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Greetings!
We are still collecting signatures for the OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA, urging him to make support for human rights and democracy in the Middle East and the Muslim World one of the main priorities of his administration, as it continues to engage with the peoples and the governments of the Muslim world.
To read the entire letter, please click here.
If you wish to sign the letter, please click here.
Please forward this e-mail to anyone you know who might be interested in adding his or her name and affiliation to the list of signatories. The letter will be delivered to President Obama and to Members of Congress on April 5.
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We also have some office space available for sublease at the CSID offices in Washington DC. If you know any person(s) or organization(s) who is/are looking for office space in DC, please let them know so that they can contact me as soon as possible. Please forward this announcement to anyone who might be interested.
OFFICE SPACE AVAILABLE FOR SUBLEASE
PRIME LOCATION & FURNISHED office space available for sublease at CSID main office in DOWNTOWN WASHINGTON DC (1625 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 601, Washington DC). Space available from 1 to 5 office rooms (fully furnished) and rent is between $2,000 and $6,000 per month. Rent includes use of board room, kitchenette, and conference rooms (up to 100 people). Ideal location and flexible terms.
EXCELLENT LOCATION - next to Johns Hopkins Univ., SAIS, Brookings, Carnegie Endowment, and USIP. Three blocks from DuPont Circle metro.
For further information, please contact Dr. Radwan Masmoudi at (202) 265-1200 or at masmoudi@islam-democracy.org
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CNN - Letter urges Obama to push for democracy in Mideast
Story Highlights
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Letter says U.S. policy toward Middle East has been "fundamentally misguided"
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More than 140 people from across globe sign open letter to President Obama
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Authors say Bush administration gave democratic change lip service
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Obama's presidency offers chance "to chart a new course in foreign affairs"
 WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Prominent scholars and experts are urging President Obama to adopt strong policies backing democracy in the Middle East.
A letter from scholars and experts notes President Obama has taken steps to reach out to the Middle East.
More than 140 people signed an open letter to the president. Its message will be the topic of a news conference Tuesday at the National Press Club in Washington.
"We urge you to elevate democratic reform and respect for human rights as key considerations in your engagement with both Arab regimes and Arab publics," the letter said.
"We are writing this letter to raise our profound belief that supporting democrats and democracy in the Middle East is not only in the region's interests, but in the United States' as well."
The signees hail from the United States and across the globe. They include college professors, members and heads of think tanks, and activists.
Among them are Egyptian democracy activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim; former deputy prime minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim; Johns Hopkins University professor Francis Fukuyama; Robert Kagan of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Rabbi Michael Lerner of the Network of Spiritual Progressives; Morton Halperin, former director of policy planning staff at the U.S. State Department; and Jennifer Windsor, executive director of Freedom House.
The letter congratulated Obama on his election and said his "presidency presents a historic opportunity to chart a new course in foreign affairs, and particularly in the troubled relationship between the United States and the Muslim world."
It said the signees are pleased by his "promise to listen to and understand the hopes and aspirations of Arabs and Muslims" and said the administration's closing of the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility and the forbidding of torture "will inspire greater confidence between the United States and the Muslim world."
And it noted Obama's "call for mutual respect" in his recent interview with Al-Arabiya, an Arabic-language television network. "Reaching out to the people of the region so early on in your presidency is a step of no small significance. But it is a step that must be followed by concrete policy changes."
The letter said U.S. policy toward the Middle East has been "fundamentally misguided" and that must change. "The United States, for half a century, has frequently supported repressive regimes that routinely violate human rights, and that torture and imprison those who dare criticize them and prevent their citizens from participation in peaceful civic and political activities.
"U.S. support for Arab autocrats was supposed to serve U.S. national interests and regional stability. In reality, it produced a region increasingly tormented by rampant corruption, extremism and instability."
The authors also said that while the Bush administration gave democratic change lip service, it "quickly turned its back on Middle East democracy after Islamist parties performed well in elections."
"This not only hurt the credibility of the United States, dismayed democrats and emboldened extremists in the region, but also sent a powerful message to autocrats that they could reassert their power and crush the opposition with impunity."
