Bridging The Divide Between The United States And The Muslim World Through Arts And Ideas: Possibilities And Limitations

Appendix III: Mustapha Tlili’s Opening Statement

Excellencies, Dear colleagues and friends, Ladies and gentlemen,

I am lucky to stand here before you to open this conference at this particular moment. I say I am lucky for two reasons. One—three years ago, when Karen Hopkins and I first met in Kuala Lumpur at the height of the Danish cartoon crisis, at another conference organized by my Center on related issues, and wondered what our two institutions could do together to draw on the power of culture to change American perceptions of Islam, Islamic civilization and Muslims, we could not in our wildest dreams imagine that together with Vishakha Desai and Asia Society as our third partner, we would open the Muslim Voices Festival exactly one day after President Obama made his historic speech of a “new beginning” addressed to the Muslim world. Three years ago, with tensions spilling over into violence and extremist rhetoric on all sides, envisioning an initiative dedicated to introducing Muslim–world arts and culture to an American audience seemed likely to be unpopular at home and an object of skepticism in the Muslim world. We could not, then, have imagined the timeliness of this initiative coming to fruition at a moment in which all the stars have aligned to highlight the merit of our belief—that culture could enhance and frame the new dialogue between America and the world of Islam. We owe this particular stroke of “luck” to the American people, who elected President Obama and turned the page on eight years of misunderstanding, hostility, and reckless policy–making.

The second reason for feeling lucky is that President Obama’s Cairo speech, which focused on bridging the divide between the U.S. and the Muslim world, is a perfect opening statement for this conference. Speaking with deep sincerity borne out of personal experience and conviction, the President set the tone that should inspire all of us this weekend as we reflect on the role art and culture can play in repairing the terrible damage of the last eight years, and building a new and healthier relationship between the people of this country and over one billion Muslims around the world — a relationship based on mutual respect and mutual interests, as stated by the President.

Organizing this festival and its conference component would not have been possible without the foresight, commitment, conviction, and support of many in the American funding, academic, and cultural communities at a time when improving the U.S.–Muslim world relationship did not feel like the realistic goal it seems today. My deepest thanks to them all. I am sure they feel — you feel — vindicated by the turn of events, and you have every right to enjoy it.

We are gathered here this weekend to explore the transformative power of culture as part of a national U.S. strategy for a new dawn in the relationship between this country and the Muslim world. The power of culture is the power to transform perceptions, and Muslim Voices might offer a case study of how the cultural expressions of the world’s one billion—four—hundred—million Muslims, including seven million in the United States, can harness this power. Our goal is to shift non–Muslim Americans’ perception of the Muslim world as a bleak and threatening monolith, and to align it with the picture of a tolerant and diverse civilization that the President painted in his Cairo speech. Over the next ten days, more than 100 artists and performers will present music, film, theatre, visual art, and poetry from Afghanistan, Canada, Egypt, France, Senegal, Morocco, Syria, Iran, Palestine, Kuwait, India, Malaysia, Tunisia, Indonesia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Brooklyn. This weekend’s conference aims to open the hearts, minds, and imaginations of the American public, media, and policymakers to this unprecedented aesthetic feast. We hope it will whet their appetites for future celebrations of Islamic culture and in particular bring them to see the Muslims around them no longer as threatening strangers but as fellow citizens who are the proud inheritors of one of the greatest civilizations in history.

With the dedicated help of an outstanding group of academic colleagues, we constructed an agenda for this conference that considers the diverse arts and cultural practices of the Islamic civilizations from the various angles of history, sociology, economics, anthropology, literary analysis, and so forth. Four sessions of the conference will be devoted to the analysis of these art forms and cultural practices. We hope that you have all read the background material, particularly the introductory essay, and will keep in mind the policy implications of these cultural practices more than their history or theoretical underpinnings. The last two sessions are precisely to be devoted to policy considerations—essentially to answer the question of how to contribute, through a new cultural diplomacy, to the paradigm shift that the President called for in Cairo. The conference organizers and funding institutions hope that our efforts will result in few clear recommendations for reshaping cultural diplomacy towards and cultural exchanges with Muslim communities. It is also my personal hope that you will view this conference as only the first step in a process, and that you will build upon our experience here to launch new projects, enlarging the network of organizations, groups, and individuals of goodwill in both the U.S. and the Muslim world. We at the NYU Center for Dialogues stand ready to do our part.

Ladies and gentlemen, while culture offers many opportunities and possibilities, it is not a panacea for the problems that divide the U.S. and the Muslim world — problems rooted in hard political issues, some of which go beyond what Muslim Voices (or any arts and culture initiative) can realistically address. The suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and camps around the region, the fear of Afghans for whom the sky has become the source of lethal bombs, the pain of three million displaced Pakistanis, the exhaustion of Iraqis longing for peace, and the frustration of Iran in the nuclear arena are real and acutely felt grievances in the Muslim world. These are not issues that can be answered or fully addressed in this event: Ten days of music, art, and cultural engagement is no substitute for policies that work to remedy these complex political situations.

Recognizing that the power of culture has its limits is important. What Muslim Voices and this tremendous collaboration between three of New York City’s major cultural institutions can do is open the door to a set of new perceptions — in this case, centered around the idea of the Muslim world as a rich space for world–class artistic production. This shift in perceptions can in turn encourage an atmosphere of respect and equality in which to address the harder political issues. For too long, the American people have lacked opportunities to discover the rich cultural prism of Muslim expression and ideas. For too long, our differences with the Muslim world have been framed not in terms of diversity but as the foundations of a permanent global conflict, a so–called “clash of civilizations.” Behind the ambitious endeavor that is Muslim Voices is the passionate belief that when people participate in an aesthetic experience, they elevate themselves to the universal plane of aesthetic judgment, changing their perceptions, and creating an environment more conducive to addressing hard issues on the basis of mutual respect and empathy.

Thanks to its immigrant history, the United States has a rich tradition of fusing global cultures into a compound American identity, and reaching out to the world through cultural exchange. While this tradition has lagged in recent years, we are currently witnessing a pivotal shift in our national history: a rebirth of cultural exchange, dialogue, and understanding. With the new American administration extending a hand to the Muslim world, we are on the brink of a new cultural engagement and a new climate of understanding. I believe I speak on behalf of all the organizers in hoping that by sharing the rich scope of Muslim–world arts and culture with the American people through this unprecedented event, we can move one step closer to achieving the goals set out by President Obama in his paradigm–changing speech in Cairo.

Thank you to all the participants for being here — many of you for traveling long distances to do so — and for the contributions you will make to our dialogue. I look forward to enjoying this productive, thought–provoking, and aesthetically rich weekend with all of you.

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