Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity (CGNews-PiH)
August 1, 2006

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The Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity (CGNews-PiH) aims to promote constructive perspectives and dialogue about Muslim-Western relations.
*This service is available in Arabic, Bahasa Indonesia, English and French.
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ARTICLES IN THIS EDITION:

1. Waging war or winning peace by HRH El Hassan bin Talal
Prince Hassan of Jordan makes a personal plea to all parties in the greater Middle East region and in the international community to help end conflicts in Lebanon and beyond through consensus-building dialogue, for “It is evident to us all that military might cannot cure the evils of our region.” He advocates the convening of a Conference for Security and Cooperation as “real peace must be built, it is not just the absence of wars.”
(Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), August 1, 2006)

2. ~YOUTH VIEWS~ Forgetting the past by Steven Coulthart
Steven Coulthart laments our collective failure at learning from the past, arguing that war is not only frivolous but also polarizing. In the current Israel-Hezbollah conflict, it is also ineffectual. Coulthart offers several solutions which include the use of modern communications, global commerce and international institutions as peace-building tools..
(Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), August 1, 2006)

3. Beirut, modern jazz and the new Middle East by Nizar Ghanem
Nizar Ghanem, a civil society activist, captures the entrancing and complex nature of Beirut by comparing it jazz. “Obscure, lively, unwilling to die and constantly reinventing itself, the city is a puzzle of endless contradictions.” But jazz is also about numbness, he claims, describing one of the feelings elicited in Beirutis at present by talk of the “New Middle East”.
(Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), August 1, 2006)

4. Lebanon: Bush's moment of truth by John Esposito
John Esposito, professor at Georgetown University, admonishes the Bush administration for its approach to the current crises in Gaza and Lebanon, urging fairness, impartiality and adherence to international law in order to “demonstrate its global leadership and its stated commitment to the spread of democracy and [the promotion of] the Middle East Peace process.”
(Source: Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, July 24, 2006)

5. My America: the new world by Eboo Patel
Eboo Patel, of the Interfaith Youth Core in Chicago, praises the religious diversity in the US from the fascinating angle of an American Muslim of Indian parentage. Patel, while recognizing the importance of Islam in his own life, challenges us all to stand by Winthrop's hope of creating a "city on a hill" in which religious communities can stand together and enjoy a sense of fraternity.
(Source: US Dept. of State, June 15, 2006)

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ARTICLE 1
Waging war or winning peace
HRH El Hassan bin Talal

Amman - Once again, the region rings with the all-too-familiar cries of hatred, anger, violence and bloodshed. It seems we have become unable to disable violence – whether the perpetrators be state or non-state actors. Where is the voice of reason or the eye that sees beyond the immediate? Where is the ear that is prepared to listen?

Only last September at the UN World Summit, world leaders agreed in a historic statement that states have a primary responsibility to act to protect their own populations, and that the international community has a responsibility to act when these governments fail to protect the most vulnerable among us. Yet what we are witnessing today in Lebanon, in Palestine, in Iraq and in Afghanistan is no less than the punishment of the powerless, escalating humanitarian crises of mammoth proportions coupled, in Lebanon, with the destruction of the very infrastructure of civilised existence.

We are a dishonest lot in the Middle East. Maddened by grievances real and perceived, each of us clamours to call for peace when we have all, through trauma and intransigence, become mesmerised by war. We may fool our media allies from far away, or fulfil the requirements of sloganeers who do not share our air and soil, but we know, you and I, that lasting peace will only come when we look each other in the eye and translate hatred into words that begin a difficult conversation. The people of Israel have made an easy decision to not talk to extremists. Perhaps the bravest step is to engage with moderates and acknowledge that our troubled neighbourhood needs the courage of compassion and the wisdom of longer-term self-interest to undo the damage of macho militarism. The gunfire around us makes it even harder to hear the voices of our marginalised communities.

Honesty is the only way to save our grandchildren from the fear and asphyxiation of hope, which we have all known for so long. Our clustered cities of Amman and Tel Aviv, Beirut and Damascus are too close to each other to avoid a tangled future. We, the Children of Abraham, may claim to look in different directions for culture and custom, spirituality and succour, but this small patch of scorched, embattled earth cannot be divided by fences and false borders of the mind. If the political play does not allow us to admit this to those whose map of our region is distorted by self-interest and misguided strategic obstinacy, then at least let us have the sense to admit it to each other. Enlightened self-interest must compel us to foster human dignity and integrity by addressing the full spectrum of basic human rights, spanning from the rights of children to full respect for the rule of law on a national, regional and international level.

