Organization of Islamic Cooperation - OIC
United States and within the international community. First, of course, has been the President’s outreach on this issue, which has been mentioned in the Panel, and making it clear that Islam is actually not a problem, but is a part of the solution, and the President did utter in a number of ways. First of all in Cairo, when he described the many contributions that Islamic civilizations had made in the past and continue to make today.Second, he argued that Islam is actually critical in combating violent extremism. And one of the things he mentioned was verses from the Qur’an, of course, that rejects this idea that if terrorism is something that is acceptable and that, of course, an idea, as we have mentioned in the Panel, that is often used by some to argue that Islam is a violent religion. We are taking the step to make sure that it is clear that is something that is rejected by Islam and that is something that the President did after the ‘Forthood massacre’. It is something he did after 25th December for attempted bombing, and something that he did after ‘Time Square’, he just made a speech that was the point made in which he said that those who try to argue that Islam is a violent religion are just trying to divide the West and Muslims, and, so, he spoke about military service people that are actually Muslim and are contributing to Islam and to security and he spoke about other service members, as well. Of course the President mentioned the initiative, such as this one, such as the Alliance of Civilizations, in his speeches in Ankara and Cairo, and in these speeches he also talked about combating these types of feelings and these types of negative tensions by creating partnerships. So, for example, the United States has increased educational exchanges and people to people interaction, on a daily basis, is one of the things that we see can play, somewhat, of a role in combating Islamophobia, and learning, and creating scholarship about other societies, also other partnerships in the area of health and science and technology. Finally in another area that the President mentioned in his Cairo speech was the defense of the ability to practice Islam and that is something that he talked about in terms of a woman’s right to wear hijab, something that
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