It was fantastic! I mean there are always times when you think you can improve, but that's great for future reference. In the heat of the moment, the conference couldn't have gone better. Attendees enjoyed themselves, we avoided any untoward incidents and are continuing to get great feedback. I hope those who have taken my business card do indeed keep in touch and those whose contact info I have taken also reply and keep in touch! The opportunity to speak and interact with the wide variety of spectacular people that I got this past Saturday was awe-inspiring and one I could never have gotten elsewhere or at another time. It was sheer magic! In the end, it is the cause we all stand for that has benefitted and for that I am always thankful.
I was also deeply appreciative of the AID headquarters crew who allowed me to be in the spotlight for a few moments and deliver some opening comments. I received some great feedback about the speech and I would like to share some excerpts from it and have copied some parts below. Please do let me know if you'd like the whole document.
Just by chance, while going through an email from the United Nations Association, I found out about a FREE Young Global Leaders Summit. Who cares what the conference was about – it was free! And there was free food! I just had to go.
It was the best thing to happen to me in a long time. Enrolling in graduate school and having part-time internship and volunteering obligations meant I may have been stretching myself too thin. AID was actually a savior in many ways. By using its absolutely phenomenal logistical and human resources, AID helped me pull off some great events that people still talk about today and even got media coverage along the way. The first AID conference I attended last year was eye-opening in other ways as well. A young college student was coordinating the whole endeavor. After observing her, I realized I didn’t have to wait for other organizations to arrange conferences and events geared towards students and young adults. Instead, I took the initiative and since then, AID has helped me develop professionally and personally and for that I will be eternally grateful.
My conscience would never forgive me if I walked off this podium or away from this conference and I didn’t somehow pass the torch on. I guess this is where my paternalistic mentoring side shines through. I hope you all can go back to your communities and pass on whatever you have learned here today. I hope you write letters to the Editors of campus and community newspapers demanding fair and just coverage of all things related to the Muslim world. I hope you all realize that because of the knowledge, motivation and enthusiasm you possess, you are helping to ensure a more prosperous future for all people. I hope if nothing, this conference can at least empower you all to think more critically about an issue which is not only of obvious importance to the Western or Muslim worlds, but also to modern civilization. Let’s not think of it as a “Clash of Civilizations” but as an opportunity for a “Meeting of the Minds” as renowned historian Mark Rosenblum would put it.
For those of you who are well versed in history, you will probably remember George Santayana’s saying: “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” In this axiom, it is assumed that if history repeats itself, something obviously went wrong. Instead, I ask you all to think about a time when Muslims, Christians and Jews not only lived with tolerance and acceptance amongst each other, but where these civilizations flourished, producing scholars and inventions and giving the term “peaceful coexistence” an entirely new meaning.
Think about the time when the Moors ruled
I challenge you all today to ponder over how we can re-visit that part of our glorious legacy. Let it not remain a part of our forgotten past. Let us re-examine the past, learn from it and then intentionally repeat it. Contrary to George Santayana’s opinion, I think we all will welcome this repetition of history.
I leave you with a verse from the Quran which has been instrumental in helping me spread this good word and fight this good fight. It says, “So tell the tale; perhaps they shall reflect.”Copied below are some excerpts from my latest column where I also covered some salient details about the event. The column can be found in its entirety over here.
Saturday, July 8th will go down in history as a day when scores of enthusiastic young adults from all over North America came together to discuss a matter of immense importance not only to the Western or Muslim world, but to modern civilization. The future of Western-Muslim world relations is a topic that Muslims are naturally interested in, but now the interest and enthusiasm is filtering into non-Muslim communities, especially those who are adherents of the monotheistic traditions. The conference was organized by Americans for Informed Democracy (AID), an organization I have written often about in this very column space, and I cannot help but write about them again, because they have done what other organizations have seldom been able to do in the past: bring together diverse communities and engage all peoples in dialogue.
The day started off with opening comments by AID’s Change the World Fellow, Kira Christie. The first panel started shortly thereafter, which brought together scholars and experts who discussed answers to two questions: what is the long-term strategy for improving relations between the West and the Islamic world? Are the West and Islamic world currently on the right path? Panellists included Andrea Bartoli, Director, Centre for International Conflict Resolution, Columbia University; Shamil Idriss, Deputy Director, United Nations Office of the Alliance of Civilizations; Sasha Mehra, Deputy to the Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State for Women’s Empowerment; Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director, Middle East and North Africa Division, Human Rights Watch, and Jin In, Girls Scouts of America.
The panel was highly thought-provoking and stirred an enthusiastic response from conference participants, courtesy the diverse thoughts brought to the fore. Dr. Bartoli of Columbia University set the tone for the panel by saying that the dichotomy that we have set up by calling the “West” and the “Muslim” worlds separate and distinct is utterly ridiculous, because Muslims live in large numbers in non-Muslim societies, a prime example being the US and the UK.
Whitson of Human Rights Watch agreed, and went a step further by disagreeing with her fellow panellists and stated that the Western world is not on track and that a human rights framework needs to be employed. The US, according to her, is not acting as a disinterested party and that the role of the Israeli lobby must also be taken into consideration. I thought her most important point was regarding the inclusion of the Muslim community in issues that affect us most. Otherwise, someone else will be at the forefront of these discussions and we will inevitably suffer.
Mehra’s comments were not entirely unexpected. While she applauded the attendance of such a large number of students at the conference, her comments did not resonate with them. She made reference to Condoleezza Rice’s doctrine of “transformational diplomacy” and rightfully mentioned that now there exists a competition between information sources and how to get the attention of the masses, so that people have correct information.
The second panel was on the role of the media and what it can do to foster better relations between the Western and the Muslim world. Panellists included Masood Haider, President of the United Nations Correspondents Association and UN Correspondent for the Daily Dawn; Laura Bagnetto, Correspondent for the Saudi Press Agency; Joe Lauria, UN correspondent for the Boston Globe and investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London; Reverend Dr. Raewynne J. Whiteley, author of Get Up Off Your Knees: Preaching the U2 Catalogue and Abdelkader Abbadi, UN Correspondent for The Independent in New York, former Director of the Department of Political Affairs at the UN and former Deputy-Director of Security Council Affairs at the UN.
Masood Haider gave the much-needed Muslim perspective and talked about how different media outlets portray different stories in different manner. Much to my amazement, he also stated that the New York Times is making an effort to engage communities in dialogue. Like Whitson, he also agreed that the issue of Palestine is one that Muslims hold dear and must be discussed at length. According to him, the “War on Terror” is being lost badly.
The conference closed with some remarks by the organizers who thanked the Political Science department at the CUNY Graduate Centre for co-sponsoring the event as well as the Doctoral Students Council, which generously provided a grant. A special thanks went out to the numerous volunteers and interns who helped ensure the smooth functioning of all logistics, and in making the conference a success.
At the end of the day, I could not have been more content with the events that transpired during the day. So many people expressed gratitude that such an endeavour was finally being organized and many also hoped to do something similar in their own communities. The credit really goes to organizations like AID that have noticed the widening chasm between both “worlds” and are hectically working to do something positive to reverse the trend. One can only hope we see similar endeavours taking place all over the US, and even the world.
