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US turns on `charm campaign'

Young Pakistani men listen to a pro-Taliban cleric scream slogans denouncing the US and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf during a protest organized by Islamic militants on Friday after prayers in Islamabad. PHOTO: AFP

Rampaging protesters mob the US Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, and burn it to the ground, leaving seven people dead.

The year is 1979. The roots of the violence: a mistaken belief that American Jews backed by the US government have seized Islam's holiest shrine in Mecca. In truth, it is Muslim dissidents who are to blame.

Two decades later, misunderstandings between America and the Arab and Muslim world are even more widespread and intractable, a challenge the Bush administration is trying to meet. That those misconceptions are layered on top of legitimate points of difference only makes the problem more difficult.

The idea that America has an anti-Islam bias is "our most difficult part of the war on terrorism," says Jessica Stern, a Harvard University expert on terrorism and former National Security Council member.

And in the middle of a crisis, America can't expect to change ideas that have taken root over decades, says Shibley Telhami, a professor of government at the University of Maryland.

"That takes years to happen," he said.

Public diplomacy

Even so, as US bombs pummel Afghanistan, American officials are simultaneously waging a war of public diplomacy aimed at winning over ordinary Arabs and Muslims half a world away.

Leaflets, food drops and radio messages beamed from planes and conciliatory TV interviews are as much a part of the US campaign against terrorism as bullets and cruise missiles. Just this week:

Secretary of State Colin Powell, on a three-nation visit to Asia, sounded the mantra at every opportunity that America is fighting terrorism, not Islam.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice sat for interviews with an influential Arab-language satellite TV station, bringing a message of religious tolerance.

The State Department opened preliminary talks about spreading America's message abroad through Ad Council public service announcements, which in the past have only been distributed within the US.

US aircraft flying over Afghanistan broadcast radio messages to "the honorable people of Afghanistan" advising them that "we do not wish to harm you" and giving them advice on how to protect themselves.

State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said such efforts are needed to counter "a lot of misunderstanding about what the United States is and what the United States stands for."

It's not just a case of different viewpoints, he said, "it's about understanding the facts."

But the difficulties of communicating a positive US message were evident when Rice appeared on the influential Al-Jazeera television station to explain US actions in Afghanistan. The station aired only comments likely to inflame Arab passions in promotional spots leading up to the subsequent airing of the full interview.

Terrorism experts applaud the administration's efforts to reach out to ordinary Arabs and Muslims, but they caution not to expect much success any time soon.

"Our leaders have been saying all the right things but there are certain misperceptions that, even with the most diligent public relations efforts, are difficult to dispel," said Paul Pillar, a former CIA counter-terrorism official and author of the new book, Terrorism and US Foreign Policy.

Telhami said the effort "has to be seen less as a charm campaign and more as signals and gestures that would help moderates in their own battle against the militants."

"Having people appear on Middle Eastern television will not convert these people into a people who love America or understand the complexity of America," he said.

Unheralded efforts

Even concrete steps that should be welcomed in the Muslim world can go unheralded, such as US support for Bosnian Muslims in their 1990s war against Serbs and Croats, Stern said.

The difficulty of the task was underscored at a hearing on Capitol Hill last week, where Voice of America officials laid out steps taken since the Sept. 11 attacks to "tell America's story" in Afghanistan and beyond. Marc Nathanson, chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which overseas VOA, said that 80 percent of men in Afghanistan listen to VOA on a weekly basis but acknowledged the network has "almost no youthful audience under the age of 25 in the Arab world."

And it is especially important to reach young people, who may be more open-minded.

Charlotte Beers, the new undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, calls it a "battle for the 11-year-old mind."

But some question whether the government should even bother with public diplomacy in the midst of a military campaign.

"The season for reaching an understanding is over," said Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, a Philadelphia-based think tank. "What we need to do is snarl, not be nice. What we need to do is inspire fear, not affection. You can't inspire fear and love at the same time, so one has to choose."
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