MOOZ-Lum

The following is a guest blog from Creative Learning Communications Intern Naa-Okailey Annan who attends Howard University.

When I logged onto my Twitter Wednesday morning, my timeline was filled with tweets about MOOZ-Lum, a movie written by Qasim Basir. A friend of mine was promoting the independent film for a movie screening being held at Howard University that night.

Based on a true story, MOOZ-Lum tells the story of an African-American Muslim family as they struggle to maintain their faith against a harsh American society before and after 9/11. Specifically, the movie follows the life of Tariq as he struggles through life in college as a Muslim-American.

Staring Evan Ross, Nia Long and Danny Glover, MOOZ-Lum is a triumphant story motivating viewers to look past their negative connotations concerning Muslims.

There are many Americans today who still have negative opinions about people who do not look exactly like them. Just recently, when visiting a close friend from high school at her university, we ran into two students. Upon passing them, one of those students used a racial slur against me.

Throughout my life, I had never experienced someone voicing such hatred. Upon hearing this word, my entire body tensed up in anger, however I continued walking. My friend kept telling me to ignore him regardless of the amount of times he repeated the slur.

In that mere 5 minutes, I experienced what Muslims living in America have been experiencing for the past ten years.

 

There are many people in the world who believe it is acceptable to use derogatory terms against a certain group of people. Whether or not these individuals know, these terms have potential to emotionally destroy a person.

It is important for people to understand that one person does not represent an entire race, religion or culture. America’s Unofficial Ambassadors (AUA) attempts to dispel those negative stereotypes through people-to-people connections. The power of service is far beyond what anyone can imagine. By giving volunteers an opportunity to work with people in Muslim majority countries, AUA is giving them a chance to connect on a personal level to learn things about a culture that they may not have known.

Basir speaks to audience about MOOZ-Lum

Upon learning about the initiatives of AUA, I knew that it was a program that I wanted to work closely with. As I enter my senior year at Howard University, the importance of international cultures has weighed heavily on my career goals. There is much hatred in the world that must be corrected before we can grow as a society. Being part of an initiative that shares the same views and values is very fulfilling. I have faith that the efforts of AUA will be beneficial for everyone.

A Scattered Heart: Morgan’s Reflection of Her Time Spent Abroad

The following is a guest blog from AUA Mosaic Scholarship recipient Morgan Faulkner who volunteered with the Middle East Fellowship organization in the West Bank. To find an opportunity like this one, search the AUA Directory of Recommended Organizations©.

You know that feeling when you wake up from a really amazing dream, it’s Monday morning in your regular life, and you would give almost anything if you could just go back to sleep for a few more minutes?  That feeling is the true danger of travel, especially somewhere as different and amazing as the Middle East.  You get home and can’t quite figure out why the greeters at Wal-Mart didn’t offer you a cup of coffee or tea, where the fruit and vegetable sellers on the side of the road have gone, and why on earth it’s been raining for a week straight when you had virtually forgotten what a cloud looked like.  In short, why is a life that used to seem perfectly lovely suddenly coming up short?  As usual, the answers would be extremely complicated, but in my case it probably has to do with those pesky little pieces of myself that I forgot to pack when I came home.

One piece I think is probably still sitting somewhere between the lunch table and my desk at work where I took it out to develop relationships with my co-workers and the clients we worked with.  I meant to grab it on my way out before we left for Ramadan, but I’ve been feeling around and it seems that didn’t happen.  Another piece seems to have been left on the street corner where my new friends and I bought our last pieces of knaffe (a most delicious and amazing sweet that has absolutely no equivalent in this country) and were given little pieces of other pastries and candies to try as the people who worked there tried to make us feel welcome, even after two months in country.  I didn’t even notice that little bit was gone until I went to the grocery store alone and found out that boxed Danishes don’t really cut it for me anymore.   Then there’s the bit stayed at my usual afternoon and evening hangouts. Being an American made me far more interesting than I would be anywhere else in the world and made it unavoidable to strike up friendships with people that I saw several times a week. They were kind enough to decipher my desperate mixture of English and Arabic without laughing too hard and made sure that my trip was going smoothly and happily.

