The second annual American Leadership Initiative for Muslims conference opened in Washington D.C. this weekend as some in the Muslim American community are questioning whether President Obama is doing enough to bolster their efforts.
With about 200 participants involved this year, the conference books itself as “action oriented” where “nothing at this convention is ‘hypothetical’” and says it is designed to bring together members of the Muslim community to develop plans to serve on both domestic and international fronts.
The Congressional Muslim Staffers Association (CMSA) helped launch the weekend of events on Friday with a discussion in the basement of the Capitol, in which about 35 participants peppered questions at J. Saleh Williams, the program coordinator for CMSA and also the legislative assistant to Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.).
One young man from Missouri asked Williams how it was possible to inspire the next young generation of Muslim Americans when Obama was not making good on his promises of strengthened tolerance and governmental outreach to the community.
“It’s something that I hear quite often,” said Williams. “I would focus largely on the positive impact that you can have on the local level, which is most important. President Obama says that he can’t do it by himself and I’m like you, I’m in general support of him, but I have my critiques of him.
“But we should all take some responsibility in making an impact within our own communities and looking to see how the government can facilitate that.”
Williams also emphasized to the group that while there is still a fair amount of religious and ethnic profiling that occurs from the government, it is decreasing, in part because of groups like the CMSA that are putting personal faces and names to the often ambiguous label of a Muslim American.
There are about 80 Muslim Americans who work in Congress, Williams said.
“We would love to believe and we hope that it is decreasing because of the training that groups like [the Transportation Security Administration] are receiving to understand the nuances of what is and what is not a threat,” Williams told the group.
“But a lot of that work has been possible because of engagement including the Muslim American communities working in government pushing how to balance civil liberties [and] personal space with national security.”
Other strategy sessions for the weekend include looking at the similar recruitment strategies between American inner-city gangs and al-Qaeda, as well as workshops on how to appropriately handle the publicity if a prominent person makes an insulting remark against a Muslim family member.
Government representatives from the FBI, the Department of Justice and the Department of Defense and members of groups such as Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain and the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation are also scheduled to participate.
The conference comes as the Muslim perception abroad of Americans has not significantly improved over the past year. According to a study by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, the U.S. was seen favorably by 17 percent of people in Egypt, Turkey and Pakistan, some of the countries with the heaviest concentrated populations of Muslims.
Obama gave a widely promoted and highly anticipated speech last year in Cairo aimed at reaching out to the Muslim world. Nevertheless, the percentage of Egyptians who look favorably toward the U.S. continued to decline.
But Williams told the group that Muslim Americans needed to work to dispel the belief that all they care about is foreign affairs issues. He said that Muslim Americans are just as concerned with domestic issues, and pointed to the Agriculture Department, which has at least five interns who are Muslim, he said.