Farah Pandith, the newly appointed U.S. Representative to Muslim Communities, has given an interview which suggests she will likely continue the State Department policy of assisting U.S. Muslim Brotherhood leaders in networking with their European counterparts. Here, Ms. Pandith explains her activities over the last 18 months:
Source: The Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily ReportI’m glad you brought that up because it’s one of many things that we did. Here’s what I heard when I was on the ground in Europe: How do we balance our identity? How can we be both Muslim and Western? How did American Muslims do this? And how can you not like the policies of your government and still be a proud American? What’s the real story about Muslim Americans? Why should government be telling that story? It should be American Muslims themselves telling that story. So we created a tweaked tool to help get American Muslims out there in a way that was very effective – and fun. Over the course of 14 months, we hit 15 countries in Europe where we brought teams of American Muslims – teams of four where we had an American Muslim student, an imam, and two others – to a series of countries for 3 or 4 days and do all sorts of things. Round table discussions, town halls, interfaith, going to mosques and community centres. And so these American Muslims had an exposure across Western Europe. It was fantastic. We want to expand that kind of thing. We want to bring American expertise and understanding. What I’ve heard from American Muslims also was, “How can we help with the global agenda of pluralism, understanding, innovation and discourse?” And I think we need to honor that. Read more ...
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