As for the largest part, I don’t have to guess – I know where that one is.  I left it voluntarily, gave it away, and have no desire to get it back any time soon.  My host family got the rights to a huge chunk of my heart with the pieces of their own that they willingly shared. For two months I became a de facto member of their close knit family.  Despite advancing age, busy lives, and declining health, my host parents cared for me as painstakingly and carefully as though I were one of their own grandchildren.  Walking in the house was grounds for force feeding and being ten minutes later than you anticipated in coming home was cause for great concern.  As I was told over and over, my parents had trusted them to take care of me and make sure I was happy.  Being the amazing grandparents they were, this was not a charge that either of them took lightly.  Many evenings my host father and I would sit and watch the news together in English, even though I’m fairly certain he didn’t understand half of what they were saying.  His commentary, though, seemed much more intelligent than what I usually get on the news: “Syria… very bad now.  Egypt no good.  Tsk… Libya.”  And the famine? “Merciful God…”  That pretty much cleared everything up for me.  When I went into Jerusalem, my host mom would pack me food.  The end of our discussions seemed to always be that she was concerned whether or not I would be able to find anything to eat in Israel.  Since she hadn’t been there in decades, I suppose it was a legitimate assumption.

Leaving part of my heart there was easy, since it broke a little when I had to announce I would be leaving within a couple of days. My family tried very hard to try and convince me to stay – as though I needed convincing!  My real family was on the phone insisting that I get on the plane to come back and not refuse to return to the US!  What I know for sure is that as soon as I can manage it, I’m getting back on a plane to the place that my heart seems to have decided will be its other home.  There’s something about the people that gets in your blood.  You start to question the things that you value in your own life and whether or not there might be something out there more important than whatever trivial matter you’re letting consume you.  The most important truths are the ones you learn for yourself the long way, and you have to be prepared to have them change your life.  There’s a popular Broadway musical “Wicked” based on Gregory Maguire’s telling of the Wizard of Oz.  At its core, it’s a story about self-discovery and life changing truths.  Among it’s many amazing songs is one called “For Good” that I think sums up the promise and danger of making a journey like mine. “Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes a sun, like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the wood, who can say if I’ve been changed for the better?  I do believe I have been changed for the better – and, because I knew you, I have been changed for good.”

Shirley Kagan and the Library in Ram

Today’s post is a special message from Benjamin Orbach, Director, America’s Unofficial Ambassadors.

Shirley Kagan was a beloved wife, mother, and grandmother. She was also an unofficial ambassador and peace builder who I was proud to call my friend. Shirley passed away on Thursday night.

Shirley, her husband Irv, and their family had an impact on my life before I ever met them. David Kagan, their middle son, studied Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). David died in 1986 at the age of 23. He was a passionate advocate for peace and mutual understanding at a time when such positions were not in vogue. To support David’s hopes and vision, the Kagan family started a foundation in his name, dedicated to advancing peaceful relationships among people of different nationalities and faiths.

One of the Foundation’s legacies is to support a SAIS Middle East Studies graduate student to study Arabic in the summer before his or her second year. I was selected as the David Kagan Fellow for 2001 and have done my best to forge a career that advances the goals that I share with the Kagan family.

In November of 2008, I met Shirley and Irv for the first time. They invited me to deliver the annual David Kagan Memorial Lecture at their synagogue. I was running a small grant program in the West Bank at the time, and the Kagans asked me to speak about that experience and about living and working in the Arab World. Following Shabbat services that day, I shared with 200 some congregants my viewpoints about “the Human Face of the Arab World,” as I put it. I concluded by encouraging the congregation to be a part of the change they wanted to see and to collect their used books for a library in Ram, a city in the West Bank.

Ram, a city of about 65,000 people located between Jerusalem and Ramallah, was cut from Jerusalem by the separation barrier. Jerusalem was Ram’s lifeline, and the Local Council faced the task of providing residents with new schools, a hospital, and a park. With US government assistance, the Council built a library for Ram and its surrounding villages and equipped the library with a computer lab. However, the shelves of the library remained empty; the community couldn’t afford to buy books.

