Report says US misunderstands religious perception of military actions
-25/11/04
A Pentagon advi
Report says US misunderstands religious perception of military actions
-25/11/04
A Pentagon advisory panel has echoed sentiments expressed by Anglican Bishops saying that the United States is failing in its efforts to explain the nation’s diplomatic and military actions to the Muslim world.
The comments came from the Defence Science Board who released a harshly critical report on its web site yesterday after the content was disclosed by the New York Times.
The report urged the US government to urgently change its approach to understanding and communicating with the Muslim world but warned that no public relations campaign could defend America from flawed policies.
It follows a statement last week from two senior Anglican bishops, who emphasised that the religious dimension of the conflict needed to be recognised.
“We need to acknowledge that huge numbers of Iraqi Muslims (and in particular those from the Sunni Triangle) increasingly regard the current military action as a war between religions” the Bishops of Coventry and Bath and Wells said.
“The battle for Fallujah began on one of the holiest days on the Muslim calendar, the day when the giving of the Koran is celebrated. In a culture where symbolic deeds generally carry more weight than in the West we cannot disentangle the actions of what is perceived to be a Christian government from the backlash against local Christians as seen in the bombing of Christian churches.”
Echoing the Bishopís sentiments, the report said the United States had fundamentally misunderstood why many Muslims are hostile toward the nation.
“Muslims do not ‘hate our freedom,’ but rather they hate our policies,” it said.
In the eyes of the Muslim world, the report says: “American occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq has not led to democracy there, but only more chaos and suffering.”
The report scolds the US administration for casting the new threat of Islamic extremism in a way that offends a large portion of those living in the Muslim world.
“In stark contrast to the cold war, the United States today is not seeking to contain a threatening state empire, but rather seeking to convert a broad movement within Islamic civilization to accept the value structure of Western Modernity – an agenda hidden within the official rubric of a ‘War on Terrorism,’ ” the report stated.
“When American public diplomacy talks about bringing democracy to Islamic societies, this is seen as no more than self-serving hypocrisy,” it said.
The report, “Strategic Communication,” proposes a permanent “strategic communication structure” within the White House National Security Council and urges elevated roles and responsibilities for a designated senior officer within other government organizations, including the State Department and the Pentagon.
“To win a global battle of ideas, a global strategy for communicating those ideas is essential,” the Defence Science Board’s chairman, William Schneider, Jr. wrote in a memo introducing the report.
The report, completed in September, is among a series of reports produced by the board, a group of non-government experts who advise the secretary of state on a range of issues.
Report says US misunderstands religious perception of military actions
-25/11/04
A Pentagon advisory panel has echoed sentiments expressed by Anglican Bishops saying that the United States is failing in its efforts to explain the nation’s diplomatic and military actions to the Muslim world.
The comments came from the Defence Science Board who released a harshly critical report on its web site yesterday after the content was disclosed by the New York Times.
The report urged the US government to urgently change its approach to understanding and communicating with the Muslim world but warned that no public relations campaign could defend America from flawed policies.
It follows a statement last week from two senior Anglican bishops, who emphasised that the religious dimension of the conflict needed to be recognised.
“We need to acknowledge that huge numbers of Iraqi Muslims (and in particular those from the Sunni Triangle) increasingly regard the current military action as a war between religions” the Bishops of Coventry and Bath and Wells said.
“The battle for Fallujah began on one of the holiest days on the Muslim calendar, the day when the giving of the Koran is celebrated. In a culture where symbolic deeds generally carry more weight than in the West we cannot disentangle the actions of what is perceived to be a Christian government from the backlash against local Christians as seen in the bombing of Christian churches.”
Echoing the Bishopís sentiments, the report said the United States had fundamentally misunderstood why many Muslims are hostile toward the nation.
“Muslims do not ‘hate our freedom,’ but rather they hate our policies,” it said.
In the eyes of the Muslim world, the report says: “American occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq has not led to democracy there, but only more chaos and suffering.”
The report scolds the US administration for casting the new threat of Islamic extremism in a way that offends a large portion of those living in the Muslim world.
“In stark contrast to the cold war, the United States today is not seeking to contain a threatening state empire, but rather seeking to convert a broad movement within Islamic civilization to accept the value structure of Western Modernity – an agenda hidden within the official rubric of a ‘War on Terrorism,’ ” the report stated.
“When American public diplomacy talks about bringing democracy to Islamic societies, this is seen as no more than self-serving hypocrisy,” it said.
The report, “Strategic Communication,” proposes a permanent “strategic communication structure” within the White House National Security Council and urges elevated roles and responsibilities for a designated senior officer within other government organizations, including the State Department and the Pentagon.
“To win a global battle of ideas, a global strategy for communicating those ideas is essential,” the Defence Science Board’s chairman, William Schneider, Jr. wrote in a memo introducing the report.
The report, completed in September, is among a series of reports produced by the board, a group of non-government experts who advise the secretary of state on a range of issues.