DOHA, April 13, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – American officials attending the closing session of the US-Islamic World Forum in Doha said the US is ready to “accept” the involvement of Islamist groups like Palestinian Hamas and Lebanese Hizbullah in the reform process should they understand “the rules of the game.”

“They firstly should put down arms and then take part in the democratic process underway in their country,” Peter W. Singer of the Washington-based Brookings Institution, one of the co-organizers, was quoted by Qatar’s Peninsula newspaper as saying Tuesday, April 12.

J Scott Carpenter, the American deputy assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, said the Americans do not mind Islamic regimes.

“We didn’t interfere in the election results in Iraq. The person who has now been elected president is an Islamist,” he said, referring to new Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari.

And the United States, he added, is ready to accept the consequences of democratic election in the Middle East.

“At the task force meetings of this forum, many raised the question whether America is prepared to accept the consequences of democracy in the region. The answer is yes,” Al-Jazeera quoted him as saying.

“We will be very happy if [president Hosni] Mubarak of Egypt one day wakes up from his sleep and decides to hold democratic elections in his country,” he said, indicating that such a scenario was not likely to happen.

Over the past few months, several protests against the extension of Mubarak’s rule or power transfer to his son Gamal took place in some Egyptian cities and universities.

The protests, spearheaded by the Kefaya (enough) Movement, have also broken down a fear of criticizing president Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt since 1981 and is expected to seek a fifth six-year term in elections this year.

“We didn’t interfere in the election results in Iraq. The person who has now been elected president is an Islamist,” said Carpenter.

Robert Blackwill, the former the White House's top official on Iraq policy, said democracy and plurality had started taking root in the Middle East.

“The situation is improving whether that was in Iraq or between the Palestinians and Israelis or in Afghanistan,” Qatar’s The Gulf Times quoted him as saying.

Blackwill said there was still widespread mistrust about the United States in the Muslim world which was expressed in the forum.

Khorshid Ahmad, a representative of a Pakistani Islamist group, said that Washington; nevertheless, still marginalizes the Islamist powers.

“They have not yet accepted us,” he told IslamOnline.net Wednesday, April 13.

“But Islamists should make use of such forums to reach common ground,” added Salahudin Al-Gourshi, a Tunisian journalist who participated in event that kicked off April 10.

“Dialogue is the one and only way to a wind of change as we live under totalitarian regimes across the Arab world,” he said.

Radwan Masmoudi, chairman of the Islam and Democracy Center, said Islamist groups should seize such ample opportunity and enter into a constructive dialogue with the United States.

“Don’t hesitate,” he told the Islamist groups. “Otherwise, the US would make a policy shift.”

Moderating the closing session, Martin Indyk, director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, said the Institution plans to organize regional conferences to cover those countries which are considered at the periphery of the Muslim world.

Brookings Doha

Blackwill said there was still widespread mistrust about the United States in the Muslim world.

Singer further revealed that the Brookings would open a branch in Doha, which will be the first of its kind outside Washington D.C.

“The Doha office will organize the future events and also carry out studies on policy issues concerning the wide Muslim world,” Singer said.

He thanked the Qatari hosts for the facilities they provided to make the event such a great success, the Gulf Times reported.

During the three-day event, 160 delegates from 35 countries exchanged views on political, social and academic topics with the aim of bolstering understanding and dialogue between the two sides.

The topics during plenary sessions and in smaller working groups focused on assessing today’s state of US-Islamic world relations, the Middle East peace process, economics, the impact of elections, security, good governance, human development, science and technology and the role of the press.

The speakers at the forum described the forum as a useful platform to search and discuss vital issues of interest to the US and the Muslim world in order to reach a common ground, engage in dialogue and build constructive understanding.