America and Islam Youth Web Forum

oneblue is developing a website for youth to express their views and opinions concerning America and the world of Islam in an effort to foster constructive dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims in the United States and abroad. oneblue.tv is scheduled for soft launch in February, 2010.

The site will allow global visitors and especially youth to hear and interact with experts, diplomatic officials, political leaders, journalists, authors, celebrities, and students foreign and domestic in the Washington DC metro area and across the nation.

The rich diversity of students attending American colleges and universities are a unique resource for gaining fresh perspectives about contested issues in the main stream media such as preventing acts of terrorism, the Israeli – Palestinian conflict, US intervention in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the role of women and the rule of law in Islamic societies, among others.

Muslim-American students can help youth here and abroad with little or no knowledge of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims consider the challenges and possibilities of reconciling Islamic values with Western ideals. The perspectives of non-Muslim American youth can help expand the dialogue beyond the familiar parameters presented in the media.

Social media have the potential to model our ability to adapt and peacefully co-exist in diverse communities across the United States. They can help shape better communication between Muslims and non-Muslims worldwide and promote public diplomacy through engaged discussion of intercultural issues.

Oneblue is seeking funding for this important web project. For more information, please contact Sarah Sayeed at sarah@oneblue.org

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The Abd el-Kader Education Project

oneblue is developing a unique education project with high school teachers in Iowa to encourage students to read and reflect on the life of Emir Abd el- Kader, the subject of an acclaimed new biography by John W. Kiser, Commander of the Faithful. Known today as the Algerian George Washington, this famous 19th century warrior-saint was honored at the peak of his fame by President Abraham Lincoln, Pope Pius IX, Queen Victoria and countless Muslims for his courage in defending Christian lives in the name of Islamic law and human rights.

Abd el-Kader is an important historical figure worthy of a revival because he was a devout Muslim and follower of Islamic law who confounds today's stereotypes. His conduct during war, peace, betrayal and exile is widely considered by Muslims to represent a life representing the true meaning of jihad--the daily struggle to live righteously in war and peace and not succumb to the demons of anger, hatred and revenge.

A parallel effort by the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy to encourage madrasa teachers and students in Pakistan to study Commander of the Faithful in translation provides an unusual opportunity for global discourse via the internet about alternative views of Islamic jihad.

This project is seeking support to research and develop effective teachers guides and workshops, a project website, print and video support materials, and a comprehensive three-year plan to expand yearly participation in the essay contest first statewide in Iowa, then nationally and internationally.
For more information, please contact John Boyer: john@oneblue.org

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Inside Islam: What A Billion Muslims Really Think

oneblue encourages participation in 20,000 Dialogues, a nationwide initiative by Unity Productions Foundation that uses films to facilitate dialogue about Muslims and Islam. Recent polls shown 48% of Americans hold an unfavourable opinion of Islam, the highest unfavourablity rating since 2001, yet most Americans favor outreach to Muslims. This project seeks to build interfaith relationships, create a forum for sharing knowledge and opinions, and encourage greater understanding, even when people disagree.

Inside Islam: What A Billion Muslims Really Think is the most recent UPF film exploring the expertly gathered opinions of Muslims around the globe as revealed in the world’s first major opinion poll, conducted by Gallup, the preeminent polling organization. Gallup researchers asked why is there so much anti-Americanism in the Muslim world? Who are the extremists and how do Muslims feel about them? What do Muslims like and dislike about the West? What do Muslim women really want?

In her address at a public screening of the film in Washington, DC in November, Karen Armstrong articulated its relevance to the launching of the Charter for Compassion.

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Community Outreach for the PBS Documentary: The Mosque in Morgantown

Wall Street Journal reporter Asra Nomani encountered Islamic extremisim when her friend and colleague Daniel Pearl was brutally murdered in Pakistan in 2002. Returning home to West Virginia to raise her son, she is troubled with the segregation of women at her local mosque and what she regards as expressions of intolerance and suspicion towards non-believers. The Mosque in Morgantown chronicles what happens when she decides to confront these issues and generate media attention, upsetting both conservative and moderate members in different ways. Recording interviews and events over several years, filmmaker Brittany Huckabee reveals a complex story of competing paths to social change, American identity, and the nature of religion itself which explores the larger dilemmas facing American Muslims.

The Mosque in Morgantown is part of the PBS series, America at a Crossroads produced by WETA in Washington, DC. oneblue solicited informed commentaries about this award-winning film available at Mosque in Morgantown website, and encourages local screenings and discussions by religious groups, interfaith organizations, college students and citizens interested in learning more about American Muslims.

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Arab and Muslim Learning

Jonathan Lyons served as an editor and foreign correspondent for Reuters for more than twenty years, most of it in the Muslim world., and currently teaches in the Communication and Religious Studies Departments at George Mason University. 

His new book, The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilization, offers an insightful history revealing how much “Western” culture owes to the glories of medieval Arab civilization.  More information about this and his other publications is available here.

For presentations and public discussions by Professor Lyons about his book or the general topic, What the West Doesn’t Get About Islam , contact John Boyer at john@oneblue.org.

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Peace Child Israel

oneblue supports the Peace Child Israel project founded in 1988 using theater and the arts to  teach coexistence and educate for democratic values, tolerance and mutual respect. Arab and Jewish teens work with counterparts from around Israel to create original dramas about coexistence. The plays, in Arabic and Hebrew, are performed for family, friends and the public at-large. Peace Child Israel is featured in the acclaimed film Beyond Our Differences.Watch this BBC report about Israeli and Palestinian teenagers participating in weekly PCI meetings over a two-year period.

Operating as ilmworks in 2007, oneblue helped plan and administer the first visit of the Peace Child Israel teen theatre troupe to Washington, DC which included a tour of the capital, lunch at Busboys and Poets, and meeting Muslim and Jewish teenagers at the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia for a discussion of their work.

In June, 2009 oneblue organized presentations of PCI team members with Jewish and Muslim teenagers at the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia, the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, and the Ashburn Synagogue, and helped organize an interfaith benefit recital at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington, DC by international opera star Sylvie Valayre. See video exceprts of the recital.

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Supporting Journalism That Matters

oneblue is an active participant in the Journalism That Matters community of media innovators and stakeholders seeking to build  a new ecology for quality journalism by convening, connecting, and inspiring the diverse, engaged citizens who are molding and leading the media of tomorrow.

oneblue promotes awareness within the Journalism That Matters community of the importance of international news perspectives and helped
plan and implement Journalism That Matters Silicon Valley at the Yahoo Corporate campus in 2008. Event photos here.

oneblue regards the Journalism That Matters community as a vital resource for all of its projects.

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