Farah Pandith, Special Representative to Muslim Communities at the Department of State, engaged in a web conversation focused on U.S. engagement with Muslim communities last Friday with Steven Clemons, Director of the New America Foundation’s American Strategy Program. The discussion, moderated by Cheryl Benton, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Public Affairs, touched on a number of topics, including engaging Muslim communities at the grassroots level, engaging the next generation of Muslims, creating awareness of the diversity of Islam and Muslim majority countries, engaging in honest dialogue about the Israel-Palestine question, and the response of Muslim communities worldwide to terrorist attacks done in the name of Islam.

Exchange programs between the U.S. and Muslim communities were not discussed, although Pandith did briefly touch on the importance of connections taking place via technology:

When I think about this generation, the Facebook generation…for me, getting to know someone across the world on Skype is a little bit awkward. But for the 16-year old, the 20-year old, this is a normal thing. We have an amazing opportunity here to be able to say, ‘You need to meet this person, you guys are doing the same thing.’ That matchmaking that happens…what can happen because of that matchmaking? Anything. So that’s what I want to see us do more of, for sure.

Pandith also responded to a viewer's question of why her position as representative to Muslim communities even exists, in light of the fact that there are no such representatives to other religious communities. Pandith noted that this is a question she receives frequently: “Do you have [a representative] for Christian communities, for Hindu communities? What about Christian inclusion?” For Pandith, engagement with all religious communities is vital, but the importance of engaging Muslim communities at this moment in history is particularly strong:

We are in a very special moment in time that has been defined over the last 10 years. It is a priority for us to engage Muslims…a fourth of the world’s population is Muslim, so why wouldn’t we be engaging them? But that is not to say we are not engaging with other faith communities… We are trying to build bridges that have been broken and restore opportunities for dialogue [with Muslim communities]…and that requires putting a special emphasis on engagement with them.