20 November 2001

Arab-American Scholars Say U.S.-Islam Dialogue Spurred by 9/11 Events

Washington -- Arab-American scholars and a journalist say while the September 11 terrorist attacks may have subjected Arab-Americans and Muslim-Americans to some harassment and hostility, the events also have paved the way for the Muslim-American and Arab-American communities to establish closer ties with the broader American society.

Participating in a panel discussion sponsored by the State Department's Foreign Press Center in Washington November 20, the panelists said that in the aftermath of September 11, Arab-Americans and Muslim-Americans now find many other Americans eager to learn about their causes, traditions and culture.

The speakers rejected the notion that there is a clash of civilizations between the U.S. and the West, on the one hand, and Arabs and Muslims, on the other. One panelist argued that the enormous growth of the Arab and Islamic community in the United States in the past two decades is an indication that America welcomes Arabs and Muslims and provides opportunities for them to practice their religion and preserve their culture and language in a pluralist U.S. society.

Amr Khairi, professor of Islamic and social studies at Leesburg College in Virginia, rejected what some have termed a fundamental conflict between Islam and democracy. "Life in America," he said, "has demonstrated the presence of a substantial measure of harmony between Islam and democracy, and our life here has taught us that it is our responsibility to preserve our values here when they are imperiled, mobilize our energies and take every lawful, legitimate and political course to maintain our values."

Subhi Ghandour, publisher of "Al-Hiwar" (Dialogue) magazine and founder of the Washington-based Center for Arab Dialogue, praised the pluralist character of American society, which he said could become an example to be emulated in Arab and Muslim countries with societies of different ethnic groups and religions.

"America is one nation, but it is also a homeland for communities descended from many ethnic and cultural backgrounds. We are citizens of one country and this is a prototype which our Arab and Muslim worlds can adopt, and where citizens of different cultural, religious and lingual backgrounds coexist in one homeland," Ghandour added.

Muhammad Abu Al-Nimr, a professor at the Center for Non-violence and International Peace at the American University in Washington, DC, said relations between the United States and the Arab and Muslim countries are clouded by broad, inaccurate perceptions of each other.

"The Arab world does not distinguish between the U.S. as a society and U.S. policies, especially foreign policies, which it sometimes finds unpalatable," he said, while Americans often do not distinguish between Arab or Muslim society, on the one hand, and policies of some Arab or Muslim states, on the other.

"Americans sometimes do not distinguish between the broader Arab and Muslim society, on the one hand, and individuals and groups which commit violent acts, on the other. This mutual generalization or lack of distinction may be one of the main reasons behind the current crisis" in US-Arab relations, he said.

Abu Al-Nimr called on Arab and Muslim Americans to criticize more strongly those individuals and groups who commit wrongful acts under the guise of religion or other causes.

"We ought to be able to adopt self-criticism and to speak out against ourselves, individuals and institutions...and we should oppose these approaches which resort to violence, or murder, or fighting pluralism in our American society," he added

Some panelists criticized U.S. policy towards some of the Arab and Islamic causes and called on America to adopt "more balanced and more just" policies regarding these issues.

The moderator of the panel, Abdul Aziz Said, an American University professor of international relations, appealed to the U.S. Administration to involve Arab-Americans and Muslim-Americans in policy making.

"When the Arab world sees that one of the decision-makers is an Arab or Muslim, this will leave an important and positive impact there, and we should insist that there be Arabs and Muslims in U.S. decision making circles, especially when decisions relate to the Arab or Muslim world," he said.