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Ramabriga · Guest

French Muslims get close look at U.S.
State Department outreach brings Europeans to U.S. to build good will but generates backlash
among some in France.

By Katrin Bennhold
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Sunday, June 08, 2008

CLICHY-SOUS-BOIS, France — For Karim Zeribi, the highlight was shaking the hand of Sen. Barack
Obama. For Ali Zahi, it was meeting basketball star Magic Johnson. Mohamed Hamidi was surprised
to find a mosque in Washington that was bigger than the one in his parents' village in Algeria.

Hamidi is a well-known blogger in France, Zahi is a mayoral aide in this Paris suburb, and
Zeribi runs an employment agency. All are French, Muslim and younger than 42. All grew up and
work in French suburbs that are emblematic of the frustration among second- and
third-generation immigrants that led to three weeks of rioting in 2005.

And all three joined the small but growing ranks of influential Muslims in Europe invited to
the United States on 21-day trips organized by the State Department as part of its
International Visitor Leadership Program.

The long-standing program, which seeks to introduce future foreign leaders to the United
States, has become part of an effort to reach out to Europe's Muslims, especially the
disaffected young people who U.S. officials fear could fall prey to radicalism.

For the three men who participated in the program in recent months, the exposure to America
softened views of a superpower generally distrusted and disliked in their communities.

"Many young people think that America is waging a war on Muslims," said Zahi, 32, chief of
staff for the mayor of Clichy-sous-Bois, where the 2005 rioting started after the deaths of two
teenagers of African origin who were being chased by the police.

"I tell them America is many things," said Zahi, who is also on his town council. "It is a
country that has a black presidential candidate and a self-confident Muslim community. I tell
them the American people are hospitable and generous."

But recent reports about the State Department program have stoked a backlash, with some in the
news media accusing the participants of being seduced by a program to spy on the Muslim community.

The International Visitor program was started in the 1930s. Its alumni include French President
Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks — and the discovery that they were planned by Muslim
militants who lived in Germany — the State Department made reaching out to Europe's Muslims a
priority, according to James Bullock, director of public affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Paris.

France became one focus because of the size of its Muslim community — the largest in Western
Europe, with an estimated 5 million people — and the anger at discrimination and unemployment
that was evidenced in the riots. From 25 to 30 French citizens are chosen each year to go to
the United States under the program; since the 2005 riots, about a dozen of them have been Muslim.

But the American outreach effort has raised some concerns in France. One TV documentary on U.S.
cultural programs in the Paris suburbs and the visitor program included the headline: "The CIA
in the suburbs." The left-leaning magazine Marianne warned of an "American takeover of Arabs
and blacks."

Zahi — whose trip last fall took him to Texas; Arkansas; Oregon; Washington, D.C.; and New York
— said he had felt a backlash. When the newspaper Le Parisien wrote about his trip, the article
appeared opposite one alleging that the Central Intelligence Agency was recruiting in the
suburbs and a cartoon of a Muslim using an American flag as his prayer mat. After that, several
people accused him of being a spy, Zahi said.

Zeribi, 41, who in addition to running the employment agency is a politician in Marseille, and
Hamidi, 35, the editor of the popular Bondy Blog, returned from the United States last month.

They said they were impressed to see people of every color in government offices in Washington.
In Los Angeles, they met a Saudi American teacher preparing to run in local elections. In
Jackson, Miss., they spent half a day patrolling with a black police officer.

"I'm not naive," said Hamidi, who also is a high school teacher. "I know why they invited us,
but this was not clumsy lobbying. It was fun, and we learned a lot."

Zahi and Zeribi contend that the French media backlash was stoked by anti-immigrant feelings.

"It would be funny if it wasn't so serious, people saying we are agents," Zeribi said. "When
did anyone ever accuse any of the white French politicians on that program of working for the
CIA?"
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **