Pandith explores the complexities of working for the State Department

Farah Pandith was appointed the first Special Representative to Muslim Communities in 2009 by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and has traveled to over 80 countries over the last few years in her role. She is responsible for creating a vision for how the government should engage with Muslim communities and was awarded the Secretary's Distinguished Honor Award in January 2013, which is given to those who exhibit outstanding service to the agencies of the United States government. The Chronicle sat down with Pandith to discuss foreign affairs when she visited for the opening of the new Doris Duke’s Shangri La Islamic art exhibit at the Nasher Museum of Art.

The Chronicle: Could you explain what it means to be the Special Representative to the Muslim Communities for the State Department?

Farah Pandith: The position of the special representative was established for the first time in American history in 2009 when Secretary Clinton asked me to work on a couple of different things. We have several special envoys and special representatives to the government. We have a special envoy for the Middle East peace, we have a special envoy to Sudan—there are certain issues for which we have certain people to focus purely on specific things. When the President gave his historic speech in Cairo in June of ’09 he asked every part of our government to engage more fully than we ever have before to engage with Muslims so in every part of the government you’ve seen more efforts to do that. One of those ways is through the Office of the Special Representative to Muslim Communities, which it’s a global mandate, so Muslims in Muslim majority countries and Muslim minorities. It’s people to people engagement so that everything we’re doing is grassroots and it’s under the age of 30, so it’s the youth deployment.

We are working with our embassies to find new ways to build connectivity to build networks to engage in a dialogue and conversation to break down this idea of an us and them, to catalyze more unique opportunities to build resilient and strong communities.

TC: What are the key policy issues that come into play in your work?

FP: The state department is a very big entity that have many different components so on the policy side, there are regional bureaus and functional bureaus that work on a broad range of things. Whether your looking at climate change or human trafficking or women’s and girls’ empowerment or Israel/Palestine, whatever the issue happens to be there are bureaus that work on it and my mandate cuts across many of these things because of the ecosystem in which we work. I’m focused on Muslim youth and making sure we understand what they’re saying and build a platform on which their voice can be heard.\

TC: What exactly is the global mandate portion then?

FP: When you are looking at the importance of giving dignity to all voices when you look historically at the way the U.S. would look at speaking about Muslims we would be very regional, the pivot was usually to the Middle East and while consciously you know the largest Muslim populations are in Indonesia, Pakistan, India. You can understand that consciously but understanding the connectivity is very different. Having the global mandate means you are able to connect the conversations that are happening in Stockholm with the conversations happening in Buenos Aires with the conversations happening in Kampala with the conversations happening in Brunei.

You may not think about connectivity but it is very important for your generation who are all digital natives to understand the flow of ideas. I often talk about the fact that there is a “youthquake” happening around the world and the ideas of young people are shaking things up. The idea that is key to this mandate is if it was that we only want you to look at this part of the world, it would be inappropriate at this moment in time.

TC: What do you think is the role of Muslim communities within the United States? Is collective action by such a small faith group effective?

FP: First off let’s be clear. This is America. Freedom of speech is a really important value in our country and I respect and advocate for freedom of speech. People have the right to protest peacefully and people have the right to talk about things in a free and open environment. You said what is the responsibility of, and I will tweet that as what is the responsibility of us all? There are faith communities and non-faith communities that talk about matters of foreign policy with great passion and they should speak about things in a peaceful and, I hope, respectful way.

TC: You came before in 2011, and now you’re back. Are there any changes you’ve noticed on campus or changes in what you think people should pay attention to?

FP: What I will say is I’m really excited to take part in the opening of the new exhibit and that is a new and wonderful thing. The importance of Duke pinpointing and projecting the importance of Islamic art and culture is essential to where we are in 2013. The movement of ideas around the world and so many components of culture and history are being wiped out. The heritage and the history of human civilizations that have come before are being destroyed sometimes in war and sometimes purposefully.

Thank goodness to Duke University for pausing and taking a moment to say, 'This is important. You have to know what came before you and you have to understand the impact.' Islamic art and culture is something that I run across in everything that I do in all the 80 countries I’ve been to over the last four years whether it’s graffiti art in Bahrain or a young artist in China doing Chinese calligraphy. To understand there are mosques that are 1,000s of years old in China at the same time that there are mosques being built in Ireland. Wherever you are in the world you have to look at architecture and Islamic civilizations not just in theology but how it manifests in what people do.

So coming here on campus today I made this visit because of the opening of the museum. I feel very fortunate to be included in this. Its not only historic and important. I truly hope at a time when UNESCO is doing so much to preserve ancient sites when we are seeing the eradication of history and heritage through very extremist ideology. When we are seeing the impact of your generation releasing their ideas through art and in new ways whether it’s hip hop or the women doing poetry. They are using these ways of expression to create a new narrative about what is happening around the world right now, what it means to be Muslim and young in 2013. That’s powerful—it needs to be highlighted.

TC: You’ve highlighted what Duke has done, is there something general that you would say is the role of universities across the board?

FP: A great conversation I was having earlier with Professor [Ebrahim] Moosa, [professor of religion and islamic studies], when I arrived is the importance of academia in bringing forward ideas. In a context that is allowing for a free flow of ideas and the importance of the university to push the envelope. This is the place for you to explore.

TC: Is there any advice you would give to students interested in international relations and maybe a career in the field?

FP: You all are on this planet at such a tumultuous time and as you think about foreign policy and your careers or your interest in foreign policy. Many of the students probably already do this, but just to underscore it, the importance of hearing different perspectives. To be diligent about where you watch the news and how you interpret the news. How you think about a topic makes a difference to the type of person that you are and influences the kinds of questions you’re going to ask. Be analytic as you go forward. What we tend to see in America is that we have channeled what we are most comfortable with and we only watch a particular channel, and only read a particular news source because you’re comfortable with. Read stuff that you’re uncomfortable with so you see how everybody sees the topic so you can make an informed decision.