"The situation with other languages common in the Muslim world is worse," Djerejian

WASHINGTON, October 2 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – With the invasion of Iraq and the bias towards Israel in the long-standing conflict with the Palestinians, a White House-commissioned panel said that increasing anger, hostility towards the United States has reached “shocking levels” among Arabs and Muslims around the world probably for its foreign policy.

The advisory group of Arab-American scholars, former diplomats and opinion formers concluded that America's efforts to promote itself positively to Muslims and Arabs was also in need of a key revamp.

"What is required is not merely tactical adaptation but strategic, and radical, transformation," the panel stated in its report, "Changing Minds, Winning Peace," which was leaked to the New York Times on Tuesday, September 30.

But "spin" and manipulative public relations "are not the answer," said the report, adding that neither is avoiding the debate.

The report warned the invasion of Iraq and the Palestinian-Israeli tension mounted up furor and anger at the United States.

Many skeptics in Washington and the Islamic world contend that a sharper message will mean little unless administration policy changes on essential issues, notably the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said the Washington Post.

A great majority of Muslims and Arabs, it added, say the Bush administration favors Israel to a fault and are troubled by the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq.

But the panel reported that tens of millions of dollars designated for Muslim outreach is spent on salaries and exchange programs, leaving $25 million for outreach to the Arab and Muslim world. Rarely do programs reach beyond capitals.

The committee found that the State Department spent about $600 million last year on its programs to advocate American policies, and $540 million more for the Voice of America and other broadcast networks, said the Times .

But, fifteen percent of people in Indonesia, the country with the largest number of Muslims, have a favorable view of the United States, compared with 61 percent early last year, said the report.

Elsewhere, only 7 percent of Saudis and 3 percent of Spaniards hold a "very favorable" view of the United States, said the panel, led by Edward Djerejian, a former ambassador and specialist on the Arab world, who said he tried to choose a bipartisan, cross-section of members.

Recommendations

The panel's recommendations include creating a White House director of public diplomacy, building libraries and information centers in predominantly-Muslim countries, increasing scholarships and training more Arabic speakers in this country.

The recommendations come at a time when some American officials acknowledge that programs even in the last couple of years have been confused and fitful, said the Times.

The Bush administration, for example, started a program called "shared values" last year, a series of television commercials showing that Muslims in the United States lead lives of dignity and equal rights. The advertisements were suspended after several Arab countries refused to show them.

Many in the administration were privately critical of the commercials, agreeing with Arab and Muslim spokesmen who said they were irrelevant to Muslim concerns about American policies toward Iraq and Israel, reported the Times.

Djerejian, a former ambassador to Syria and Israel, pointed in an interview to the power of Arab satellite television, and the absence of American perspectives there.

He said he was struck during a recent trip to Egypt when he saw a panel discussion on Al Arabiya television about the "Americanization" — a code word for corruption — of Islam.

"It was their version of our saying that extremists have hijacked Islam," he said. "But during that whole two-hour program, there wasn't one person who could in any way convey the American context."

The State Department, said Djerejian, has only 54 staff members who have tested at the "fully professional or bilingual" level of Arabic, and some are posted outside the Arab world. He said five employees are capable of appearing effectively on Arab television.

"The situation with other languages common in the Muslim world is worse," said the report, which said it is "imperative" to recruit qualified linguists, especially first-generation Arab Americans and Muslim Americans.

A better solution, Djerejian said, would be a public-private effort in which existing satellite broadcasting outlets were provided with high-quality programming.

The report said that Radio Sawa, the U.S. government's most popular Arabic station -- underwritten by $22 million from taxpayers last year -- "needs a clearer objective than building a large audience." It must demonstrate through research, the advisers said, that it can change attitudes.

The U.S. unveiled in February 2003 plans to launch a new Arabic-language television network in the Middle East and to double radio broadcasts to Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.