AMERICAN GIVING | Strengthening communities through generosity
14 January 2008
Ties Between U.S. and Muslim Cities Grow
Sister Cities International fosters variety of exchanges
Washington -- One of the leading citizen diplomacy groups in the United States -- Sister Cities International -- is fostering understanding between the United States and the Muslim world by increasing contact between ordinary citizens across the cultural divide.
"Since [September 11, 2001], one of our focuses has been trying to bridge the Muslim and Western worlds and dispel cultural misunderstandings. We have been trying to build more partnerships and reactivate partnerships that already exist with new ideas and new opportunities," said Patrick Madden, executive director of Sister Cities International.
The number of relationships between U.S. cities and cities in predominantly Muslim countries now stands at 94, and about 20 new relationships are developing, according to Jennifer Oliver, the program manager for the Sister Cities’ Islamic Partnership Initiative.
"We see this as going to the next level, where we have relationships in every state, every county in the United States with different parts of the Muslim world," she said.
To accelerate its outreach to the Muslim world, Sister Cities International has been organizing Partnership and Peace Tours, taking representatives from U.S. cities to different parts of the region for the past three years. The first tour was organized for Morocco in 2006, and the second, to Egypt in 2007.
"In Morocco, we've seen six or seven new sister-city relationships created. When we were in Egypt, representatives from three or four U.S. cities showed an interest in forming relationships with Egypt," Oliver said.
The third tour is scheduled for Israel and Jordan in March, and the participants will be keen to spot economic opportunities, according to Madden. "That was one of the top things that Jordanian Embassy officials said they hope will come out of our trip to Israel and Jordan in the spring. They would like to see some trade and business opportunities develop," he said.
Sister Cities, founded in 1956 by former President Dwight Eisenhower, has developed a network of more than 700 U.S. cities, which have formed partnerships with almost 2,500 cities abroad. Earlier in its history, Sister Cities played a vigorous role in fostering contact and understanding between the United States and Japan, which were enemies in World War II and today are solid friends.
"The basic concept was to get government and formal diplomacy out of the way and let ordinary citizens travel abroad, meet other ordinary citizens, walk the streets, see their cultural sites, eat their food, and the one thing that they'll realize is that we're all the same. We might have some differences of opinion, but we have more in common than differences," said Madden.
Many Americans involved in Sister Cities say that terrorism and safety concerns inhibit relationship building between the United States and the Islamic world and that most Americans do not understand Islamic culture.
"We see ourselves playing an educational role with the general public and through our network and members about the Muslim world," Madden said.
Sister Cities International works in four areas: arts and culture, youth and education, humanitarian assistance, and sustainable economic development.
Baltimore's twin relationship with the Egyptian cities of Alexandria and Luxor reflects all four areas. To name a few instances, a Baltimore businessman visited Alexandria several years ago and saw an opportunity to build a factory that converts trash into the fuel ethanol. Preparations are being made for construction as soon as final funding is obtained. Physicians, nurses and medical technicians from various Maryland universities, including Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland, have trained Egyptian counterparts in Alexandria and Luxor and hosted reciprocal visits from their counterparts. Baltimore has sent librarians on training missions, raised funds and collected books to support the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, a modern library and cultural center that commemorates the ancient Library of Alexandria.
The core of the relationship between San Diego and Jalalabad, Afghanistan, is education. San Diego has built a school for students in elementary through high school in Jalalabad, supplied books and organized exchanges to train teachers and academics. The relationship also has led to a strong partnership between San Diego State University and Nangarhar University to help re-establish higher education programs in areas such as English and engineering at Nangarhar. Houston, the unofficial oil capital of the United States, has formed sister-city relationships with Baku, Azerbaijan, and Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, both oil producers.
As cities in the United States and Muslim countries reach out to form sister-city bonds, Oliver urges them to search out "similarities" that will allow them to knit together and build long-term relationships. "It is important that there are some similarities between the two communities -- population size, industries, geographical features, ports. If there is a dramatic difference in size or they are focused on different areas, it's hard to sustain a relationship," she said.
More information about Sister Cities International is available on the group’s Web site.
