Council looked at the potential role of american muslims in combating terrorism, policy differences between the obama and Trump Administrations, at the potential impact of president trumps immigration policy. [inaudible conversations] hello, everyone. My name is rabia ahmed. Thank you so muchh for attending aus roundtable titled islam vers the west. We are grateful to our esteemed panelists who are agreeing to speak on this very critical in timely topic, and to all of our viewers were watching on cspan2 and listening on cspan radio. We would like for this penalty be as interactive as possible so we have cardsac on the table for our guests inhouse to submit question for the q a, and we also for our viewers were watching on tv, please tweet us your questions at hashtag ask impact. Before i pass the mics on to the director of a policy and ethics the program and the moderate of todays event, i which is like to say a few words about impact. Impact is a National PublicAffairs Organization that works to promote and strengthen pluralism for the American Public. We do that to increasing understanding and working on policies that affect our community. The four policy as we work on our National Security and Civil Liberties, immigration, human security, as well as religious freedom. For purposes here on this panel, we will befo discussing the isse of extremism and how to counter isis. It has been our position for years that a robust approach to eradicating terrorism both foreign and domestic is necessary. At the same time our nation can never be truly secure when the Civil Liberties of any community are curtailed and with that taking a holistic approach to addressing all forms of terrorism. Furthermore, federal, state and local government should never censor or condition engagement with any community through the lens of National Security alone. So with that said id like to pass off theat mic to hoda hawa who will officially begin the panel. Thank you, rabia. So were here today to talk about the off debunked but still widely used clash of civilizations that the west and islam are incompatible, and that further there is a war between islam and the west. Recently weve seen a number of policies and announcements with regards to both domestic and international issues. Trump recognizing jerusalem as the capital of israel, the several iterations of muslim ban, National Security strategy announcement to be announced later today and the ship from counteringay violent extremism that focuses on all forms of violent extremism to strictly focusing on islamic extremism, just to name a few. We are also seeing, in my opinion, the, implementation oa White Nationalist agenda. This seems like its a movement to address 2040, a when white americans will no longer the majority in america. Policy discussions about this and we need to engage our members in congress on capitol hill. We need to engage the think Tank Community and we need to engage Civil Society to really talk about the impact of this agenda on our National Security. Policy shifts and announcements have happened and are happening at a time when we as a nation are coming to terms with las vegas, what happened in parts of, and in other texas. These are just some to name a few. Against the backdrop of a president who uses the power of his digita and against the back drop who uses thel digital bully pulpit almost daily. As i mentioned, the president will announce the National Security strategy. From what we know it will focus on four areas, defending the homeland, american prosperity, advancing american influence and peace through strength. According to reports one passage of the draft strategy reads and i quote, the United States rejects bigotry, ignorance and oppression and seeks a future built on our values as one American People, an active and concerned american citizenry is the fundamental requirement for a free and resilient nation. For generations our society protected free press, free speech and free thought. No external thread should shake our values, undermine our i think theres a lot to unpackage in that passage. One point takes us back to the theme of todays panel and that is that this president continues to perpetuate the myth that islam and the west are incompassability and to address his first audience he travels to saudi arabia and overlooks directly talking with american muslims at home. How does this life and the contradictions impact the muslim communities . Well focus on that question and more with our esteemed panelists today and id like to introduce them. To my left, we have the senior fellow at Brookings Institution for middle east policy and author of islamic exceptionalism how struggle over islam is reshaping the world. To my right, the president of the muslim Public Affairs council and to my far right, the nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former white house appointee in the Obama Administration and recently the deputy special envoy for israelipalestinian negotiations. So wed like to start the panel off with a few opening remarks from all of our panelists. We want this to be, as an engaged conversation as possible so, we will have time for question and answer later. Starting this home. God most gracious, most merciful. I just want to jump into two points we should look at in terms of the Trump Administrations National Security agenda. The first point is the departure from a longstanding u. S. Policy and that longstanding u. S. Policy was articulated actually on page 9 of the 2015 National Security strategy under the Obama Administration and states and i