasons of American national interest as it was for the well-being of the Iraqi people."

Moral Dilemma

The bishops expressed concern about the "strong sense of moral righteousness" behind US policy in the Middle East, which is "fed by the major influence of the 'Christian right'," the report said.

"Not only is this political reading of current history in the light of apocalyptic texts illegitimate, but that those texts need to be read in a different way altogether, as a critique of imperialism rather than as a justification for it," it said.

The report's authors point to precedents where the church has said sorry for past injustices including the Vatican 's remorse over Christians' responsibility for the persecution of Jews.

The bishops accept that such a meeting is likely to attract widespread and harsh criticism and could easily be dismissed as "a cheap gesture" with little cost to the church.

But they argue that far from being an easy answer to a thorny question, setting up a meeting of this kind would present all kinds of difficulties, not least persuading Muslim leaders to attend in the first place.

The meeting is offered as a solution to the moral dilemma that members of the church who opposed the war find themselves in.

The US-led invasion of Iraq is believed to have given a momentum to Al-Qaeda's recruitment and fundraising and made Britain, Washington 's key ally in the war, more vulnerable to terrorist attacks, according to a long-planned report issued Monday, July 18, by London-based Royal Institute of International Affairs, known as Chatham House, a respected British think-tank.

Within the same context, London Mayor Ken Livingstone wrote in a British daily on Thursday, August 4 that Britain must withdraw its troops from Iraq in order to prevent further terrorist attacks.

###
* This article was compiled on IslamOnline.net.
Source: IslamOnline.net, September 19, 2005
Visit the website at www.islamonline.net
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.

**********

ARTICLE 3
Building Peace and Justice through Awareness
Anna Belesiotis

As a first generation American, my family has maintained the traditional Greek customs they brought with them to the United States. Preserving these customs within my family has taught me the importance of knowing their origins so that the next generation can understand the significance of keeping these traditions alive. As I learn more about Greek customs, I discover more and more similarities between Arab and Greek culture. From cuisine to folk dance, many of these traditions are so indistinguishable from one another that I feel at home in either culture. Despite my knowledge of our cultural similarities, I was unaware of a stronger tie religious Greeks and Arabs share: a firm devotion to our respective religions and a deep belief in living by God’s principles.

Recently I was fortunate to have the opportunity to discover our common devotion to God through my friendships with six, Arab exchange students who studied at my college for six months, as part of a program funded by the State Department which provides them the opportunity to study in the U.S. for two years. During the six months they studied at Lewis and Clark College, I was fortunate not only to have learned about Islam, but also to have been inspired to become a firmer believer in my own Christian faith because I had the opportunity to experience another faith through those with a deep devotion to their religion.

From the day I was baptized into the Orthodox Church, I have considered my Orthodox identity to be as strong a part of my personality as my Greek ethnicity. In contrast, the Muslim students feel their religion is more important to them than their culture. Although they are proud of being Arab, they are even prouder of being Muslim and put it before everything else. Muslims live by the Koran’s principles for the same reason Christians live according to biblical teachings: to fulfill God’s wishes for peace and justice throughout the world. The students informed me that Islam is the last message from God, whose goal is to bring together all the people of the world so they can work for peace and justice. They told me God chose this method because it would have been difficult to have all people in different parts of the world join together to worship God in the same manner. As a result, God sent each people a prophet to establish each religion along a different path, all with the goal of promoting the same core principles of peace and justice.

The students also taught me that Islam is for everyone because it combines all cultures: black and white, Arab and non-Arab, poor and rich. There is no difference between an Arab and a non-Arab person but belief. As with followers of any religion, there are different ways in which Muslims believe and choose to worship God. But all religions agree that the more a person believes, the better a person they are. And no matter which religion an individual believes in, our faith can inspire us to become better people when we follow our religion’s teachings.

For instance, every religion teaches us to respect all people regardless of their faith, race, or social status. Even non-religious persons in western society acknowledge that increased awareness of other cultures and their beliefs leads to a greater understanding of our differences, and more importantly leads us to recognize the common beliefs all people share regardless of their particular faith. Respect for other cultures is the only way violence can be mitigated, peace accomplished and ignorance turned to knowledge.

