Common Ground News Service

~CGNews Community Corner~ Walking for Israel in Indonesia; United States, Iran and Russia save wrestling

by the CGNews Team — Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

A native Indonesian is trying to get permission to organise the first walk in a Muslim country to celebrate Israel�s 65th birthday. The walk would be sponsored by Afakim, a Manhattan-based independent �incubator� organisation which sponsors similar marches every year around the world. �We are Indonesian people who support and love Jewish people,� says Indonesian Ungunn Dahana to Jewish Week.

�Iran, the United States and Russia have come together to bring top wrestlers from the three countries to New York City in order to ensure the sport of wrestling is not eliminated from the 2020 Olympic Games, reports Cath Turner for Al-Jazeera.

Australian Jews and Muslims in New South Wales have agreed to share a cemetery reports OnIslam. "The sharing of the burial space is a new proof of the healthy relationship between the two faiths in New South Wales," said Yair Miller, President of New South Wales� Jewish Board of Deputies.

A new Saudi Arabian campaign is making raising awareness over domestic violence in the Kingdom. The campaign features a woman with a badly bruised eye that's clearly visible even though her face is covered by a veil: "Some things can't be covered." Read more in Digital Journal.

Jewish and Arab youth from Israel are playing music side by side, brought together by a Connecticut-based foundation. �We all play the same notes,� said 11-year-old piano player David Margalit to the Jewish Week.

Sometimes a kind or creative act is all it takes to bring joy and wonder into people�s lives. 37-year-old cab Pakistani cab driver Mansoor Khalid is a living example of this idea with his candy-cab, which has now become an internet sensation. �Everybody is depressed, stressed, New York City is not an easy life," he tells the New York Times, "so when New Yorkers see all the candies, chocolates, they cheer up."

A Boston University graduate in music and a classically-trained soprano, Heather Schmid sings about her love for Pakistan. said pop rock singer Schmid in the Pakistani newspaper Dawn.

Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 21 May 2013, www.commongroundnews.org

Muslims walk the extra mile for Boston

by Kiran Ansari — Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500
Chicago - When 30,000 people participated in Project Bread�s walk to eradicate hunger in Boston on 5 May, there was a group among them that was energised but cautious. Just three weeks after the tragedy at the Boston Marathon, members of Muslims Against Hunger were receiving calls from worried family members urging them not to participate due to fear of backlash.

Project Bread runs community-based meal programs and school nutrition initiatives that assist the hungry in Massachusetts. At their 45th Walk for Hunger this year, the organisation raised around $3 million. It was perfectly in sync with the objectives of Muslims Against Hunger, a grassroots organisation with volunteers in 20 cities that aims to mobilise the community to tackle hunger, poverty and homelessness. Approximately 150 Muslim participants raised over $5,000 for Project Bread.

A young mother of three children, Shazia Tariq from Westborough, Massachusetts was one of the Muslims walking for the cause. She had learned about Muslims Against Hunger through the soup kitchens that they regularly organise. An avid athlete, she had registered for the Project Bread Walk in March and had been training for the gruelling 20 mile trek. But after the horrific attacks on 15 April, her family, like that of many others, was worried that because she wears a headscarf she would be easily identifiable as a Muslim and cautioned she should sit this one out.

�The cause is very close to my heart,� Tariq said. �First as Muslims we believe that feeding our neighbours and feeding the hungry is a crucial part of our faith. Second, as a mother I am always telling my children how blessed they are to have a pantry full of food and this was my chance to put my words into action.� She found the resolve to participate and received her family�s blessing despite their initial anxieties.

After the Boston tragedy, a representative from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) came to speak to the Muslim community at the Worcester Islamic Center, where Tariq volunteers regularly. After the presentation on civil rights and tips on how to prevent and report backlash, she approached the CAIR Representative, Todd Gallinger, and asked him for his opinion. He reinforced her decision to carry on, calling it the perfect opportunity to dispel stereotypes about Muslim Americans.

�I had already made up my mind,� Tariq said. �But when Mr. Gallinger said that this is the perfect time to engage in interfaith activities and showcase all the positive contributions of Muslim Americans, it just solidified my intention. I would not be at peace by not going, especially since I was not afraid, it was just my loved ones that were worried for me.�

As she walked and ran the 20 miles with friends from the mosque, Tariq was cautious not to attract attention in any way. When she saw an exhausted eight-year old girl sitting on the sidelines, she felt like helping her over the finish line. But her gut instinct said that this was not the right time or place to be over-friendly as a stranger to the child. Instead Tariq brought the little girl oranges and shared a few words of encouragement. She was pleased to see the girl complete the walk a few feet ahead of her.

Tariq had originally wanted to participate in the Boston Marathon but was dealing with asthma during training season. She had planned to at least go and watch the marathon but was sick in bed on that sad day. As an athlete and a Bostonian, she felt she would be getting the best of both worlds by making the iconic Boston Marathon her first ever full marathon.

The Project Bread walk experience has motivated her to train for the Boston Marathon next year. She believes that when it comes to her personal goals, or encouraging her children in sports or academics, its important to push them, and herself, to achieve more. She feels there is a need to cultivate this enthusiasm in community service as well. When her kids were little, she felt they were keeping her back from volunteering in the community. But now she feels she has to do it for the kids because it can have a much bigger impact on their lives when they see her working for a cause rather than just lecturing them about it.

�When a couple in their 70�s can walk hand in hand and an eight-year old can cross the finish line, so can I,� Tariq said. �As Muslims, more of us need to get out of our bubble and directly help the needy, and I plan to continue going the extra mile for it.�

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* Kiran Ansari is a writer for publications including the Chicago Tribune, Daily Herald, Halal Consumer and Azizah Magazine. She lives with her husband and two children in the suburbs of Chicago. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 21 May 2013, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

What the Pakistani elections meant

by Mubashir Akram — Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500
Islamabad � For the first time, Pakistan�s civilian government has successfully completed its five-year term. Nawaz Sharif, a Prime Ministerial candidate of the widely popular Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) party, is expected to become the next Prime Minister of Pakistan. Both the completion of a ruling government�s full term and these successful elections are important events for Pakistan, which has been under martial law for nearly 40 of its 66 years of independence.

Given the checkered history of democracy in Pakistan, in the lead-up to the elections there was mammoth scepticism around whether they would in fact take place. The period leading up to the elections was marked with a deterioration in law and order as a couple candidates were shot and killed.

But the President, the Election Commission of Pakistan and the Supreme Court categorically stated that the elections would be held on time. Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftkhar Muhammad Chaudhry said on 14 January, �It is not important who is doing what but elections will be held on time no matter what.�

And the elections took place as announced.

Despite the violent threats made by the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other groups trying to intimidate people so they would stay away from the polls, Pakistanis showed they were not easily scared. Though there were threats, not to mention the rather uncomfortably hot weather on 11 May, high levels of voter turn-out showed that Pakistanis were eager to exercise their political power through their right to vote, in hopes of transforming Pakistan�s future.

On 6 May, on a popular news show on Pakistan�s Dawn News channel, Asma Shirazi, Pakistan�s leading female TV anchor, said that citizens were attending political rallies across Pakistan despite the high occurrence of attacks across the country related to the elections.

Hamid Mir, a senior political journalist with a highly watched political talk show called Capital Talk, echoed Shirazi�s sentiments. He visited Larkana, in Sindh province, the stronghold of the Pakistan People�s Party (PPP) and asked people if they were scared of going to the ballots because of the threats. All of those interviewed said �no�.

