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News Bucket: Making America’s case with Muslims
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The Pentagon recently hired a public relations firm to combat growing anti-Americanism and improve its image among the world’s 1.4 billion Muslims.
Reporter John Gittelsohn talked with Stephen Franke – a former U.S. Army intelligence officer and Arabic interpreter who works as a cultural consultant in Garden Grove, Calif. – about how America might build its case among Muslims. The text has been edited for length.
Q. How can the United States do a better job of getting its message to Muslims?
A. A good move is using Al-Jazeera, the Arab world’s all-news television network. It’s great for perception management. I see they interviewed national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, and she came across well. It was immaterial that she was black or female. What was important was that she was high-level official making a case directly. It was a dumb move for her to suggest it (the network) should be shut down.
Q. How can the United States get leaders of Islamic nations to side with us?
A. The best way would be to build a case within a religious framework. Refer to the Quran, to the sayings of the prophet, to Islamic jurisprudence. You have to work with their institutions.
Q. What are those institutions?
A. You could go to religious authorities and scholars – the Ulama in Mecca or to Al-Azhar University in Cairo. These are the clarifiers, the codifiers of religious law. It would be like going to the Vatican Council to decide what’s appropriate in the faith of believers.
The Orange County Register
