Diplomacy State Department Tries to Combat Muslim Anti-American Sentiment by Michael Coleman The U.S. State Department has tried for decades—with varying degrees of success—to counter anti-American sentiment in the Muslim world. But the effort has taken on a new urgency over the past 20 months as a top adviser to President Bush arrived in Foggy Bottom to oversee a fledgling Muslim outreach program at State. Karen P. Hughes, a former counselor to President Bush in the White House, took the State Department job in late 2005 and has worked aggressively to put in place programs and people who can help stem the tide of anti-American sentiment in the Middle East, South Asia and other places where Muslims tend to be skeptical of U.S. foreign policy. Hughes’s official title is undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, but some observers contend her role is even more important—that she is the U.S. government’s most important link between the United States and the millions of Muslims who think the country is at war with them. So far, Hughes’s initiatives have received mostly positive reviews. But some critics—including at least one former U.S. Foreign Service officer—view some of the State Department’s measures and rhetoric as evidence of arrogant U.S. meddling in foreign countries through the use of propaganda and deception. Hughes, in several recent speeches, insists the effort is altruistic and aims to demonstrate that religious tolerance is a two-way street. “Together we must address the misperception fostered by extremists that there is a clash of the civilizations—that the West is somehow in conflict with Islam—because I know and you know it isn’t true,” Hughes said during a March 15 speech to the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Washington. “Islam, as a major world religion, is part of the West and an important part of America.” To that end, the State Department has stepped up its Citizen Dialogue program, an initiative that allows American Muslims to travel the world and talk about their experiences as Muslims in the United States. Imam Yahya Hendi, the Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University, has traveled the globe for nearly a decade as a sort-of unofficial diplomat for the U.S. government preaching religious tolerance. Hendi, who is among the most progressive American Imams, accepted his first assignment well before Sept. 11, 2001, or even the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, it was way back in 1999 when someone from Foggy Bottom called and asked him to travel to Mali to speak to Muslims there. He was amazed at the experience and recalled being barraged with a blizzard of questions about such topics as women in Islam, diversity of religion in the United States, and what it is like to be an imam in the West. Since that time, Hendi has traveled to Australia, Africa, Europe, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Hendi—who is not paid for his service to the State Department—said he spends as much time as possible trying to talk to the rest of the Muslim world, not only for the sake of the United States, but for Islam itself. “I see my work as a fight for the soul of Islam,” Hendi said in a wide-ranging interview with The Washington Diplomat. “I want to reclaim Islam from extremists. I want to win hearts, souls and minds that might otherwise be lost.” He added: “American Muslims are at the forefront in the fight for America against terrorism, and to reclaim Islam from extremists.” Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the United States, and some analysts have predicted it could soon outpace Catholicism as the nation’s second largest religious bloc. Hendi praised the work of Hughes and her colleagues at the State Department—especially the Citizen Dialogue program in which he participates—but cautioned that it is in dire need of a bigger budget. “The State Department has its hands on the right buttons,” Hendi said. “They know what they need to do. But these programs do not have enough funding. That is the main problem that has to be dealt with. “I say that sadly because … more money would allow more American [Muslims] to travel and to speak about their experiences.” The Citizen Dialogue program typically utilizes three or four American Muslims and usually includes a religious figure, an academic, a student and perhaps someone from more mainstream walks of life. A newer—and at least initially more controversial program—is called Digital Outreach. The program employs Arabic-speaking State Department officials to scour the Internet in search of anti-American rhetoric. The cyber-diplomats counter—through online posts—the often vitriolic verbal assaults on the United States and its foreign policies. In an interview with the Texas-based Austin American-Statesman newspaper in February, Hughes explained the mission as “actively going on the Arabic blogs and responding to misinformation and disinformation and propaganda and rumors with facts. We’re very above board that it’s the Digital Outreach team of the State Department.” One State Department official conceded to The Diplomat that these digital exchanges are “sometimes a little less friendly” than Citizen Dialogue efforts. Haitham Sabbah, a husband and father of three children, lives in Bahrain and blogs regularly about what he views as misconceptions about the Muslim world in the mainstream international press. In recent weeks, he has railed against the State Department’s Digital Outreach team, accusing it of “harassing” bloggers who write disparaging things about U.S. foreign policy. “We are now officially tracked, monitored and harassed by a special team from the U.S. State Department calling themselves the Digital Outreach team,” Sabbah wrote on his blog in late March. “It is unfortunate that millions are spent on such a stupid project … and billions are spent on such a stupid war they are running in Iraq and other billions supporting the racist state of Israel and its occupation of Palestine.” Next Page