Given the importance of the city, the home constituency of the PPP�s founder and former Prime Minster, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and his daughter Benazir Bhutto, the government deployed Army Rangers at most of the entry points into the city. Mir interviewed a few people about this on his program: �We know, but we are not afraid,� a lead campaigner of the PPP said.

His sentiment was quickly endorsed by those standing around him. �If these terrorists have their designs to cause destruction, we have our right to come out and prove them wrong,� said another campaigner from the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, a Sindh province based centrist party.

Pakistanis reeling under power outages, deteriorating law and order, terrorism and a poor economy have waited patiently for these elections to move forward with a national agenda of democracy and development. In addition to addressing Pakistan�s economic challenges, this agenda is expected to focus on restoring peace and stability in places like Pakistan�s northern province, and law and order in places like Karachi.

Many believe that the outgoing PPP party was not able to build a strong consensus and unified national strategy to counter terrorism in Pakistan.

Dissatisfaction with this was evident in the agreement by political parties this year to create �a united national strategy� to address the issue of terrorist violence that has claimed nearly 40,000 lives since 2001.

Other key issues in this election were energy and the general situation of law and order, but the test of the new assembly will be whether they are able to unite the nation and its political leadership around a strategy to counter violence and terrorism post-election.

In the meantime the long queues of voters on 11 May sent a strong message � despite threats of violence, the Pakistani people will come out in support of democracy, time and time again.

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* Mubashir Akram is a communication specialist, and the Director of PINFO Communication & Research, Islamabad (www.pinfocr.com). He tweets at @mubashirakram. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 21 May 2013, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

Evidence does not support fears of Islam in the West

by Jocelyne Cesari — Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500
Washington, DC � While scholarly work has debunked the idea of incompatibility of Islam with Western values, it has not really changed this dominant perception pervading political discourse and policy making. This notion of incompatibility between Islam and the West has actually intensified in the last 15 years, as the perception of Islam as the external enemy has combined with the fear of Islam within liberal Western democracies. The consequence is that Muslims are now seen by many as an internal and external enemy both in Europe and in the United States.

The persistence of the Islam versus West dichotomy has nothing to do with the quality of academic work, but rather the fact that this work is seldom utilised by political and cultural actors, not to mention media.

Yet hope may lie in better understanding the social and cultural reality of Muslims that starkly contradicts the perceived divide � namely that Muslims in the West are supportive of Western values and civic integration. In this regard, efforts could be made to familiarise citizens with this reality through different educational and cultural means.

My book Why the West Fears Islam: Exploration of Islam in Western Liberal Democracies (June 2013 by Palgrave McMillan) indicates a persistent predisposition in the West to link Islam to un-civic behaviour and to see assertive Muslims as internal enemies threatening national values and identities as well as external enemies at war with Western civilisation.

Intriguingly, there is no empirical evidence based on behaviours of Muslims in European countries or the United States that supports this fear. Actually, Muslim political practices are not different from their average fellow citizens. My investigation shows that in Europe and in the United States, Muslims express a greater trust in national institutions and democracy than their fellow citizens and that mosque attendance actually facilitates social and political integration.

Still, the construction of Muslims as the enemy within liberal democracies takes place in a preexisting environment influenced by history, adding the dimension of an internal enemy to the enduring feature of the external enemy.

Muslims have been seen as �others� to the West since medieval times. More specifically, Western self-definition based on the concepts of progress, nation, rational individual and secularisation was built in opposition to Muslim empires. Europe�s relationship with the Ottoman Empire gradually established the East-West binary that had a decisive impact on world politics since the 19th Century.

In the United States, during the 20th and 21st Centuries, the perception of Islam as the external enemy traces back to the Iranian Hostage Crisis (1979 to 1981) and became more acute after 9/11 when Muslims came to be seen as internal enemies due to the fear of home grown terrorism.

Many Muslims in post-WWII Europe have an immigrant background, and are currently estimated to constitute approximately five per cent of the European Union�s 425 million inhabitants. As immigrants, generations came with very low labour skills, unlike most Muslims in the United States who generally possess a high level of education and marketable skills.

Low levels of education and few job opportunities explain poor economic performance of Muslims in Europe. Muslim immigrant populations across Europe are often concentrated in segregated, urban areas, which are plagued by delinquency, crime and deteriorated living conditions.

There is a need across the Atlantic to rebuild national narratives to include Muslims and Islam as part of the memory and culture of the national communities they belong to.

This can likely be done if Islam is disconnected from partisan interests and becomes a national cause for political, social and religious actors across the ideological spectrum.

The educational and political efforts of the last five decades to include African Americans into the US national narrative are a good illustration of such a collective effort. In the case of Islam, it will require a coalition among religious actors from all faiths who can play a decisive role in promoting similarities between Islam and other monotheistic religions.

This is a noble political task for the decades to come.

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* Dr Jocelyne Cesari is Director of the Islam in the West program at Harvard University and a Senior Research Fellow at the Berkley Centre for Religion, Peace and World Affairs at Georgetown University. This article, the fourth in a series on contemporary Muslim-Western relations, was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 21 May 2013, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

~CGNews Community Corner~ The reality show in the Palestinian Territories that has people talking;

by the CGNews Team — Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500
The Ma�an television network in the Palestinian Territories has launched a new reality television show called The President. Reality show contestants in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel compete for a chance to be Palestinian President. Watch the trailer here.

The Yemeni Peace Project is gearing up for its first ever Yemeni Film and Visual Arts Festival , scheduled for January 2014. Film and art submissions from around the world are being accepted now.

Navid Negahban of Homeland and 24 fame is staring in an upcoming Emirati film. � The Khaleej Times describes the Hollywood profile of this new UAE initiative.

13 years after violent Christian-Muslim fighting in Ambon ended, the �first responders of harmony� in Indonesia remain vigilant to ensure continued peace. �I don't believe we 'make' peace � everyone has the seeds of peacefulness inside themselves, but for some reason they struggle to see it, make it public. All we're trying to do is to bring out what's already inside of them," Peace Provocateur and Pastor Jacky Manuputty told the Christian Science Monitor.

On the first stop of his US tour, the Dalai Lama condemned Buddhist monks� attacks on Muslims in Burma, The Irrawaddy, an online news syndicate covering Burma and Southwest Asia, reports.

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* Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 14 May 2013, www.commongroundnews.org

50% of Lebanon�s population largely absent from public discourse

by Nada Akl — Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500
Beirut � In the media and in the Lebanese public sphere more broadly, the absence of female leaders and experts is blatant. Few media consumers think to mention the fact that 50 per cent of the population is seldom heard or seen in high places. But all of this seems poised to change in Lebanon.

Civil society, in partnership with the media and with the support of the Ministry of Information, is responding to this issue. Women�s participation in the public sphere in Lebanon is becoming a common goal, regardless of political affiliation.

The absence of women from the media limelight has not simply been due to the lack of female political leaders in Lebanon. Despite the fact that there are women in business, academia, arts and the public service who are highly accomplished in their respective professional fields, their expertise has rarely been solicited except when it comes to fields associated with their gender, such as d�cor, the family and fashion.

A parliamentary election year in Lebanon, the need to endorse women in leadership positions has doubled in importance.

To this end, two non-governmental organisations, the SMART Centre for Media and Advocacy and Women in Front � with the support of the Lebanese Ministry of Information, leading figures in the private sector and media institutions � partnered to work on an initiative called Media Supporting Women Leaders.

Launched in February of this year, the initiative encourages active participation of leading professional women in public debates that shape the country�s future.

Caretaker Minister of Information Walid Daouk, who strongly supports the project, insisted on the need to encourage women�s participation in the political sphere, hailing the project as an important step toward achieving it.

