Forum aims to bridge gaps

Forum aims to bridge gaps

by JOSH SHAFFER
News and Observer (NC)
09/15/2004

CHAPEL HILL -- When graduate students in Jordan look at the United States, they see a country arrogant enough to promote human rights in the Middle East yet commit atrocities in their own prisons.

But they also see a nation that holds lawbreakers accountable, where even Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is called on the carpet. "This does not exist there," said Rajai Al-Khanji, dean of the College of Arts at the University of Jordan.

His comments typified the dialogue Tuesday at the "Hope Not Hate" event, which drew about 100 people to UNC-Chapel Hill. The event, put on by the campus chapter of the nonpartisan Americans for Informed Democracy, presented a world of complexities, missteps and misconceptions between the two cultures.

It is too soon to tell how long the U.S. presence in Iraq will last, said Curtis Jones, who worked with the Foreign Service in the Middle East. But whether the presence stays or goes, he said, tough questions remain. Among them: What right does the U.S. have to Iraqi oil, and should it promote a Middle East that is good for the residents or for itself?

"Too much self-interest and not enough empathy," he said. "Empathy requires us to understand the positions of those who disagree with us."

Both cultures can live freely and co-exist, said Jibril Hough, who leads the Charlotte chapter of the Islamic Political Party in America.

Though Muslims in America have endured hate crimes and racial profiling, there also have been positive experiences since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Churches around Charlotte regularly invite Muslims to discuss their culture, and the Quran has become a best-seller.

Some students at the forum decried the shifting of funds from reconstruction to security in Iraq, and other speakers said punishment was light after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. Some worried that Muslims abroad might believe in accountability that does not truly exist in the United States.

It is progress, Al-Khanji said, just for them to discuss it.

Staff writer Josh Shaffer can be reached at 829-4818 or jshaffer@newsobserver.com.