In June 2009, President Obama called for 'a new beginning' in relations between the United States and Muslim world. One year later, with no sign of an Israel-Palestine peace deal, a deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, and an ongoing nuclear standoff with Iran, has the "new beginning" stalled? Is the process of engagement a long-term one? Should the current strategy be sustained?
What can politicians do to re-build trust among these communities? How much impact do foreign policy decisions actually have on individuals' perceptions of Muslim-West relations? What is the role of media in shaping public opinion? How significant is the role of the Arab-Israeli conflict in widening the gap between communities in the US, Europe and the so-called "Muslim world"? Is progress on the Middle East front a sine qua non for the improvement of Muslim-West relations?
Bio
Reza Aslan
Reza Aslan is a writer and scholar of religions.
Born in Iran, Aslan is currently a research associate at the University of Southern California's Center on Public Diplomacy. He was a visiting assistant professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern studies at the University of Iowa and the Truman Capote Fellow in Fiction at the Iowa Writer's Workshop.
A frequent commentator on television, radio, and in print, Aslan is a graduate of Santa Clara University, Harvard University, and the University of Iowa. He is the author of No god but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam and How to Win a Cosmic War: Why We're Losing the War on Terror.
Roger Cohen
Roger Cohen is a journalist and author who focuses on international politics and relations. He is the New York Times' international writer-at-large and the International Herald Tribune's editor-at-large, where he writes his weekly Globalist column.
Mr. Cohen began his career as a freelance journalist in Paris in 1977. Two years later, he became a foreign correspondent for Reuters based in various cities across Europe. In 1983, he began working for the Wall Street Journal in Europe, and opened a bureau in Rio de Janeiro. In 1990, he took a position with the New York Times working out of Berlin, Paris and Zagreb, Croatia, and became the Times' foreign editor in 2001.
Mr. Cohen has also authored several books, including Hearts Grown Brutal: Sagas of Sarajevo and In the Eye of the Storm: The Life of General H. Norman Schwarzkopf. He holds a master's degree in history and French from Oxford University.
Amb. Martin S. Indyk
Ambassador Indyk is the Middle East expert and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin S. Indyk joined the Brookings Institution on September 1, 2001 as a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program.
Ambassador Indyk served two tours in Israel, the first during the Rabin years (1995-97), and the second (2000-June 2001) during efforts to achieve a comprehensive peace and stem the violence of the intifadah. During these periods, he helped to strengthen U.S-Israeli relations, reinforce the U.S. commitment to advance the peace process, and substantially increase the level of mutually beneficial trade and investment.
Prior to his assignment to Israel, Dr. Indyk served as special assistant to President Clinton and as senior director of Near East and South Asian Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC).
While at the NSC, he served as principal adviser to the president and the National Security Adviser on Arab-Israeli issues, Iraq, Iran, and South Asia. He was a senior member of Secretary Christopher's Middle East peace team and served as the White House representative on the U.S.-Israel Science and Technology Commission.
Joe Klein
Joe Klein joined TIME magazine in January 2003 to write a regular column on national and international affairs.
His column, titled "In the Arena," appears in TIME's upfront "Notebook" section. Klein is a senior writer based in New York and Washington, D.C.
As "Anonymous," Klein wrote the critically acclaimed novel Primary Colors, a best-seller inspired by the 1992 political race. Klein more recently wrote The Natural: Bill Clinton's Misunderstood Presidency, published last March. His second political novel, The Running Mate, was published in 2000. His two other nonfiction books are Payback: Five Marines After Vietnam (1984) and Woody Guthrie: A Life (1980).
He has written articles and book reviews for The New Republic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, LIFE, Rolling Stone and other publications.
Marc Lynch
Marc Lynch is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Williams College.
Lynch is the author of Voices of the New Arab Public and State Interests and Public Spheres: The International Politics of Jordan's Identity. His articles have appeared in The Wilson Quarterly, Foreign Affairs, and the Middle East Report; and, he maintains the Abu Aardvark blog, a widely read running commentary on the Arab media, American public diplomacy, and Arab popular culture.
Dalia Mogahed
Dalia Mogahed is a senior analyst and executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies. With John L. Esposito, Ph.D., she is coauthor of the forthcoming book Who Speaks for Islam? Listening to the Voices of a Billion Muslims.
