Project Mosaic

Islam and Uncle Sam: A Muslim Youth Encounter

Forging one's identify as a young Muslim in the UK is exciting, but also full of anxiety, frustration, misunderstandings and difficulty, according to teenagers and young adults attending a Project Mosaic event in March 2014.

About 30 people met at a private home in London to take part in a "roundtable discussion" on the subject of "Islam and Uncle Sam: A Muslim Youth Encounter".

The event was aimed at providing a safe forum for discussing important but sometimes uncomfortable subjects, including race, ethnicity, immigration, integration, prejudice and extremism. It was also meant to serve as a kind of practice session in preparation for a meeting of young Muslims planned to be held later in the year with American diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in London.

Teenagers at the gathering in March voiced unhappiness about some U.S. policies and actions, including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, other U.S. military interventions and the continuing existence of the detention centre at Guantanamo.

But the most lively and animated discussion centred simply on what it meant to be a young Muslim Briton today.

"I feel like everyone hates Muslims. Like everything in the media about Muslims is negative," said one teenage girl. Others voiced frustration about feeling socially isolated and on the receiving end of negative stereotypes.

A minority of attendees were older than 30, including two Arab women journalists. The journalists challenged the teenagers' view that life in the UK was hard. They urged the young people to broaden their awareness and to celebrate the many civil freedoms that existed in the UK and other Western countries, and that were notably absent in their ancestral homelands.

"Would any of us want to go back and live in any of those countries? We are much more free living here," said one Arab woman.

Participants at the roundtable discussion traced family ties back to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, the Canary Islands, China, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Libya, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Nepal, Palestine, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, Uzbekistan and Yemen.

The discussion got heated at one point -- on the subject of "hijab", female Muslim clothing that, depending on the country or region, ranges from covering the hair to "niqab", where all but a woman's eyes is concealed, to the "burkha" in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the entire head and body are shrouded and a woman sees the world through a heavy cloth netting.

Some of the Muslim teenage girls and women at the gathering wore headscarves, while others did not. A couple of girls in hijab spoke angrily about their feeling of being negatively judged by strangers on the street. But one statuesque young woman who wore a traditional flowing head-to-toe robe from her parents' country of birth, Somalia, said she had made enriching connections with non-Muslim Britons in London after she began to smile more in public and to make eye contact. She said she had been delighted when shoppers in a department store in which she worked approached and asked about her clothing, faith and culture.

"I've been surprised at how shy some of these Englishwomen are, asking me things like 'Can I touch your robe? Do you mind if I ask you -- what does it all mean?" she said, with a laugh.

Several teenagers said the roundtable discussion marked the first time they had ever taken part in a conversation about identify, prejudice and ways to move beyond stereotypes.

"These are not things we've been taught to talk about," one teenager said. "It feels good. Like a relief." 

The Middle East, the United States, a Rock and a Hard Place: a Roundtable Discussion with Jonathan Peccia

Extremist violence, women's rights in Arab countries and how to be a Catholic-Jewish-atheist were some of the topics addressed by participants at a roundtable discussion held by Project Mosaic in London on March 13.

The speaker, Jonathan Peccia, a U.S. diplomat, addressed a group gathered in a private home on the subject of "The Middle East, the United States, a Rock and a Hard Place". Based in the UK since 2012, he talked about his experiences during postings in Jordan, Pakistan and Iraq.

Peccia, a First Secretary in the Political Section at the U.S. Embassy in London, with responsibility for Middle East matters, fielded a wide range of questions. The conversation included Israel/Palestine, Saudi society, grass-roots movements for social change in the Middle East and North Africa after the Arab Spring, U.S. involvement in fostering civil society in various countries, and the interface between faith communties and secularists.

The 30-odd participants at the event included businesspeople, British government staff, academics, journalists, film executives, students, nonprofit volunteers and a social worker.

Peccia, when asked, said that there was widespread support in the U.S. government for a two-state solution in the Middle East. But he said a key question remained whether leaders on the ground in the Middle East would take the necessary steps to create a lasting peace, since no outside power had the ability to impose a solution.