After my speech, Shirley enthusiastically approached me, gave me a hug, and said nonchalantly of the Ram library project, “Yeah, we’re going to do that.” Pointing to her 12-year old granddaughter, she said that collecting the books would be Sasha’s mitzvah project, or service project, for her Bat Mitzvah the next year.

Shirley, her granddaughter, and the rest of the Kagan family ran with the idea. They printed a flyer, reached out to friends, and personally collected more than 1600 books – from Pride and Prejudice to Clifford the Big Red Dog – for children half way around the world who they’d never met and who were supposedly their enemies. They cataloged each book in their apartment on the Upper West Side, put a “Books Building Bridges” sticker inside of each, and packed them into boxes.

And then they waited.

First it was a problem with the Palestinian ministry of culture. Once that was resolved, the real problems began with the Israeli taxes and customs department. The request to ship the books disappeared into a black hole that no appeal could shake free.

In the meantime, Shirley visited Ram in the summer of 2010. She braved a new world, crossed Kalandia checkpoint, and walked a courageous walk. She visited the empty library with Muhanned, the Ram Municipality’s Executive Director and Wafaa, the head of the Women’s Committee, neither of whom she met before. They placed the handful of books Shirley carried with her on the shelves, a down payment on what was to come.

Shortly after returning to New York, Shirley was diagnosed with cancer. She battled it with strength and humor. Along the way, her family continued to wait for permission from the Israeli authorities to send the books. While we pleaded for help in completing this act of selflessness, Shirley was patient and upbeat. If she ever considered this library project a fool’s errand, she never let on to me. All she had was sincere enthusiasm for the prospect of the 100,000 people in the Ram area having access to such a wealth of resources that would help to build a better life and peace.

The books were shipped to Israel last month, almost three years after I gave that speech. They arrived in Ram a couple of weeks ago. We all had a vision of Shirley and Irv reading with the children in the library. Shirley was so enthusiastic about the idea of volunteering abroad one day.

When I met Shirley and Irv three years ago, it felt like I was visiting with family I hadn’t seen in a while. Shirley was that warm and generous a person – a lot of people felt that way about her. I am sad those kids in the Ram library won’t have the chance to feel that way, too. They missed someone special, we all will.

Participate in the AUA Network’s Monthly Webinars with Industry Leaders

Creative Learning is excited to announce the fall schedule for the AUA Network’s monthly webinar series. AUA webinars, which are open to members of the AUA Network, offer the opportunity to engage with leaders and expert practitioners in the fields of international development, relations between America and the Muslim World, and cross-cultural dialogue. Future Ambassadors, Ambassadors, Ambassador Mentors, and the other Peace Builders committed to AUA’s mission  are welcome to join the AUA Network and take part in these hour-long, lunch time sessions, starting this Tuesday, September 27, 2011, when AUA Director Ben Orbach will introduce the America’s Unofficial Ambassadors initiative and the AUA Directory.

Ben Orbach’s presentation kicks off a dynamic series of interactive discussions with a number of expert practitioners. In October, Luby Ismail, the President of Connecting Cultures will speak on “Dialogue and Engagement with Muslim World,” and in November, Susan Raymond, Executive Vice President of Changing our World, Inc. will present, “Researching and Writing Successful Proposals: Supporting Grassroots NGOs.” These sessions will be indispensable for unofficial ambassadors seeking to volunteer with a grassroots NGO in the Muslim World. Margaret McLaughlin, Deputy Director of Stability Operations at the US State Department’s Foreign Service Institute, will lead a similarly valuable session on building community partnerships in December.

AUA Webinars will be held from 12-1 PM Eastern Time and are open to members of the AUA Network. The format is an initial presentation of 30 to 40 minutes followed by a lively discussion session. To join the AUA Network:

1) Select your appropriate membership type and click on the membership title link to fill out a short application. For descriptions of each, please click here.

•          Future Ambassador
•          Ambassador
•          Ambassador Mentor
•          Peacebuilder

2) Join our LinkedIn group.

Once you have submitted your information, an AUA team member will confirm your application, and then grant you full access to the AUA Network.