The events of the past three weeks have brought us to the edge of the abyss. They are the result not of timeless and inevitable conflict, but of intransigence, fear and a shocking lack of creativity by leaders in our region and beyond. The indiscriminate loss of life on all sides has polarised our populations and shown diplomacy for the devalued and scorned art it has become. The focus on polemics and the ensuing escalation of violence has sidelined the very real and dangerous concerns that underlie our region’s spiralling decline.

Aggressive ideology is nurtured by an increasing lack of economic equality, poor social mobility, a denial to many of human security and the exclusion of the silenced majority. It is evident to us all that military might cannot cure the evils of our region. Violence begets violence and the mass bombings of civilians can only result in increased use of terror tactics further down the line.

It has become exceedingly clear that the current crisis requires the application of a two-fold solution if we are ever to hope for a secure and stable peace for all our citizens. The conflicts that rule our daily lives must be addressed at the political level but we cannot afford to ignore the effects of military overkill on basic humanitarian issues. Human rights are the first casualties of war and the degradation of human dignity in our region has undone generations of agreement and convention on the rights of civilians to protection and well-being. The anger and trauma created by hundreds of dead and injured and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians so far can only have violent repercussions for a hitherto democratic, pluralistic and multicultural Lebanon reality. The shockwaves are felt by our entire region.

The continued reliance on violence to tackle problems created by a ruthless ignorance of the right to economic and existential security of civilian populations can only succeed in handing over to extremists on all sides the power to represent our grievances. A Conference for Security and Cooperation in the region must be a priority for our leaders if human security is ever to become a reality. Diplomatic avenues must be opened and explored and this arduous process should include Syria and Iran. War and its tragic repercussions are inclusive of all -- surely a model for peace should strive for such inclusiveness.

In memory of my late brother, HM King Hussein, and of PM Yitzhak Rabin, we must strive not to wage wars, but to win peace. Real peace must be built, it is not just the absence of war. We need to immediately call a Conference for Security and Cooperation to talk about the endgame, to develop regional understanding, to address the energy issue that is at the heart of so much instability and to devise a multilateral approach to such thorny issues as the proliferation of WMD, together with a regional concept for human rights, prosperity and security. Ideally, it could lead to a regional Code of Conduct and a Cohesion Fund that establishes principles of common interest, responsibility, transparency and a collective defence identity, reflecting the fact that interdependency is the reality today. Anthro-centric policies, policies where people matter, is the way to close the human dignity divide. Through good governance, we must empower the poor and dispossessed who find expression for their frustrations in extremist ideology.

The international community must firmly commit to supplanting unilateralist policies with regional strategies with the final aim of drawing up a comprehensive Regional Stabilisation Pact. The sooner a cessation of hostilities is achieved and international peacekeeping forces are deployed on both sides of the border, the sooner a collective strive towards institutionalised regional stability can begin. I cannot emphasise enough the need for diplomacy to transpose violence and this call echoes President Eisenhower’s appeal that the “table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield.”

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* Prince El Hassan bin Talal, brother of the late King Hussein of Jordan, is chairman of several organizations in fields which include diplomacy, interfaith studies, human resources, and science and technology. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org (http://www.commongroundnews.org/).
Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), August 1, 2006
Visit the website at www.commongroundnews.org (http://www.commongroundnews.org/)
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity (CGNews-PiH).
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.

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ARTICLE 2
~YOUTH VIEWS~ Forgetting the past
Steven Coulthart

Syracuse, NY- As I watch the screams of a grieving mother or the remains of demolished buildings on the nightly news, I am reminded of a fitting quote: "Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it".

Because history is indeed repeating itself, yet again.

In 1914, driven by an eerily familiar nationalist fervour, a young Slavic man assassinated Archduke Ferdinand and his wife. This act proved to be a spark that set Europe ablaze with war.