Asked about his family background and whether it informed his work as a diplomat, he said "It definitely informs my work. I grew up in a multi-faith home" -- his father is Catholic and his mother is Jewish -- "and this taught me to see things from different perspectives, to understand that there are different ways to view the world."

Peccia said that his work included reaching out to ethnic and religious minority communities in the UK. He said people belonging to diaspora groups had powerful roles to play in diplomacy and conflict resolution work, by creating greater understanding across national and ethnic boundaries.

He presented his talk on March 13 to a diverse group, which included people born in or tracing ancestry to Armenia, Canada, Central African Republic, Egypt, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Morocco, Palestine, Portugal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom and the United States.

One participant asked why Washington did not put more pressure on Israel to build peaceful co-existence with Palestinians. Peccia said "It makes sense that we hold a country, a state, responsible for its actions. That includes Israel. A state has power. But non-state actors can also be powerful. We need to recognise that power, too." Peccia said the impact of non-state players in the Middle East made conflict resolution more complicated.

Peccia was asked why the United States did not do more to support the rights of women in Arab countries or of minorities in the Middle East and North Africa. He said "We do strongly support the rights of women and minorities throughout the world. We show that support in a number of ways and through many programs. But it is also important for people in each country to determine how they want their society to evolve."

He said, for instance, that profound social change had been secured in the United States for African-Americans primarily as a result of long years of civil rights struggle. He said the struggle had been carried out by people willing to go to prison and to risk injury, even death. "It's the people in each country who need to decide what they want their country to be," Peccia said.

Nov 1 Project Mosaic USA event in New York cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy

We regret to advise that, as a result of damage from Hurricane Sandy, we have had to cancel the November 1 event for Project Mosaic USA in New York. We thank everyone for their support. We shall send an update in the coming time.

Launch of Project Mosaic USA - lecture on "Americans and Muslims: Ending cycles of hatred after 9/11" - New York, 1 Nov 2012

 

You are cordially invited to a
lecture at the launch of Project Mosaic USA:

 

Americans and Muslims: Ending Cycles of Hatred after 9/11

 

WHEN: Thurs, Nov 1, Doors open and registration begins 6:30pm. Lecture starts at 7pm.Event concludes 9pm.

WHERE: DCTV, 87 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10013 (nearest subway station: Canal Street)

HOW TO BOOK: Tickets are free but space is limited. Email [email protected] to reserve your place. Maximum two tickets per request. Please include a name and email for every ticket holder. We are unable to confirm a ticket without a name and email address.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Dr. Emile Nakhleh is a retired Senior Intelligence Service Officer and an expert on the Middle East, Islamic radicalization and terrorism. He served in the Central Intelligence Agency from 1990 to 2006, including as director of the Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program. Prior to serving in government, Dr. Nakhleh taught for 26 years at Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland, where he was the John L. Morrison Professor of International Studies. His books include: A Necessary Engagement: Reinventing America’s Relations with the Muslim World (2009), Bahrain: Political Development in a Modernizing Society (1976 and 2011), and The Gulf Cooperation Council: Politics, Problems, and Prospects (1986). Dr. Nakhleh’s research, publications and consulting with different U.S. government entities have focused on Islamism, radicalization and politics in the Middle East and in other parts of the Muslim world, political and educational reform, regime stability and governance in the Middle East, and U.S. policy toward countriesin the Middle East and Muslim-majority countries in other regions. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Dr. Nakhleh holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the American University, Washington, DC, an M.A. in Political Science from Georgetown University and a B.A. in Political Science from Saint John’s University, Minnesota.