The letter said that people in the region support democracy. "What they need from your administration is a commitment to encourage political reform not through wars, threats or imposition, but through peaceful policies that reward governments that take active and measurable steps toward genuine democratic reforms."
It said, "American policy in the Middle East has been paralyzed by fear of Islamist parties coming to power." While "some of of these fears are both legitimate and understandable," the letter emphasized that most mainstream Islamist groups in the region are nonviolent and respect the democratic process."
It cited Turkey, Indonesia and Morocco as places where a democratic election process "has moderated Islamist parties and enhanced their commitment to democratic norms."
Full Article Read Full Letter Sign the letter, here
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| Democracy's Appeal
Will President Obama listen to liberal activists in the Muslim world?
Washington Post EditorialSaturday, March 14, 2009; Page A14
 IT IS SOMETIMES supposed that the Bush administration's push for democracy in the Middle East was invented in Washington and imposed, sometimes with force, on a resistant or indifferent region. In fact, the groundswell for democratic change in Arab states and the broader Islamic world began before the turn of the century and continued growing even after President George W. Bush's second-term State Department mostly abandoned the cause. That's been demonstrated recently in a couple of extraordinary appeals to the Obama administration.
Another remarkable appeal was issued this week by a group of more than 140 politicians, scholars and democracy activists from the United States and the Muslim world, who told President Obama: "In order to rebuild relations of mutual respect, it is critical that the United States be on the right side of history regarding the human, civil and political rights of the peoples of the Middle East." The group reiterated a point that the new administration, with its focus on "direct diplomacy" with state leaders, has appeared slow to grasp: "U.S. support for Arab autocrats was supposed to serve U.S. national interests and regional stability. In reality, it produced a region increasingly tormented by rampant corruption, extremism and instability."
What democracy movements need from the United States, the letter said, "is a commitment to encourage political reform . . . through peaceful policies that reward governments that take active and measurable steps towards genuine democratic reforms. Moreover, the [United States] should not hesitate to speak out in condemnation when opposition activists are unjustly imprisoned in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, or elsewhere." The list of signatories includes activists not only from those countries, but also from Lebanon, Syria, Libya, Morocco, Iraq, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Malaysia, the Philippines, Turkey, Nigeria, Somalia and the Palestinian Authority. Its depth and breadth vividly shows that the Obama administration could find many allies for progressive change in the Middle East -- if only it looks beyond the rulers' palaces.
Full Article Read Full Letter Sign the letter, here
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ENGAGING WITH MUSLIM COMMUNITIES AROUND THE WORLD
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Presiding: Senator Kerry
Witnesses:
Panel 1:
The Honorable Madeleine K. Albright
Former Secretary of State
Washington, DC
Admiral William J. Fallon, USN (ret.)
Former Commander of U.S. Central Command
Cambridge, MA
Panel 2:
Dalia Mogahed
Executive Director
Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, Washington, DC
Eboo Patel
Executive Director
Interfaith Youth Core, Chicago, IL
Jim Sciutto
Senior Foreign Correspondent
ABC News, London, UK
To Read all the Testimonies
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Interview in Al-Jazeera English
What do Muslims want?
 Dr. Radwan Masmoudi, President of CSID, recently had an interview with Riz Khan on Al-Jazeera English. The two parts of the interview are available online at:
Riz Khan - What do Muslims want? 25 Feb 09-Part 1
Riz Khan - What do Muslims want? 25 Feb 09-Part 2
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Study paints rare portrait of Muslim-Americans
By MIKE MOKRZYCKI | The Associated Press
 Muslim-Americans (41 percent) were slightly less likely than Americans overall (46 percent) to be thriving. Yet the proportion of Muslims thriving in the United States was among the highest of Western societies surveyed, Gallup found. For example, only 8 percent of Muslims in the United Kingdom and 23 percent in France were thriving.
