Awareness of continuum for PD

In “Semantics and Ethics of Propaganda”, Jay Black lays out six descriptions for how semanticists look at language (p. 131-32). One his “awareness” bullets suggests looking at concepts in a continuum rather than in a true/false or black/white manner. This seems particularly relevant in looking at how to approach public diplomacy. I often think about the importance of considering a continuum when I hear people say “The Muslim World” in discussion about how to reach people in Muslim countries. Saying “The Muslim World” is problematic because how can you reach people if you are already lumping them together? And when the media and scholars say “The Muslim World”, do they really mean the Middle East? The problem is that saying “The” implies there is only one definitive Muslim perspective. Saying “World” implies that there is another reality that exists for all Muslims, and that it is in opposition to another world. In order to truly reach out and collaborate with Muslims around the world, the US and Europe must look at Muslims as part of the same continuum as all humanity. This may be obvious, and this is not a new concept. As the Toronto Sun editorial by Salim Mansur pointed out in September 2007, “The Muslim world is not a monolith, and Muslim understanding of their faith-tradition -- Islam -- in lacking a centre analogous to the Vatican, remains widely dispersed.” In my own experience of traveling in Turkey, Morocco and living in Senegal, I have seen how diverse the practices of Islam can be. I saw women as business and political leaders, had discussions with women about their choice to wear or not wear a veil, and was also welcomed into many homes. One time, I met a religious leader in Morocco, and in his tradition, the men and women don’t shake hands if they are not in the same family. However, because he knew I was from the US, he shook my hand to open up dialogue and make me feel welcome. That simple gesture exemplifies how open many people are to making connections, even if it means taking actions that are not normally practiced.
If when people say “The Muslim World” and they mean the Middle East, then we should specify that in our conversations. The Middle East makes up about 15% of the world’s population of Muslims (see chart):

http://btw.imb.org/news_map.asp
















While I don’t expect the media to point this out in every broadcast, there does seem to be a disconnect between some of the facts of demographics and the way language is used. This makes the “awareness” points that Black highlights even more crucial in creating more understanding between people. He also includes the idea that the semanticist has an awareness of the limitation of humans where “the world is in a constant process of change, that our perceptions are limited, and that our language cannot say all there is to be said about a person or situation.” In addition, there needs to be a conscious communication with a receiver of our communications that “a fact is not an inference and an inference is not a value judgment”. All of these levels of awareness are not necessarily achievable in the daily interaction between people, but they are goals to reach toward in our PD efforts.
In “Social Power in International Politics,” Peter Van Ham points out that Zogby International, the opinion research group who conduct regular surveys in the Middle East, “suggests that the top five Muslim values are faith, family, justice, ambition, and knowledge.” While in the US the top five are “freedom, family, honesty, self-esteem, and justice.” (p. 125). I wonder how these surveys were conducted and how these concepts were defined and by whom? How were the questions framed? I think it is useful to try and figure out what people think about and value, but it is hard to quantify and measure accurately. Van Ham looks at how the public diplomacy efforts of the US focused on the shared values of family to try and reach out to connect with communities in the Middle East after 9/11. I think that the failures in the US PD efforts come from a lack of understanding of what people is the communities in the Middle East are actually dealing with on a day-to-day basis. And even thinking of the Middle East as one block is misleading as there are complex multiple cultures and societal structures within each country in the region. As Cull speaks to so eloquently, PD efforts must be based on receptive listening and collaboration. However, in order to do this, the participants in PD efforts have to first evaluate their own misconceptions about the communities they want to communicate with. Ultimately, the goal of the US diplomacy efforts is to have a stronger and safer nation. In order to achieve this, we have to understand the subtleties of the many Muslim communities around the world as part of our same continuum.