In an example of history repeating itself, a similar spark has occurred that parallels the 1914 assassination. Since Hezbollah took two Israeli soldiers hostage, this seemingly small scale event has grown into a flashpoint for a renewal of violence between the Israeli military and militant Islamists. Other countries have also been drawn into the conflict, at least peripherally. America's support of Israel's “symmetrical reaction” and Iran's implicit and explicit support of Hezbollah has not only captured world attention but generated fear of a wider crisis and possible military involvement by the US itself if Syria or Iran became directly involved.

If the assassination of the Archduke provided the first spark of war, then entangled alliances provided the acceleration to engulf Europe in the flames of war. In Lebanon and around the world, many see the current conflict as a polarising force. Just as the world was divided between Allied and Axis powers during World War I (WWI), there is a line being drawn between those who condone and those who condemn Israel's actions.

Perhaps the most frightening of history's lessons is the frivolousness of war. During WWI, the world learnt that new battlefield technology paired with old tactics resulted in slaughter of previously unimaginable proportions where neither side was able to achieve victory. Long-range artillery and poison gas had devastating effects on soldiers as well as civilians. WWI caused the death of millions, destroyed much of Europe’s infrastructure, and the aftermath resulted in unhealed political scars that indirectly led to World War II.

Over the past fifty years of Israel’s existence, the Israeli military and varying Arab groupings have been fighting their own version of trench warfare. Using conventional military tactics coupled with cutting-edge weapons, Israel is attempting to indirectly destroy a non-national actor (Hezbollah) by destroying the infrastructure of the Lebanese state. Military and political tactics have yet to find an effective method to counter such unconventional forces that blend themselves into the civilian population, use terror as a weapon and shy away from open warfare. But it is also obvious that Hezbollah's goal to destroy the Jewish state is little more than wishful thinking. The inability of each side to win decisively makes the war a battle of attrition. The real victims are neither Israel or Hezbollah, but the hundreds of innocent civilians that have already been killed. Furthermore, the war is increasing the gap between the generally pro-Israel West and the Muslim world.

But the mistakes of the past do not have to be repeated.

Today, there are plenty of opportunities and resources available that were not available in Europe at the onset of WWI. The barriers to state-to-state communication that drew the world to war in 1918 have been removed. Organisations such as the UN provide a neutral forum that can prevent a regional conflict from exploding as Europe did in WWI. International law provides a basic framework for the interactions between states but all actors need to acknowledge the legitimacy of non-governmental organisations and respect international law if peaceful alternatives are to be found. Currently, the Bush administration is realising that aggressive actions such as the 2003 invasion of Iraq can and do set dangerous global precedents that other militarily powerful countries like Israel will follow. Leading countries such as the US must use institutions such as the UN and the framework of international law to broker peace and re-establish stability before more blood is shed.

At the same time, the once impassable borders between warring countries that prevented the movement of ideas between individuals of different homelands no longer matter because of Internet and satellite communications. In the Middle East and around the world, people from different countries and regions can communicate, one-on-one, if they so choose. Today, people from all religious, political, social and ethnic groups have the ability to meet and talk, creating the potential to eliminate conflict from the ground up. Modern connectivity that breaks down barriers makes peace even more feasible and attainable than ever before. If Israelis and Palestinians were educated and integrated together from a young age, for instance, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict might just cease to exist.

Global commerce can also contribute to peace in the Middle East, and has led to the thawing of frigid relations between nations who were once the worst of enemies. Many Arab nations that were once enemies of Israel now trade with the Jewish state. In a world of increasing economic interdependence, war makes even less sense than it did one hundred years ago. Economic independence is impossible for nearly all nations to achieve, and economic ties mean conflict is not an option.

Many parallels exist between the renewed hostilities in the Middle East and the conditions that led to the 'Great War', but the tools exist today to avert all-out war. Instead of condoning the war, powerful countries such as the US need to encourage dialogue and take a more active role in strengthening the Middle East peace process, which the current US administration seems to have all but abandoned. The era of aggressive pre-emptive strikes and wars must end, as we have seen in Iraq that it only leads to further suffering on all sides in an increasingly interdependent world. Collaborative action between countries, as shown at the G-8 summit, can contain conflict if there is enough collective will. Progress can still be made but first, we must learn from our past.

