In his Jan. 20 inauguration speech, President Barack Obama vowed to seek a “new way forward” with the Muslim world “based on mutual interest and respect,” following eight rocky years by his predecessor George W. Bush.
True to Obama’s promise, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton named Farah Pandith on June 27 as America’s ‘Special Representative to Muslim Communities.” Pandith’s new posting came several weeks after President Obama’s June 4 speech at Cairo University, where he announced his commitments to dissolve ongoing tensions and improve relations with Muslim communities around the world. He highlighted in his speech that Islam and America are not exclusive, but rather “share common principles... of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.”
Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, made a similar pledge, naming close adviser Karen Hughes the State Department’s top public diplomacy official as in charge of Muslim engagement. Unlike Hughes, who is from Texas, Pandith is an Indian Muslim educated in Massachusetts at Smith College and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Unlike Hughes, whose tenure of ‘outreach’ was roundly viewed as a failure, Pandith has experience in the region: She served with the National Security Council and with the US Agency for International Development in Kabul, Afghanistan — both under President George W. Bush.
Like Hughes, Pandith worked at the Bush White House, which included a stint as senior adviser on Muslim engagement to the Assistant Secretary of State on European and Eurasian affairs. Pandith’s association with the Bush presidency has led some opponents to question why the Obama administration is ‘recycling’ personnel from the Bush administration.
Things are different now, Pandith said. “We are at a different moment in time when there is energy, sophistication and willingness [in the White House] that we have never seen before.” Among the differences, she said she will not work directly on foreign policy, but rather will engage with Muslim communities on a people-to-people and organizational level.
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy recently hosted a luncheon in her honor — which immediately led some to question why she chose to hold one of her first public appearances in her new job at a well-known pro-Israel think tank. Why, many asked, didn’t she choose an Arab-American or Muslim American organization to hold one her first public on-the-record briefings? Speaking at the jammed luncheon, which included film crews from Al-Jazeera and CNN, Pandith, who was born in Indian-administered Kashmir and who grew up in Massachusetts, said her office would engage in a variety of outreach endeavors, including student exchanges, town hall meetings, entrepreneurial meetings and community projects — all designed to meet the needs of a diverse and multi-faceted population. But she declined to lay out any US positions on various Middle East conflict points, including Israel, deferring to the words of President Barack Obama and other political appointees. Pandith told the audience, a mixture of journalists, former ambassadors and scholars, that her experience with Muslims in Europe (20 million Muslims live there), convinced her of the need to engage in partnerships. In her previous White House job, she acted ‘as a facilitator,’ fostered new dialogue and worked to build trust within the Muslim community. This allowed her to “get to know the next generation of Muslim leaders,” and reach out to Muslim minorities.
Pandith said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, her boss, has now charged her to “directly engage with Muslims around the globe” and create “sustainable solutions around the world.” Acknowledging the challenges being faced by the Muslim world community are very real, she said some Muslim states had to deal with a lack of education, economic hardships, violent cultures, exploitation of women — just to name a few.
Having worked with embassies in the Middle East, Europe, South Asia and Africa, Pandith said, “We must confront violent extremism in all its forms. We must seize the moment by reaching out to the next generation who will reach out beyond governments — to the people-to-people level where we will use the power of partnerships, business and academia.” Pandith said she wanted to focus her efforts on the young, the next generation of Muslim leaders throughout the world.
“The most serious issue facing Muslim youth is their sense of identity. They want to know how they can be both Muslim and modern, how they can dress, and what is the difference between culture and religion.”
American Muslims come from over 80 different ethnic backgrounds, said Pandith, adding that many of them have answers to these questions due to their own experiences, and thus there is “no need to re-invent the wheel” while using them as a resource of knowledge and experience.
“We know Muslims have the ability to expel violent extremists from their communities,” she said. “So we will look to the next generation to help ensure positive changes in their communities and to facilitate productive partnerships.”
But she was short on specifics. And, when pressed by a journalist to be more precise, she reminded the audience that she had only been in the job for less than a month, and that she was just getting started.
Pandith did say that she wanted to start by “engaging partnerships through our embassies, and brainstorming about actions we can make” to help.
Tough like her boss, Hillary Clinton, Pandith seems prepared to refute stereotypes about Muslim women. And, when this reporter asked her why the focus of her outreach was to millions of Muslims around the globe, rather than the millions of Americans, including our troops, who generally have a negative view of Islam and Muslims, she said she was aware of US-based outreach programs, but reminded this reporter that the “State Department deals with international affairs.” End of subject.
Obama’s new Muslim envoy avoided any specifics concerning India, Pakistan, Kashmir — or, for that matter, Afghanistan, Israel and Palestine.
Instead, she repeatedly stressed her mandate to “listen” and “engage” with a wide range of Muslims around the world while leveraging her own personal history as a successful Muslim transplant in the United States.
“I’m an American Muslim, and that’s part of the way in which I look at things,” Pandith said. “It’s really listening. It’s really about understanding what’s taking place on the ground. It’s finding opportunities through our embassies to get to know what others are saying,” she added, citing the importance of understanding the many different perspectives among the world’s 1.2 billion adherents of Islam.
When she spoke to State Department reporters shortly after her appointment, she deferred questions on specific complaints Muslims have often voiced about US foreign policy — namely the perceived American bias toward Israel — saying that policy was not a part of her portfolio, but rather the purview of Obama’s political envoys.
“What I’m doing is working with embassies to find ways that we can approach a younger generation in terms of listening to how they want to engage,” Pandith said, noting only that Israel “may be one of the issues” she addresses in her dialogue effort. Likewise, on the topics of Afghanistan and Pakistan, she said “Definitely, they are important priorities.” She concluded, “We must break down stereotypes that exist, and focus on the promotion of mutuality.”