Engaging Islam
Chris Seiple Thursday, 30 March 2006
America's relationship with the Muslim world has hit rock bottom...and we have begun to dig. From Denmark to Doha to Dubai we have almost convinced the Islamic world that we don't like Muslims:
• Denmark: We defend free speech even if it mocks Mohammed...Muslims say: "It may be a right, but that doesn't make it right."
• Doha: Karen Hughes, the U.S. Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy gives a human rights speech at the U.S.-Islamic World Forum on 18 February, calling for more dialogue...Because the speech is filled with American examples, Muslims say: "You can't start a dialogue with a monologue."
• Dubai: We don't want our ports managed by a country with a terrorist past...Muslims say: "Are you so xenophobic that you can't acknowledge how Dubai has changed, or what it has done to help you in the war against the terrorists?"
I know there are varying and heartfelt views on these issues. I am certainly not criticizing our government for trying its best — as I think it is — even as I am fully aware that some Muslims, too, have contributed to the problem (e.g., the violence in response to the Danish cartoons). I am, however, saying two things: 1) Perception is reality; and 2) We must do better.
This week the National Security Council (the President's foreign policy staff) encouraged IGE to more actively promote its model of engagement. What is that model?
It is a strategy of relational diplomacy that acknowledges the hard realities of a fallen world. It is a strategy that is, however, unabashedly optimistic about this world because it is rooted in the example of Christ and His passion for justice and mercy. Justice and mercy also happen to be the organizing principles for Muslims who take their faith seriously. By engaging Muslims who take their faith seriously as disciples of Christ who take our faith seriously, the monolithic stereotypes we have of each other begin to subside and respect for each other emerges. Practical results are not far behind.
I write to update you on what we are doing to engage the Muslim world, seeking your prayers, your ideas and your financial support. As in all our international work, we engage the Muslim world simultaneously from both the top-down and from the bottom-up. First, we work from the top-down to enable leaders to better understand the relationship between religion and international affairs. For example, through a leading secular press (Rowman & Littlefield), we published Religion & Security: The New Nexus in International Relations. One of the first books ever on this topic, this book provides students and scholars with Jewish, Christian and Muslim perspectives on security.
We are also engaging leading U.S. think tanks and speaking at major global forums. We challenge leaders worldwide to understand that if the worst of religion has been a part of the problem, then the best of faith must be a part of the solution. For example, please see the enclosed speech that I gave at the U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Doha last month (where I participated in a panel session with His Royal Highness Prince Hassan of Jordan, and Ziad Abu Amr, a representative of Hamas, the terrorist organization recently elected by the Palestinian people).
In similar fashion, IGE established the Center on Faith & International Affairs to institutionalize this kind of practical discussion — especially through its publication, The Review of Faith & International Affairs. The Review remains one-of-a-kind, and we are now taking steps to ensure that we have an interfaith board of contributing editors from around the world to encourage candid and courteous dialogue regarding the most difficult issues we face together in this world.
In this context, we are also working on behalf of Muslim minorities. The protection and governance of Muslim minority rights in an age of extremism is the most difficult task our world faces today. Properly respected, Muslim minorities can be a great asset to their countries and to the prevention of terrorism. Improperly addressed, Muslim minorities can become a breeding ground for dissent and even terrorism, as we have seen in Europe and Chechnya.
This June, along with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Center on Faith & International Affairs will co-sponsor a conference in Moscow and Chechnya on "Managing Minority Rights and Extremism." We will follow up this forum with an October 2006 conference in Xinjiang, China, and an early 2007 conference in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on the same issue. These conferences will examine the anthropological roots of local Muslim minorities in order to better understand their perspectives, as well as the development of extremism. The conferences will also consider appropriate policy responses. This approach will enable a constructive dialogue with practical policy suggestions for Russia, China, Central Asia, and the U.S., all major shareholders in a globalized world. Together, these conferences will cost an estimated $250,000.
IGE engages the Islamic world from the bottom-up by practically applying the ideas that we are encouraging in policy-making and academic circles. It is not always easy. In Pakistan, for example, we have built a relationship with the Chief Minister (CM) of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP), Akram Durrani, over the last two years. Durrani was freely elected in 2002 on an anti-American platform that called for Shari'a law in the NWFP. (As a result, U.S. officials have rarely met with Durrani.)
Nonetheless, IGE invited the CM to the U.S. last summer for his first trip outside the Muslim world. Frankly, it was a difficult trip to fund — that is, until a secular donor decided to give a Christian NGO $55,000 to talk to an elected Muslim fundamentalist that no one else would engage. During that visit, we moved past the stereotypes we each had of Islam and Christianity and found that we shared a common passion: social justice, as commanded by God.
In turn, Durrani invited IGE to visit the NWFP. During our October 2005 visit, northern Pakistan was rocked by a powerful earthquake, making a difficult place worse. You see, 40% of the people in the NWFP already live below the poverty line, to include 85% of the small Christian minority. Since then, through gracious donations to IGE, we have sent $20,000 to the CM's emergency relief fund, providing a tangible impact to people in need. This money was spent in support of the relief camps in Havelian, located near Abbotabad along one of the ancient silk routes to China (photos of the camp below by IGE's Josh White, who is living in the NWFP).
Given our friendship based on common principles, the Chief Minister found time to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with IGE the day after the earthquake struck. The MOU established a framework of partnership to advance the rights of ethnic and religious minorities through the socio-economic development of all the people of the NWFP. In order to implement this MOU, we helped establish an Interfaith Advisory Council under the auspices of the Chief Minister's office. Last month, amidst NWFP rioting in reaction to the Danish cartoons, the Chief Minister made time to host the first meeting of the Interfaith Advisory Council at his official residence. The meeting concluded with the Council's recommendation that IGE bring a delegation of experts — who take their Muslim or Christian faith seriously — in education, business and development to the NWFP. This delegation will assess the need and work to come alongside Pakistanis in a practical manner. We are now assembling this delegation to visit the NWFP from 5 to 15 May 2006; the visit will cost an estimated $20,000.
Engaging the world as disciples of Christ — according to His relational model of mercy and justice — is not easy. Nor is the strategy always obvious; sometimes it simply requires faith.
I ask most of all for your prayers as we engage the Islamic world, and our own, according to the above principles. I also ask that you consider giving to IGE to support these initiatives, and the ones that will soon be revealed. The stakes could not be higher.