Building Greater Friendships

Religious misconceptions are the root of many problems between the United States and Muslim-majority countries. The solution is greater understanding through interaction and education. Rebecca Cataldi has made it a goal to strengthen communication and dialogue between the Muslim world and the West.

"I feel citizen diplomacy can play a particularly powerful role in this regard in building greater friendship between people from America and people from Muslim-majority countries. In my experience, most Americans and most Muslims do not harbor hostility or ill-will toward the other, but they often believe the other harbors hostility and ill-will toward them, leading not to a clash of civilizations but a clash of perceptions."

In order to accomplish this, she founded the American-Islamic Friendship Project. Ill feelings between Americans and Muslims have been prevalent and have increased since 9/11. Her goal was to curtail those feelings of animosity and malevolence by creating an opportunity to exchange messages of peace.

Read her story below. Do you have a story to share? Let us know about it.

I became particularly interested in citizen diplomacy after 9/11, because as an American I wanted to promote greater understanding, friendship, and cooperation between the people of America and the people of the Muslim world. So, I began to engage in personal efforts at citizen diplomacy to contribute to better US-Muslim world relations by building relationships with people of Muslim countries, engaging in service projects in Muslim countries, and trying to learn more about the cultures and languages of Muslim countries. These efforts included:

* Engaging in a cultural exchange program with visiting Afghan university students at Georgetown University

* Traveling to Israel and Palestine on a delegation with the Compassionate Listening Project (a citizen diplomacy initiative which strives to contribute to a climate of conflict resolution by engaging in compassionate active listening with people in conflict zones)

* Performing volunteer service in Indonesia and speaking about American-Indonesian relations and other topics to Indonesian high school students

* Engaging in a cultural exchange and Arabic study program in Egypt which included speaking before large groups of university students about American-Arab/Muslim relations

* Becoming a facilitator of dialogue between Western and Muslim world university students with the Soliya Connect program

* Facilitating a dialogue among students at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR) on what "ordinary" citizens can do to improve the relationship between America and the Muslim world

* Founding the American-Islamic Friendship Project; a project to promote greater friendship and understanding between the people of America and the Muslim world by exchanging messages of peace and friendship (for more information or to contribute a message, please visit http://american-islamicfriendshipproject.blogspot.com/)

* Participating in an intercultural dialogue and training program in Syria and Lebanon with citizens from various predominantly Middle Eastern and Western countries, and participating in a subsequent training course in citizen diplomacy in Damascus with Syrian students

* Engaging in citizen diplomacy in Pakistan through my work at the International Center for Religion & Diplomacy (ICRD), an NGO which addresses identity-based conflicts by capitalizing on the role that religion and religious actors can play in resolving conflict. Our biggest project at ICRD for the past five years has been engaging Pakistani madrasa leaders in teacher training programs that emphasize religious tolerance, human rights, and conflict resolution skills. Through this work, I have visited various madrasas in Pakistan and have engaged in interfaith and intercultural dialogue with madrasa leaders, as well as helped to lead a delegation of madrasa leaders on a three-week visit to the United States.

Through these experiences, I have witnessed firsthand the power of citizen diplomacy to transform individuals, relationships, and situations, and have seen the power of people-to-people interaction and relationship-building to change misperceptions and stereotypes and to promote a "ripple effect" of mutual constructive behavior.

I feel citizen diplomacy can play a particularly powerful role in this regard in building greater friendship between people from America and people from Muslim-majority countries. In my experience, most Americans and most Muslims do not harbor hostility or ill-will toward the other, but they often believe the other harbors hostility and ill-will toward them, leading not to a clash of civilizations but a clash of perceptions. Citizen diplomacy can play a powerful role in transforming this clash of perceptions, as illustrated by the following reflections from people who participated in citizen diplomacy initiatives with me:

* "At first I thought American people hate or dislike Arabs. . . but now.. . I realized they do feel with us and have the same thoughts as we have. . . I talk differently about Americans now and understand them better and am not afraid as before. . . I now know that Americans don't hate us, even if they may have misunderstandings about us." (Arab student who participated in 9-week dialogue program between university students from Western and Muslim countries)

* "One of the biggest fears we had when we came here was how Americans would receive us: we thought they would have anger and hatred toward us, but that feeling has been completely changed. We realize Americans are loving and kind toward us. . . I have felt respected here. . . When I go back I intend to tell the people of Pakistan that we should not look at the US government and policy only, but we should understand the mindset and the goodness of the American people as well. . . There should be much bigger exchanges like this beyond this small group." (Pakistani madrasa leader who participated in ICRD exchange visit to the United States)

* "Before you came I thought you Americans hate us, dislike us, don't care about us. So I planned to stay only the first day. But when you come and greet us. . . ." (This student ended up staying the whole week and going out with the American students almost every night as well). "Now I feel we are brothers. Our countries are missing the people connectionâ€"if it were in my power I would do this exchange 3-4 times a year." (Syrian student speaking about American student delegation which participated in the citizen diplomacy training with the Syrians)

* "There's an image that America hates us, we hate them; this is a wall of fear. To tear down this wall, we need to get to know each other; each time we do this, we take down a piece of the wall." (Syrian observer of US-Syrian citizen diplomacy program)

These citizen diplomacy initiatives have led to concrete actions between people in America and people in Muslim countries to work together on issues of mutual concern and to help each other. The Afghan student visit inspired me to lead a book drive at Georgetown University which collected over 4100 books to be sent to university students in Afghanistan. My visit to Egypt helped inspire several Egyptian students to apply for Fulbright scholarships, where they came to the United States to teach Arabic to Americans. The US-Syrian programs inspired numerous ideas for collaborative projects, including a website to help Syrians and Americans who want to study in each other's countries and an initiative to work together to help Iraqi refugees in Syria.

I hope these and other ideas will continue to grow to fruition. Each of us has the power to be a citizen diplomat and to promote greater peace in the world, in whatever way we are called to do so.

~Rebecca Cataldi