Members of the AUA Network can RSVP, and receive instructions on how to access each webinar by sending an email to CharlotteH@creativelearning.org. RSVPs will be accepted up to the morning of each event.

The schedule for this fall’s AUA Network is listed below. Click on speakers’ names for their full bio.

1. September 27, 2011 – Introduction to the AUA initiative and the AUA Directory, Ben Orbach, Director, AUA, Creative Learning
2. October 26, 2011 – Dialogue and engagement with the Muslim World, for volunteers and practitioners, Luby Ismail, President, Connecting Cultures and intercultural trainer
3. November 9, 2011 – Researching and writing successful proposals: supporting grassroots NGOs, Susan Raymond, Executive Vice President, Changing Our World, Inc
4. December 9, 2011 – Community Partnerships: Building personal and productive partnerships that reach across cultures, Margaret McLaughlin, Deputy Director, Stability Operations, Foreign Service Institute, US Dept of State

Nablus, Dr. Patch Adams and the Human Connection

The following is a guest blog from AUA Mosaic Scholarship recipient Lindsay Michael. She is currently volunteering with Project Hope in the Palestinian Territories. To find an opportunity like this one, search the AUA Directory of Recommended Organizations©.

The ride from Bethlehem to Nablus is a glorious and character building adventure not at all recommended for the faint of heart.  The road hugs the sides of looming hills peppered with olive trees and asymmetric limestone boulders. We Passed Bedouin tent  farms, Israeli settlement checkpoints, and struggling lorries that rode close enough to other vehicles for the drivers to shake hands.  There could not have been a sweeter welcome than my feet hitting the ground in Nablus.

A jovial local volunteer from Project Hope came to retrieve me from the center of the city and take me to the place that I would be calling home for the next few months.  He is known by his friends and coworkers as Nizar the Wizard because of his ability to make something out of nothing.  He looked at my backpack that could easily double as a small body-bag and through a smile and a heavy exhale, and quite appropriately said, “It’s all uphill from here friend.”

We stepped lively down the narrow streets and through arched corridors, sidestepping crates of vegetables and astute street felines.  The pungent smell of freshly ground cardamom, cumin, clove, and cinnamon hung densely in the Old City air.  Shop owners selling everything from sweets to live sheep waved and offered a “Welcome of Nablus” in between assisting customers.   Inquisitive youngsters with the most captivating eyes tagged along.  By the time we neared the edge of the Old City, I had quite an entourage.   “What should we do now?” I asked the shortest of my crew.  With a tilted head, she looked at my sandals and lifted her eyebrows.  “Let’s play!” 

It is clear to see that the children here in Nablus, like children everywhere, want to be free to realize their full potential.  However, in the meantime, they want to enjoy life.  They want to laugh and have fun.

Last night, at a festival wrapping up the end of the Eid al Fitr holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Patch Adams. 

The exceptional physician, social activist, and street clown, whose unconventional approach to healing through laughter leading him to be celebrated throughout the world, was in Nablus volunteering alongside a group of circus performers from Spain.   His examination of the relationship between health and happiness is especially pertinent in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.  Towering over the majority of us in the crowd, he hoisted brave 7-year-olds up onto his shoulders while others looked on or investigated his long grey ponytail with unfeigned curiosity.  The children adored him and their parents beamed as they stood close by watching.

No matter where we call home, we all share a need to feel loved, cared for, important.  We all want to experience happiness and we have a responsibility to each other to work toward a better today within this framework.   Volunteering abroad allows us to live out this dream in real time.    

My first impression of Nablus, inshallah, will stay with me forever.  I was moved by an absolute peacefulness that abounds amongst the city’s residents despite the unbelievably exhausting reality of living in the West Bank.   I love that the majority of the people here celebrate one another’s holidays.   Whether they are Muslim, Christian, or Samaritan, there is a respect that is not seen very often anywhere else in religiously pluralistic societies.  There is a definite support that says, “I know this is an important time which holds a lot of meaning for you my brother or sister and I am with you, in solidarity to celebrate something sacred.”

I will share with you a quote from the film based on Dr. Patch Adams which he reiterated during our brief encounter:  “I’m interested in connecting with other human beings and learning about them.  We all need more of that.” 

