| Speaker Gives Talk on Engaging the Muslim World |
On Wednesday, Nov 4. Professor Juan Cole spoke on Middle East policy. The talk, entitled “Engaging the Muslim World” was given at 6 p.m. in the Pacific Theater.
The talk, which was free, brought a full crowd, forcing some attendees to stand in the back of the theater. After the talk, which lasted an hour and ten minutes, Cole held a question and answer session, taking numerous queries from the audience. The book that the talk was based on, “Engaging the Muslim World” was available for sale to those interested. The first part of his talk concerned an overview and critique of the Bush policy on relations to the Middle East and the Muslim world. Cole stated that he believed the Bush policy to be based on the concept of pre-emptive war. Professor Cole believes this to be an improper course of action. Instead, Cole advocated more peaceful solutions to problems there, such as civilian aid in the form of infrastructure improvements. Cole also said that the Bush administration focused on humiliation and insults to Muslim countries. He insisted that more tolerance of Islam was necessary to improve relations with the Middle East and the rest of the Muslim World. After this, Cole stated that he believed that improving US-Middle East relations was necessary to further the interests of America. He explained that the amount of oil in the Middle East will make it too strategically important to ignore. Cole said that President Obama is on the right track to positively engaging the Muslim World. The President has increased civilian aid to Afghanistan and reached out to the Muslim World in a speech at Cairo. Cole believes these are excellent actions in furthering America’s positive engagement with the Middle East, suggesting further aid to struggling nations there. He ended his talk with a summary of what he considered his four most salient points on engaging the Muslim World. “A: We can’t ignore the Muslim World. B: We need the Muslim World. C: We’ve begun engaging it already. D: When you’re in a hole, stop digging.”
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