US-Arab Relations Examined

US-Arab Relations Examined

John Hopkins News-Letter
9/14/2004

U.S.-Arab relations examined By David Corrigan September 17, 2004

Americans for Informed Democracy hosted "Hope not Hate" last Sunday, one of a series of town hall meetings held throughout the nation as part of the group's effort to increase public awareness of American-Islamic relations.

Before a crowded auditorium in Mergenthaler Hall, three featured speakers addressed the crowd, and shared their expertise about the Islamic world, and the challenges America faces in mending U.S.-Islam relations.

Kenneth Bacon, president of Refugees International and a former columnist for The Wall Street Journal, was the first to address the crowd. Having also served in the White House as an advisor to the Secretary of Defense, Bacon described the harsh reality facing the United States in regards to the war on terror.

"By fighting terrorism we are creating an ill will that will take years or even decades to overcome," warned Bacon. "Our policies are inconsistent and incoherent to deal with a billion people of different faith who are now turning against us."

Bacon also addressed the controversial issue of Israeli-Palestinian relations, and addressed the fact that America is often perceived as pro-Israeli.

"We're used to being perceived as hypocritical," Bacon said, "but in this case, I think we are being hypocritical."

Bacon alluded to the Cold War, describing how the United States eventually had to settle for a long, drawn-out conflict, and warned that the war on terror is likely to be just as long and arduous.

While Bacon gave an American perspective on U.S-Israeli relations, he was followed by Ammar Abdulhamid, co-director of DarEmar, a publishing house based in Damascus, Syria. Born in Syria, he now studies in the United States.

Abdulhamid provided the audience with an Arab perspective on the War on Terror, and the tremendous changes that are taking place in the Arab world.

"It is difficult to come up with unified policies when you're dealing with such a diverse part of the world," said Abdulhamid, referring to the very varied Islamic world, a group of over one billion people spread out over nearly 40 nations.

Abdulhamid tried to convey this great diversity in the Muslim world by telling a story about growing up in Damascus.

"In some ways, the city of Damascus is no different from the city of Chicago," he said, citing the tall buildings and modern facilities.

In other ways, however, Damascus was very different.

He described the people of Damascus, some who were very Western, wearing suits and ties, and others who renounced all of Western culture, still wearing traditional Islamic attire.

"The West never experienced anything like this," Abdulhamid said, pointing out that the cultural and technological advances that the West experienced took place over hundreds of years.

Abdulhamid also gave his perspective on why so many Islamic fundamentalists are so opposed to progress and work against the United States.

While he attributed part of it to a hatred of Western culture, Abdulhamid believes the greatest reason is the immensity of the challenge ahead of the Arab world. Changes that took place over hundreds of years in Western culture are now expected to take place almost immediately in the Islamic world.

"It is a shock to the Islamic world," Abdulhamid argued, and it will take some time before significant progress will be possible.

The final speaker of the night was Amy Hawthorne, an associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She proposed a number of suggestions for the American government about how to fight the War on Terror effectively.

Hawthorne's message was that the United States government is attempting to do too many things at once, and is trying to solve all the problems in the Islamic world in one grand effort.

The problem with this strategy, she argued, is that it detracts from those goals that we should be most focused on.

Hawthorne also talked about the shift in American policy towards a democratization of the Arab world.

"This is a huge rhetorical shift for the U.S.," she said. "Before September 11, we never discussed bringing democracy to the Islamic regimes."