Yes indeed, we absolutely all need more of that! 

A New Era

A 9/11 message from Ambassador Osman Siddique, the Chairman of AUA’s Diplomatic Council and the first Muslim-American to serve as a US ambassador.

In September, 2006, on the fifth anniversary of 9/11, I publicly called on American Muslims to come forward – despite some of the unfair insinuations against us – to be unequivocal in our support of homeland security, and create within our community a culture of zero tolerance towards those with extremist tendencies.

Since that time, I’ve been gratified, as an American and as a Muslim, to see that the Muslim community has played a pivotal role in the defense of our homeland. Through the cooperation and vigilance of American Muslims, many potential attacks have been averted, from New York to Oregon – cooperation due, in no small part, to the crucial positive outreach made by the Bush and Obama administrations.

With that in mind, what lessons can we draw today, as we mark the 10th anniversary of that dark September day? I believe that it is time for all Americans to join together to shape our collective destiny, both here and abroad – but most particularly American Muslims.

America faces hard times, and hard times often give fertile ground to those who play to our fears and divide our society. In many cases, faith is used as a weapon to scapegoat others. This kind of stereotyping not only misrepresents to the world what America is, but also gives fodder to those who would undercut our global standing.

While many on the right and left have created the impression that American leadership is being eclipsed across the globe, I’ve found quite the opposite to be true during my international travels – and this is nowhere more true than in the Middle East, where the Arab Spring was fueled by values and aspirations intrinsic to the American Idea.

Without getting the deserved credit, the Obama Administration has signaled a refreshingly new approach to this region. In the past, both Republican and Democratic administrations have cited geo-strategic interests and happily befriended regimes that violated the human and democratic rights of their own people – but the Obama Administration broke with that tradition, siding with the people rather than their unpopular rulers.

While this approach created temporary dislocations in our security arrangements, I believe that being on the right side of history will serve us well. By acknowledging our affinity with all those fighting for their rights throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds, America has the opportunity to demonstrate that this county is with them as they create a new reality in an era of expanded democracy.

We’ve been so preoccupied, however, with winding down the ill-advised misadventure in Iraq and managing the difficult drawdown in Afghanistan that the American people hasn’t paid close attention to the contests going on in the Arab
street. What better time than the 10th anniversary of al-Qaeda’s attempt to pit America against the Muslim world for us to become more visible and engaged with these promising but fragile movements?

Other countries, most notably Iran, are actively seeking to exploit the uncertainty and longing for change in order to assert influence and gain credibility. We cannot allow this to happen – we need to mobilize all our resources and relationships to properly project and represent America to this new and rising generation of activists, people who have been willing to face live ammunition, time and again, in order to gain their liberty.

American Muslims – as American as any other American, and as Muslim as any other Muslim – can provide the connectivity, the cultural background, and the leadership to achieve these goals. In the course of doing so, we will also advance the values of pluralism, enterprise and civic responsibility so central to our shared national ideals.

If we want to truly defeat the message of violent hate sown on 9/11, all Americans must reach out to the people who al-Qaeda hoped to win to its side. In deepening our commitment to the freedom seekers in the Middle East, we will deliver an unequivocal message to all extremists: America is not the enemy of the Muslim world – indeed, we must be friends.

If we approach the ongoing revolutions with a helping hand, a region that has for decades been seen as “hostile territory” can in fact become some of our sturdiest allies – and the best people to provide that bridge are the members of my own community.

Ten years ago, violent criminals murdered 3,000 of our fellow citizens in an effort to get Americans to hate Muslims. There is no better way to defeat those terrorists than to work with Muslims around the world for a better future for us all.

Ambassador M. Osman Siddique, served as US Ambassador both under the Clinton and Bush administration.

Morgan Receives a Great Return on her Invested Time and Service

The following is a guest blog from AUA Mosaic Scholarship recepient Morgan Faulkner.  She volunteered with the Middle East Fellowship organization in the West Bank. To find an opportunity like this one, search the AUA Directory of Recommended Organizations©.