ABOUT PROJECT MOSAIC USA:

Project Mosaic USA, Inc. is a new not-for-profit organization (501(c)3) incorporated in New York. It promotes tolerance of those coming from a different background, and challenges prejudice and extremism. Project Mosaic USA aims to foster interfaith and intercultural understanding, multiethnic good citizenship and integration of immigrant communities, and to counter group hatred and radicalization. Project Mosaic USA was set up in memory of New York Firefighter Lieutenant David J. Fontana, one of the 343 firefighters who died on September 11, 2001 while helping to rescue people from the World Trade Towers. The New York-based organization shares aims with Project Mosaic (UK),a London-based nonprofit established in 2008 and that runs three programs: a Young Filmmakers YouTube Film Competition, a Lecture Series and a Global Citizen speaker program.

ProjectMosaic is a not-for-profit (501(c)3) incorporated in New York

EIN 36-4727817

www.projectmosaic.net

Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia: Moving Beyond Old and New Hatreds After 9/11

Nearly 100 people attended the Project Mosaic Annual Lecture in London on October 4, 2012. They came to hear a discussion on "Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia: Moving Beyond Old and New Hatreds After 9/11" by two speakers, Anthony Julius and Fiyaz Mughal OBE.

Anthony Julius, the author of Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Anti-Semitism in England, guided the audience through events dating back to the Middle Ages and that continue to fuel prejudice towards Jews today. He described ancient roots of so-called jokes about the "cheap Jew". During the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church banned Chrisians from lending money at interest. Jews, meanwhile, were barred from owning land and from working in most professions. The result: Jews became money lenders, taking on work forbidden to the majority, and, over the centuries, many moved into banking.

Anthony's 811-page book describes the expulson of the Jews from England by King Edward I in 1290, which made England the first country in Europe to expel its Jews. Many European countries followed suit, expelling their Jews in the 1300s and 1400s. Jews were not allowed to return to England for some 350 years, until the mid-1600s.

When plagues ravaged Europe in the Middle Ages, Jews, who were forced to live in communities separate from Christians, were sometimes blamed and massacred by villagers. In Strasbourg in 1348, 900 Jews were burned alive after being accused of poisoning wells. Jews did not earn full rights as citizens in many Western European countries until the 1800s and in some Eastern European countries until the early 1900s.

Participants at the Project Mosaic event heard how Anthony, while studying years ago at Cambridge University, received an anonymous leaflet through his door that said Jews killed Christian children and used their blood to make matzah for Passover. Anthony described this "blood libel" as another often-repeated falsehood about Jews dating back centuries. He said the ancient myth that Jews preyed with hateful and murderous intent on non-Jewish children resulted, to the present day, in poisoning certain discourse. He said, for instance, it helped to create toxic confusion regarding the confict in the Middle East, when Israeli soldiers were falsely accused by some of seeking to harm Palestinian children.

Fiyaz Mugal, the founder of Faith Matters, a nonprofit that challenges extremism and builds bridges between Muslm, Sikh, Christian and Jewish communities in the UK, said that Muslims stood to gain by learning from the experience of Jews.

He said Faith Matters had spent the last year recording reports of anti-Muslim incidents and attacks, much in the same way as has been done over the past decade by the organisation Community Security Trust regarding anti-Semitic events and attacks.

Fiyaz said an alarming number of physical assaults on Muslims and Sikhs in the UK had been recorded, with most attacks being carried out by non-Muslim men against Muslim women who were wearing a headscarf and, in some cases, also a "niqab" face veil.

But he said the most shocking revelation had been the volume and poisonous nature of hate messages against Muslims -- and also against Jews -- on websites, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

Fiyaz was asked what could be done to stop cycles of hatred between Muslims and non-Muslims that had accelerated since September 11, 2001, when self-described Islamists hijacked four commercial planes in the United States and crashed them into the World Trade Towers in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, DC and a field in Pennylvania, killing nearly 3,000 people. Fiyaz said religious leaders had a huge responsibility to raise their voices in condemning extremism and terrorism. He said that many Muslims had become more proactive over the past 10 years in speaking out against such violence, but that a lot more work was needed in order to inform and educate people about the dangers of prejudice and extremist violence.