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* Stephen Coulthart is a recent graduate of the State University of New York, where he studied Political Science and Public Justice. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org (http://www.commongroundnews.org/).
Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), August 1, 2006
Visit the website at www.commongroundnews.org (http://www.commongroundnews.org/)
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity (CGNews-PiH).
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.

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ARTICLE 3
Beirut, modern jazz and the new Middle East
Nizar Ghanem

There is a kind of beauty in jazz, a broken beauty, so-to-speak, contradictory in nature yet very complex. New things are discovered while listening to it. Hidden, secret and relative, it resembles a certain uncertainty.

Beirut is like jazz. I smiled, holding on to that thought as I drank the last sip of my Almaza beer in Café de Prague in the once again war-torn Beirut. Obscure, lively, unwilling to die and constantly reinventing itself, the city is a puzzle of endless contradictions. I considered this as I watched the smiling faces of Beiruti intellectuals sitting around drinking their beer after a rough day in Beirut. Beirut is still dancing, still listening to jazz and still able to reinvent itself under siege. So here’s to Beirut, the heart, the passion and the love. Cheers!

People who visit this city say that Beirut has a certain charm to it; it’s full of art, pubs, theatres, crazy ideas and that sweet, sweet liberty where bikinis go side by side with veils. It’s where hippies and rockers walk side by side with mujahideen, sheikhs and priests. I have always wondered why Beirut possesses this lively nature that is so entrancing. I have finally determined that it’s because, unconsciously, we are very aware of our own mortality, and so life becomes dear, and every moment is lived.

Beirut is at war, and there is a huge cloud of black smoke that encompasses the capital and its surroundings. “Beirutis are breathing their own destruction,” as Robert Fisk wrote recently. Ironically, just a few days ago, Beirut was roaring with life as hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the world had come to get a taste of the exquisite Beiruti experience. Hotels were fully booked, downtown restaurants packed with customers and streets bursting with people of different races, religions and nationalities. Beirut was displaying the glamour that had been tragically absent during the civil war of 1975-1990, though never forgotten.

Waking up to the sound of bombs and F16s roaming the city skies, the Lebanese cannot believe what is happening. A taxi driver once said to me, “to understand Beirut, you have to understand the world.” Another contradiction: Lebanese taxi drivers are as much political analysts as they are providers of transportation. Understanding what happens in Lebanon is inherently linked to understanding regional and international forces and their interests; it is the curse of geography and the burden of history.

“Why are we at war?” -- a question the Lebanese are asking themselves as they hurry to mend their wounds and count their dead in the remains of a city they trust only to be unpredictable. Other questions remain unanswered: where did all this international silence come from, does the Geneva Convention mean anything in today’s world, what about human rights, children rights? But in Beirut, nothing seems to make sense, one political party waging war against Israel, another against Syria, while Westerners are enjoying their own party in the endless Beirut nightlife. I have the feeling that I am watching an existentialist movie with no heroes and a grey background; from my corner, I see an attractive Lebanese woman walking by, followed by a man wearing a necktie, then by one of the self-styled mujahideen, a missile, and an Israeli tank with Bush on top of it singing about democracy. The tank is followed by a woman on a bike, a European, and yes, she’s demanding peace!

Earlier, in a grubby apartment in Beirut, I sat in my room listening to the news. Hundreds have been killed and injured in brutal wars involving Iraq, Palestine and now, Lebanon. My room mate, a supporter of Hizbullah, is smoking hash and listening to Mushrooms, an Israeli band. Outside, the sound of bombs mixes with the Muslim call for prayer, while the deadly black smoke creeps along the city streets and alleys. On television, Condoleezza Rice talks about the “New Middle East”. And then it hits me: if rock speaks about pain and rap about anger, jazz expresses a form of imperfection and uncertainty. Jazz is dialectical, it turns and moves, and like mathematics it constructs a world of complex relationships. But somewhere in its development, when all the variables have been exhausted and all the contradictions expressed and elaborated upon, it is no longer possible to dissect or analyse it. You fall into numbness. Jazz is about numbness…

What I want to say is that while Middle Easterners are subjected to all forms of violence, oppression and injustice, they are called upon to express love and forgiveness. No offence to Ms. Rice, but the call for a new Middle East seems to bring out a hysterical, manic laugh. We are completely numb, to the extent that any form of rhetoric, logic or speech is bound to fail. It seems not to matter, as President Bush will build this “New Middle East” and is doing so with blood and fire.