Mogahed provides leadership, strategic direction, and consultation on the collection and analysis of Gallup's unprecedented surveying of more than one billion Muslims worldwide. She also leads the curriculum development of an executive course on findings from the Gallup Poll of the Muslim World.
Prior to joining Gallup, Mogahed was the founder and director of a cross-cultural consulting practice in the United States, which offered workshops, training programs, and one-to-one coaching on diversity and cultural understanding. Mogahed's clients included school districts, colleges and universities, law enforcement agencies, and community service organizations, as well as local and national media outlets.
Major world religion founded by Muhammad in Arabia in the early 7th century AD. The Arabic word islam means “surrender”—specifically, surrender to the will of the one God, called Allah in Arabic. Islam is a strictly monotheistic religion, and its adherents, called Muslims, regard the Prophet Muhammad as the last and most perfect of God's messengers, who include Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and others. The sacred scripture of Islam is the Qur'an, which contains God's revelations to Muhammad. The sayings and deeds of the Prophet recounted in the sunna are also an important source of belief and practice in Islam. The religious obligations of all Muslims are summed up in the Five Pillars of Islam, which include belief in God and his Prophet and obligations of prayer, charity, pilgrimage, and fasting. The fundamental concept in Islam is the Shari'ah, or Law, which embraces the total way of life commanded by God. Observant Muslims pray five times a day and join in community worship on Fridays at the mosque, where worship is led by an imam. Every believer is required to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, the holiest city, at least once in a lifetime, barring poverty or physical incapacity. The month of Ramadan is set aside for fasting. Alcohol and pork are always forbidden, as are gambling, usury, fraud, slander, and the making of images. In addition to celebrating the breaking of the fast of Ramadan, Muslims celebrate Muhammad's birthday (seemawlid) and his ascension into heaven (seemi'raj). The 'Id al-Adha festival inaugurates the season of pilgrimage to Mecca. Muslims are enjoined to defend Islam against unbelievers through jihad. Divisions occurred early in Islam, brought about by disputes over the succession to the caliphate (seecaliph). About 90% of Muslims belong to the Sunnite branch. The Shi'ites broke away in the 7th century and later gave rise to other sects, including the Isma'ilis. Another significant element in Islam is the mysticism known as Sufism. Since the 19th century the concept of the Islamic community has inspired Muslim peoples to cast off Western colonial rule, and in the late 20th century fundamentalist movements (see Islamic fundamentalism) threatened or toppled a number of secular Middle Eastern governments. In the early 21st century, there were more than 1.2 billion Muslims in the world.
I didn't understand Resa Aslan's (spelling?) ending comment.. It seemed to me that he first made a point about how Israel was different from Palestine in that the extremist views are held by the elected leaders, but then right after conceded that the elected Hamas leaders held just such views. Then he went on to say that the Israeli position was one which in reality precluded the possibility of a two-state solution, and that "if you are not willing to accept the two-state solution, you are not part the argument". But only minutes earlier he had himself stated that he had not believed in a two-state solution for some nine months...
I guess I'm not understanding him correctly.. On the other hand, the reactions from the other panelists seem to convey a similar interpretation of him on their part.. Could someone clarify?
The pressure for democracy that Aslan proposes is likely to return purely temporary results. And the idea that the US could be continuously applying pressure on despotic regimes is impractical.
I think his starting premise is completely wrong: "only the US can bring democracy". Democracy can never be imposed by an outside force.
In Defeating Political Islam: The New Cold War, Moorthy S. Muthuswamy talks about the errors of this approach. The ballot box is the wrong starting point -- you'll just elect anti-democratic movements like the Muslim brotherhood. It takes some time to develop a civil society that has a real interest in democracy. One of motivators of this result is a wealthier, more educated society, with that wealth distributed more widely.
For significant longterm results the US should be applying pressure to increase the education of the population and reduce the influence of madrasas, promoting an education where people are taught to think, not just repeat the Quran.
One specific the US could target is getting more religious pluralism in the Middle East. Pressure countries receiving aid to eliminate apostate penalties.
Instead of trying to force democracy -- which can never work -- we should work to remove the impediments to democracy.
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