In America, how many times do we toss around the ideas of “service” and “volunteering” as just one of those things you do when you have enough material goods that they start to make you feel vaguely guilty?  I know that for many of us, volunteering means taking an hour or two to take some clothes to a donation point, some food to a food pantry, maybe even spending some time with local kids or elderly neighbors.  Don’t get me wrong, these are all important things that we should be proud to do as part of a community.  But that’s not the only concept of service that exists in the world.  This summer, I experienced a pretty different way of looking at things as I spent some time being a member of our global community.

If you’ve never tried volunteering with an international organization, you’re definitely missing out. Now I don’t mean going with a U.S. project to a foreign country.  You need to work with a group organized by people who actually live in the country you’re in.  While I was in Palestine, I had the good fortune to work with one such organization called Holy Land Trust.  Founders and employees all live in either Bethlehem, Beit Sahour, or Beit Jala and are for the most part native Palestinians.  As such, they are in a unique position to place volunteers because they are personally aware of the needs of the community.  Their awareness and constant contact with civil society partners provide an incredibly rich volunteer experience because they are able to place volunteers with particular skills in the places they are most needed. The result is that the people you work with are always thrilled to have you there.  Often it feels more like you are a temporary employee because your tasks may be essential to the function of the organization – there’s simply not enough time or money for someone else to do them.  The ensuing sense of fulfillment is immense.  Knowing that you made a real difference somewhere outside your own head is a feeling that these days can be fairly hard to come by.  At the same time, you discover that the people you thought you had been serving have possibly been giving more back to you in return.

While I worked at al-Malath Charitable Society in Beit Sahour, I was given gifts that turned out to be something quite spectacular.  The Center was a pre-vocational school for teens and young adults with developmental and mental disabilities.  Founded by a driven mother, every day spent there was full of patience, excitement, and discovery for all present.  The goal in founding the organization came out of a lack in the community that was felt by a frustrated mother.  Although she was the wife of a well-off restaurant owner, this woman struggled daily with her son.  In his twenties, Hassan needed constant care and supervision, but is family wanted something better for him than an adult daycare or a sitter at home.  Despite having the money to place him in a program where he could make as many developmental gains as possible, no such place existed in the Bethlehem area.  And so with typical Palestinian determination, a group of women got together and started one themselves.  At work I met Saana, a female Muslim occupational therapist and social worker, and Wa’el, a male Christian special education teacher.  Our summer team was completed with another volunteer, Kelly from Colorado, who did a lot of work on the website, and myself.  My greatest contribution, I think, was helping to edit and compose progress and donor reports for the organization that provided their funding.  Since the audience of the reports would be other Americans, I wanted the writing to be as perfect as possible for my temporary colleagues.  Their hard work kept the organization up and running – it was the least I could do to make sure that the description of all that effort said exactly all the great things they were doing.

In comparison to all the things I was given, that short statement of my contribution, no matter how important it may have been, seems kind of small.  Lunch and tea each day became an awesome part of my week as Saana and Wa’el taught me more words than I ever learned in Arabic class and Kelly and I traded stories of the kinds of adventures that come when you try and live somewhere like the Middle East.  I learned how to count to ten while I was helping Rami, a young man with Downs Syndrome, make finger rosaries to sell and help raise money.  Dance time and household teaching tasks were always an adventure and the passion that everyone working there brought to their jobs was inspiring.  I loved watching their patience and gentleness and the amount of time they spent at the Center had to have been far more extensive than what their salaries covered.  Essentially, I miss my time there every day and I think everyone should have the same kind of wonderful experience!

9/11, and Far from Home

Today’s post is a special message from Bill Kruvant, President, Creative Learning. The essay was published in the  Fauquier Times-Democrat on September 14, 2011.

My 9/11 started early—while New York was fast asleep at 3a.m., I was at work. It was 9a.m. in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon.

Those of you with memories of the 1980s and 1990s will remember that the Bekaa Valley is east of Beirut and was famous as a training and staging area for Hizbollah. We jokingly referred to it as “terrorist central” when I worked in Lebanon between 1995 and 2005.