It follows that by welcoming those of different faiths into western society, we can help create a positive image of the American people in Muslim societies. The Arab students told me that my eagerness to learn more about Arab culture and its relationship to Islam challenged their prior suppositions about Americans. They had not expected such curiosity about their countries and had thought Americans would be disrespectful of their beliefs. Similarly, I did not expect to feel comfortable discussing religion with Muslims and was hesitant about how they would respect my own beliefs. Our friendship has instilled a positive image in my mind of Muslims and Arab culture that I would not have had if not for my eagerness to learn about and experience Islam from a Muslim perspective.

The students were proof that being a good representative of one’s religion causes every person you encounter to have a positive image of that religion. Their incredible devotion to Islam, in conjunction with their fervent dedication to abide by God’s teachings, inspired me to seek ways in which I could better exemplify the principles of my own faith. The students taught me how peace and justice are spread every time you interact with others who behave according to religious morals, no matter what the religion. My friends’ compassion gave me greater faith that peace and justice can exist between all societies. The immediate respect we had for one another despite our religious differences is a demonstration of what just a little effort can lead to. By respecting Islam and Muslim people in our own country, we can begin sowing the seeds of understanding that will lead to peaceful, mutually beneficial relations with Muslim societies throughout the Arab world.

###
* Anna Belesiotis is a senior at Lewis & Clark College, where she is studying international relations. She plans to continue her studies with a degree in international law.
Source: CGNews-PiH, September 27, 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.

**********

ARTICLE 4
Our media is scaring the world and hurting our national interest
Editorial of the Daily Times of Pakistan

Many discussions on Pakistani TV channels or comments in the Urdu press are downright scary. For example, a retired chief justice of the Sindh High Court recently denied on TV that the boys who did the 7/7 bombing in London were really involved or had anything to do with Pakistan. Similarly, several editorials written in Urdu on the fourth anniversary of 9/11 cast doubt on Muslims ever being involved in the act. Now consider the latest threat delivered to the cities of Melbourne and Los Angeles through an Al Qaeda tape received by a TV channel in New York. The boy pictured in it was identified by his parents in California, who told the TV channel that he had converted to Islam at an Orange County mosque and “come under the influence of militants who took him to Pakistan”.

As the retired chief justice of the Sindh High Court railed against the West in a September 10 telecast, the news that he had not read was that the leader of the 7/7 bombers, Siddiq Khan, had appeared in an Al Qaeda video, made somewhere in Pakistan prior to the attack, and declared his terrorist intent in the name of Islam. The honourable judge on the other hand was trying to prove “on the strength of my vast judicial experience” that the 7/7 deaths were stage-managed by “the West” to punish Pakistan and the Muslim world. He ignored the fact that Shehzad Tanvir, one of the London-bombers, had visited a madrassa in Lahore run by the banned terrorist organisation, Sipah-e-Sahaba. (The madrassa is still functional.) Of course, we have the right to hold free discussions in which facts can be quoted to prove our point but mere fulminations spoil the atmosphere in Pakistan by creating hatred and scare the outside world.

How the world is scared was demonstrated on Monday when an airliner carrying British tourists from Cyprus back to Manchester, UK, had to be delayed because the passengers refused to take off with two Pakistanis on board “who looked like terrorists”. Alarm was raised when one of the Pakistanis entered the plane toilet and did not come out even after 10 minutes. The airline had to suffer thousands of dollars of loss as 230 passengers had to be rescheduled after a lay-off in a local hotel and the two Pakistanis had to be sent on a different airliner. The two poor Pakistanis suffered because their dress was shalwar-qamees and their faces were covered with beards. The bad reputation of Pakistan is linked to facts that most of us insist on denying, but also to the kind of opinion we express whenever we get a chance to do so.

Now Australia is reported as getting ready to secure itself against possible Al Qaeda attacks. But if any new legislation is passed the expatriate Pakistani community in Australia will be the one to suffer. The 9/11 attack which was carried out by Arabs with no Pakistani involved was planned in Pakistan and Afghanistan and the attackers of the “Hamburg Cell” had all visited Pakistan. If Australia is attacked, which country are the terrorists likely to have visited before the attack? If the Australians say Pakistan, they can’t be blamed, because of what has happened in the past and what our press has been saying and reporting about Australia. This year, a leader of Ahle Sunnat Muslims in Australia, Sheikh Muhammad Imran, said that Osama bin Laden was not responsible for the 9/11 bombings, nor had the Muslims done the 7/7 bombings. Osama, he said, was a great (azeem) Muslim and there was no proof that he had carried out acts of terrorism.

