Feature: 5 years on, communication is key

Feature: 5 years on, communication is key

by LEAH CARLINER
United Press International
September 10, 2006

WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 (UPI) -- On Friday night over 100 college students sat in a classroom at George Washington University listening intently as two men discussed U.S.-Islamic relations five years after Sept. 11. Not your average college student's Friday night activity.

The speakers, Gideon Yago, an MTV News and Documentaries correspondent, and Salman Ahmad, the leader of Junoon, South Asia's top rock band, brought a superstar status to this weekend's "9/11 Plus 5", a young leadership summit to promote U.S.-Islamic understanding.

"I'm a product of the American and the Muslim world; all of my music reflects that," said Ahmad, a United Nations goodwill Ambassador for HIV/AIDS. "Sept. 11 is much more emotional for me because my religion got hijacked and my culture got hijacked."

After the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Junoon released a song titled "No More," featuring the following lyrics, "Over New York and Karachi skies, sinking in a sea of time, mourning since 11-9."

Ahmad, born in Lahore, Pakistan, but raised in the United States, is the songwriter/lead guitarist/composer for Junoon, along with fellow band members Ali Azmat and Brian O'Connell

"How do you, after Sept. 11, clear the hurdles?" asked Yago. "In the name of things like peace; in the name of things like progress?"

"For me, as a musician ... things communicate much better for me through the idea of culture," said Ahmad. "The first thing I think is communication."

The weekend-long conference, sponsored by Americans for Informed Democracy, the Brookings Institution and the University's Elliot School of International Affairs, stressed the importance of cultural understanding. The goal was to equip students with the knowledge needed to initiate U.S.-Islamic understanding at a grassroots level by coordinating town hall meetings in their own communities.

A panel of experts from the Sept. 11 commission was featured earlier Friday afternoon. Among the panel was former GOP U.S. Senator and Sept. 11 commission member Slade Gorton, of Washington State.

"There's both good news and bad news," said Gorton about the five year anniversary. "The good news is that ... no other terrorist attack has taken place on the soil of the United States."

"The bad news, however, is that this is a war or struggle that will last longer than the lifetime of the youngest person in this room."

Gorton told the audience that understanding ideological differences is a crucial part of alleviating national security concerns.

Chris Kojm, the former deputy director of the commission, also said the greatest threat the United States faces right now is not understanding Muslim countries.

"It's the struggle as to how to reach the 1.2 billion people from Morocco to Indonesia, a lot of which, who are young ... who have a distorted view of this country," said Kojm.

Akbar Ahmed, a featured speaker on Sunday, expressed his concern that the younger generations tend to become marginalized when discussing world politics.

"There is nothing more important than the youth being involved with U.S.-Islamic relations," said the chair of Islamic studies at American University to a room of young leaders.

Ahmed is also the principal investigator for the Islam in the Age of Globalization Initiative, created by American University, the Brookings Institute, and the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, to research key Muslim leaders and discover how they obtained their power and what influence their policies have on their countrymen.

Ahmed shared a panel with three researchers from the Islam in the Age of Globalization Initiative, who together traveled to several Muslim countries in order to conduct research. All of the researchers had recently graduated from college.

"The Muslim world is not inherently anti-western or anti-American," said one of the young researchers, Hadia Mubarak.

Mubarak said that if the cultures of the Western world and the Muslim world could open a forum for discussion, "we will find that the ground is very fertile for mutual growth, respect, and harmony."

Frankie Martin, another researcher, agreed that open lines of communication must be established in order to calm the post-Sept. 11 climate. He did, however, warn that it would not be an easy task.

"People's pride is wounded is what they're saying," said Martin about the conversations he had with Muslims living in Muslim countries. "In some places like Jordan, the sentiment was really high."

Muslim countries aren't necessarily happy with their social and political situations, said Martin; "people are looking at their world and seeing so much injustice."

According to Martin, the people he spoke with believe there are two solutions: to fix their society internally, or to remove the intervening Western civilizations.

But despite any political tensions Martin may have picked up on, he was still encouraged by the trip.

"There is a distinction between American policies and American citizens," he said.