President Obama's Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Dr. Rashad Hussein emphasized the historic importance of the Islamic Solidarity Summit for bringing together such a large number of participants in response to King Abdullah's call to discuss the Syrian crisis and the other pressing Islamic issues. The extraordinary Islamic Summit in Makkah was not the only reason for this interview (the first) for Hussein. It was a longtime wish to get to know the person who was selected by the American President to represent him in this large Islamic Organization despite Hussein being only 34 years old. The Islamic world is bustling with problems and complications. Selecting a Muslim diplomat with legal experience and Indian origin like Hussein to represent the biggest country in the world at an organization of 1.7 billion Muslims in the world, could not be an ordinary or spontaneous choice. The interview, which was conducted at Okaz Headquarters in Jeddah, was Hussein's first interview with a Saudi, Arabic, or foreign newspaper since he took office in Feb. 2010. The outcome of the interview showed that Hussein is a calm person, has a clear vision, thinks deeply, and his thoughts are well organized very much like those highly experienced in the political, security and legal affairs. Okaz Editor-in-Chief Dr. Hashim Abdo Hashim interviewed Hussein in the presence of Hisham Jahdali, political editor; Khalid Tashkandi and Mohammed Ahmadi, managing editors; Christy Watkins, public affairs officer; and Noha El Charif, information assistant. --Okaz/Saudi Gazette: How do you find the outcome of the Summit? Hussein: First, thank you for receiving me and I would like to express my gratitude to visit you before departing the Kingdom. The Summit was important for bringing together such a large number of participants in response to King Abdullah's call to discuss the Syrian crisis and other pressing Islamic issues. More important is that the Summit was held in a short time under the patronage of King Abdullah. Okaz/Saudi Gazette: Were the results of the summit up to your expectations? Hussein: Our participation was to give a strong signal of our support to the Syrian people and the democratic process in Syria. We were pleased that the OIC has taken the necessary steps to protect the democratic process in Syria. A statement was issued in Washington welcoming these steps. I also had the opportunity to hold bilateral meetings with several leaders like the Malaysian Prime Minister, Nigerian Vice President, and the Pakistani, Senegalese, Mauritanian, Turkish and Afghani Presidents. Okaz/Saudi Gazette: Do you think the understanding in the Muslim world of the US's position regarding the region's issues are the same as that in the US? Hussein: I think it is a long process... and I believe there is a significant improvement in the process of understanding among the Americans of the Muslim world issues. There is more understanding of the American position by the Islamic countries as well. I think there are no stereotypes regarding the American view toward Muslims or Muslim views toward Americans. There is a deeper understanding of the fundamental values shared by the two sides, such as interests in family, daily affairs, child care, insurance, education and medical care. Okaz/Saudi Gazette: You seem optimistic... are you? Hussein: Yes, I do have great expectations. You remember when President Obama took office; he started restoring the relations between the US and the Muslim world. During his visits to Turkey, Egypt and Indonesia, the President showed the need to open up to issues of concern to the Muslim world and to emphasize that we have high standards in achieving our goals. Okaz/Saudi Gazette: You are young with big tasks at hand? Hussein: With regards to my age, I think it is important to have somebody young to fill this position since most of the people in the Islamic countries are less than 30 years old. President Obama has been clear since he took office that he is willing to support me to carry out this role, and I expect support from the Islamic countries as well in order to fulfill my duties. Okaz/Saudi Gazette: Talking about the current situation in the region, what is your personal assessment of what is being circulated? What is currently happening in the region is a new phase of creative chaos? What about the rest of the phases? Hussein: I think the people who have suffered for long periods of repression are expressing their aspirations now and demanding to get their rights and self-determination and to pursue their ambitions and aspirations. It has now become clear that it is no longer accepted to continue oppressing the people who demand to preserve their dignity and achieve their ambitions. Therefore, what is happening today should have happened at one time. There have been dictatorships ruling for two or three decades. It was not reasonable for them to maintain their power, therefore their downfall was expected. What I expect is that some difficulties will take place in the near future as is the case in all transitional periods to democracy. Okaz/Saudi Gazette: What about in other regions? Hussein: We have to wait and see. As for what has happened in the Arab world, there is a strong shift toward democracy, a desire of the people to participate in decision-making, particularly in those governments in the Arab world which do not meet the wishes and aspirations of the people. Therefore, countries that respect the rights of their citizens enjoy stronger stability. I have verified this through my visits to various countries in the region and North Africa. Okaz/Saudi Gazette: How can you match “chaos" and “creative" at the same time? Hussein: From the American perspective, we have said since the beginning of these events that we respect a number of basic principles, the first being that we oppose the use of violence, and we stand by the people who claim to achieve their demands and aspirations and those who want to live with dignity. We have announced that we support certain political and economic reforms, and to be more clear, these revolutions are not associated with the US, but with the people in the region who believe they need to achieve certain issues. We hope these people have strong ties between each other and cooperate in order to achieve their aspirations. Okaz/Saudi Gazette: How do you see the Iranian role in the region? Hussein: Since President Obama took office, we were clear that we want to engage Iran and we want Iran to take some steps that comply with international standards, but unfortunately this did not happen. I cannot speak on behalf of Iran, but in general it is important that Iran, as an important country in the region, plays a constructive role with respect to the aspirations of its people and the peoples of the region. Iran has a long and important civilization and great tradition. In the US, there are tens of