The initiative promotes a series of advertisements on television and radio that encourage women to step forward as voters and candidates, insisting that they should get involved in the political process if they want their concerns to be heard.

The advertisements � six in total � feature different Lebanese personalities, such as women�s rights pioneer Linda Matar. �I�ve been fighting for women�s rights for 60 years. But ever since the country�s independence, I haven�t felt that the Council of Ministers or Parliament has cared for women�s issues,� she says, addressing the camera.

Lebanese athlete Maxime Chaaya adds, �To achieve anything, you need to believe in your goal and fight for it. If you want the law to protect your rights, don�t think anyone else but you can change your future�. Other Lebanese personalities also appear in the videos with a single message: �Go for it, we�re all supporting you�.

Many women experts and leaders express a keen interest to participate in public debates. At least 15 so far have also announced they will be running for parliamentary elections. These female politicians represent different political parties and communities in Lebanon. Some come from the Western and Saudi-backed 14 March alliance, others are from the Syrian and Iranian-backed 8 March alliance, or are running independently. Though they represent conflicting political agendas, they all agree on the need for better representation of women in the public sphere.

This initiative can be a powerful platform for women who have the ambition to lead. Lebanon needs them, from their desire to reform the personal status law (which currently prohibits women from passing on Lebanese nationality to non-Lebanese spouses), to their perspectives on other political issues.

In addition to the media campaign, the initiative has resulted in the creation of a directory consisting of the names, personal profiles and contact information of leading female experts in all fields, challenging the common stereotype that confines female professionals to fields such as education, the arts and communication. The women in the database encompass a wide array of professions, from engineers to doctors, entrepreneurs to bankers, social scientists, economists and political analysts. A print version of the directory will be distributed to media professionals in order to facilitate their work when they are seeking expert opinions to address any issue being publicly debated.

The not-so-subtle message of the directory is clear: with this directory in hand, there is no excuse for the media to ignore Lebanon�s women leaders.

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* Nada Akl is a media researcher and journalist in Beirut. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 14 May 2013, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

What Muslim parents tell their kids

by Naazish YarKhan — Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500
Chicago � Like all parents, Muslim parents have their fair share of do�s and don�ts for their children. Unlike most parents though, terrorism and how to handle its misguided association with Islam figures in some of our talks.

In the wake of the Boston bombings and given that one of the suspects was only a few years older than my own boy, the need for us to talk with Yousuf took on even greater urgency. Conversations usually begin with �most Americans recognise that not all Muslims are violent just because a few are,� and progress to �but I still don�t want you to talk about bombs, guns or shooting, even if it�s a game you�re discussing�.

These are tough conversations to have with an 11-year old, but they�re discussions we cannot avoid. As Muslim parents, we recognise just how vulnerable our children are.

The harder conversations go something like this: �If you are harassed or teased and called a terrorist, tell a teacher.� When my 11-year old insists that is tattling, I explain that even if it makes him look weak, it�s wiser to tell a teacher than to navigate these waters alone. I don�t want him to get into a potential argument because there�s a chance it could escalate. Best-case scenario, my child could put up a brave front, maybe while fighting back tears. Worst-case he could push back and end up suspended.

Like the rest of the nation, I feel such regret and sadness that the Boston bombing suspects, both well-liked seemingly well-integrated young men, came to be so terribly misled. As a parent, I also recognise the agony their mother and father must have felt, watching helplessly, from thousands of miles away, as their children were hunted and gunned down.

As much as I fear I will alarm him with talk of the bombings in Boston, I take on the subject. �If there are Muslims who try to tell you it�s okay to be violent, remember what your parents have taught you. In Islam, war is between militaries alone � no civilians, women, children, schools, hospitals and other civic amenities can be targets.�

A pre-teen, my son actually listens to me and shares his thoughts and concerns. Shielding him from these difficult discussions today may mean losing an opportunity to imprint the idea that, in Islam, taking an innocent life is tantamount to killing all of humanity. Not talking about this may mean throwing away a chance to warn my child that he needs to be conscious of those who may try to lead him astray.

I talk about how terrible the bombings have been for the victims and their families. �If you, as you grow older, have issues with the policies of any nation or differences of opinion, civic involvement is the way to change the status quo, not violence,� I drill into his young mind. I reiterate that there are acceptable and unacceptable ways to address issues and differences of opinions, violence not being an option.

I fear there may be a time when we aren�t there to be a sounding board for our kids. As my son takes in every word, I quietly hope I�m not scaring him.

Frustrated, my son asks, �Why do some Muslims have to go and mess it up for the rest of us?� �Because, somehow, they�ve come to believe that their actions are justified,� I respond. �But they aren�t,� I am quick to add.

But there is more on my mind that I don�t bring up. I don�t get into a tirade about how the media ties this crime to our faith or calls it a return to terrorism to US shores. What about the Sandy Hook murderer who opened fire on little children? Deemed mentally ill, no ties were drawn to an ideology for his actions. Or the white supremacist, who shot and killed six people at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin? He was not considered a terrorist by the media. Why are only Muslim suspects� and criminals� actions automatically motivated by faith?

These thoughts aren�t far from my mind, but I don�t need to add that kind of baggage to this conversation with my 11-year old. He has enough on his plate.

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* Naazish YarKhan is a writer, publicist and communications strategist in the Chicago area. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 14 May 2013, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

Field of Muslim-Western relations as crucial today as ever

by Ambassador Akbar Ahmed — Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500
Washington DC � From the time Salman Rushdie�s The Satanic Verses was published over two decades ago, when I was at Cambridge University, I have been fully involved in promoting dialogue and understanding between the West and the Muslim world.

I have met with great minds at the White House, Pentagon and Federal Bureau of Investigation, and spoken with rabbis, priests and imams, only to find that, despite countless hours spent as a goodwill ambassador among civilisations, there is a persistent, divisive misunderstanding between Muslims and the West, and it manifests in tragic displays of violence.

Post 9/11 thinking conflates religion and culture in the Muslim world, brands it as dangerous, transforms the mosaic of Islam into a monolith and pits it against the globalised West, which is seen as modern, decadent and secular. These conceptions are both inherently flawed and worryingly reductionist. As a bridge between cultures, worldviews and religions, Muslim-Western relations, which seeks to unpack and decode each culture for the other, has much to offer.

Indeed, anyone questioning whether the field of Muslim-Western relations is still relevant has only to look at current � and unfortunate � events in American and international news.

In the United States, fear and retaliatory anger from the tragedy at the Boston marathon has been directed towards innocent Muslims by their fellow Americans, who are confused and upset by the death and destruction visited upon runners and spectators. Some have made the miscalculation to lump all Muslims together into one threatening, homogeneous group. We have even seen senseless acts of violence directed at Sikhs, who fit a stereotypical � and inaccurate � profile, which holds that all Muslims are bearded and wear turbans.

I have found that ultimately it is ignorance, a lack of compassion, a feeling of helplessness and overwhelmingly misplaced rage that drives individuals to lash out at each other and commit acts of aggression.

A gap exists between Muslims and the West, demonstrated to shocking effect by a study compiled by Georgetown University�s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs in April 2012. A full 47 per cent of �millennials� � 18 to 24 year olds � questioned on whether Islam was at odds with American values answered in the affirmative. Similarly, the Public Religion Research Institute�s 2013 survey on Religion, Values and Immigration Reform also found that 47 per cent of people asked this exact question agreed that the values of Islam were contrary to the American way of life.

In light of these findings, the necessity for interfaith understanding becomes even more urgent. It is much more difficult to hate � or even dislike � a person based on religious beliefs alien to you when you have met them, shared a meal or a cup of tea, listened to their successes or defeats and allowed yourself a moment to recognise them as human.

Like me, my friends at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC have demonstrated admirable support for interfaith dialogue through endeavors such as the Sunday Forum, where intellectuals of all faith traditions come to the Cathedral to explore the roots of religious intolerance, building a pluralistic future for our children, and fostering understanding among all faith communities.

The Anti-Defamation League, an organisation made up of a predominately Jewish membership, is also committed to the protection of their fellow Americans, including Muslims. They condemn the spread of hate literature about Muslims, attacks on mosques and legal campaigns that would limit the ability of American Muslims to freely practice their religion. Similarly, the Islamic Society of North America collaborates with both Christian and Jewish organisations to promote tolerance and cooperation among faiths.

While some Islamophobic individuals turn to scripture to shore up their claims that Islam and Western values are categorically destined to be at odds with each other, I would charge them to look past the fragments of information they collect to thoroughly examine the entire tapestry that is Islam�a religion whose very definition means peace. I would remind them that just as Timothy McVeigh did not represent Christianity, neither does Tamerlane Tsarnaev represent Islam.

Labelling each other as monolithic, static cultures has yielded nothing positive � misunderstanding leads to negative consequences, whether in daily communication or on a global, political scale. It is only by adopting the wisdom of Harper Lee�s immortal character, Atticus Finch, that we will achieve clarity: �You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view�until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.�

* Akbar Ahmed is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington, DC, former High Commissioner of Pakistan to the UK and Ireland and author of The Thistle and the Drone: How America�s War on Terror became a Global War on Tribal Islam. This article, the third in a series on contemporary Muslim-Western relations, was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 14 May 2013, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

~Looking Back~ The one you choose to feed

by Louise Diamond — Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500
Washington, DC - There is a classic Native American story about a grandfather who tells his grandson about the battle between two wolves inside us all � one full of angry, fearful energy and one full of compassionate, benevolent energy.

When the boy asks, "Which wolf wins?" the grandfather replies, "The one you choose to feed."

With the recent Fort Hood shootings, Americans once again have a choice about which wolf within us to feed. Will we play the recording of "I told you so. Those Muslims are all violent and can't be trusted," as some pundits are doing, or will we take the opportunity this time to reach out in curiosity and compassion to our Muslim American friends and seek greater understanding of the stresses some of them might feel living in this country?

One recurrent theme in the reporting of the Fort Hood shootings is that Major Dr. Nidal Malik Hasan wanted out of a military that was fighting his co-religionists in Afghanistan and Iraq. If, in some upside-down world, the United States were ever to go to war with Israel, many of us would find it easier to understand if Jewish soldiers had difficulty fulfilling their duties, and would likely make some accommodation for those who conscientiously objected. Yet Hasan apparently asked repeatedly to leave the service, and was consistently turned down.

Who was paying attention to the building tension he was so clearly feeling between two aspects of his identity, one as an American and one as a Muslim?

Should we be paying attention to other Muslim American soldiers who might face similar challenges, without vilifying them for what is a natural and common phenomenon? After all, we all feel conflict between different elements of our identity�gender, religion, nationality, family, individuality, etc.�to some extent.

One way of understanding the choice between the two wolves is the choice between contraction and expansion. When we are hurt we naturally contract. In this contraction mode our "fight or flight" response is stirred and our body instinctually tells us to fight or flee from a perceived attack. We revert to stereotypical, simplistic thinking. We want revenge or someone to blame.

We cannot even imagine expanding in these moments, expanding to learn more, to embrace differences and celebrate commonalities, to reach out in compassion and curiosity.

Yet by staying contracted, we deny much of what the moment has to teach us, and thereby insure the likelihood of the lesson coming around again, perhaps in a more virulent form.

The Fort Hood shootings give us exactly this opportunity, as did the events of 9/11 on a much larger scale. I continue to believe that at that time we missed a huge open moment that could have been a turning point in human history. Imagine if immediately following the attacks we had called for a sustained global dialogue between Christians, Muslims and Jews in order to understand each other better, to build bridges of shared hopes and concerns, to heal festering historical wounds and to craft a common vision for how to live together peacefully on this planet.

On a local scale, some of that did happen, with civic and church groups reaching out to Muslim American neighbours for interfaith and community dialogues, even as we indiscriminately rounded up Muslim American men and prepared for war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now we see the same thing � both contraction and expansion � only now we have eight years of accumulated experience, feelings and knowledge to wade through, some of which feeds one wolf while some feeds the other.

We have learned a great deal about the power of dialogue over the years. We know, for instance, that it creates human bonds and breaks down stereotypes of "the other". We also know that unless it is aligned with the political will to act in order to change the circumstances that nurture the divisiveness, it will not ultimately be effective beyond the scale of the individual participants.

The tragic events at Fort Hood are, or should be, a wakeup call to all of us that once again we all have a choice to make: That which divides us can kill � or heal. Which wolf do you choose to feed?

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* Louise Diamond, Ph.D., is President of Global Systems Initiatives, where she brings a systems approach to complex global issues. She is also an author, facilitator and consultant, and has worked in hot spots and cross-cultural settings around the world. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 17 November 2009, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

~CGNews Community Corner~ Jewish pilgrims return to Djerba, Tunisia; Justin Bieber�s display of respect for Muslims

by the CGNews Team — Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500
Hundreds of Jewish pilgrims flock to the island of Djerba, Tunisia for an annual pilgrimage to Africa�s oldest synagogue. � Brushing off any concerns, one visitor to the country, Emile Arki, said in this AP article published in the Washington Post, �what�s happening in Tunisia is exaggerated with an alarmist tone ... We were well greeted at the airport. The people are smiling. I don�t see why anybody should be afraid.�

�I�m not a Justin Bieber fan but as a Muslim, I got a lot of respect for him [because] of what he did,� wrote one Twitter user after the pop-sensation paused his 2 May 2013 Istanbul concert twice to honour the Muslim call to prayer as covered by the Hollywood Reporter.

The United Nations Alliance of Civilisations (UNAOC) and Education First (EF) will host the first UNAOC-EF Summer School in Tarrytown, New York, United States, from 24 � 31 August 2013. This UNAOC-EF Summer School will bring together 100 youth from all over the world for a week of discussions on pressing global challenges within the context of cultural and religious diversity. Apply here by 31 May 2013.

�Despite the recent economic performance of both our economies, the business relationship between Australia and Indonesia is still underweight�and yet we are neighbours with growing and complementary economies,� says National Vice President of the Australia Indonesia Business Council. Read his three recommendations for a greater partnership in the Jakarta Globe.

�What America needs�is a full-fledged Islamic seminary (or two) so that our Muslim citizens can have their religious necessities and practices met by Americans who have been trained here � just like America�s other larger religions,� writes Paul V.M. Flesher, Director of the Religious Studies Program at the University of Wyoming, in his article for the Casper Star Tribune.

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Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 7 May 2013, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

Grassroots organization fights minority discrimination in Pakistan

by Shiraz Ahmad — Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500
London � There have been worrying signs of breakdown in ethnic relations in Pakistan � including accounts of ethnic Hazaras (a Farsi-speaking, predominantly Shia group) taking up arms and forming their own militia after bombings in Quetta, and Christian protestors clashing with police in Lahore in response to anti-Christian mob violence earlier this year.

