I had an opportunity to participate in an international seminar on "the image of the Muslim world on the Western media" organized by the Islamic Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) in the Moroccan capital Rabat last Thursday.

Renowned researchers and media men across the Arab and Muslim world participated in the function. Such renowned Western journalists as Patrick Sale, who is an expert on Arab affairs and generally fair in his views on Arab issues, and Nathan Cardelles, chief editor of a Los Angeles Times Group publication, in addition to Spanish and Russian journalists participated in the seminar.

The active participation of the Western journalists in the event gave the Muslim journalists an opportunity to have a closer look at the Western views about the Muslim world. The occasion also paved the way for a high-level cultural dialogue between the two parties. The comparison of the viewpoints and discussion between the two camps are the most pressing needs of the hour to counter the dangerous developments on the political, intellectual and media planes following the Sept.11 events.

Cardelles argued in his paper that the Arabs and Muslims are solely responsible for tarnishing their image in the United States.

"Your image is bad indeed. Your culture sanctifies violence and hostility to others. All your model-patterns, beginning with Khomeini, passing through Saddam and ending with Bin Laden, are evil. If you are serious about changing the tarnished image, you must change yourself first. You should secularize your culture, democratize your political systems and adopt values of modernism and globalization so that you can redeem yourselves from your backwardness."

The American journalist’s attack was so provocative that the normally quiet Abdul Aziz Al-Toweijeri, chairman of the meeting, could not control himself, and criticized the American’s views. As the next speaker, I also refuted several of his arguments. The strongest reaction came from Iranian journalist Muhammad Sadik Al-Husseini who accused Americans of arrogance and self-righteous attitude. He cited the example of the blind US bias toward Israel on the Palestinian issue in contradiction to the true American spirit and values which Cardilles advocates Muslims to admire and copy.

This American journalist’s view is the typical example of the American style of relations with others. He holds himself and his culture above defects and puts all the blame squarely on us. He demands us to undergo a total change while he is unaware of his own glaring shortcomings that need urgent rectification. He orders us to follow a path shown by Americans. He cannot see beyond his own view. In other words, he believes that if we do not copy his ways we will be wiped out of the universe.

While we are willing to acknowledge our defects, which needs to be changed, we cannot accept others dictating us to change in a way which suits their whims and fancies.

It would have been better if Cardelles and his like looked at themselves and took steps to change their own defects which deeply harm not only Muslims but most other people in the world making the Americans a much-hated people on earth.