Middle East experts debate whether hope can overcome hate

Middle East experts debate whether hope can overcome hate

by Marwan Sadiq
Scripps Howard Foundation Wire
9/17/04

WASHINGTON – Three Middle East experts said at a panel discussion last week that dialogue could be a key for better relations between the United States and the Muslim world. But a former U.S. diplomat countered that eliminating terrorists is the only solution.

The Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies hosted the Thursday night discussion called “Hope Not Hate.” It focused on American-Muslim relations after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the consequences of the War on Terror for both components of the universal equation.

All four speakers spent time in Muslim countries and experienced life there.

Robert Oakley , former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan and Somalia, started the discussion by presenting the historical background of the connection between Islam and terrorism. He described violence and hostility in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, accusing these countries of hosting terror and terrorists. He said the only solution to exterminate terror is the War on Terror.

"But the Muslim world thinks that the War on Terror is a Crusade against Islam," he said, indicating that the misunderstanding between Americans and Muslims is so big that nobody is able to fill the gap. Muslim countries believe that when the United States liberates a country it actually occupies it, he said.

The panelists also talked about the necessity of making Muslim societies more open minded and modern.

Thomas W. Lippman, a former diplomat, former Washington Post correspondent and adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute, who traveled and lived in most of the Middle East countries for the last three decades, said it’s impossible to change societies by simply dictating it.

Most societies have chosen what they look like today, he said, pointing out, "Saudis decided to live under an Islamic radical regime. It's their choice."

Suggesting dialogue as a solution to balance the scales, Lippman said, "I believe that there should be a mutual dialogue and a creative universal conversation." He expressed his wish to have a serious Islamic university in the United States to teach people what Islam means.

On the other hand, people from the Middle East, including Gautam Adhikari, former executive editor of The Times in India, raised the question of whether Islam is compatible with democracy. His answer was yes.

He gave examples such as India (which is 12 percent Muslim), Indonesia, Bangladesh and Turkey as Muslim countries with successful democracies.

Adhikari said the United States should encourage democracies even where Muslim fundamentalists are influential because this type of democracy is "a good start."

“But we still have a problem in the Arab countries," he added. "The fundamentalist democracy societies have a strong sense of nationhood. They are Indians, for example, before being Muslims," which he said makes them more open minded and transparent.

But in the Arab case, it is different because Arabs share almost everything – traditions, languages and religion – which makes them more sensitive and responsible toward their issues.

"The Arab are so sensitive that they think that their honor is under attack," he said, because when the Arab societies think, they think as one society, which makes it even more difficult.

The only Arab Muslim representative in the discussion was Mouafac Harb, a Jordanian-American who is news director for Radio Sawa, American-produced Arabic programming broadcast in the Middle East.

He ended the discussion by clarifying the misunderstanding of connecting Islam with terror by saying, "Muslims are not terrorists, but most of the terrorists are Muslims."

He said Muslims and Arabs don’t hate Americans: "We don't hate you, but we hate your foreign policy."