One exception: 49 percent of Muslims were deemed thriving in Germany, which welcomed many immigrants from Turkey during labor shortages in the 1960s and 1970s. In predominantly Muslim countries, only in Saudi Arabia were more Muslims _ 51 percent _ thriving than in America.
Gallup found only 11 percent of Muslims thriving in Indonesia and Pakistan, 13 percent in Egypt, in the high teens to 20 percent in Bangladesh, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, and 24 percent in Morocco. Gallup found the proportion "suffering" - answering 0 to 4 on both ladder questions - ranging from 20 to 26 percent in Turkey, Egypt and Lebanon and as high as 33 percent in Jordan and 45 percent in Pakistan.
In short, Muslim Americans look more like other Americans in their life outlook than they resemble Muslims in most predominantly Muslim nations.
In an essay for the Gallup report, Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn. - the first Muslim elected to Congress - urged Muslim Americans to "step out of the shadows of your own world, and step forthrightly into a participatory America."
"For too long _ and particularly after 9/11 _ Muslims have withdrawn into their own mosque-defined communities, denying themselves their rightful place in the fabric of America," Ellison wrote. "'Being Muslim' shouldn't need to be explained, but rather be observed by how each of us lives our lives, and the values we espouse. However defined we are by our religion, we are equally defined by our nationalism; we are Americans."
Full Article Gallup Website
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Muslim Sent Home
A Legal Visa Holder Meets Unreason at Dulles
By John Marks | The Washington Post
 On Jan. 26, my office received a call from an immigration agent at Dulles International Airport, who said that my colleague Rashad Bukhari had been refused entry to the United States. He was not charged with anything, the agent said, and would be eligible for a future visa.
In fact, when Rashad arrived at Dulles, his Pakistani passport contained a valid, multi-entry visa, issued less than two years before by the U.S. State Department in Islamabad. He used this visa in 2007 to enter the United States without difficulty. Rashad is 36, and he worked for two American organizations, including the U.S. Institute of Peace, before he joined us at Search for Common Ground in 2007. He is Urdu-language editor of our Common Ground News Service, whose goal is to build bridges between the Muslim world and the West.
Immigration officials at Dulles could have easily verified all of this if Rashad had been allowed to make a phone call or if they themselves had chosen to check. Rather, they detained him for 15 hours, temporarily took away his cellphone and laptop, and eventually put him on a plane back to Pakistan. They prepared a transcript of the encounter in which an official justifies the United States not honoring Rashad's visa by saying, "You appear to be an intending [sic] immigrant."
Rashad answered that he has a wife and three children in Pakistan, that his job is based there, that he had a return ticket and that he had no intention of remaining in the United States.
I travel frequently to Muslim countries, and I know there is a widely held perception that the United States is not a welcoming place for Muslims. This has done serious damage to our national reputation at a time when improving the U.S. image in Pakistan and other Muslim countries and rallying support against extremism are major American foreign policy objectives.
I also know that, only days before this incident, Barack Obama declared in his inaugural address, "To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect."
I hope that means the Obama administration will carry out a full review of policies and procedures regarding how immigration officers deal with Muslims from other countries. There need not be a contradiction between securing our borders and providing equitable treatment to all those who wish to enter the United States legally.
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Please SUPPORT our work either by renewing your membership (by credit card or by check), or by making a tax-deductible donation of $50, $100, $500 or whatever you can afford. (donate online or by check).
Center for the Study of Islam & Democracy
Membership/Donation Form - 2009
Name: __________________________________________________________
Institution:_______________________________________________________
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City_________________________State___________Zip _________________
Tel.:____________________________________________________________
Fax.:____________________________________________________________
E-mail:__________________________________________________________
I would like to join CSID as:
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Please mail, along with payment, to:
CSID, 10612-D Providence Road, Suite 704, Charlotte, NC, 28277
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To become a member of CSID, please click here. To make a donation, please click here. Please remember that CSID needs your membership and support to continue its mission of promoting a greater understanding of Islam in the US, and a better understanding and implementation of democracy in the Muslim world. With our best wishes and regards,
Sincerely,
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Radwan A. Masmoudi
President
Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy |
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