How many times can we rise from the ashes and build our lives again, I asked myself as I sat there in the darkness of that Beiruti night. How many times can we forgive, rebuild our homes and give life another shot? How many times can we listen to the same song playing again and again, even if it is jazz? I had no answer. It seems that if the Middle East had to compose a music that would express its past, its troubled present and its un-certain future, the pain of rock won’t suffice, neither will the aggressiveness of rap, and it would definitely be something much more complicated than modern jazz. It would be something yet to be discovered.

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* Nizar Ghanem is a project coordinator at the Forum for Development, Culture and Dialogue in Beirut. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org (http://www.commongroundnews.org/).
Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), August 1, 2006
Visit the website at www.commongroundnews.org (http://www.commongroundnews.org/)
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity (CGNews-PiH).
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.

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ARTICLE 4
Lebanon: Bush's moment of truth
John Esposito

Washington, D.C. - President Bush finds himself today looking at a potential legacy that includes a world in which anti-Americanism will have increased exponentially among America’s friends and foes alike, terrorism will have grown rather than receded, and America will be enmeshed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Gaza, and now Lebanon, provide the Bush administration with a major opportunity to demonstrate its global leadership and its stated commitment to the spread of democracy by promoting the Middle East Peace process, policies used by the Bush administration so far to legitimate the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq. Tragically, the administration has thus far chosen to be part of the problem, not of the solution.

From North Africa to Southeast Asia, as a recent Gallup World Poll indicates, overwhelming majorities (91-95%) said that they did not believe the US is trustworthy, friendly, or treats other countries respectfully, nor that it cares about human rights in other countries (80%). Outside of Iraq, there is over 90% agreement among Muslims that the invasion of Iraq has done more harm than good. How has the administration responded? In a world in which the war on global terrorism has come to be equated in the minds of many Muslims (and others) with a war against Islam and the Muslim world, the administration re-emphasised the importance of public diplomacy, appointing a talented senior Bush confidante, Karen Hughes, and spoke of a war of ideas.

However, the administration’s responses in Gaza and in Lebanon undercut both the President’s credibility and the war on terrorism. The US has turned a blind eye to Israel’s launching of two wars whose primary victims are civilians. It failed to support UN mediation in the face of clear violations of international law and Israel’s use of collective punishment, policies in Gaza that Amnesty International has labelled war crimes. It refused to heed calls for a ceasefire and UN intervention and continued to provide military assistance to Israel.

America, with its unconditional support of Israel, has become a partner not simply in military action against Hamas or Hezbollah militants, but in a war against democratically elected governments in Gaza and Lebanon, a long-time US ally. The "disproportionate response" to Hezbollah's July 12 seizure of two soldiers and killing of three others has resulted in the death of more than 350 thus far, the displacement of more than 700,000 and the destruction of Lebanon’s infrastructure; its primary victims are hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, not terrorists.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s criticism of the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon as "excessive use of force" was countered the next day by the New York Times headline “US speeds up bomb delivery for the Israelis.” Is it any wonder that news reporters in the Arab world speak of the Israeli-US war, that a Western Christian religious leader and long-time resident of Lebanon speaks of “the rape of Lebanon,” or that in Southeast Asia, as one observer put it, “Malaysians are telling Bush, forget the war on terrorism. He is inflaming terrorism!”

There are no easy answers but as John Voll has argued, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon some twenty years ago demonstrated that a massive military response is not the solution. The administration needs to respond in concert with the international community and international organisations like the UN. America must lead in the call for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire and a negotiated settlement as well as be a major donor in the restoration of the infrastructures of Gaza and Lebanon. While nothing should compromise America’s commitment to the existence and security of the state of Israel, America’s national interests and credibility not only in the Arab/Muslim world but internationally will depend on our ability to “walk the way we talk.” U.S. policy should make no exceptions, for the Arabs or Israelis, when it comes to the disproportionate use of force, indiscriminate warfare whose primary victims (those killed, injured or displaced) are majorities of innocent civilians not terrorists, collective punishment and the massive violation of human rights.

