Outlining an ambitious program of reconciliation with Muslims, the new US envoy to the Muslim world has vowed new “innovative” ways to bridge the gap with global Muslims.
“A strong part of thinking about engagement is to understand the nuances that are taking place in different regions,” Farah Pandith said in her first press briefing.
Pandith said she would use both a “nuanced approach” and listening “respectfully” to engage with Muslims worldwide.
“Listening means that you just don’t take a one-stop shop and say, ‘I’m going to do it everywhere’,” she said.
“It’s really, really taking the time to listen to what is taking place on the ground, so that you understand, even within cities, what the differences are; even within generations and within ethnicities.
“So that you’re beginning to build dialogue in different ways,” she said.
Pandith was named last week by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as the US envoy to reach out to the Muslim world.
“What she asked me to do is to leverage my experience in Europe and in other parts of the world, to think about how we could have the Department work on Muslim engagement in a way that is out of the box, that is innovative, that is dynamic, that works with embassies so that we’re getting to know the next generation of thinkers. And in this role, I’ll be doing that.”
Of a Kashmiri origin, Pandith immigrated to the US in 1969 with her parents from Srinagar, the Jammu and Kashmir summer capital.
She served at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) on assistance projects for Iraq, Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories.
In February 2007, she was appointed a senior advisor to the Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs.
Town-hall
Pandith said she would use a “town-hall” approach to listen to Muslim views on how to bridge the gap with the US.
“What I’m doing is working with embassies to find ways that we can approach a younger generation as well, in terms of listening to how they want to engage,” she said.
“And when you talk about nuance, why I’m hitting it as hard as I am is because I think it’s very important to understand that it isn’t just one thing from Washington that’s going to be shoved into everybody’s faces.
“It’s us finding an opportunity through our embassies to listen to the diversity of thoughts and opinions and ideas, and find ways to actually engage in manners that make sense for a wide variety of communities within a country.”
America’s relations with the Muslim world have been tense during the eight-year presidency of former president George W. Bush.
Many Muslims were particularly angered by Bush’s so-called war on terror which saw the invasion of two Muslim countries, Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Bush administration conducted public diplomacy to boost the US image among Muslims but it was criticized as ineffective because it failed to change policies hated by Arabs and Muslims.
In a landmark speech to the Muslim world from Cairo last month, President Barack Obama vowed a new beginning with the Muslim world to overcome a decade of mistrust and discord.
Pandith said being an American Muslim she would be in a better position to understand how to achieve US-Muslim engagement.
“I’m an American Muslim, and that’s part of the way in which I look at things, that’s the lens with which I look at things,” she said.
“And if you look at the diversity of Islam in America, it is – it’s multifaceted, it’s nuanced. Our mosques are in every state of our nation. Muslim Americans are from more than 80 different ethnic backgrounds.
Pandith admitted that there would be no magic solution to engage with the Muslim world.
“It’s really listening. It’s really understanding what’s taking place on the ground,” she said.
“It’s finding opportunities through our embassies to get to know what others are saying and thinking and dreaming and believing, and acting as a facilitator and a convener and an intellectual partner when we can.
“I think the might of the United States Government is not only one-way. It’s two-way, it’s how do you approach, how do you bring ideas together, how do you find initiatives that make sense?”
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