Hope Not Hate — theme of U.S.-Islam town hall meeting

Hope Not Hate — theme of U.S.-Islam town hall meeting

by RYAN FRIESEN
Goshen News

Intercultural misinformation, international perception and United States policy toward the Middle East were discussed Tuesday evening at Goshen College during the “Hope Not Hate” town hall meeting.

Goshen-area residents filled a lecture room in the Newcomer building to listen to three speakers who represented experienced voices concerning some of the issues in Iraq, Palestine and Israel and with U.S. policy in the Mideast.

David Cortright, a town hall panelist, said he believes it is “delusional” to think the U.S. can control and keep safe the situation in Iraq. Cortright, along with Omar Haydar and Mabel Brunk, shared their experiences and concerns about today’s climate in the U.S. and abroad over U.S.-Islamic relations.

“Those relations,” Cortright said in his opening comments, “are in a disastrous state.” Haydar, whose spent time working with the Council on American Islamic Relations, recounted his experience of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the aftermath Muslim Americans and Muslims around the world have had to deal with.

Though he said, “Everyone looks up to us,” referencing the U.S. culture, it is the U.S. policy and presence in the Middle East which causes so much animosity toward the U.S. A Goshen resident, Brunk recently returned from Iraq, having spent six weeks there with Christian Peacemaker Teams. Brunk was asked by Sean Kauffman, a Goshen College student, what the general feelings are among Iraqis about Americans. Brunk said generally people are happy with American citizens and friendly toward them. However, Brunk said, they do not feel the same way about American soldiers.

A neighbor of Brunk’s while she was in Iraq told her U.S. efforts in his country are nothing more than a “bandage” on a larger wound.

The question was then posed by Goshen College student Samuel Tyx, asking the panel what a good policy change would be for the U.S. and whether either current presidential candidate present a positive change in those policies.

The answer Tyx received from Cortright was simply pull out — and no. Neither U.S. presidential candidate is approaching Mideast relations in a helpful manner, according to Cortright, and the best solution is for the U.S. to end its occupation in Iraq. “American policy has caused some of these problems,” Cortright said of Mideast unrest, and U.S.-Islamic relation has, “everything to do with policy.”

Goshen College French professor Kathleen Massanari asked the panel to elaborate on how the U.S. can help foster a better world perception about our actions internationally. Again Cortright answered by addressing U.S. policy toward that area of the world. Cortright said U.S. policies are making the world more dangerous and we as a people who elect our leaders need to argue for a different direction, not only for the safety of those in Iraq and other Mideast countries, but for our own safety threatened by terrorists here at home. Haydar agreed and added the people of Iraq should be allowed to solve their own problems without our interdiction.

Town hall attendee George Thompson commented he believes our leaders are not ignorant people.

“They’re smart, but they’re not doing anything,” Thompson said.

Our elected officials in Washington, D.C., are bombarded by special interest groups, Thompson said, and he asked the panel how our leaders can better deal with those influences and why they haven’t done a better job to date.

“Why don’t they do something?” Thompson asked.

Haydar said, “The policy will definitely change no matter what the special interest money says,” as long as American citizens ask for it to.

“One vote and one voice,” Haydar quipped. Brunk said the friends she made during her time in Iraq would be happy to hear some U.S. citizens are not satisfied with U.S. policy concerning the Middle East. Haydar said we as a people can realize a difference if we plan ahead and make it happen.

“We have created for ourselves a disastrous situation,” Cortright said of current U.S.-Islamic relations.

Much of the discord is directly relevant, he added, to the Palestine-Israel conflict. The U.S. must support a genuinely equitable resolution between Israel and Palestine, he said. In several Mideast countries, Cortright said, there are “shocking” levels of hostility toward the U.S. In some countries Osama Bin Laden is heavily favored over George Bush in polls. In some of those same key countries there is up to a 98 percent disapproval rating of U.S. policy.

Cortright added, the situation has nothing to do with religion.

A major source of pain and angst for many in the Middle East are is the U.S. military presence, especially the presence of military bases. Cortright said these bases have become “lightning rods” for conflict and have, along with the policies that create them, have encouraged an increase in the ranks of al-Qaida.

The Department of Defense, Cortright said, has officially stated that as the U.S. military presence grows in the Middle East so too does the terrorist threat.

“We are creating enemies,” Cortright said, “where we should be creating friends.”

The Hope Not Hate town hall meeting at the college is one of more than 30 which are scheduled to be held around the country. The meetings stem from an initiative by Americans for Informed Democracy who will be hosting the gatherings through Oct. 12 featuring a coalition of members of congress, ambassadors, journalists, military officials and scholars.

The series will finish with six face-to-face video conference dialogues between young leaders at six universities in the U.S. and six in the Muslim world, including in Egypt, Indonesia, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan and Turkey.

The goal of Hope not Hate, according to Americans for Informed Democracy officials, is to build a bridge of understanding between non-Muslims in the U.S. and then to extend that bridge to Muslims outside the U.S.