thousands of Americans of Iranian origin. We don't have any problem with the Iranian people. We respect their traditions and culture, and we try to find solutions for existing differences as well. Our Partnership with the Kingdom is great. We seek complete partnership with the rest of region. It is difficult to improve relations between Muslim countries and the US, unless peace is achieved in the region. Okaz/Saudi Gazette: Kindly shed some light on your personal, rather than official views regarding Islamic and current political issues? Hussein: I appreciate this and I would like to tell you that I as a Muslim American raised in the US, am highly concerned about what is happening in the Muslim world. We have seen what happened in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation and we talked a lot about what is happening to Muslims. In my view, President Obama, immediately after assuming his responsibilities as president, faced many of the pending problems between the US and the Muslim world. There were tensions due to wars and crises accumulated in both Iraq and Afghanistan and the failure to reach a solution to the Palestinian issue, which is the most contentious issue. In response to your question about my views, I say that unless there will be solutions for these problems, particularly the Middle East problem, it will be difficult to improve the relations between the US and the Muslim world. We would like to see the end to violence in Iraq, an easy transition of power in Afghanistan and a breakthrough of the bottleneck in the Middle East problem; however hopes alone are not enough. We want to establish a strong partnership with the Islamic world because this world played an active role historically. We want to establish strong partnership in education, fighting crime, in science and technology, health and interfaith dialogue. We do not want to establish our partnership with the Muslim world based on political and security rules only, but on common interests, and we want to get away from the complications that hinder our relationship. That is why I find the way President Obama dealt with the Islamic world was good because we want to create a good level of mutual respect in this matter. When it comes to terrorism, it is unfortunate that the relationship between the US and the Muslim world was seen through the perception of terrorism, and we want a comprehensive view of this relationship, taking into account many of the issues that were several times emphasized by President Obama. Terrorism is not accepted by the Islam and Muslims around the world. Al-Qaeda has killed more Muslims than any other organization. This is the message that we want to deliver to the others. We noticed that during the Solidarity Summit the Islamic world had to face a number of internal issues. There are some groups who adopt destructive thoughts, and there is an urgent need for the Islamic world to do a better job in terms of clarifying that these groups are engaged in activities that contradict the teachings of Islam and that there is need to make some reforms in order to create conditions in the Islamic countries that allow citizens to achieve their ambitions and to obtain their rights through hard work. Okaz/Saudi Gazette: Are you hinting at what is happening in Lebanon? Hussein: I am not talking about the ideological side, but I am saying that violence cannot be used against innocent people in order to achieve political objectives, as this is rejected by Islam. Okaz/Saudi Gazette: What is the role of the US in this? Hussein: We have made it clear, since President Obama took office, that what terrorists are doing contradicts the teaching of Islam. However there are limits to what the US can do. This requires the attention of the Islamic world, and we have no problem to say that this is not consistent with the teachings of Islam. The Quran states: “God does not change the condition of people until they change what is in themselves." We support all constructive attempts to change in the Muslim world. Okaz/Saudi Gazette: How do you view the changes currently taking place in the region after the so-called Arab Spring? Hussein: It is true that the Egyptian president is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, and we made it clear from the beginning that as long as he respects the rights of minorities and women, we support him. Democracy does not mean elections only; it includes principles of respect for the human rights in the community. Okaz/Saudi Gazette: The American stand was inconsistent with regard to Libya, Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen. It did not have a clear view. This is of course an opinion, and another opinion is that the US knew what was to happen. Officially, what is America's position? Hussein: Because of distrust in the past there is skepticism in the American stand. Okaz/Saudi Gazette: Was the US surprised by what has happened? Hussein: I would say that no one in the world was able to predict what has happened. In 2009, we did not expect to see Egyptian elections in the wake of a ruling that lasted thirty years and also the collapse of regimes that lasted for decades. Okaz/Saudi Gazette: Including the CIA? Hussein: I think nobody expected it. If we had expected what has happened, we would not have faced the many problems we faced later. If we go back to President Obama's statements, since the outbreak of the revolution in Egypt, we would see that they are all focused on emphasizing that we stand by the people. We support their demands and the political and economical reforms that they are demanding. We respond to the criticism of some that this reluctance was due to not knowing the future. Okaz/Saudi Gazette: Our questions reflect what people in the region want to know, and not our views? Hussein: Certainly in many of our discussions in the region and the world from India to Nigeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, many of the questions were identical, most of which go back to what I mentioned in the beginning, some political issues that have to be addressed in order to make radical progress in the relations between the US and the Islamic world. Okaz/Saudi Gazette: Lastly, how do you find your work here in the Kingdom? Hussein: My job in Saudi Arabia is focused on establishing strong relationships between the US and the OIC and the greater Islamic world. However, I see that there are important things worth noting, like what the Saudi leadership has made in terms of the important measures to respond to the aspirations to its citizens, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah's, initiatives in many great fields including the initiative of dialogue and understanding among followers of religions and sects. We have a close and strong cooperation with the Saudi Ambassador to Washington, Adel Al-Jubeir, and we have established a great partnership between the two countries.
