Gen Nexters worldwide meet to repair U.S.-Muslim relations

Gen Nexters worldwide meet to repair U.S.-Muslim relations

by David Andrukonis
Generation Next Blog (Hosted by USA Today)
Thursday, August 31, 2006

Even though most Generation Nexters were teenagers when planes struck the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, 16- to 25-year-olds today are still a generation more likely to be associated with spring break and MySpace than with serious thought on serious issues.

But for Seth Green, the 26-year-old president of Americans for Informed Democracy (a group that targets 18- to 25-year-olds and is largely run by 18- to 25-year-olds), Generation Next is uniquely poised to solve the most pressing issues of the era.

Among them, the tumultuous relationship between the Islamic world and the United States, which is the subject of “9-11 Plus 5: A Hope Not Hate Summit,” hosted by Green’s group, The Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University and The Saban Center at the Brookings Institution in conjunction with The Families of 9-11. The summit will convene 300 young leaders from the U.S. and around the Muslim world.

“There’s something about our generation that gets it,” Green says about why Generation Next is pursuing this innovative and cooperative approach to repairing Muslim-U.S. relations. “We live in an interconnected world. We live with all sorts of opportunities to connect with peers around the world. Our generation gets the idea that a cooperative approach will be most effective for all of us and the world that we share.”

Americans for Informed Democracy has representation on 500 campuses across 48 states. It has held well-attended conferences in New York, Atlanta and Charleston - where Bob Jones University students turned out and praised the work of AID.

“The biggest misconception is that our generation doesn’t care,” says Green. “[That misconception] grows out of generations watching us from the '60s, thinking that to care is to show up with a protest sign. Most of our generation wants to take a more establishment-oriented approach to public interest. For example, we have record highs for Teach For America applications, which is a mainstream group. So there is a new belief about how you make that impact.”

The AID website describes the unprecedented involvement of young adults today with young adults around the world. “Today’s university students are more connected to the rest of the world than ever before. They use online translators to access websites in foreign languages. They trade international music with their counterparts abroad. And they chat about politics with their peers around the world through online message boards.”

“Reading foreign media,” says Green, “helps you understand that people aren’t crazy. People, in the end, all want the same things.”

Green hopes that the 9-11 Plus 5 Summit can be an opportunity for moderate voices of hope to be heard over the extreme voices of hate.

“There are over 290 million Americans, and over 1.2 billion Muslims. In the media, you tend to see only extremes. We know that what happened at Abu Ghraib does not reflect the character of our country. And bin Laden and Zarqawi don’t reflect the character of Muslim countries. The purpose of the 9-11 Plus 5 Summit is to give moderate voices a chance to speak out.”

Following the 9-11 Plus 5 Summit, the young leaders will return to their local communities across the U.S. and Muslim world, hosting town-hall meetings to promote better U.S.-Muslim understanding.