Monday, January 28, 2008

I'm Hopeful for the Future

By Jeremy Herb - FSR Foundation for Self Reliance - CA, USA
Sunday, January 27, 2008

The East Meets .2, held in Fremont, CA, USA, on Saturday, Jan.26 was a fantastic event

Nearly 200 people crammed into the Fremont Senior Center on Saturday to hear about the biggest challenges facing the Afghan community in the coming years.

Academics dissected "Islamophobia," multiculturalism, human trafficking and many other topics during Saturday's "East Meets West.2 Fremont World Social Forum: 'Awakening to the Challenges of 21st Century Afghanistan' symposium.

It was held by the Foundation for Self Reliance, an organization based in Fremont and Kabul, Afghanistan. Eight speakers discussed a range of topics throughout the day, with globalization as an underlying theme.

"We have prosperity like we've never seen before, but at the same time, there's a tremendous amount of poverty in the world," said the morning's keynote speaker, California State University, East Bay, President Mo Qayoumi.

Melanie Gadener, executive director of the Foundation for Self-Reliance and the event's organizer, said the symposium was designed to build on the momentum from June's initial East Meets West event.

The first symposium focused on the Fremont Afghan community, the largest in the United States.

University of California, Berkeley, professor Ronald Takaki, originally from Hawaii, related his experience in 1957 at the College of Wooster in Ohio to Muslims' experiences today.

"They could not and did not see me as a fellow American," Takaki said of his classmates. "I didn't look American, and I didn't have an American name.

Takaki told the crowd Saturday that he recently finished writing a new edition of his book "A Different Mirror," which adds a chapter on Afghan Americans in its history of minorities in America. Takaki said he hopes to combat America's "master narrative," which says the United States is a white European nation.

"Muslims in this country are Americans, too," Takaki said. "Muslims belong in America like other minorities. And America belongs to Muslims. We can be ethnic and American — we don't have to choose between one or the other."

Hatem Bazian, who also teaches at UC Berkeley, gave an energized talk about Islamophobia and America's military-industrial complex. Bazian explained that after the Cold War, America needed a new threat to feed the country's militarily fueled economy. The Muslim world was constructed into the new threat, he said.

"Islamophobia makes it possible to push back civil rights won over the past 40 years," Bazian said. "The primary threat we have is losing our constitutional rights. As citizens, we should be incensed."

The afternoon keynote speaker was Afghanistan's Deputy Minister of Women's Affairs Mazari Safa, who talked about his country's efforts and difficulties in developing better lives for women in Afghanistan.

The event also featured several readings of Rumi, a Sufi poet born near present-day Afghanistan. His 800th birthday was celebrated last year. While Saturday's symposium was dedicated to the 13th-century poet, its focus remained on what's going to happen in the current century.

"I'm hopeful for the future," Takaki said. "Right here in Fremont, everyone belongs to a minority. In California, everyone is a minority. What happened in California will eventually happen across the country. There is a bright future to redefine who is American."

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Monday, January 28, 2008

I'm Hopeful for the Future
By Jeremy Herb - FSR Foundation for Self Reliance - CA, USA
Sunday, January 27, 2008

The East Meets .2, held in Fremont, CA, USA, on Saturday, Jan.26 was a fantastic event

Nearly 200 people crammed into the Fremont Senior Center on Saturday to hear about the biggest challenges facing the Afghan community in the coming years.

Academics dissected "Islamophobia," multiculturalism, human trafficking and many other topics during Saturday's "East Meets West.2 Fremont World Social Forum: 'Awakening to the Challenges of 21st Century Afghanistan' symposium.

It was held by the Foundation for Self Reliance, an organization based in Fremont and Kabul, Afghanistan. Eight speakers discussed a range of topics throughout the day, with globalization as an underlying theme.

"We have prosperity like we've never seen before, but at the same time, there's a tremendous amount of poverty in the world," said the morning's keynote speaker, California State University, East Bay, President Mo Qayoumi.

Melanie Gadener, executive director of the Foundation for Self-Reliance and the event's organizer, said the symposium was designed to build on the momentum from June's initial East Meets West event.

The first symposium focused on the Fremont Afghan community, the largest in the United States.

University of California, Berkeley, professor Ronald Takaki, originally from Hawaii, related his experience in 1957 at the College of Wooster in Ohio to Muslims' experiences today.

"They could not and did not see me as a fellow American," Takaki said of his classmates. "I didn't look American, and I didn't have an American name.

Takaki told the crowd Saturday that he recently finished writing a new edition of his book "A Different Mirror," which adds a chapter on Afghan Americans in its history of minorities in America. Takaki said he hopes to combat America's "master narrative," which says the United States is a white European nation.

"Muslims in this country are Americans, too," Takaki said. "Muslims belong in America like other minorities. And America belongs to Muslims. We can be ethnic and American — we don't have to choose between one or the other."

Hatem Bazian, who also teaches at UC Berkeley, gave an energized talk about Islamophobia and America's military-industrial complex. Bazian explained that after the Cold War, America needed a new threat to feed the country's militarily fueled economy. The Muslim world was constructed into the new threat, he said.

"Islamophobia makes it possible to push back civil rights won over the past 40 years," Bazian said. "The primary threat we have is losing our constitutional rights. As citizens, we should be incensed."

The afternoon keynote speaker was Afghanistan's Deputy Minister of Women's Affairs Mazari Safa, who talked about his country's efforts and difficulties in developing better lives for women in Afghanistan.

The event also featured several readings of Rumi, a Sufi poet born near present-day Afghanistan. His 800th birthday was celebrated last year. While Saturday's symposium was dedicated to the 13th-century poet, its focus remained on what's going to happen in the current century.

"I'm hopeful for the future," Takaki said. "Right here in Fremont, everyone belongs to a minority. In California, everyone is a minority. What happened in California will eventually happen across the country. There is a bright future to redefine who is American."

No comments: