Excerpt: Secretary Powell Reaches Out to Global Youth on MTV

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell discussed a range of international issues February 14 with a television studio audience of young people -- about 75 in Washington and 190 others in studios in six other cities around the world -- for a program produced by MTV, the cable music channel.

The non-U.S. participants assembled by MTV joined the program via satellite from Cairo, London, Milan, Moscow, New Delhi, and Sao Paulo. The tape of the program -- "Be Heard: An MTV Global Discussion with Colin Powell" - premiered later the same day on MTV's U.S. affiliates and will run on international affiliates over the next several weeks. MTV said in a press release that the potential audience for the program is 375 million.

The young people devised their own questions for Powell who heard them for the first time as the program was under way. The program participants sought the Secretary of State's views on an array of subjects, but the majority focused on the issues of the day -- the war on terrorism, the Mideast conflict, and efforts to control the AIDS epidemic.

"Be Heard: An MTV Global Discussion with Colin Powell" will be presented according to this scheduled released by MTV.

MTV Brasil -- 15 February -- 2200
MTV Canada -- 19 February -- 1330
MTV European -- 15 February -- 2200 (CET)
MTV India -- 20 February -- TBC
MTV Italia -- 22 February -- 2000 (CET)
MTV Japan -- 9 March -- TBC
MTV Latin America -- 19 February -- 1900
MTV in the Middle East -- 15 February -- 2200 (CET)
MTV Russia -- 15 February -- 1930
MTV UK & Ireland -- 15 February -- 2000 (GMT)
MTV US -- 14 February -- 2000 (ET/PT)

Following is an excerpt from the transcript of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's discussion program on MTV:

QUESTION: Hello. My name is Lila, and I'm 18. As a young Muslim American woman, I was wondering how you felt you could deal with the issues of tolerance. Previous to September 11th, I did not consider myself a Muslim; however, after witnessing all the misrepresentations and misconceptions, I decided to explore my faith, and now I have a new sense of pride. My younger brother, however, and his peers seem lost. They do not know whether they should embrace their ethnicity and religion, or hide it in fear of discrimination or racism. How do you think we should deal with that?

SECRETARY POWELL: I think the answer is very simple. I am glad that you have embraced your religion and you've gotten to know more about your religion since the 11th of September, and I hope your younger brothers do the same thing because Islam is a wonderful religion. It's a religion that teaches peace. It teaches taking care of those of our citizens who are less fortunate. It talks about finding a way that makes the world a better place. And so it is a wonderful religion. It is not a religion of violence. It is not a religion of taking innocent lives. And it should be embraced, and you should be proud of it.

We are proud of all the many Muslim Americans who are here in the United States. President Bush went out of his way to reach out to that community. And we also want to say to Muslims around the world our campaign against terrorism is not against anybody who is of the Muslim faith; it's against those individuals who are terrorists, who kill innocent people.

When you look at where the armed forces of the United States have fought in recent years, we went to Afghanistan to protect Muslims; we went to Kuwait to protect Muslims and give Kuwait back to the Kuwaiti Government. And when you look at what we did in Kosovo, we went to Kosovo to protect Albanian Muslims. So I think the United States has demonstrated through its actions, through the openness that we have in our society, that we respect all faiths. That is what makes this country great. We are a respecter of all faiths.

So practice your faith and help your brother see the wisdom of embracing the faith of their fathers and mothers. . . .

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)