It may be recalled that newspapers had reported the former interior minister, Faisal Saleh Hayat, on August 17, 2004 as saying that in 2003 an Australian member of Al Qaeda named Terry was arrested from the house of former national hockey player, Shahid Ali Khan, in Karachi, whose wife was a member of Jamaat-e-Islami. Similarly, an Urdu weekly reported as recently as August 1, 2005 that Hizb al Tahrir was recruiting Muslims for Al Qaeda from the Green Acres area of Sydney. It stated that Muhammad Atta, the 9/11 pilot, had contacted the Hizb in Germany and that the 7/7 London bomber, Shehzad Tanvir, also had contacts with Hizb Al Tahrir. The organisation was found distributing pamphlets among the Muslims of Australia. Meanwhile, the head of the Islamic Teaching Institute in Australia, Sheikh Khalid Yaseen, has asked the Muslims not to make friends with non-Muslim Australians. And although banned, Hizb al Tahrir is very active in Pakistan with full public and, alas, judicial sympathies.

Apart from “defending” Islam, our duty is to protect our economy and also protect a very important factor of our economy, namely, the expatriate Pakistani community. We can prevent the radicalisation of the expatriate Muslims by toning down our rhetoric and controlling our madrassas. We can surely stop adding to the international alarm by tempering the inflammatory discussions that affect our economy and our travel abroad. We cannot miss the point behind even the Gulf states’ deporting hundreds of Pakistanis suspected of Al Qaeda sympathies and extreme views. We should not forget that foreign investment is still shy and an Arab buyer of our privatised electricity corporation (KESC) only recently abandoned the deal with the forfeiture of his preliminary deposit after looking at what was happening in Karachi on the terrorism front.

The terrorists who blow up our public facilities and kill our citizens are roaming around in Pakistan and the daily news confirms their presence, but why should the rest of us join verbally in their enterprise? Everything written and spoken on TV in Pakistan eventually gets reported abroad. Our “free” media must raise the standard of dialogue and discussion in the national interest. The world is already scared; we don’t have to play on this scare any further. *

###
* This piece was an editorial written by the Daily Times of Pakistan.
Source: the Daily Times of Pakistan, Sept 15, 2005
Visit their website at www.dailytimes.com.pk
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.

**********

ARTICLE 5
The Changing Faces of Islam
Abeer Mishkhas

“BATTLE for Islam” was the title of the documentary broadcast by the BBC this month. It was shown later in London to a limited audience at Chatham House; both the presenter and the director of the film were present and participated in a lively discussion.

Ziauddin Sardar, the presenter, wrote that his program showed another side of what is perceived as “a narrow, intolerant, obscurantist, illiberal and confrontational interpretation” of Islam.

He aimed to show the differences in Islam from one country to another; his premise was that all are pieces of a puzzle which add up to the face of Islam according to a variety of voices. He goes on a journey to the edges of the Muslim world, to countries that have not been closely looked at.

The journey took him to Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey and Morocco.

After the film was shown, Sardar said that he had tried to avoid violent pictures which the media have delighted in since 9/11. Nonetheless, the film begins with a violent image — the Twin Towers on fire — but after all, that is a violent image which has been the springboard for all the debate on Islam. It begins with a question about the identities of those who committed the atrocities and in pursuit of this, he goes to Pakistan first to discover what has changed in some “Muslims’ thought and made them violent and intolerant.”

Pakistan, according to him, stands on the border between extremism and moderation. After 9/11, the Pakistani madarassas were accused of fomenting extremism of all kinds. As he strolls about, Sardar talks to people and records his impressions of the debate on varying interpretations of Islam. In a school in Lahore, a teacher tells him that she teaches the girls how to be true followers of Islam; she tells him that Islam does not prevent these girls from working when they grow up, provided they have permission from their husbands. President Musharaf tells Sardar that he is all for enlightened moderation which encourages the moderate forces in society.

From Pakistan, the crew moves to Indonesia, and a security guard in Jakarta’s Istiqal Mosque. The guard says that he wants his son to grow up to be a Muslim who will be “a credit to his country and to his religion.” For him, Islam is a way of life which guarantees his son’s secure future.

In Malaysia, there is a group — “Sisters in Islam”— which seeks equality between men and women in religion. One of the members is a female law student who wants to become a judge; she believes that religion is a belief in the heart and that classifying people into “believers” and “non-believers” is unjust. Religion, in her opinion, is between a person and God.

In Morocco, Sardar finds a different image of Islamic practice and life. In that country there is a heated debate about some family-related legislation that angered many women and pleased many others. The interpretation of religious texts in favor of the legislation drew all kinds of comments which ended in formal protests.

