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Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May-June 2009, pages 70-71 Waging Peace Kerry Holds Hearing on Engaging Muslims Around World
FORMER SECRETARY of State Madeleine Albright and Admiral William J. Fallon, USN (ret.), former commander of U.S. Central Command, offered their insights on “Engaging with Muslim Communities around the World” before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Feb. 26. Committee chairman Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) was fired up after returning from a trip to Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza. “At every turn, I heard a newfound willingness by people and governments alike to take a fresh look at America,” Kerry said. “This moment won’t last long, and we need to seize it.” Americans must send a message to Muslims, he said: “We share your aspirations for freedom, dignity, justice and security. We’re ready to listen, to learn, and to honor the president’s commitment to approach the Muslim world with a spirit of mutual respect.” Kerry pointed out that Islamophobia has seeped into political discourse since 9/11. In fact at that very moment Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) was hosting a screening of “Fitna,” a film that defames Islam. The movie’s director, Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders, has compared the Qur’an to Hitler’s Mein Kampf and has suggested that the Dutch government ban the Qur’an. “So I’m glad you’re here, rather than there,” Kerry told the standing-room-only crowd, which included a smattering of members of Congress. Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), the committee’s ranking Republican, called for the president to appoint and support an undersecretary of state for public diplomacy to help explain the views of the United States. He also cited Senate Resolution 49, which calls for a reassessment of whether the U.S. can safely re-establish “American Centers” to once again offer libraries, outreach programs, unfiltered Internet access, film series, lectures and English classes in foreign cities. Albright made some important points, and began by noting that Muslim communities “are diverse and cannot be portrayed accurately with a broad brush.” Instead of having meaningful dialogues with the Muslim world, she continued, “we tend to have opposing monologues.” And while the West’s interest in the Muslim world may have spiked after 9/11, “a dialogue driven by such a traumatic event is sure to evoke accusations on one side and defensiveness on the other,” she said. The West has many more reasons than al-Qaeda and terrorism to improve relations with the Muslim world, Albright argued, and decried the media’s use of the term “Islamic terrorism.” Albright recommended that American policy should be “to talk to anyone if, by so doing, we can advance our interests,” and also suggested the U.S. repair relations with Pakistan. Washington should support democracy, she said, adding that “democracy is why women have led governments in four of the five most populous Muslim-majority states.” Finally, Albright concluded, religion matters: “Both the Bible and Qur’an include enough rhetorical ammunition to start a war and enough moral uplift to engender permanent peace.” Admiral Fallon highlighted the reasons why this Senate committee hearing mattered. “I believe that engaging the Muslim world is of great importance to us for demographic, geostrategic, security, economic and military reasons,” he said. “First, more that 1.5 billion people representing almost a quarter of the world population claim Islam as their faith.” This area includes zones of conflict, as well as key sources of oil and gas, the admiral noted. These lands also front many “critical maritime choke points, through which flows the majority of world commerce.” Fallon recommended traveling to the region and discussing issues of importance to the Muslim world—and, most importantly, engaging in the Middle East peace process. He also called for helping with the region’s economic, health, education and security issues. Finally, he suggested treating Muslim visitors with more respect at our U.S. points of entry, and correcting the embarrassing delays for obtaining visitors’ visas. Another panel of Muslim experts testified but, sadly, many of the senators had to leave the hearing to cast a vote. Dalia Mogahed of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and Eboo Patel of Interfaith Youth Core gave informative testimonies. Next Zeyno Baran, a Turkish-American senior fellow at the Hudson Institute—home to such neoconservatives as Douglas Feith, Norman Podhoretz and MeyravWurmser—supplied jarring testimony which focused on the problems facing “us” in dealing with “them,” and the need for strategies to thwart the spread of “radical Islamist ideology in Europe and in Eurasia.” Strangely enough, among the strategies she advocated was empowering Muslim women by making them read stories from their own culture, such as 1001 Nights. Scheherazade “can help save other women and men, the rulers and the ruled, and ultimately ourselves,” Baran concluded with a flourish. The testimony of Kerry’s final panelist demonstrated to Muslims in the audience how much more work is needed to promote real dialogue on Capitol Hill. To read each testimony visit <http://foreign.senate.gov/hearings/2009/hrg090226p.html>. —Delinda C. Hanley |
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