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>>Paul Mason: It's January 2011 and the State Department gets the call, Hey, guys, you know
what? Those people in -- those students in Cairo we have been teaching about democratic
values and how to use the Internet and all that kind of stuff, they're going to overthrow
our key ally in this region. How did that go down?
>>Farah Pandith: So let me broaden this for you because what happened in the Middle East
didn't happen in a vacuum. From my vantage point, as somebody who has been all around
the world looking at Muslim youth, those people under the age of 30, it is very profound what
happened in the Middle East. But there is a youthquake going on and the ideas of young
people are ricocheting around the world. So when you think about the impact -- I mean,
everybody on the stage earlier today talked about what was happening with the movement
of ideas. That's the revolution. >>Paul Mason: It is an ideas revolution. It
is associated with youth. When you call it a "youthquake," just flesh that out a bit
for us. >>Farah Pandith: For me, when I look at 1.6
billion Muslims on the planet, which make up 1/4 of humanity, most of those Muslims
are under the age of 30, 62%. Many of those young people have smartphones and are on Facebook.
They are putting content on all the time. They are exploring their identity. They are
understanding how to build networks. When I think about the power of those ideas,
specifically around the issue of identity, I know for sure that something that is happening
with the Muslim in Sao Paulo is making a difference to a Muslim in Jakarta.
So the youthquake that's going on, the ricocheting of movement means that the outsider as they
look at this understands that the power and the influence of all these ideas is taking
shape in a wide variety of ways. That is why it is a youthquake. It is why youth matters,
why when I'm tweeting on Twitter, I do hash-tag whyyouthmatter. Something is going on on the
planet. We are seeing it places like the Middle East,
but we can also look at countries around the world and see that this matters.
>>Paul Mason: What do you think that is doing, this connectedness and the instant availability
of the technology to connect, what is it doing to -- what happens to ideas, how ideas mutate,
and challenge each other? >>Farah Pandith: So, I mean, this is a moment
in time for young people. We've talked about that. But this is also a moment of time for
networks. There are all kinds of networks. There are positive networks, and there are
negative networks. When we think about how youth right now think
about themselves, differences are broken down. Your differences don't matter. Your idea matters.
So they are not looking at what religion you are or what -- what part of the world the
idea came from. They're not looking at what color your skin is. They are looking at the
power of that idea. Similarly, when you think about how other
nefarious groups think about networks, they're learning from positive networks. So you look
at a group like al-Shabaab, for example, that put forward its first online magazine, because
they're learning how to do this. You see extremist clerics who are using social media instead
of using long descriptions of religious theology and how they ought to do something. They're
using it in short code, so that it can be used on -- in social media and used on mobile
applications. They're taking advantage. So the importance of understanding of how
networks can be used makes a difference for not just you and me. Certainly for everybody
in this room who is coming from the private sector, from the NGO sector, how you think
about the influence of your network makes a difference right now for the young people
on the planet. Think about this, Paul.
80% of the world are teenagers living in the developing world. 42% of the world is under
the age of 25. These networks matter. They matter in the
ways we're talking about on this stage and they matter for businesses and they matter
for security. They matter for a lot of reasons. >>Paul Mason: And so let's be frank and sort
of in-your-face about this. When young people -- let's put it this way: You don't have to
be an Islamic fundamentalist to see an image of American servicemen urinating on corpses
to think "Maybe that applies to me. Maybe I identify with the corpse and not the guy
in the uniform." What do you do about that? What do you do
about that practically, and in the everyday statecraft of your job?
>>Farah Pandith: So I think it's really important to understand a couple of things. One, our
government and other governments who have had to face very difficult circumstances on
the ground, that certainly was a very serious and very tragic occurrence have condemned
the act, and that is a very important thing to do.
>>Paul Mason: Yeah. >>Farah Pandith: But also, for me -- from
my vantage point and for those of you who don't know my job, I am focusing on young
people around the world -- Muslims in Muslim majority countries and Muslims that live as
minorities -- and understanding what they're doing and how they're interacting and how
they feel. The images that we see on TV makes a difference
for my job overseas. I would ask many people in this room if they can name for me the name
of a preacher in Florida a couple of years ago, year and a half ago, who threatened to
burn the Koran. I bet you most people in this room couldn't
mention him by name. I promise you that the young people around
the world mention him by name thinking that he represents America.
And the reason I bring up that example is because all of our actions on YouTube, in
sound bites on the BBC, how you talk about things, how people -- how companies react
to a particular thing, impacts the imagery. We hear a narrative that has been out there
actually since 1993, sort of this "us" and the "them." Sam Huntington wrote a piece in
'93 in foreign affairs called "The Clash of Civilizations?", the idea being there's an
arrest and some news flash. Muslims live in every part of the world. There are more Muslims
that live outside of the Middle East than in it. How do we think about and give dignity
to the young people who happen to be Muslim live on the planet?
If you're going to debunk the "us" and the "them," you have to put into place alternative
narratives than an "us" and a "them." And the way to do that is to get young people
who can speak for themselves and talk about what it means to be Muslim and modern on the
planet, to talk about the difference between culture and religion. Those are the questions
that young people are asking. That is how they're thinking about their identity.
So when you ask about an image, a terrible image that happened in Afghanistan, or something
else that might be happening in another part of the world, you are seeing an increase -- online,
by the way -- many young Muslims who are moving into this space to talk about and define who
they are right now. >>Paul Mason: Are you saying to us, then,
that -- I mean, we may have missed this -- that one of the revolutions we are possibly living
through is the long-awaited and much -- much sort of mourned the fact that it hasn't arrived
-- Muslim reformation or Muslim renaissance? Is there an idea of redefinition going on
of what it means to be a Muslim actually through these networks, through the horizontal spaces,
that the elites just don't realize? >>Farah Pandith: Well, here's what I'd like
to -- I wouldn't say "the elites don't realize." I think the vast majority of the people on
the planet that are talking about what it means to be Muslims on the planet have stereotyped
what a young Muslim is. And I mean that in a wide variety of ways.
What I will tell you as somebody who has traveled the world and in the last 2 1/2 years has
been to 62 countries around the world, there is only one data point, only one data point
that is consistent, whether I'm talking about Tashkent or I'm talking about Stockholm or
I'm talking about Sao Paulo, and that is this: Young Muslims are asking the question, "What
does it mean to be modern and Muslim? What is the difference between culture and religion?"
That identity piece is really key. If we do not understand that they are asking
that question and that they're going to external places to get answers to that question, then
we are missing the boat. We have to invest in the youth of today. We
have to understand what's happening with the identity crisis. We have to understand why
their voice matters. And we have to understand that this youthquake
is not a negative thing. It is a powerful thing. Because as they see the diversity of
each other, as they learn from each other -- you heard on the stage earlier the tools
that we can use and implement to build stronger societies. One of the things that has been
missing is the ability for these young voices to get onto the world stage and be talked
about with dignity and respect. >>Paul Mason: It just reminds me of that moment
in the 1960s when, for many people in eastern Europe who -- and the Soviet Union, who were
involved in dissident activity and democratic ideas in odds.
The United States seemed at that time a very attractive pole of attraction. They wore jeans.
They wore bluejeans. That was the symbol. They listened to, you know -- God forbid -- American
jazz. That was modern. They didn't listen to pop music. Their painters were the abstract
expressionists. Now, we're now talking, as you say, about
a bit -- a quarter of humanity, the Muslim youth coming to ask this question. What does
the United States have to offer in that debate? What is the equivalent? Who is the Jackson
***? Who is the -- who is the Vaclav Havel of the next generation?
How do you intersect with them? >>Farah Pandith: Well, I think there are a
couple of things that are going on. One is our government has done a lot. Never
before in history has a President of the United States put Muslim engagement front and center
in how we are thinking about this demographic thing, and this is something that President
Obama did on the steps of the Capitol in his inauguration speech.
You certainly know that he went forward and in Cairo spread out a vision of engagement.
And I think that's very important because it sent a very powerful message.