Beside the debate, we are shown the life of a simple Muslim woman who works in a carpet factory and contentedly performs her daily prayers. Her dream is to have enough money to make the pilgrimage to Makkah.

In a complete about-face, Sardar meets a government adviser who says he is Jewish but has no problems working in a high-profile job in a Muslim country.

The last country visited is Turkey where the subject of secularism and religion is hotly debated at all levels of society.

The program was criticized by some for using a former “Miss Turkey” to show the country’s diversity. Now a fashion model, she talked about her family; how her mother is a devout Muslim while her father is an atheist. She said, “I carry prayers in my wallet all the time and read them whenever I can. I find peace in my prayers.”

She made a good point, “What matters is to live and behave like a real human being. If someone goes out and harms someone and then comes home and prays five times a day, is that religion?”

One interesting — and correct — comment made to Sardar after the film was shown was that many conservative Christians would also disapprove of what Miss Turkey was wearing.

When the film ended what came to my mind was that some of the women in those countries seemed to be making gradual changes in their societies. In fact that was one of the points Sardar made after the film; he said that he regarded women as leaders for change and that based on his experiences while on the journey that women seemed to embrace the courage and new thinking that would begin the tide of change.

I could not help wondering if the film crew had included other Middle Eastern Islamic countries, wouldn’t that have been a fuller picture of women and their influences?

Sardar did say, in defense of his limited choice of countries that he thought change often started from the edges and worked toward the center. The film did not indulge in the usual stereotypes; for the first time, we say a documentary about the Muslim world which avoided reference to violence as well as the intolerant and one-sided ideologies of some Muslims.

A criticism which was made was that the film needed more depth, that it was lightweight and merely skimmed the surface of a rich and complicated world.

Perhaps that is true — but how much can we demand or expect of a single film?

###
* Abeer Mishkhas is a writer for Arab News.
Source: Arab News, September 15, 2005
Visit the website at www.arabnews.com
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.

**********

The Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity, brought to you by Search for Common Ground, seeks to build bridges of understanding between the West and the Arab World and countries with predominately Muslim populations. This service is one outcome of a set of working meetings held in partnership with His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal in June 2003.

Every two weeks, CGNews-PiH will distribute 2-5 news articles, op-eds, features, and analyses that aid in developing and analyzing the current and future relationship of the West and Arab/Muslim world. Articles will be chosen based on accuracy, balance, and their ability to improve understanding and communication across borders and regions. They will also reflect the need for constructive dialogue around issues of global importance. Selections will be authored by local and international experts and leaders who will analyze and discuss a broad range of relevant issues. We invite you to submit any articles you feel are compatible with the goals of this news service.

Partners in Humanity also regularly publishes the work of student leaders and journalists whose articles strengthen intercultural understanding and promote constructive perspectives and dialogue in their own communities through its Youth Views column. Student journalists and writers under the age of 27 are encouraged to write cbinkley@sfcg.org for more information on contributing.

We look forward to hearing from you, and welcome any questions, concerns, or comments you may have about this service. Please forward this message to colleagues and friends who may also wish to subscribe to the service. To subscribe, send an email to subscribe-cgnewspih@sfcg.org with subscribe in the subject line.

If you are a member of the media, please join us in promoting constructive dialogue to improve understanding and perceptions. 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 you choose to republish any of the articles, please acknowledge both the original source and CGNews, and notify us at cgnewspih@sfcg.org

The views expressed in these articles are those of the authors, not of CGNews or its affiliates.

Common Ground News Service

1601 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Suite #200
Washington, DC 20009 USA
Ph: +1(202) 777-2207
Fax: +1(202) 232-6718

Rue Belliard 205 bte 13
B-1040 Brussels, Belgium
Ph: +32 (02) 736-7262
Fax: +32(02) 732-3033
E-mail: cgnewspih@sfcg.org
Website: http://www.commongroundnews.org

Editors:
Emad Khalil
Amman Editor

Oussama Safa & Juliette Schmidt
Beirut Editors

Elyte Baykun & Leena El-Ali
Washington Editor

Michael Shipler & Chris Binkley
Youth Views Editor

**********

This is a not-for-profit list serve.

Please feel free to forward this message to anyone you think would like to see these articles.

To subscribe, send an email to subscribe-cgnewspih@sfcg.org with subscribe in the subject line.

Posted by Evelin at September 28, 2005 06:57 AM