Too little has been done to address this growing danger by a Pakistani Government already stretched in their fight to contain militancy in the country�s north. Recent anti-discrimination laws designed to better protect minorities do little to address or change ethno-religious tensions. And accusations of Pakistan�s police and military ambivalence towards extremist Sunni groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba have only increased minority distrust of authority in Pakistan.

What is needed is a stronger civil society that slows and reverses any slide into religious and sectarian strife. And a proven but underused way of fostering a stronger civil society is through grassroots community organising.

While extremist groups like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi who claimed responsibly for January�s bombing of Shias in Quetta pose a potentially grave physical danger to minorities, a longer-term danger lies in violent extremist or sectarian ideology seeping into community consciousness and strengthening the formation of isolated in-groups along ethnic, religious and sectarian lines.

Communities, when faced with an overwhelming challenge or threat, unite and in part define themselves by such experiences. And bigger challenges can bind people together not only within communities, but across them. It is this principle that grassroots community organising can apply by framing constructive challenges as the uniting points around which communities can shed their differences and work together. The collective action such collaboration fosters is a vital antidote to the increasingly dangerous ghettoisation of communities in Pakistan.

This approach has already shown success in helping better integrate a religious minority that has experienced one of the greatest challenges to integration in Pakistan - the country�s Hindu minority.

Against the backdrop of Pakistan�s traumatic partition and on-going hostilities with India ever since, Pakistan�s Hindu minorities have experienced on-going discrimination, as documented by openSecurity and Human Rights Watch. But Sindh�s Thardeep district in Southeast Pakistan, one of Pakistan�s lowest socio-economic indexes, a one-third Hindu population with historically strained relations between the two communities, has seen relations improve. This is thanks largely to the grassroots work of Thardeep Rural Support Programmes (TRDP), a local non-governmental organisation and part of Pakistan�s largest development network.

Based on a self-help philosophy of grassroots community organising and social mobilisation, TRDP�s work cuts through religious, sectarian and ethnic divides, uniting local village communities around common development challenges that affect them all, like access to education, better sanitation, medical care, economic empowerment and emergency relief.

When the floods of 2010 devastated rural Pakistan, Thardeep�s community organisations were catapulted into action. The ensuing relief work was delivered with the support of all of Thardeep�s religious communities; it was work delivered by everyone, for everyone. TRDP�s work has reportedly reached 70,365 people and they have rebuilt over one hundred schools to date.

TRDP has enhanced the accepted role of not just Hindus, but of Hindu Dalits � those who rank lowest in the caste system � in public life within Thardeep. TRDP�s previous CEO was himself a Hindu Dalit, as well as the first Pakistani Hindu ever to be awarded the Medal of Excellence, the highest civilian honour in Pakistan. This is no small achievement in the Indian Subcontinent, where Dalits have traditionally experienced relentless discrimination.

Hindu and Sikh Pakistanis play a prominent role in TRDP, as Board Directors, community organising leaders and local activists. As such, the organisation stands as a model of cooperation that dismantles stereotypes, empowers minorities and brings previously disparate communities closer together, even against the backdrop of powerful divisive narratives.

More of this kind of civil society action is needed if Pakistan is to bridge its widening sectarian and religious divides. Substantive grassroots action can act as a buffer against extremist and sectarian ideology.

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* Shiraz Ahmad is Director of Unitas Communications, an international cross-cultural communications agency that works to build stronger relations between the Muslim and Western worlds. Shiraz has managed projects on behalf of the Federal Government of Somalia and the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 7 May 2013, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

Dancing to the beat of a new drum twelve years after 9/11

by Endy Bayuni — Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500
Jakarta - The Western and Muslim worlds drifted apart in the wake of 9/11. The 11 September 2001 suicide hijackings in the United States were followed by other equally devastating attacks in Bali, London, Madrid, Mumbai and elsewhere in the world, all of which were conducted in the name of Islam. After more than 10 years and two bloody wars in Muslim-majority countries waged by the United States in the name of fighting terror, tensions remain high between Muslim societies and the so-called West.

Many people still subscribe to the view of a world divided by cultural affiliation or faith. They see two civilisations that are incompatible with one another and bound to clash. This view is not only flawed but also dangerous because it risks becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

One glaring flaw in the theory of two contesting civilisations is that there is no one single �Muslim world� just as there is no one single �Western world�. The world is not as black and white as this view portrays. There are as many different shades of Muslim culture as there are of Western culture. Those who have chosen to ignore this have played up the differences and helped contribute to existing tensions.

The world�s Muslim population, for example, is so diverse that it is hard to ascribe one single culture to it.

Geographically, it spans from Indonesia to Morocco, and includes substantial Muslim populations in countries like China, India and the United States, as well as throughout Europe. Other than some shared religious rituals, however, there is almost nothing linking Muslims in Indonesia with their brothers-in-faith in, for example, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan or Turkey. They have little in common, culturally as well as politically.

Politically, the diversity is even more pronounced within societies than between them. Muslim communities have their share of liberals, moderates, democrats, conservatives and fundamentalists. These societies have their share of extreme fringe groups too, but they could hardly claim to represent a majority.

Lumping all 1.6 billion Muslims together leads to misleading generalisations and dangerous stereotyping. One such stereotype is that all Muslims are violent � a perception that has further perpetuated Islamophobia in the West.

As long as people subscribe to a worldview divided along different civilisational lines � the West and the Muslim world � they are unlikely to bridge the gap or overcome mutual suspicions. The tension will not go away and instead will be constantly exploited by extremists in both camps, whose objectives are anything but peace. There are many groups in Muslim-majority countries which would profit politically by playing up the anti-West or anti-American sentiments, just as there are groups in the West who exploit anti-Islam sentiments in their societies.

While many people around the world have been working tirelessly to try to bridge the gap, by accepting the view that the world is divided along civilisational lines, these well-intentioned people are essentially still dancing to the drum of war beaten by extremists.

Instead we must now dance to a new beat, one that promotes peace and unites the world as a single civilisation with as many cultures as the world can take.

We can do this by ceasing the view of the world as divided between Muslims and the West. People in these two worlds may have different cultures and traditions and are at different stages of economic development. But on the other hand, they have other things in common. They have the same aspirations when it comes to freedom, democracy, dignity and prosperity. The fact that Arab youth were willing to rise up en mass to fight for these aspirations during the Arab Spring in 2011 proved just that.

We have a much better chance of meeting these mutual aspirations by collaborating, than by competing or fighting one another.

There is only one civilisation in place today, one that has evolved and developed over hundreds of years, and in which Muslims and Westerners have each played a leading role. Nations cannot and must not be defined only by the faith of the majority. The sooner we accept this, the better it is for the world to collaborate and address common problems and challenges together.

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* Endy Bayuni is a senior Indonesian journalist at the Jakarta Post. This article, the second in a series on contemporary Muslim-Western relations, was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 7 May 2013, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

~CGNews Community Corner~ RCMP & Canadian Muslims foil alleged terror plot;

by the CGNews Team — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500
Relations based on trust between the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Canada�s Muslim community are believed to have foiled an alleged Via Rail bomb plot in Southern Ontario, Canada. Anna Gray-Henschel, a member of RCMP�s National Security Program, told The Globe and Mail that �You build up trust�they will call us.�

The Boston Marathon bombing coverage demonstrates a new world where social and traditional media collide and the media consumer becomes more than a passive recipient. �As a consumer in a breaking news environment, when there are fewer filters and you�re switching from Reddit to CNN to Twitter to the New York Times, you�re becoming an editor and not a simple passive recipient.� author and journalist John Dickerson is reported as saying in Gulf News.

