16 March 2007
State’s Hughes Looks Forward to Working with New Islamic Group
Organization of Islamic Conference launches group in Washington
Washington – U.S. Under Secretary of State Karen Hughes has welcomed the formation of the new Ambassadorial Washington Group of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC).
“We share an agenda to support the positive contributions and values of Muslim countries and citizens,” she told participants at March 15 ceremonies launching the group in Washington. Hughes leads public diplomacy and public affairs efforts at the State Department and is a close adviser to President Bush.
Malaysia spearheaded the formation of the OIC group in the U.S. capital. Malaysian officials said that out of the 170 diplomatic representations in Washington, 56 are member or observer countries of the OIC.
According to OIC’s Web site, the new group seeks to interact with members of the U.S. administration and other relevant entities on issues pertaining to Islam and the welfare of Muslims, and to carry out activities that “would further promote the image of Islam as a religion that is peace-loving, enlightened and progressive.”
In her remarks, Hughes said: “As you pursue important efforts at the U.N. Human Rights Council to promote resolutions against the defamation of Islam,” Hughes said, “I hope you might consider broadening those resolutions to include respect for all faiths and people’s freedom to worship and express themselves as they choose.”
Noting recent violent terrorist acts committed in the name of Islam, Hughes praised leaders such as Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu for speaking out against “violent extremists [who] only pervert religion when they bomb hospitals, universities, wedding parties, mosques, employment centers, even groups of children.”
Hughes called on the OIC Washington Group to join U.S. efforts to combat “misperceptions fostered by extremists that there is a ‘clash of the civilizations,’ that the West is somehow in conflict with Islam.”
“Islam,” she said, “as a major world religion, is part of the West and an important part of America.”
Hughes cited U.S. State Department efforts to promote mutual understanding, such as educational and cultural exchange programs that have involved nearly 39,000 people so far in 2006.
She also cited the U.S. program called “Citizen Dialogue,” which sends delegations of American Muslims as citizen envoys to other countries. (See related article.)
“These kinds of people-to-people programs are invaluable in challenging stereotypes and countering the misinformation that radical extremists put out to drive a wedge between our countries,” Hughes said.
The OIC was established in response to an arson attack on August 21, 1969, in Jerusalem against the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest shrine of Islam. The first OIC conference was held a month later in Rabat, Morocco. Among the aims of the OIC, which now has 57 member states, is to protect Islam’s holy places and build Islamic solidarity and promote Islamic interests.
For more on U.S. policy, see International Religious Freedom.
A transcript of Hughes’ remarks is available on the USINFO Web site.
(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
