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 Overview > Scholar & Host Stories > Scholar Stories |
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Kousar Azam
Member, Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission, India
Discipline: political science
Host: University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
Faculty Associate: Jane C. Desmond
Grant Dates: April 1-28, 2005 |
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Prof: U.S. must communicate with Mideast
Thursday, April 14, 2005
Courtesy of Sara Geake—The Daily Iowan
Improved communication between the United States and the Middle East and a better understanding of Islam are the keys to world peace, visiting Professor Kousar Azam told a group of 20 gathered in Schaeffer Hall Wednesday evening.
"The U.S. and Islamic countries need to readjust their stances to work for a peaceful coexistence. They have no choice," she said during her 90-minute lecture, "U.S. Foreign Policy, Islam and the War on Terrorism."
Increased study and knowledge about the Middle East in the U.S.—and better information about the United States in the Middle East—are necessary, the Fulbright scholar said.
"Not many have written about America in Islamic countries," she said. "And you yourselves write about the Middle East."
The war in Iraq is not a war on Islam, Azam said, adding that religion should not be associated with violence. The United States must also understand that "terrorism is a global phenomenon" and is not exclusive to Islam or the United States.
The political-science scholar said America has played a "brilliant" role in the world, and U.S. foreign policy receives both good and bad feedback in her native India.
"You have gone to Iraq, you have destroyed a bad regime, but you have destroyed lives," Azam said, adding that the main reason for disapproval of the Iraq war in India is that no weapons of mass destruction were found.
Globalization is often unfairly confused with Americanization, but Americans must come to terms with global anti-Americanism. Though there is an anti-American sentiment throughout the world, Azam said there are also good feelings toward the United States.
"The entire world mourned with your country on Sept. 11," she said. Some cheered in the street, "but they are isolated incidents of misinformed people."
The lecture was sponsored by the International Forum for U.S. Studies and the UI International Programs to help bring outside perspectives on foreign policy to the UI, said Danielle Rich, a UI graduate student who helped organize the lecture. |
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"International
education exchange is the most significant current
project designed to continue the process of humanizing
mankind to the point, we would hope, that nations
can learn to live in peace"
--J. William Fulbright |
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