quote, we reject the lie that america is at war with islam. And the question to the Trump Administration is that does it continue with that policy . Because the rhetoric and the policies are saying exactly the opposite. That the United States is not just at war with violent extremist groups, but it is at war with islam. And if we are entering that era, were in a dangerous part of our own history and of the worlds history for that matter. So,s that the first thing that we should look at and not just in terms of the introduction and the press statements of peoples that may backtrack from what the president himself may tweet, but the actual policy. What are the actions . And which way is our country going as it relates to islam or any religion for that matter. The second departure is from another longstanding policy articulated by an ambassador back in the early 90s, he is the former ambassador to syria, syria and israel at that time. He said theres two track approach as relates to terrorism. First is bringing perpetrators to justice and secondly to deal with the root causes that create the environment to make terrorism more of a reality, to deal with social political issues, to deal with war, to deal with week governance and authoritarianism and we should look at this strategy how it relates to the above. If it does not address those issues, what we should expect is more war that will cost more american tax dollars and more lives altogether without any real sense of security for our country. It is amazing that as we see groups like isis have less capability for terrorist attacks, and in other words, using trucks now and primitive methods of violence, that as they lose the technological ability for wreaking havoc, for creating terror, that the American Public now is more hysterical about the threat of isis. It should be the opposite. As we reduce the ability of terrorist groups, the American Public should feel more secure and if it does not feel more secure, then theres a problem at the top with leadership. The issue is were not having a conversation about these in terms of policy discourse. Number two, theres a sense that this administration wants to go on the war path against islam, not just against extremist groups. And let me explain that in more detail then. I believe shes right when she said that we are witnessing the rise of a White Nationalist agenda in u. S. Policy. It is a policy based on ideology, not based on values. It is a policy thats based on fear that a group of americans are going to lose power as opposed to sharing power with other americans, they are building walls, calling for travel bans and they are fomenting war abroad. That does not bowed well for our National Security and the reality is, in my opinion, also, that religious nationalism is a national problem. While we are witnessing white religious nationalism in america, we are also witnessing muslim religious nationalism abroad. We are witnessing jewish religious nationalism in israel. And what is happening then is that the extremists are dictating the direction of our future, not the mainstream. And if this administration and future administrations do not figure out a way to bring back mainstream conversations about religion, as opposed to only extremist conversation abouts religion, then i fear that religious nationalism is going to take a stronger foot hold in america as well as what were witnessing abroad. Number two, we are under the threat of eroding American Values as it relates not just to National Security, but a number of policy issues. The first and foremost is the American Value of equality under the law. If we lose equality under the law while were talking about the rule of law, then people will look at the rule of law as an instrument of oppression. And thats whats happening actually abroad and this is what we are in danger of entering in our country here that those in people will talk about the rule of law, but the way to intimidate and silence people. People who are political dissidents, they will be intimidated and silenced through various means. For example, in the United States theres something called the antimedia movement. Diversement and sanctions that protest the occupation of palestinian territories. And because the powers that be now have created legislative means of anti those who are expressing their rights to protest the policy of treatment of palestinians are going to be intimidated and arrested if they are in boycott and investment sanctions. Thats whats happening in ours today. And theres those void of communities. If we dont have communities involved in discourse on these issues, well have more surveillance, more arrests, and people feeling less and less secure. There needs to be a means of having communities involved in these discussions and the example is the new york state, the state of new york announced a Counterterrorism Commission and again, we have a number of Law Enforcement people involved, but we have no Community Based organizations involved in the discussion and that leads to another point thats very troubling and that is that the Trump Administration is killing partnerships between Law Enforcement and communities throughout the country. What we have been working on for the last 20 years in partnership with Law Enforcement is eroding. Theres less of a public trust towards Law Enforcement. That does not bode well for serious effective policy, whether its a policy on violent extremism or any issue thats looking for the interest of our country. My final point is that if the United States government wants to do away