Nationwide town hall series -- Hope not Hate

Nationwide town hall series -- Hope not Hate

by Staff Writer
Insight Magazine
09/8/2004

Prompted by the 911 Commission report, a coalition of diverse scholars, journalists, activists, students, religious leaders and foreign policy experts plan a nationwide town hall series on future US-Muslim relations.

The tour kicks off September 8 at New York University and runs thru October 12 with six "Face to Fact" videoconference dialogues between young leaders at six universities in the United States and six universities in the Muslim world, including Egypt, Indonesia, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan and Turkey.

The NYU chapter of Americans for Informed Democracy will host the first town hall meeting from 7 PM to 9 PM at the school's Eisner and Lubin Auditorium at 60 Washington Square South, NYC.

Particpants at the kick off event include the president of the Pakistan-American Federation, Charles Hanley, Pulitzer-winning AP reporter, Warren Hoge, the UN bureau chief of the New York Times, Nikki Stern with the Fammilies of September 11, and Mustapha Tlili, the director of Dialogues: Islamic World-US-The West.

"The tragedy of September 11, 2001 was a defining moment not only for the United States but the world," observes Ambassador Karl Inderfurth, the co-chair of the series. "At that moment, we stood as one...Through the "Hope not Hate" series of town hall meetings, we have an opportunity to engage, as the 911 Commission recommends, in 'the struggle of ideas' and perhaps, over time, recapture that sense of oneness and of common purpose that defined the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks on America."

More details on this unusual forum and array of spakers can be found here Hope Not Hate

The bipartisan array of speakers includes Mouafac Harb, news director of Radio Sawa, the American-sponsored radio service created by Congress to help establish freedom in Iraq.