Public Diplomacy & Dialogue with the West [Archives:2006/934/Opinion]

Mohammed Hatem Al-Qadhi
[email protected]
Last week I read a short piece of news in Akbar al-Youm criticizing the British council and accusing it of targeting the Arab youth and their religion. The newspaper published group pictures for some youngsters from some Arab countries including Yemen, alleging that these young people have relinquished their religion, being the overall aim of the British council which organized a study trip for them; it is to distort their identity and morality.

I have really felt disgusted after reading the paper. There is nothing wrong in the pictures that can tell us how the West is trying to penetrate these youngsters. They were on a visit to Britain under a program meant to bring the young people from different countries together so that to establish understanding and friendships.

Again al-Mithaq Weekly of the ruling party last Monday accused our colleagues Jamal Amer and Hafiz al-Bukari of being agents for foreign forces. The two guys were invited to take part in some media activities in the US which were described as suspicious trips. Amer is visiting the US under the International Visitors Program which is sponsored by the State Department. I visited the US under this program in 2002 and I found it a very excellent study, meeting journalists from different countries and getting to know very closely the media in the US and how it functions. The Program is meant for different target groups including parliamentarians, businessmen, legalists, journalists, teachers, academicians tc. I remember after I came back, one of my colleagues asked me “how was your CIA training workshop?”

This is the totalitarian culture that always feels afraid from the outsider culture and explains everything in the context of conspiracy. They think themselves we are the target of the West which is working hard to destroy us. This is complete nonsense and hallucination.

These people claim our “noble moral values and culture” is the target of the West, which is stereotyped as our number one enemy. Suppose this is the case and that the West is trying to intellectually invade us with its “perverted morals”. Then, why should we feel afraid as our ethics and morality can defeat such an immoral culture? Otherwise, our culture had better vanish and wither away, if it is unable to stand before the so-called waves of Western attempts to control us. If the West wants to defeat us morally, why do not we try to do the same and target the Western people by similar programs? I know the West would like us to know it better and therefore, is concerned to fund such programs because it is concerned with correcting its image in our minds. However, the Arab and Muslim countries are not wiling to do the same, exposing the Western people to the reality of Islam and Muslims. The political regimes in these countries are, on the contrary, ready to pay some writers to exercise lip kissing and praise their “great achievements”.

The antithesis of our argument is the fact that we use all the products of this “enemy” and benefit from all its technology and try to deny this reality. We still live in our past and its distinction and therefore, we do not want to acknowledge the betterment of the West and its modern technology. We are the weakest politically, economically, technologically tc. We forget about this distinction of the Western civilization, remembering only “perversion”.

We always complain that there is lack of understanding between us and the West and that there is an urgent need for dialogue to bridge this break. The recent crisis of the cartoons of Prophet Mohammed has really shown how wide the gap between the Muslims and the West is.

I believe part of the dialogue between us and the West is exchanging visits of luminaries and intellectual people, including the youngsters. These visits are important in the sense it enable us to understand the West as it is, not as it is imaged to us; a perverted culture that has no meaning. We have been told that the Westerns live the life of animals, being emotionally and spiritually dry. We have studied that we are the best, owning the absolute truth. When you get to know the Western people, you know how wrong these conceptions are.

I remember when I wrote that it is only dialogue that can work out in the cartoons problem. I was lashed out at by some people, including university professors; they said these Western people understand nothing but force. Blindly, we have held the Danish society accountable for the cartoons problem and called for boycotting it.

Our real enemy is not the West; it is rather these political regimes which have done nothing to develop their nations. They have wasted our money on their families and their cronies, hampering any efforts of development and democratization. These regimes want to maintain he relationship with the West at the diplomatic level and are cautious of any direct interaction between people. Of course, they are not afraid we might be morally perverted by the West as some allege. Rather, they are afraid we get exposed to the Western democracy, media freedom, good governance, human rights and many other values that distinguish the West.

To drive the point home, dialogue and open debate between the people in the West and in the Muslim and Arab countries is very much needed and the only way out to erase misunderstanding. It is, in fact, public diplomacy that will help us directly communicate and understand each other.
——
[archive-e:934-v:14-y:2006-d:2006-04-03-p:opinion]