But you also have the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, who has recalibrated the
way we at the Department of State are engaging with young people. Citizen diplomacy is key.
It is central. It's very important to her, the way in which we're shaping, listening
to the voices on the ground. Everything that I do is grass roots and community-driven.
Two, the power of social media. "21st century statecraft" is the terminology the secretary
uses to describe this. This is really powerful. That an average citizen can send a direct
message to me on Facebook or Twitter or to an ambassador or to a senior government official
is unprecedented. The power of the citizen to move those ideas
forward, to let us know. I learn about and see young people all around
the world. I connect an idea in Oslo with Nouakchott, Mauritania. It is important for
us to understand the power of like-minded thinkers to come together.
We understand that if you put smart people together that are working on things together,
you're building networks that will have far more power than a government.
So when you ask what can a government do, there are things that a statesman, a leader,
a commander in chief can do, but there's so much that we can do. The greatest strength
of my government -- and I believe most governments in the world -- as they think about the issue
of youth is to be the convener and the facilitator and the intellectual partner with the ideas
that we hear on the ground. Give them the space to build. Give them the
tools that they know how to affect things. Somebody earlier on the stage today talked
about the nuances, that everything is not the same. How important is that fact? Something
that is happening in Madrid is not the same thing that is happening in Barcelona.
And we need to understand that when we talk about youth and we talk about Muslim youth
in particular, that you cannot paint people with the same brush and protect -- pretend
everything is the same. >>Paul Mason: You've been privileged to go
to many of the places we're talking about and in the eye of the storm.
Looking ahead, where do you think this is going? Where is the network bit of it going?
Where is the youth bit of it going? Where is the democracy bit of it going to end up?
Is it going to end up, as we did three years after 1848, with dictatorships returning?
>>Farah Pandith: So I think it's very dangerous to be looking into a crystal ball and to pretend
that you know what's going to happen. There are so many external facts that can happen.
One thing I know for sure. You cannot pull back the component of information. People
are thirsty and searching and want to be connected. They're sharing their ideas online.
We have a moment in history. This window is open right now when we look at this. It is
the investment all of us must make -- government, the private sector, NGOs, and others -- to
understand how we give the tools to this generation so that they can move their ideas forward.
I am somebody who is positive. I do believe in the ideas that are happening within these
Muslim communities who are pushing back against extremist ideology that's coming in to prey
upon their communities in some places. They're creating opportunities that are very
organic, that make sense for their particular community, that may not make the same sense
in another part of the world, but they're learning how to use the power of their facility
to be able to create that -- sort of fortify themselves from external ideologies.
We have to give them that space to do it, we have to give them the levers to do it,
and we have to help them to put more alternative narratives on the planet than they -- than
a narrative of extremism, and to suggest that there is a monolith where, in fact, we understand
that there is much diversity. >>Paul Mason: And when those people see people
in your own country going onto the streets and saying, "Hey, even this country is due
for a big change, even this country" -- remember the 99% Bat Signal projected onto the Verizon
building. What do you -- you know, what do you say to
them? Because the people -- the people in there -- you know, in Burma, people in Egypt
are seeing that and they think, "I can see this. I can see that -- I can see there's
a sort of commonality." And yet you're sitting there, you're the government
of that country, and it's your cops who, at the end of the day, are distributing pepper
spray into the faces of some of these demonstrators. >>Farah Pandith: Well, one of the things we
talk a lot about when I go into youth situations, a community discussion, a university, is to
talk about the principles that are embedded in our Constitution, and that is extremely
important for many ears to hear around the world; to understand that while America is
not perfect, that our laws are sacred to us and we are working very hard to make sure
that we give dignity and respect to every individual.
The last piece I would say on that, too, is that from the vantage point of those people
who are Muslim who are overseas, they're very interested in how western countries treat
their Muslims. They are extremely interested about the conversations that are happening
here in Europe and about -- about Muslims. They're extremely interested in the way in
which we give dignity to all people, regardless of race, religion, or anything else.
>>Paul Mason: Farah Pandith, thank you.