A Welcoming Hand and a Pat on the Head

George W. Bush has never been one to complicate debate. He speaks of evil axes and evil doers, and he has plenty of platitudes regarding the righteousness of the American people. But now his administration is trying to broadcast his simplistic rhetoric abroad—specifically to the Muslim world. The government’s new tool against terrorism is state department videos that highlight a few faithful Muslims in a super-tolerant United States. Unfortunately, The New York Times has just reported that in Indonesia—the world’s most populous Muslim country—they are getting, at best, mixed reviews.

The videos include a schoolteacher, with head covered, who takes her children to baseball practice and speaks of the unwavering tolerance of her community after Sept. 11. Another account has a Muslim firefighter who works alongside a Hindu. These stories are heartwarming. And it is certainly true that America is, at its best, among the most diverse and tolerant countries on the planet. Yet these videos’ sugar-coated optimism is disingenuous and will be totally ineffective at swaying hostile foreign opinion.

There are plenty of Americans not weaned on harsh Sharia Islamic law who would object to the videos’ presentation of a perfectly harmonious United States. Despite what the state department says, it is not an effortless task for outsiders to be integrated into our Judeo-Christian cultural fabric. In my quite diverse Los Angeles public elementary school and middle school, we had a few very devout Muslims. For the most part, people respected their beliefs, or saved giggles about their requisite robes and foreign-sounding names for “normal” friends later. But they were occasionally mocked in public. Those struggling with English had it a lot harder.

But even if these videos were balanced portrayals of Muslim life in America, very few Pakistanis, Indonesians or Saudis would believe them. The distinct anti-American atmosphere in much of the Islamic world, coupled with the dubious nature of the content, will compel most to pass these saccharine shows off as propaganda pieces. Skeptical foreigners wary of United States intervention around the world won’t all of a sudden trust the state department because, in place of a heavy-set balding white man, an olive-skinned American in a headscarf tells them that we’re really not the great Satan, after all. Those who are less critical of the United States will, at the very least, find the videos’ rosy message extremely patronizing.

That doesn’t mean the U.S. shouldn’t be promoting its ideals of free speech, democracy and the rule of law. The success of these basic values will do much more than a series of sanitized TV spots. Once the Muslim world, from Southeast Asia to the Middle East, begins empowering its populace and preparing its youth to function in the modern world, we may actually begin to see the swell of anti-American anger subside. This may seem too long-term, but there are easy, common-sense things we can do right now, such as supporting and promoting the budding Bahrainian democracy (which just held its first democratic parliamentary elections) and pressuring Egypt to stop imprisoning its pro-democracy advocates.

We can even produce pro-American broadcasts for international distribution, but they must not appear to be propaganda pieces. Tell the world about our successes, but temper that with a discussion of what we’re still improving. If we approach the Muslim world truthfully, intelligently and above all, humbly, perhaps we’ll actually get a few of its residents to listen and consider what we have to say.