Under the slogan, �Building sustainable peace through sport together,� the Dubai Peace and Sport Forum 2013 announced it will arrange a peace match between the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan dedicated to Pakistani activist for girl�s education Malala Yousafzai, reports Al-Arabiya.

The United Nations Alliance of Civilisation (UNAOC) Fellowship is now accepting applications from emerging leaders in North America, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa to contribute to understanding between peoples and societies from Muslim-majority countries and from Europe and North America.

�When we first started, it was Muslim and Jewish groups and by the end it was just a group of women,� says Slim Peace member Hafsa Salim. NBC�s The Today Show
interviewed members of Boston-based Slim Peace, a non-profit dedicated to learning about one another�s culture while achieving the same goal of weight loss.

Lebanese-French Gloria Nasr began her 5000km run for peace this month, which began in Paris and will conclude in August in Beirut. Nasr told FranceTV (article in French) that, �I run for peace. I am aware that my race will not solve the problems, but I hope to show that with willpower, we can do things that seem insurmountable.�

�Interfaith programs are not a miracle solution. Their primary purpose is neither to root out potential terrorists nor solve every social problem. But they do matter,� says President of the Interfaith Youth Core Eboo Patel. Read about his reasons why in the Huffington Post.

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Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 30 April 2013, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

Egyptian Christians and Muslims

by Sophie Anmuth and Marwa Nasser — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500
Cairo - Clashes in Egypt between Muslims and Copts earlier this month have sparked fears of further sectarian violence for the Egyptian Copt minority, which makes up approximately 10 per cent of Egypt�s population of 90 million.

As a foreigner and a native Egyptian living in Cairo, we have both heard first-hand the stereotypes about faith relations in Egypt. For example, the one of us who grew up here remembers being five, in a middle-class neighbourhood in Cairo, and overhearing two schoolmates whispering and pointing at another girl: "She's Christian". They probably didn't even understand what that word means exactly but they knew it meant different. At the time I didn�t understand why these two girls were doing this. I only understood later. The other one of us, a foreigner, has been told exaggerated narratives on both sides: �in Egypt there is no discrimination and has never been against Copts�, or �there has always been discrimination and Copts are suffering constant abuses�.

Both of us believe that these stereotypes don�t reflect the nuances that exist in the country. Discrimination exists, but so do instances of Muslims and Christians working together to stop it. Egyptian civil society is taking matters into its own hands.

One example of this is Salafyo Costa, a group that strives to bring together Egyptians of different faiths, sects and political orientations. Salafyo Costa was originally created to show that Salafis are not the frightening �backward extremists� the media often depicts them as. Instead they are a broad group of conservative Muslims who have a literal understanding of Islam�s scriptures and seek to emulate the traditions of the earliest followers of Islam.

Copts and other Muslim groups also make up a big part of Salafyo Costa membership. In Salafyo Costa, Egyptian Muslims and Copts are working together to ease tensions between both groups, through collaborative activities geared at ending misconceptions.

A Coptic friend of ours was moved to see Muslim Salafyo Costa members taking to the streets to defend Copts during the tragic events of Maspero 2011, a march for Coptic rights that was crushed by the army.

Mohamed Tolba, the co-founder of Salafyo Costa, explains that the group is �a model for Egypt that suits us all no matter what our religion, race or political ideology is.�

For Bassem Victor, a Copt and also a co-founder of the group, the main problem causing the tension is ignorance. �Fifty per cent of the Egyptian people cannot read or write. How do you expect them to know what their religious books say? They trust the local priest or sheikh, who might well look for personal or political benefits.�

Egyptian children from some Muslim families might say Christians don�t worship the same God and cannot be their friends, or that it is impure to shake their hands. These attitudes might have been influenced by the rising popularity of extremist preaching on television over the last twenty years. For their part, Copts often view Salafis as hostile to them, their religion and their presence in the country.

But the mere act of getting to know each other is often enough to put a stop to prejudices and fear. In places where such stereotypes are an issue, demonstrating harmonious collaboration between people of different religions can shift attitudes.

For example, Salafyo Costa organised a Salafi-Copt football match last year. �Participants were wary at first, but ended up as friends, thanks to football,� says Tolba.

�Now we know that it�s wrong to be afraid of each other. We lost our prejudices.� explains Victor.

Muslims � Salafi or otherwise � and Copts from Salafyo Costa also operate regular medical caravans, to provide simple medical attention in places where Salafis normally wouldn�t ask a Copt for help and where Copts wouldn�t trust a Salafi.

Together, the group provided medical supplies to a flooded village near Zagazig in the governorate of Sharqiya last January. And last Friday, Salafyo Costa went to a village with a large Coptic population in the governorate of Minya, south of Cairo, suffering from instances of interreligious tension. �People who benefit from the help of our caravans in villages are often surprised to see Salafis and Copts working hand in hand. It is a useful image and changes their mind-set,� says Tolba.

Salafyo Costa gathers people who would not normally interact. They demonstrate together in support of the revolution�s demands, to free activists held in detention, and for other common interests.

There is mistrust and fear of the other in Egypt, but beyond the prejudices there are nuances and opportunities to build an Egypt where everyone can coexist, whether Muslim or Copt.

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* Sophie Anmuth and Marwa Nasser are freelance journalists in Egypt. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 30 April 2013, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

Countering violent extremism requires law enforcement and Muslims to partner

by Rabia Chaudry — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500
Washington, DC � The horrific Boston Marathon bombings on 15 April, and the outstanding questions regarding the alleged perpetrators ties to violent extremist movements abroad, is a reminder that the fight against terrorism is on-going. Introduced in 2010 by President Barack Obama�s Administration, �Countering Violent Extremism� (CVE) is the latest incarnation of this fight against terrorism. Utilising soft and hard power, development, education and other preventative measures, it is a shift from the reactive and militarised response to terrorism in the past decade.

A core aspect of CVE is empowering and partnering with local Muslim communities, as formalised in the White House�s 2011 Strategic Implementation Plan for Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism. Though many experts agree that this strategy will be effective over time, an elephant in the room remains: mistrust and misinformation between Muslim communities and government agencies.

Several US government agencies are working to put into practice the White House�s emphasis on community empowerment and engagement. The Department of Homeland Security�s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties actively meets with local Muslim leadership around the nation to build relationships, provide information about government resources and accept feedback or concerns. The Department of Justice employs the Community Relations Service to engage at the local level to address tensions arising from differences of race and national origin.

But neither of these agencies have the manpower or resources to connect with the thousands of Muslim communities across the country. It falls then to local agencies, specifically local law enforcement, to be that bridge-builder.

The gap between law enforcement and Muslims is no joke. According to a research brief by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and the Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland, 89 per cent of state law enforcement agencies agree or strongly agree that �Islamic jihadists� (a problematic term given jihad simply means �struggle� in Arabic) pose a serious threat to the country, while 62 per cent say that �Islamic jihadi groups� exist in their states.

On the other hand, Muslim communities themselves are largely suspicious of law enforcement due to the kinds of surveillance tactics used by the New York Police Department (NYPD) as well as reports of officers being trained using bigoted, anti-Muslim materials and trainers.

The fear and suspicion on both sides poses a tremendous hurdle for CVE work. A meeting of these two communities has to be predicated on sound information about the other.

Conducting trainings for local law enforcement agencies, I�ve learned that the fear of widespread bigoted training of officers is a misconception. Rather, there is almost no training given to them at all. At least 90 per cent of police officers, including outreach officers, intelligence analysts and correctional officers who attend our trainings say they have never received training � cultural competency or otherwise � on Islam or how to engage Muslims. The lack of formal training is often a result of budget issues.