He said Muslims in the UK could learn valuable lessons from Jews, as members of a minority religion, about way to integrate into mainstream society while also maintaining a distinct religious and/or cultural identity. Fiyaz said that Muslims and other minorities had benefited from long-running work done by many Jews to combat racism and prejudice, work which had been informed from the experience of centuries of persecution.

He said he expected things to get worse before they got better, when asked how to prevent the kind of ethnic violence that broke out in Libya, Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere in September 2012. Much of the violence was described as a reaction to an amateur film published on the Internet and that reportedly set out to denigrate Islam. Fiyaz urged religious leaders and also ordinary citizens to speak out aganst prejudice aimed at any group.

 

Invitation to Project Mosaic Lecture: "Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia: Moving beyond old and new hatreds after 9/11" - London, 4 Oct 2012

 We invite you to a Project Mosaic Lecture:

 

Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia:

Moving beyond old and new hatreds after 9/11

 

SPEAKERS:                 Anthony Julius and Fiyaz Mughal OBE

 

WHEN:                       Thurs, 4 Oct 2012. Registration begins 6:30pm. Lecture starts at 7:00pm.                                     

 

WHERE:                     Faraday House, 48-51 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AE

 

HOW TO BOOK:          Tickets are free but space is limited. Email [email protected] to reserve your place.

 

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

 

Anthony Julius

Anthony Julius is the author of Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Anti-Semitism in England, T.S. Eliot: anti-Semitism and Literary Form and other books. He is engaged in various political and legal endeavours to counter anti-Semitic activities. Anthony is Deputy Chairman of the commercial law firm Mishcon de Reya, specialising in litigation law, and is Chairman of The Jewish Chronicle. He represented Diana, Princess of Wales in divorce proceedings against Prince Charles and later was founding chairman of the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund. Anthony is chairman of the London Consortium, a multi-disciplinary graduate programme in humanities and cultural studies, and is a Visiting Professor at Birkbeck College, University of London.

 

Fiyaz Mughal OBE

Fiyaz Mughal is an expert in conflict resolution, interfaith initiatives and countering radicalisation. He is Founding Director of Faith Matters, a UK nonprofit that challenges extremism and develops positive interaction amongst Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and Jews. Fiyaz served as a Councillor in Haringey from 2006 to 2010 and in Oxford from 2002 to 2004. He has made senior-level contributions to government programmes for the prevention of violent extremism, including following the London bombings on July 7, 2005. Fiyaz is Founder Trustee of two micro-finance social entrepreneurship projects in the Palestinian Authority and Israel, the Future Vision Trust and the Jerusalem Interest Free Micro-Finance Fund. In 2009 he was bestowed with the honour of the Order of the British Empire.

 

Update from Project Mosaic

A warm greeting to all our supporters. It’s hard to believe that Project Mosaic  (www.projectmosaic.net) is nearly four years old. We’ve had a busy time pursuing our goal of creating greater understanding amongst people from different backgrounds. I’d like to update you on our latest developments:

   

PROJECT MOSAIC’S DEBUT ON THE BBC

Project Mosaic, which was set up in memory of 9/11 firefighter Dave Fontana, was featured on a BBC television programme commemorating the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Project Mosaic was presented as one of four UK organisations creating positive social change following the events of September 11, 2001. Mr Tariq Chowdhury, the winner of our young filmmaker award (see below), was featured in the programme. You can watch the four-minute segment about Project Mosaic from the BBC film here:

www.projectmosaic.net/bbc-film-excerpt.asp

and the link to the full 38-minute BBC programme is here:

www.projectmosaic.net/bbc-film-fullversion.asp

 

YOUNG FILMMAKER YOUTUBE COMPETITION

We were delighted to award first prize in the Project Mosaic Young Filmmaker YouTube Competition to Tariq Chowdhury for his two-minute film “Inspiration Through Faith”, which you can see here:

www.projectmosaic.net/inspirationthroughfaith.asp

You will find information about the competition and the Award Ceremony, including photos, further below on this “What’s New?” page and at

www.projectmosaic.net/youtubecompetition.asp

 

