U.S.-Muslim Engagement Project

U.S.-Muslim Engagement Project
  
"Changing Course:  A New Direction for U.S. Relations with the Muslim World" 

Friday, February 20, 2009 3:30 p.m. Saxbe Auditorium Moritz College of Law  55 W. 12th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210

How can the United States work to improve relations with key Muslim nations and communities?  Two years ago, a group of American leaders launched the U.S.-Muslim Engagement Project to answer this question. Members included former state department officials,            members of Congress, ambassadors, military officials,                    and foreign policy experts.

The project was organized by two conflict resolution organizations, Search for Common Ground and the Consensus Building Institute. 

The group is now launching its report "Changing Course: A New Direction for U.S. Relations with the Muslim World," which examines U.S. relations with Muslims, obstacles to improving relations, and how these obstacles can be overcome.  Two members of this group will discuss the report in an event sponsored by the Mershon Center for International Security Studies. 

Thomas Dine is director of the Syria Project for Search for Common Ground and senior policy advisor for the Israel Policy Forum. He also is former executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobby group in the United States. 

Dalia Mogahed is executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, a non-partisan research center dedicated to providing data-driven analysis on the views of Muslim populations around the world. 

Dine and Mogahed will speak about about developing a new direction for U.S. relations with the Muslim world by advancing four goals:

• Using diplomacy as the primary tool for resolving key conflicts involving Muslim countries by engaging in dialogue.
• Supporting efforts to improve governance and promoting civic participation in Muslim countries.
• Helping catalyze job-creating growth in strategic Muslim countries to benefit economic growth in both the U.S. and Muslim countries.
• Improving mutual respect and understanding between Americans and Muslims around the word.

The U.S.-Muslim Engagement Project calls for action on these four initiatives by engaging U.S. government, business, faith, education, and media leaders to work with Muslim counterparts and explore effective strategies to improve relations.

This event will be moderated by Robert Fersh, co-director of the U.S.-Muslim Engagement Project and executive director of Search for Common Ground-USA.

This event is co-sponsored by the Mershon Center for International Security Studies and the Middle East Studies Center.

Friday, February 20, 2009 at 3:30 PM (ET)

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Saxbe Auditorium
Drinko Hall
55 West 12th Avenue
Columbus, OH 43210

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