When questioned about how they get information on Islam and Muslims, one intelligence officer told me she �used Google.� This accounts for the discrepancy between the perception law enforcement has of the danger of Muslim extremism and the actual statistical threat, reflecting a similar misperception among the general public.

In Muslim American communities, the only programming that has consistently been given since 9/11 is �know your rights� trainings, which are important in terms of protecting the civil liberties of Muslims, but also reinforce the narrative that Muslims and the government are opposing forces.

There are two simple but effective partial solutions to these issues. First, as part of annual in-service training, a basic introduction to Islam and cultural competency must be implemented for law enforcement in regions where large Muslim populations exist. In-service requirements exist for all law and correctional officers, and including components on working with Muslim communities would help counter existing negative perceptions of officers and officials.

Second, law enforcement leadership must engage in consistent outreach to local communities on a diverse array of issues � this builds a relationship through which Muslim communities can provide resources on Islam and cultural competency to their local law enforcement agencies, overcoming funding issues.

In the wake of the attack in Boston and the ensuing suspicion of Muslims reflected in debates on immigration and prosecution policies, the need for consistent engagement between law enforcement and Muslim communities is more important than ever. And while CVE is a relatively new effort that is still being fleshed out, it would be remiss not to fully commit the resources needed to succeed.

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* Rabia Chaudry is an attorney and the President of the Safe Nation Collaborative (www.safenationcollaborative.com), a CVE training firm providing resources to law enforcement and Muslim American communities. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 30 April 2013, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

What does Muslim-Western relations mean?

by Michael Young — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500
Beirut � It is a fact that the notion of a clash of civilisations, first popularised by the American academic Samuel Huntington, is more relevant than ever in the minds of many people. Especially when it concerns Muslim-Western relations, there is a view that Muslim and Western values are incompatible.

And yet Huntington�s argument that after the Cold War conflict would be defined not by ideology or economics, but by cultural differences, was indeed prophetic since culture has become the principle basis for differentiation, even if culture itself is often viewed in far too static a way.

The reaction to Huntington�s conclusion was generally one of unease. If what he said was true, then the future of the world could be very bleak indeed. Cultural differences would be regarded as sinister rather than as foundations of invigorating diversity. For many, Huntington seemed to be looking at the glass half empty, when the very concept of global interaction, and globalisation in general, imposed a far more heartening reading of the situation.

Both sides had a point. Huntington was prescient for realising that the causes of conflict would shift away from ideological antagonism (though the argument with respect to economics was less persuasive), even if they remained firmly in the realm of ideas. However it is also true that, in his rendering, global relations seemed to reflect an apocalyptic vision � that of perennial discord and enmity.

There is nothing wrong with discussing the disparities between Western and Muslim values, but to lend to the discussion unchangeable qualities on both sides is to miss the adaptable nature of culture and the ability of humans to modify cultural reactions in changing environments.

If one wants to question Huntington�s paradigm, it is in the sphere of perceptions where that has to be done. For many people in the West, the Arab uprisings since 2011 have been a case in point. These people have come to believe that what began as a yearning for democracy and freedom has ended up favouring Islamist groups (groups that believe there is a role for Islam in politics) that are neither particularly democratic nor tolerant of freedom, and who have usually sought restrictive legislation against women, a substantial portion of their populations.

But the reality lies in the nuances. For example, in Egypt and Tunisia, the Muslim Brotherhood and Ennadha parties have taken over major state institutions. While they have allowed behaviour unheard of under the old regimes, they have also become increasingly contested as they have retained powers allowing them to restrict certain freedoms, such as freedom of expression, while riding roughshod over representative bodies.

Acknowledging the complex undercurrents of the Arab revolts is necessary in order to grasp what is going on. The notion that there is something irreconcilable between the aspirations of Arab societies and those of western societies is simplistic, and often wrong, just as it is equally na�ve to expect that Arab societies in ebullition will wholeheartedly embrace Western values, such as secularism, the primacy of the individual at the expense of the group, and so on.

To demand such an embrace, no less than declaring it impossible, is to believe that culture talks in absolutes.

In the last 12 years since the 9/11 attacks, familiarity has led to a better Western understanding of the complexities in the Muslim world, while far-reaching changes in the Muslim world have undermined a black and white view of the region in the West. When Syrians revolted two years ago, they had no hesitation in asking for Western help, just as the overthrow of pro-Western autocrats was regarded favourably in the United States and Europe.

A Syrian or Egyptian still regards freedom much as a Frenchman or an American does, even if the preferred social contract each will favour to protect those freedoms differs. Perhaps some will want more secularism, others more religion. But if the preferred social contract ends up undermining those same freedoms, then the chances are that new rebellions will occur at some stage.

Huntington was correct in looking toward culture as the boundary between Western and Eastern societies. But boundaries are ever-changing and values cross over between cultures by osmosis. To assume cultures are autarkic and unchanging is as erroneous as to assume that cultural distinctions are invariably resolvable. The truth about culture lies in the middle; values are transposable, which is why identity is most enthralling when they are tethered the least.

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* Michael Young is opinion editor of the Daily Star newspaper in Lebanon. This article, the first in a series on contemporary Muslim-Western relations, was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 30 April 2013, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

~CGNews Community Corner~ To Boston with Love; Meet the Egyptians learning Hebrew

by the CGNews Team — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500
�To Boston from Kabul with Love.� Principled Pictures , an organisation that strives to shed light on the human side of political and social issues, shares messages of love and sympathy for Boston in pictures from the people of Afghanistan in the wake of the bombings of 15 April 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts.

At a time when the future of Egyptian-Israeli relations is uncertain, meet the Egyptians who are curious about their neighbour and are learning Hebrew in an effort to understand more �When you negotiate with someone whose language and spirit you know, the gaps can be bridged� says Egyptian journalists Mohamed Seif to Al-Monitor .

Signis, the leading group representing Catholic media, announced it will host its 2013 world congress with the theme of �Media for Culture of Peace: Creating Images for a New Generation� in Lebanon. As reported by the Rome Reports TV Agency the conference aims to bring together youth in the Middle East, regardless of race or religion, to look at the importance of media in creating a culture of peace.

Looking for a place to connect in Saudi Arabia? Oubei Elkerdi, a contributor to Wamda.com (a platform to empower entrepreneurs in the Middle East) suggests that Saudi coffeehouses could be a great place for innovation and collaboration, in Ahmed al-Majid�s article for Wamda.com.

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Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 23 April 2013, www.commongroundnews.org

The Internet in Egypt, first revolution now jobs?

by Mohamed El-Sayed — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500
Cairo � Today, well over two years into the Egyptian revolution, increased numbers of Egyptian youth are still struggling to find jobs. With political instability looming large, the economy receives one blow after another. Unemployment has hit new highs � 13 per cent according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics � and businesses have suffered. However, just as the Internet was used to stage the �e-revolution� in which social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter were used as megaphones for young activists, it is now being utilized to unlock Egypt�s untapped markets and youth potential.

E-commerce (buying and selling products using the Internet) is gradually becoming a means to provide new jobs for fresh graduates. According to participants in a regional e-commerce conference held last month in Cairo, Internet-based marketing in Egypt is growing by 25 per cent monthly thanks to increased access to Internet � and social networking sites in particular � since the revolution. Currently around 31 million Egyptians (39 per cent of the population) have access to the Internet according to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

Today, websites such as Souq.com, Jumia.com, Nefsak.com and Deal�N�Deal, to name a few, have become familiar names for Egyptian shoppers. A quick glance at the demographics of these companies� offices in Cairo reveals that the majority of employees are fresh graduates. Many of the young e-commerce specialists have received training upon joining these companies which are looking to grow and keen to help their employees acquire the necessary skills.