So what was I doing in the Bekaa Valley on 9/11? During that time I was implementing projects in rural Lebanese villages to improve education, agriculture and infrastructure on behalf of a U.S. foreign aid program. This program was entirely—except for me—staffed by Lebanese and developed very close working relationships between our project staff and the local villagers.

When we got the word about the attack we were on the road in two vehicles on the main highway in the Bekaa. My project director received a call on his cell phone about the first airplane crashing into World Trade Center One. Of course, we did not believe it to be an attack at first, and were only convinced of it after World Trade Center Two was hit.

We returned to Beirut as fast as we could since we had no idea about whether there would be any violence in Bekaa emanating from the any of the anti-American groups in the valley, and went to the project office in relatively safe East Beirut.

When we arrived, we found all the project staff and various friends and relatives were there and they were waiting to express their outrage at the attack and to console me, the only American. Emotions were high. There was tremendous sympathy for America, and resentment and fear that fellow Arabs might have perpetrated such a crime. I was approached by each person as if it was a funeral and they were there to express sympathy for someone who had suddenly lost family members, me. Many asked “What can I do?” I felt they expected some words from me.

I can still remember what I said 10 years later:

“My friends, it is a terrible day for me and all Americans, and I am gratified for your sympathy and good wishes. I want you to know what you are doing for the people of Lebanon is what both your people and ours need—building peace through cooperation and development. Buildings in New York and Washington have fallen, but your efforts to build schools, roads and other needed things here in Lebanon with America’s help shows that the relationship between the Arab World and America can be one of friendship, cooperation and peace. Do not be discouraged; terrorists knock things down, but we build things up together and trust that our actions will be appreciated by the Lebanese people.”

Since 2001, I have remained involved in the effort to build understanding and peace between America and the Muslim world.

Now I head an organization, Creative Learning, a nonprofit group based in Washington, D.C. Creative Learning recently launched an initiative called America’s Unofficial Ambassadors to help in that effort.

Our goal is to increase the number of American volunteers serving in education and other human concerns in the Muslim world, and we are building a community to offer volunteers guidance and support.

By the end of 2012, we hope to have encouraged 1,000 Americans to commit to volunteering for one week to one year.

In March, we released the AUA Directory, the premier resource for researching short-term volunteer opportunities in Muslim-majority countries. You don’t have to be a professional development worker to teach English in Indonesia, to build a house in Jordan, to promote public health in Senegal or to help build peace.

My 9/11 story: The attacks set me off to become an unofficial ambassador

Today’s post is a special message from Benjamin Orbach, Director, America’s Unofficial Ambassadors. The essay was published in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette on September 6, 2011.

Ten years ago, I walked up the steps to my Arabic class as Nadav, a short guy  from Brooklyn, bounded from the building, yelling “Someone flew a plane into the  World Trade Center!” We were both graduate students at Johns Hopkins University  in Washington, D.C.

I joined Nadav and a handful of students around the TV in the building’s  lounge. When the second tower fell, I stood up and walked home. It was such a  beautiful, clear day, yet it seemed as though the world was ending.

The previous semester, I had written my masters’ thesis on Osama bin Laden  and al-Qaida. Still, I had questions. In particular, what had led individuals to  do this and how did people in the Arab world feel about these attacks? Within a  year, I moved to Jordan to learn more Arabic and to search for answers.

Not knowing anyone in Amman, I wandered the city and spoke to anyone who  would speak back about 9/11 and U.S. foreign policy, but also about everyday  life and our hopes for the future. Over the course of a year, I backpacked  through Syria and Morocco, then moved to Cairo at the start of the Iraq war.

Along the way, I continued to speak and listen — to the Egyptian falafel  cook making $5 a day, to my Jordanian barber who wanted to move to Detroit, to a  young Syrian woman working in an art gallery in Hama, to so many others. I  became intimately familiar with the problems of securing a life of dignity in  the Arab world — whether that’s affording marriage, finding a job after  graduation or carving out personal space in authoritarian states.

On a fall day in 2002, I had an epiphany about how private American citizens  might help our Arab counterparts with these problems while improving our own  security. As I taught Sundos, a headscarf-covered 18-year-old University of Jordan

student, to use a computer, I realized that no matter what befell Jordan as a  result of the war in Iraq, there would remain a role for Americans to play in  building partnerships.

