Washington, NU Online
Underlining the Obama administration's respect for Islam's diversity, Farah Pandith, the US State Department's special representative to Muslim communities, refuses to use the expression “Muslim world,” stating that the United States is not endorsing a particular type of Islam in its efforts in building long-term dialogue and partnership with Muslim communities around the world.

The position occupied by Pandith, a Kashmiri-born Muslim, was created following US President Barack Obama's Muslim outreach speech delivered in Cairo around one year ago and she is the first person to serve in this role. Her office is responsible for executing US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's vision for engagement with Muslims around the world on a people-to-people and organizational level and she reports directly to the secretary of state.

“I don't use the word ‘Muslim world.' The president changed the lexicon when he spoke in Cairo and he talked about Muslim communities around the world and I think that is very important.

This president has changed the tone and the way in which he is talking with Muslims. He is not talking to them, he is talking with them. He is respecting the diversity of Islam and so we don’t look at Muslims as a monolithic; we understand the texture and we’re trying our best to work on developing more mechanisms to actually reach young and future generations,” Pandith said in an exclusive interview with Today’s Zaman.

“We are trying to get into the space of working on initiatives that make sense, not one-size-fits-all,” she said.

Diversity, dialogue and partnership, mutual respect and mutual interest, fostering understanding and diligence were the words which were used several times by Pandith during the interview, reflecting her full embrace of this new lexicon without any slip of the tongue.

Pandith was in Ankara and İstanbul earlier this week as part of a long regional tour after visiting Iraq, Egypt and Morocco. Since she took office, she has visited 23 countries, including India, Indonesia, Mali and Norway. Her contacts in countries she visited are part of the State Department’s efforts to engage extensively with civil society, including influential people, whether they are religious leaders, scholars, academics, teachers or businesspeople.

“I’m very interested in the young generation. It is very important that we think about those people under the age of 30. When you think about the fact that a country like Turkey has more than 60 percent of its population under the age of 30 and you also think about the fact that many communities that are Muslim around the world have very high percentages of those people, how do we develop long-term partnerships? We have to develop them over the long-term, which means as they get older. We do not want to only get to know someone at the end of their career. We want to begin to know them as they are beginning as young leaders, as they think about how to be active in their societies and find ways for broad dialogue and partnership,” Pandith said.

“Some things are happening to these people of the young generation. And we are really focusing on understanding what that is. I mean, this is the Facebook generation; it is the generation that doesn’t need to meet each other in person, but they are meeting each other online and they are having conversations. They are also asking really important questions that our generations did not ask about issues such as identity; such as, ‘How do you be modern and Muslim?’ and ‘What is the difference between culture and religion?’” she explained.

“I think that it is really very important that we are able to hear what these questions are to understand what is going on and I also know, certainly even my conversations here in Turkey, these are people who want to be heard. Who is listening to the young people as they define their future and as they think about the tools that they need to do more. Or how important it was that they had a chance to be young entrepreneurs and how wonderful it is that your country will be hosting the entrepreneurship summit? I’m actually really interested in social entrepreneurship,” Pandith elaborated, while referring to the 2011 Summit on Entrepreneurship to be hosted by Turkey.

While here, Pandith saw a presentation by the US Embassy’s two Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program (YIEP) winning teams. The purpose of the embassy-funded YIEP is to promote entrepreneurship, technology and innovation among high school students across Turkey and to connect Turkish student participants with their American counterparts.

Along with US Ambassador to Turkey James Jeffrey, she also met with Ali Bardakoğlu, the head of the Directorate of Religious Affairs, and the main theme of the conversation she and Jeffrey had with Bardakoğlu was the importance of young people and the importance of really understanding what is happening with today’s young generation. (dar)