GATHERING TO COMMEMORATE THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

About 50 people came together in London last September at a Project Mosaic gathering to remember those who died on 9/11 and in other violence fuelled by group hatred. The event was hosted by the London programme of Syracuse University, which lost 35 study abroad students amongst the 270 people killed in December 1988 when Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed over Lockerbie, Scotland. Prayers were read or sung by Father Peter Wilson, Imam Dr Abduljalil Sajid, Rabbi Debbie Young-Somers, Sheikh Seddiki Sidi Fawzi and the Reverend Deacon Meliton Oakes. The programme, prayers and remembrances from the gathering can be downloaded as PDF files by scrolling down on this "What’s New?" page.

 

COMMON HERITAGE OF JEWS, CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS

There was standing room only at the 2011 Project Mosaic Lecture given by Dr Ed Kessler, an expert on interfaith relations. In his talk on “Descended from Abraham: Exploring the Common Heritage of Jews, Christians and Muslims”, Ed cited progress amongst members of the three Abrahamic faiths – the world’s 2.2 billion Christians, 1.6 billion Muslims and 15 million Jews -- in exploring interfaith dialogue. But he said much work needed to be done to build mutual understanding and to overcome centuries of mistrust. Ed, who runs the Woolf Institute, said people living in the 120 Christian-majority countries, the 60 Muslim-majority countries and the one Jewish-majority country, Israel, needed to learn more about one another’s religion – to develop greater “faith literacy” – which would lead to greater trust, respect and sensitivity. A film of the event and a downloadable PDF text
of Ed’s talk are here:

www.projectmosaic.net/lectureseries.asp

 

SAVE THE DATE - The 2012 Project Mosaic Lecture will be held
in London on Thursday, October 4 at 6:30pm. Details coming soon.

 

MUNIR ZAMIR BREAKS THE SPELL FOR YOUNG JIHADIS

You could have heard a pin drop as Munir Zamir described his work protecting young people from extremist movements. He was speaking on the subject of “Breaking the Spell for Britain’s Young Jihadis” at a Project Mosaic Roundtable Discussion in November 2011. Munir described his association years ago with extremist Islamist organisations, when he was a teenager and young adult. Since 2008 he has run Fida Management (Fida means “sacrifice” in Arabic), which helps young people by providing alternatives to the al-Qaeda narrative. Munir described how many young Britons in the 1980s and 1990s joined Mujahedeen organisations to help Muslims in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kashmir and elsewhere – but the desire to help eventually turned into a movement to hate. He said young people from some immigrant communities faced a special challenge in forging a sense of identity, belonging and purpose if they felt isolated from mainstream society. See photos and text about the event here below on this “What’s New?” page.

 

MOHAMMED FAHILI CREATES GRASSROOTS CHANGE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Mohammed Fahili, the director of the Jewish-Arab Community Center in Acre, in northern Israel, led a different Project Mosaic Roundtable Discussion. Fahili, a Palestinian Israeli, has dedicated his life to Arab-Jewish peaceful coexistence. Born in the Old City in Acre, he shared a single bedroom with seven siblings and lost his father when he was six. At 18 he left to study engineering in the United States and later returned to Israel with a vision to help young Arabs and Jews from underserved neighbourhoods. About three dozen people, including businesspeople, students and participants from the non-profit sector, attended his 2011 talk, which you can read about at our “What’s New?” page. Fahili also granted us a “Global Citizen” filmed interview, which you can see at

www.projectmosaic.net/fahili-excerpt.asp

or www.projectmosaic.net/mohammedfahili-fullinterview.asp.

 

SHARLINA HUSSAIN-MORGAN “UNPACKS” AMERICA

Sharlina Hussain-Morgan, the Assistant Cultural Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in London, led a Project Mosaic Roundtable Discussion in May 2012 called “A Look Inside America’s Melting Pot”. A Muslim American from New York, Sharlina described Americans’ pride in having multiple identities linked to ancestral homelands. Speaking in a private home to students, businesspeople and those working for nonprofits, she shared her own melting-pot story, including her parents’ emigration to the United States from Bangladesh. Sharlina said her work in the UK involved “unpacking America” by creating greater understanding about the people, culture and government of the United States. She frequently engages with young Britons and says she spends a lot of time clearing up misconceptions about America. See photos and more information on Sharlina's talk by scrolling down on this "What's New?" page.