with this notion that americas at war with islam and this was started by groups by isis and al qaeda as a means to generate popularity that theyre the ones fighting america us because america is at war with islam and now, the United States government is adding mo more fuel to that idea. And while isis is defeated on the battlefield, its looking for another group, and may be another group more extreme than isis. But i want to go back in history when the afghani people sacrificed a million lives to defeat the soviet union that led to our country, the United States victory in the cold war, did we show any gratitude . Did we say thank you to the afghani people . No, instead our cia, our intelligence agencies fed al qaeda to be the line against the soviets. It lead to the raise of al qaeda and what we saw there was afghanistan was basically trashed. We did not offer any peace dividends to the afghani people and it led to more chaos and civil strive and a destruction of their society. When the iraqi people and the Syrian People stood up against isis that led to the defeat of isis, are we saying thank you to them as an American People . No, we are not. Just the simple gestures to say thank you for being on the side of america against these forces that definitely take on more muslim lives than any lives altogether, there are more muslims lives that suffer at the hands of isis and other violent extremist groups than anyone else, do we say thank you to them . No, instead we tell them theres a travel ban, we want to build more walls and we have more antimuslim rhetoric. This does not bode well for American International interest and it does not bode well for americas domestic issues. So, i leave with that very sobering and unfortunate reality that i see here and on the horizon. Can you comment upon and rhetoric and policies that we see out of the Trump Administration and impact that that has on Islamic Movement and muslim majority countries and again, how that impacts the Muslim American community . First, thank you to the muslim Public Affairs council for having me. The first i want to say on this fundamental issue, is islam compatible with the west and we keep coming back to this particular topic. If you look at various elections in western democracy, the u. S. , europe as well, islam and muslims have in some ways become the primary if you look at partisan divide people are debating essentially 1 to 5 of the population in most western democracies. Its an interesting question how a relatively small minority has become an all encompassing concern in our democratic context today and thats why this isnt just about the role of american muslims or muslims in the west. It comes at the very heart of what it means to be a democracy and how we live with difference in these societies. I think if you want proof or if we want proof that islam or i should say muslims and the west are compatible, because there are different islams and islam is a complex idea and religion, if we look at american muslims, i think the four of us here are american muslims, that that by itself is proof of the compatibility that theres a sense you can be fully muslim and fully american without having to choose. Where in europe, i think its been mo are more complicated theres a tension between being french and being muslim and youre sometimes asked to choose one over the other to be more secular or less religious or less conservative because were a country that appreciates the religious expressions in public life and we dont see that as something bad to be fought, that you can be christian, jewish, or muslim and express that identity in the public sphere, that has been one of, i think, the very important aspects of american identity. But now for the first time, at least in recent memory, we have administration that wants to challenge that basic idea and say that you have to choose to be american over being muslim, or if muslims express their religion or say anything positive about sharia. Sharia is islamic law or tradition so muslims wouldnt be able to know how to pray if it wasnt for sharia. So if we have prominent politicians asking american muslims to disavow sharia, they wont have how to pray or fast or do the pilgrimage. Theres more dangerous rhetoric that has more in common with europe in the past than in terms of racism in the european context. Its not something very indigenous, i would say, to the american experience, to the muslim experience of living here. So, thats one point i really wanted to start with. When it comes to the Foreign Policy aspect, you know, isis as i think it was correctly noted, as isis is on the back foot and as we have success in fighting its territorial limits, its territory, isis will feel more need to show that its still relevant. So, we are going to see more terrorist attacks, unfortunately, and we as americans have to do everything we can to limit that and counter that, but it is something that we will have to live with in some form for the forseeable future so this idea that terrorism can disappear is not a realistic one, right . But what that means is that every time theres a terrorist attack here in the u. S. Or in europe, theres going to be there will be additional threats to american muslims and to our Democratic Values as a country because we will see politicians using the specter of terror attacks to target american muslims and to question their americanist. So unfortunately, what i worry about is that every time, every time this happens for the forseeable future perhaps for decades to come, american muslims will come under scrutiny