Forum aims to ease U.S.-Muslim relations

Forum aims to ease U.S.-Muslim relations

by Alison Shackelford
The Daily Breeze
10/08/04

When the latest in a nationwide series of town hall meetings between Muslims and other Americans comes to Los Angeles tonight, tough questions and ugly stereotypes are almost certain to be part of the discussion.

And while the answers aren't liable to be a blueprint for world peace, they will help make the culture gap seem smaller, said Seth Green, a lead coordinator of the series.

"Hope, Not Hate," a series of town hall meetings hosted at universities nationwide over the past 30 days, seeks to dispel stereotypes that each culture has about the other, and help the two sides recognize the common ground between them.

"Right now, people in the Muslim world increasingly see the United States in the light of Abu Ghraib, and people in the United States increasingly see Islam in terms of terrorism," said Green, a law student at Yale and executive director of Americans for Informed Democracy, the lead organization sponsoring the meetings.

"We really wanted to create a forum where people could speak out and recommit to the vast common ground that unites us," Green said. "Abu Ghraib doesn't reflect our character, and terrorism doesn't reflect the character of Islam."

The meetings are sponsored in part by the United Nations and a variety of peace-oriented nonprofit organizations, among others. Among the panelists at tonight's meeting will be Aslam Abdullah, editor of the Minaret and the Muslim Observer, and Jean Rosenfeld, a senior research associate at UCLA's Center for the Study of Religion.

At the 25 meetings held so far, a recurring question asked by many Americans is why they don't see a greater number of moderate Muslims, Green said. For example, a panelist at one of the meetings -- the father of a victim of the Sept. 11 attacks -- asked a Muslim panelist why more Muslims don't condemn terrorism.

"I think he got a response that half-satisfied him," Green said. "The other panelist said (that) Muslims are speaking up, but at the same time, there is a sense among people in the Muslim world that they are being mistreated, treated as second-class citizens in our country, with policies like the Patriot Act.

"He told the room, 'We need to be aware of the fear that they're facing and, at the same time, they have to be involved in the communities and make their moderate voices heard.' "

Still, attitudes won't change overnight, said the series' co-chair, Karl Inderfurth, a professor of international affairs and former ambassador to the United Nations.

"Some people have compared this to the struggle for ideas in the Cold War," Inderfurth said. "The United States has to be involved in not only waging a war against terrorism, but the United States must also be involved in the struggle of ideas. We have to commit ourselves fully to winning the struggle for ideas."

That struggle needs to be a two-way effort, Inderfurth said. It won't just be winning the "hearts and minds" of Muslims, but also teaching Americans not to be afraid of Islam, he said.

As if to underline his concerns, a report published Monday by the Council on American-Islamic Relations showed that a quarter of Americans believe that Islam teaches violence and hatred.

That's partly because Americans see so many examples of terrorism linked to Islam in the news, Green said.

"While most Muslims aren't terrorists, most of the people who we see in terrorism today are Muslims, so how do we reconcile that?" Green asked rhetorically. "That's a big issue at these events."

Some panel speakers have argued that the American media taints all Muslims by referring to violent criminals as "Islamic" terrorists.

"One panelist was very depressed that the term 'Islam' could be used for such acts," Green said. "Groups that have no legitimacy are trying to claim legitimacy by falsely invoking Islam. These groups who are abhorrent, they want to latch on to this bigger movement, access this bigger idea. In my opinion, the media is playing into that when they refer to as 'Islamic' terrorists.

"We can't recognize the people committing these acts as Muslims," he added. "They do not represent Islam."

The series will end with a video conference Oct. 12 among six Middle Eastern universities and six American universities, in which students and community members will seek to address each other's cultural preconceptions.