 

PROJECT MOSAIC USA, INC

Project Mosaic in the UK will be getting a sister organisation in the United States. Project Mosaic USA, Inc will launch in New York as a non-profit (501(c)3) organisation. Please help us by spreading the word to people in New York or elsewhere in the States who might like to get involved, including hearing about our next young filmmakers YouTube competition.

 

GLOBAL CITIZENS

I invite you to take a moment to listen to some of the personal stories of our 17 “Global Citizens”
at:

 www.projectmosaic.net/globalcitizen.asp

These are ordinary people with extraordinary narratives that inspire and transform -- whether it’s Al and Maureen Santora, who award scholarships to students in memory of their 9/11 firefighter son, Christopher Santora, or Hussein Al-Yasiri, an Austrian university student working for good in memory of his Iraqi father, killed by a suicide bomber in Baghdad while helping to forge peace amongst Sunni sheikhs. Please take a moment to listen to Esther Hyman, who helped set up a children’s hospital in India in tribute to her sister, who died in the July 7, 2005 London bombings, or Terry Rockefeller, who lost her sister at the World Trade Center on 9/11. We are grateful to all our Global Citizen interviewees for sharing narratives about overcoming adversity, celebrating the immigrant experience and promoting peaceful coexistence with “the other” in today’s increasingly globalised world.

 

TRUSTEES AND ADVISERS

We express warmest gratitude to Hester Abrams, a founding trustee who helped to shape Project Mosaic, including by providing crucial stewardship during the charity’s first three and a half years. Hester stepped down as trustee in April. We are fortunate that she has joined our Advisory Board. We also send heartfelt thanks to founding trustee Antonia Fontana for her blessings and moral support starting when we first explored the idea of setting up Project Mosaic in 2008 in memory of her son (and my cousin), 9/11 firefighter Dave Fontana. Antonia stepped down in 2011.

We welcome our new trustees: Fareeda Abbasi Bulbrook, Marian Fontana, Anne Lieberman, Andy Pring and Charlotte Rayani. Biographies can be found at www.projectmosaic.net/trustees.asp.

We are also delighted that Ahlam Akram has joined as an Adviser. A list of our advisers is at  ww.projectmosaic.net/advisers.asp.

 

VOLUNTEERS

We welcome volunteers at Project Mosaic. If you would like to volunteer, please contact us at [email protected].

 

CALL FOR DONATIONS

We’ve worked hard to keep Project Mosaic a nimble and innovative organisation. Our low-cost high-impact programmes are designed to create positive social change without relying on expensive infrastructure. In this challenging funding environment, please help us to carry on with this important work by visiting:

www.projectmosaic.net/donate.asp

and making a donation. Or you can send a cheque, payable to “PROJECT MOSAIC” to: Project Mosaic, 29 Burnham Court, Moscow Road, London W2 4SW. Please remember to tell us that you would like to “Gift Aid” your contribution, so we can collect from the UK government an extra 20 pence for every pound you donate. Your contribution, no matter how small, will make a difference and will be hugely appreciated!

 

It has been a delight and an honour at Project Mosaic to bring together people from different age groups and walks of life, to create a safe place to talk about difficult but important subjects and to make new friends. We have been able to accomplish so much in the past four years thanks to support from people like you and from young volunteers who have helped to run our lectures and roundtable discussions. To you and everyone who has been involved and continues to help us shape Project
Mosaic, a warm thank you.

With best wishes,

Kat Callo

Trustee, Project Mosaic

 

A Look Inside America's Melting Pot: A Roundtable Discussion with Sharlina Hussain-Morgan

An American diplomat on her first foreign posting surprised young people at a gathering in London on May 8 by painting a picture of the United States that differed dramatically from views held in many countries.

