The National Security Council's "Muslim Outreach Policy"

The current political climate is such that the Progressive Muslim Union NA has set itself up as the "good Muslims" (in the eyes of the United States media) and anyone that does not agree with them gets branded as "extremists" "backwards" "neo-salafis" "wahabbis" "mullah" and so on... Sometimes the media does this labeling, most other times the PMUNA officials hurl these epithets.

Furthermore there are PMUNA board members who are associated with organizations that want to support the US "war on terror." What does this mean?

A recent article in US news has pointed out that this "war on terror" includes "changing the face of Islam."

After repeated missteps since the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. government has embarked on a campaign of political warfare unmatched since the height of the Cold War. From military psychological-operations teams and CIA covert operatives to openly funded media and think tanks, Washington is plowing tens of millions of dollars into a campaign to influence not only Muslim societies but Islam itself.

The US General Accountablity Office (GAO) has come out with a new report on "public diplomacy" that is worth a read in its entirity (pdf file)

The most important part for visitors to this blog is on page 13:

Effectiveness of Muslim Outreach Committee Remains to be Determined

In July 2004, the National Security Council created the Muslim World Outreach Policy Coordinating Committee to replace the Strategic Communications Policy Coordinating Committee.

According to a senior State official, the group is working on three specific activities. To date, the committee has collected ideas from embassies in Muslim-majority countries, developed a strategic plan for communicating with the Muslim world, and is drafting a tactical paper to operationalize the strategy. In its poll of embassies, the committee collected information on outreach activities to Muslim audiences.

According to an official at State familiar with the committee’s activities, the committee then developed a strategy to address the problems faced by the public diplomacy community and outlined two broad goals: working with moderate Muslims and countering extremism.

(Reflection question for PMUNA debate blog readers: Who will define what is a "moderate Muslim" and what constitutes "extremism?")

The committee is finalizing this strategy, which emphasizes the role of regional partnerships and the need to tailor programs to specific countries, and plans to present it to the National Security Council in early 2005. Following approval, the strategy and tactics papers will be sent to embassies around the world. State expects the implementation of this strategy to begin in early 2005.

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