For Sundos, the Internet wasn’t just entertainment but a tool of professional  and personal empowerment. She was grateful for my help in opening a world of  possibilities and was happy to be my friend.

Like people I met throughout that year in the Middle East, she differentiated  between the American people and the U.S. government, seeing the American people  as our country’s greatest asset and U.S. foreign policy as our greatest  liability. For her and many others, Americans created Hollywood and Harvard,  while the U.S. government backed dictators and launched wars.

When I returned home in late 2003, I went to work at the State Department  managing programs that support democratic reforms and women’s empowerment in the  Middle East and North Africa. I saw success in projects that paired American  experts with Arab activists and leaders.

Whether it was legislative assistants from Colorado and Vermont training  Algerian parliamentary staffers to draft bills or a documentary maker from  Mississippi teaching activists in Bahrain to make short videos, I witnessed the  American people serving as unofficial ambassadors. They supported local leaders  seeking to address the educational, economic, human rights and other development  challenges within their communities. In the process, they represented the  diversity and strength of America.

I decided that I, too, wanted to become an unofficial ambassador and play a  direct role in creating opportunities. I returned to the ranks of the American  people and worked for an international development company in the Palestinian  territories from 2007 to 2009. I designed and implemented a small grant program  that built educational facilities, installed computer labs and provided  recreational equipment to women’s centers and youth clubs in isolated villages  and woebegone refugee camps.

We completed projects in more than 75 communities that benefited more than  10,000 people striving to improve their lives. Along the way, I continued to  represent America while learning about the daily problems that manifest  themselves in global issues.

This past year, we launched the America’s Unofficial Ambassadors initiative  at Creative Learning, a Washington, D.C.,-based nonprofit organization. Our goal is to increase the number of American volunteers in the Muslim world,  and we are building a community to offer them guidance and support. By the end  of 2012, we hope to have encouraged 1,000 Americans to commit to volunteering  for one week to one year.

In March, we released the AUA Directory, the premiere resource for  researching short-term volunteer opportunities in Muslim-majority countries. You don’t  have to be a professional development worker to teach English in Indonesia, to  build a house in Jordan, to promote public health in Senegal or to help build  peace.

Frequently, I think about my walk home on that terrible, clear day 10 years ago  when everything changed. I’m grateful to have found a path to making a  difference and to have met so many other unofficial ambassadors who are doing  the same.

They’re So Different

Today’s post is a special message from Bill Kruvant, President, Creative Learning

Many people have expressed the view that Muslim-Americans are basically unlike other Americans, that somehow their religion and culture are so distinct that they have fundamentally different views and values from “us.”  Some go even farther and believe that Muslims will never adopt majority American values and are and will remain alienated from America.

While everyone is entitled to their opinion, most of us are prepared to change our views when those views are clearly different from the facts. 

Well, thanks to the Gallup organization, the facts are now in.  Their just-released report, Muslim Americans; Faith, Freedom, and the Future, explodes this myth.  Muslims, it turns out, are amazingly similar to Protestants and Catholics who make up the overwhelming majority  of Americans.

A sample of Gallup’s findings:

• 64% of Muslims attend religious services regularly, as do 65% of Protestants and 61% of Catholics.
• 92% of Muslims are tolerant of other faiths, as are 87% of Protestants and 89% of Catholics.
• On a scale which measures people’s perceptions of the quality of their lives, Muslims score 7.0, Protestants score 7.1, and Catholics score 7.0.
• Muslims have great faith in our election system: 57% hold this view, as do 44% of Protestants and 46% of Catholics.
• Muslim see a 2-state solution as the key to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (81%), as do 69% of Protestants and 83% of Catholics
• Muslims reject terrorist violence even more than others.  89% of Muslims, 71% of Protestants and 71% of Catholics say it is never justified for individuals or groups to kill civilians.
• Finally, 93% of Muslims profess loyalty to the United States.

So, the next time someone expresses the view that Muslim-Americans are “different from us” perhaps the best rejoinder—after recommending that the person read the Gallup report—would be the “Muslim-Americans ‘R’ us.”