Sharlina Hussain-Morgan, the Assistant Cultural Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in London, gave a talk called "A Look Inside America's Melting Pot" to two dozen people gathered in a private home.

"We're all Americans, but we love to describe our multiple identities," she said. "It makes up who I am as an American ... A person will say, for instance, 'I'm Jewish-Muslim-Christian' and then add a bunch of other identities" from ancestral homelands, she said. "People in the U.S. feel happy and proud about their multiple identities."

Sharlina, a New Yorker, has her own "melting-pot" story. Her parents emigrated years ago to the United States from Bangladesh. She explained to participants at the Project Mosaic roundtable discussion that her hands and feet were covered with intricate designs in henna dye because, two days earlier, she and her husband had been host to 180 people at their wedding celebration in New York. Drawing with henna on the bride's hands and feet made up part of the traditional wedding festivities.

"When we got married a year ago, there was no time for the big family celebration because my assignment in London was starting," she said. "It was fun last week on Long Island to bring my family and my husband's family together for the first time - and to watch them dance. It was great." Sharlina is Muslim. Her husband is African-American, from a Baptist (Christian) family.

She describes her work in the UK as "unpacking America" by creating greater understanding about the people, culture and government of the United States. Much of Sharlina's work involves engagement with young Britons, including clearing up common misconceptions about America.

This kind of work has been especially important since 9/11, she said.

The attacks that claimed nearly 3,000 lives on September 11, 2001 in New York, Washington, DC and Pennsylvania came as a devastating shock to people in the United States, a country in which friendliness towards strangers is a strong tradition. "People simply could not comprehend why anyone would hate Americans," she said. She added that, moving forward, the creation of greater understanding between Americans and non-Americans would require focus, time and effort by people in many countries.

The gathering on May 8 brought together students and people from business, the artistic world, the nonprofit sector and local government. Nationalities of participants included British, Somali, Italian, Swedish and American. Many of the young people who attended were first-generation Britons, of parents from Africa, South Asia or the Middle East.

Sharlina described a key difference between the immigrant experience in the United States and that encountered in other countries.

"It's been surprising to me in the UK, when I introduce myself as American or Bangladeshi-American, to hear a person say 'I'm Bangladeshi' and then to find out that he or she was born in the UK and has spent little or no time in Bangladesh," she said. "The situation is different in the U.S. because people from an immigrant background not only are American - they consider themselves American."

Asked by one young person to identify the "USP" (Unique Selling Proposition) of the United States, Sharlina said it was the entrepreneurial spirit. "It's a country with a lot of entrepreneurial energy. The degree of creativity and innovation that people bring to the workplace helps to define their success," she said.

In 2013 Sharlina and her husband to Cairo, as her next assignment is at the U.S. Embassy there. Prior to entering the Foreign Service, during her university years, she spent time in Egypt and Turkey. Sharlina has a Bachelors degree in Political Science from MIT and a Masters degree in Conflict Resolution from Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

During her talk, she was asked about ways to overcome prejudice. She said prejudice existed in all countries. This included Islamophobia in the United States. She said the best way to counter prejudice was to spread knowledge, especially through education, and to challenge ignorance. "It's sad to say, but prejudice is found in many places. When I spent time in Egypt (while a university student), sometimes a person would learn that I was Muslim and say 'Alhamdulillah' ('Praise to God!') - and then start saying horrible things about Jews and Christians," she said.

Sharlina said many misconceptions about people from a different country or background resulted simply from a lack of contact. She laughed when she described her surprise, as a university student arriving in Turkey, to discover that not everyone spoke English. "I had travelled to Bangladesh regularly since I was a child, but it had never occurred to me that so many Bangladeshis spoke English because it had been a British colony!" she said. During her time in Turkey, she learned Turkish.

Sharlina urged young participants at the gathering to help build bridges between people from different ethnicities and countries, including between Americans and non-Americans. She said sports was one powerful way to do this, something she had seen in preparations for the Olympics in London this year.