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* John L. Esposito, University Professor of Religion and International Affairs at Georgetown University, is a Gallup Senior Scientist and the founding Director of the Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org (http://www.commongroundnews.org/).
Source: Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, July 24, 2006
Visit the website at www3.georgetown.edu/sfs/acmcu (http://www3.georgetown.edu/sfs/acmcu)
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity (CGNews-PiH).
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.

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ARTICLE 5
My America: the new world
Eboo Patel

Chicago – I love America not because I am under the illusion that it is perfect, but because it allows me—the child of Muslim immigrants from India—to participate in its progress, to carve a place in its promise, to play a role in its possibility.

John Winthrop, one of the earliest European settlers in America, gave voice to this sense of possibility. He told his compatriots that their society would be like a city upon a hill, a beacon for the world. It was a hope rooted in Winthrop's Christian faith, and no doubt he imagined his city on a hill with a steeple in the centre. Throughout the centuries, America has remained a deeply religious country while at the same time becoming a remarkably pluralistic one. Indeed, we are the most religiously devout nation in the West and the most religiously diverse country in the world. The steeple at the centre of the city on a hill is now surrounded by the minaret of Muslim mosques, the Hebrew script of Jewish synagogues, the chanting of Buddhist sangas and the statues of Hindu temples. In fact, there are now more Muslims in America than Episcopalians, the faith professed by many of America's Founding Fathers.

One hundred years ago, the great African-American scholar W.E.B. DuBois warned that the problem of the century would be the colour line. The 21st century might well be dominated by a different line—the faith line. From Northern Ireland to South Asia, the Middle East to Middle America, people are condemning, coercing and killing in the name of God. The most pressing questions for my country (America), my religion (Islam), and all God's people may well be these: how will people who may have different ideas of heaven interact together on Earth? Will the steeple, the minaret, the synagogue, the temple and the sanga learn to share space in a new city on a hill?

I think the American ethos—mixing tolerance and reverence—may have something special to contribute to this issue.

America is a grand gathering of souls, the vast majority from elsewhere. The American genius lies in allowing these souls to contribute their texture to the American tradition, to add new notes to the American song.

I am an American with a Muslim soul. My soul carries a long history of heroes, movements, and civilisations that sought to submit to the will of God. My soul listened as the Prophet Muhammad preached the central messages of Islam, tazaaqa and tawhid, compassionate justice and the oneness of God. In the Middle Ages, my soul spread to the East and West, praying in the mosques and studying in the libraries of the great medieval Muslim cities of Cairo, Baghdad and Cordoba. My soul whirled with Rumi, read Aristotle with Averroes, travelled through Central Asia with Nasir Khusrow. In the colonial era, my Muslim soul was stirred to justice. It marched with Abdul Ghaffar Khan and the Khudai Khidmatgars in their satyagraha to free India. It stood with Farid Esack, Ebrahim Moosa, Rahid Omar and the Muslim Youth Movement in their struggle for a multicultural South Africa.

In one eye I carry this ancient Muslim vision of pluralism, in the other eye I carry the American promise. And in my heart, I pray that we make real this possibility: a city on a hill where different religious communities respectfully share space and collectively serve the common good; a world where diverse nations and peoples come to know one another in a spirit of brotherhood and righteousness; a century in which we achieve a common life together.

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* Eboo Patel is executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core in Chicago, Illinois. He is a leader in the interfaith movement. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org (http://www.commongroundnews.org/).
Source: US Department of State, June 15, 2006
Visit the website at http://usinfo.state.gov/
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity (CGNews-PiH).
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.

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The Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity (CGNews-PiH) provides news, op-eds, features and analysis by local and international experts on a broad range of issues affecting Muslim-Western relations. CGNews-PiH syndicates articles that are balanced and solution-oriented to news outlets worldwide. With support from the Norwegian government and the United States Institute of Peace, this news service is a non-profit initiative of Search for Common Ground, an international NGO working in the field of conflict transformation.

This news service is one outcome of a set of working meetings held in partnership with His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan in June 2003.

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Posted by Evelin at August 2, 2006 01:09 PM