Experts see 'common ground' between US, Islamic world

THE US and the Muslim world can collectively work towards the issues of governance and human development, where citizens and regimes are capable of contributing to the world, Stephen Grand, an official of Brookings Centre US, said yesterday.

Grand, who is a fellow and director of the Saban Center at Brookings Project on US Relations with the Islamic World, was speaking to Gulf Times on the first day of US-Islamic World Forum.

“I see a lot of common grounds between the US and the Islamic world, be they Muslims show interest in education, in democracy, in human rights etc. We have a lot of challenges in common,” said Grand.

Grand agreed that there is a lack of understanding and respect that Muslims view as an undermining point in the flourishing of relationships.

When pointed out that a huge number of Americans do not know the demographics and the cultures in the Middle East and the Muslim world, Grand said: “Yes that is true. And that is why there should be more exchanges of this kind (US-Islamic World Forum), more cross-cultural exchanges, student exchange programs and so on.”

“There is a perception here of a hostile, absolutist America that threatens the destiny of the Muslim World. But there is another America, who wants to reach out to the world and restore its image with no empirical ambitions,” said Grand.

Martyn Indyk, director of Saban Center for Middle East Policy in Washington, Madeleine Albright, former US secretary of state, Ali Babacan, Turkish Foreign Minister, and Zalmay Khalilzad, US Ambassador to Iraq, participating in the conference yesterday.

Asked if that latter ‘America’ is in majority, Grand said, after a pause, “Yes, I would hope so and a lot of recent opinion polls show that.”

Steven Kull, the director of Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA), US, agreed with Grand: “It is important to remember that the American public is not the problem. There are some American leaders that should be perceived as hostile towards Muslims.”

PIPA studies public opinion on international issues. “Surprisingly, most of our opinions on the Muslim World reveal that we have a common attitude towards democracy, the rules, the world order and international frameworks. This is a tremendous amount of common ground,” said Kull.

“Now in the case of democracy, some people say that if given a fair chance, political parties in the Islamic World, considered by the US as ‘fundamental’ might come into government,” continued Kull, while referring to the popular movements of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“But I say, even if they will be hostile to the US, they will be the nub of the representative system that US tries to promote worldwide,” said Kull.