To capitalise on this opportunity for growth, Souq.com, the largest internet-based marketing platform in the Arab world, championed the creation of a training academy for young people working in Internet-based commerce. Established in cooperation with the Education for Egyptian Employment (EFE-Egypt), the academy ran its first e-commerce training program for 120 students in February of this year.

Souq.com officials see the training as a way to address a severe shortage in young, qualified specialists. �The partnership with EFE-Egypt on this strategic initiative will serve as a catalyst for skills development and job creation for the next generation of Egyptian technology professionals,� said Souq.com General Manager Omar Soudodi.

The program, in fact, was specifically tailored to address a chronic lack of the skill-sets needed in the Egyptian job market, given that none of the Egyptian universities currently provide specialised e-commerce courses.

�Roughly 80 per cent of Egyptians aged 15 to 29 already suffer from unemployment, while the market is lacking qualified e-commerce specialists,� says EFE-Egypt CEO Shahinaz Ahmed. �The training program is meant to provide qualified e-commerce specialists to cater to the country�s growing appetite for everything online,� she added. The program, explains Ahmed, is �a clear win-win scenario for everyone � employers, employees and the Egyptian economy as well.�

Trainees gained expertise in marketing, logistics, Google AdWords, supply chain management, relationship management, social media, order fulfilment and packing. Having obtained the necessary skills through the course, Souq.com hired top students who passed it successfully.

Other similar initiatives have recently spread e-commerce learning in different parts of the country. For example, an e-commerce club opened branches under the umbrella of Cairo University in three governorates � Cairo, Alexandria and Assiut � to provide specialised training for fresh university graduates.

�I�m now receiving training at the club so that I can join an Internet-based marketing company,� said Mohamed Shawqi, a fresh university graduate taking specialised courses in the club in the coastal city of Alexandria. �With unemployment among fresh graduates on the rise, I believe e-commerce will help the economy get back on its feet,� he added. �Since e-commerce is still in its infancy in Egypt, it has a great potential for growth�.

For e-commerce to become more established in Egypt, additional training initiatives are needed.

According to leading market strategy research firm Euromonitor International, the size of e-commerce in Egypt is expected to hit the $446.4 million mark by 2016. And as the sector grabs more shoppers from the grey market that, according to estimates by business experts, currently makes up 40 per cent of the Egyptian market, Internet-based marketing and expanded trainings for youth to develop required skills could be a springboard for economic growth and development in Egypt.

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* Mohamed El-Sayed is an Egyptian journalist. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 23 April 2013, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

America�s response to tragedy

by Michael Felsen — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500
Boston, Massachusetts � It�s been a hard week for Boston. A native New Yorker, I�ve lived in this town for close to forty years. My wife and I raised three boys who hawked Coke and peanuts in the grandstands at Fenway Park, and cheered on the Celtics at Boston Garden. And for many years, we stood together each April and applauded the countless runners, from countless countries, who sped toward the finish line at the magnificent Boston Marathon.

Those warm memories are tarnished now. The harrowing events of last week have left us dazed by a cluster of senseless bursts of violence. Baghdad, Oklahoma City, Mumbai, Kabul, Moscow, Columbine, London, Newtown and so many other places around the globe, have been victimised by terrorising acts of one stripe or another. Now, unhappily, Boston joins those ranks. What twisted logic could have inspired, or what hidden trauma could have impelled anyone to inflict such wanton destruction on the lives of innocents? Today, one suspect is dead and the other is hospitalised and in custody. The nagging question remains: Why?

In one sense, it really doesn�t matter. Whatever the motivating force, the damage is done. The wounds are inflicted on families and communities. In every case, the acts are inexcusable. And yet, we care about �why� because we look for lessons and wonder what, if anything, we can do to prevent the next such catastrophe.

Two days after the Boston Marathon bombings, National Public Radio featured University of Arizona psychologist Jeff Greenberg, who studies how people respond to events that force them to confront their own mortality. "When death is percolating close to consciousness, people become more 'us vs. them' � they become defensive of their belief system, positive toward those they identify with and more negative to those who espouse a different belief system," he said.

That human tendency lurks here, in the wake of last week�s events. We�ve learned that the suspects of the heinous acts of 15 April self-identified as Muslim. In response, some have already chosen to shun, and even vilify, that entire community of faith. This despite the fact that we have already heard from Muslim leaders in Boston and beyond that these acts were crimes, pure and simple, and in no way justifiable by the Islamic faith.

Among the many lessons from the week�s events is this: it�s our job to prevent this kind of blaming and stigmatising of an entire group on account of the unconscionable acts of a few. Wholesale demonization of the �other� simply can�t be justified as serving the cause of security, justice, human understanding or, for that matter, any other value.

This message came through loud and clear at the interfaith memorial service held on 18 April in Boston�s South End. More than two thousand gathered and listened while Christian, Jewish and Muslim faith leaders, joined by Boston�s Mayor Tom Menino, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and President Barack Obama spoke words of comfort and inspiration.

We were reminded that we can�t allow another�s hate to make haters of us; that our task is to heal and rebuild, united by our common humanity. We were reminded that our community is defined not by violence, hatred or fear, but by love and generosity, as seen, for example, in the actions of those heroic bystanders and first responders who ran toward � rather than away from � danger, and aided those injured by the explosions. And we heard this resonant theme: that the dilemma of evil is that it inspires good; in our diversity, we have been united.

Patrick recalled the words of Martin Luther King: �Darkness cannot drive out darkness � only light can do that.� And Obama enjoined: �In the face of cruelty, we will choose compassion� we�ll choose friendship, we�ll choose love.� Can any of us doubt that an outstretched hand is more likely to promote an open mind and an open heart in the �other,� than a clenched fist?

We miss the point entirely if we allow the acts of extremists to force us into our own respective corners. They win if in response to their acts we poison our community, by shunning � instead of engaging � those whose culture or beliefs are different from our own.

Here in Boston � but not only here in Boston � that�s a race we need to run, and win, together.

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* Michael Felsen is an attorney and President of Boston Workmen�s Circle, a 110-year old communal organisation dedicated to secular Jewish education, culture and social justice. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 23 April 2013, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

~CGNews Community Corner~

by the CGNews Team — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500
Tweets from Muslim communities worldwide poured in to express sympathy for victims after yesterday�s explosions at the Boston Marathon, reports the Washington Post.

This rejection of a link between Islam and violence was echoed in Canada where Dr. Muneer El-Kassem of the Islamic Centre of Southwest Ontario told the The National Post that �Faith and terrorism are an oxymoron, they do not exist together,� in light of reports of two boys from London, Ontario allegedly being involved in an attack in Algeria.

The First Christian Church in Eugene, Oregon explains why it has brought together different religious faiths for over 12 years to heal intolerance and fear. When interviewed by the local KVAL News, board member of Interfaith Prayer Service International (IPSI) Bill Harris said, �� this service allows people to come and feel as though they could be in the presence of people of all religions, all races, all creeds, and feel oneness with them.�

When students in Indonesia�s pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) tried their hands at documentary film-making, listen to what they had to say about religion and tolerance .

Do you think you know Yemen? Fahd Aqlan uses Facebook to take viewers of his page on a photographic tour to showcase Yemen�s beauty beyond the headlines.

Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 16 April 2013, www.commongroundnews.org