She said developing diversity in the workplace was positive and important, including in the diplomatic corps. "When I travel back to the U.S., I encourage young people from ethnic and religious minorities, including Muslims, to go into the Foreign Service," she said. "It's a wonderful way to help bring about change." Sharlina said it was a challenge, however, to persuade young Muslim Americans to become diplomats since many of the parents coming from South Asia considered law, medicine and engineering as the only professions guaranteeing an acceptable level of financial security.

Sharlina was asked how to help Americans get better connected with the rest of the world, and vice versa, given the fact that the U.S. economy, as the world's largest, and the geography, with an ocean to the east and to the west of the North American continent, prompted many U.S. nationals to spend their entire working lives and all their holidays in the home country.

She said the number of young Americans travelling outside the United States had increased significantly, compared to earlier generations, and this was a very encouraging trend. Sharlina said it was important to look for opportunities, regardless of one's nationality, to bridge the knowledge gap between Americans and non-Americans.

 

 

Breaking the Spell for Britain's Young Jihadis: A Roundtable Discussion with Munir Zamir

Nearly three dozen people gathered in London on November 22, 2011 for a Project Mosaic roundtable discussion on how to protect young people in the UK from extremist movements.

The guest speaker, Munir Zamir, described his association years ago with extremist Islamist organisations, when he was a teenager and young adult. Since 2008 he has run Fida Management (Fida means "sacrifice" in Arabic), which helps young people by providing alternatives to the al-Qaeda narrative.

"We need to teach young people to think, to question, to reason -- and to be tolerant of others," said Munir. In his talk on "Breaking the Spell for Britain's Young Jihadis", he described how he and many other young Britons in the 1980s and 1990s joined Mujahedeen organisations in order to help oppressed Muslims in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kashmir and elsewhere -- but the desire to help eventually turned into a desire to hate, with violence being offered as the only solution.

Munir said young people from underserved immigrant communities (his Indian-born parents arrived in the UK from Pakistan in the 1960s) faced a special challenge in forging a sense of identity, belonging and purpose if they felt isolated from mainstream British society.

He said parents, teachers and others needed to help children and young adults by encouraging good education and by providing moral leadership. "I tell young people that it is my responsibility first to strive to understand myself before I can consider judging someone else," he said.

Fida Management provides constructive pathways for young Muslims to address grievances that can place them at risk. The organisation works across the UK to help make individuals and communities more aware of the dangers of anger, hate and intolerance.

The roundtable discussion on November 22 was part of the Project Mosaic Lecture Series, which addresses topics including engaged citizenship, ethnic diversity, tolerance, integration of immigrant communities, prejudice, extremism and conflict resolution.

9/11 Commemoration Gathering in London

About 50 people came together in London on September 8, 2011 to remember those who died on 9/11 and in other violence fuelled by group hatred. The Project Mosaic event, called "10 Years After 9/11: A Gathering in Commemoration", was hosted by the London programme of Syracuse University, which lost 35 study abroad students amongst the 270 people killed when Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed over Lockerbie, Scotland in December 1988.

Prayers were read or sung by Father Peter Wilson, Imam Dr Abduljalil Sajid, Rabbi Debbie Young-Somers, Sheikh Seddiki Sidi Fawzi and the Reverend Deacon Meliton Oakes.

The short films "Two White Roses" and "Inspiration through Faith" were shown and their filmmakers, Timur Ahmet and Tariq Chowdhry respectively, offered reflections.

Participants read remembrances of those who died in violence that resulted from ignorance, fear and prejudice. Those commemorated included the 52 victims of the July 2005 London bombings, 200,000 Bosnian Muslims who perished during the Bosnia War from 1992 until 1995, hundreds of thousands of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs killed during the partition of India in 1947, and six million Jews annihilated in the Holocaust.

We invite you to read the programme, remembrances and prayers offered at the gathering by clicking on the links below.

Download Programme sep8 11 event

Download Remembrances sep8 11 event 

Download Prayers by faith leaders at Sep8 11 event