Muslim former CIA official details struggles

Former director of the CIA’s Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program Emile Nakhleh told an audience of about 25 people that though he is optimistic about the Obama administration, American understanding of Islam is still lacking.

Nakhleh spoke Tuesday at the Castle Tuesday evening to promote his book, ‘A Necessary Engagement: Reinventing America’s Relations with the Muslim World.”

‘We need to understand the Muslim world much better,’ Nakhleh said. ‘It is a matter of national security.”

Nakhleh, who was born in Palestine and served in the CIA for 16 years before retiring in 2006, said there was a tendency during the Bush administration ‘to paint the Islamic world with one broad brush.’ The CIA, on the other hand, made the distinction ‘between terrorism and the larger Islamic community,’ he said.

For example, Nakhleh said the lack of communication between the Bush administration and the Muslim world was demonstrated when Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan could not teach at University of Notre Dame after he was denied a visa because of an intelligence file.

As it turns out, the only intelligence in existence against the scholar was newspaper clippings in his file, ‘but because it was an intelligence file, it had some sort of aura,’ Nakhleh said.

‘We need to talk to moderate thinkers, Muslim thinkers who try to synchronize faith and active citizenship in non-Muslim societies,’ Nakhleh told The Daily Free Press during his book signing. ‘And that is what Tariq Ramadan has been doing in Europe, a new kind of reasoning.”

Nakhleh said even though the United States has a low standing in the Muslim world, it does not stem from differences in values or ideas, but in policies. President Barack Obama’s decision to no longer call the American military action in the Middle East a ‘war on terror’ is a wise one, he said.’

‘The majority of Muslims, according to public opinion polls, support ideas that we consider relating to good governance, but they oppose our policies,’ Nakhleh said. ‘We need to become more sophisticated about differentiating between those who oppose values, but support policies.’

In order to foster a positive relationship between the U.S. and Islam, tolerant Islamic academic institutions should be established in America, Nakhleh said.

‘We need to engage Islamic organizations,’ Nakhleh said.

BU international relations professor Augustus Norton said he enjoyed listening to Nakhleh, who has a ‘reputation for being someone who is very courageous and outspoken.”

‘I thought the idea that was the most interesting was the idea of creating an Islamic university here in the U.S.,’ Norton said.’

BU graduate student Ishraq Ali, who is Muslim, said he was interested to hear Nakhleh say American governments must not remain passive in its relationship with the Muslim community.

‘I was pleasantly surprised that he talked about engaging the American-Muslim community,’ Ali said.’

University Professors postgraduate student Alex Zito said Nakhleh was a ‘breath of fresh air.’

‘Especially after coming from the past regime that was so afraid of Islam, just to hear someone say that it is ok to form a relationship with Islam,’ Zito said.’

Zito said he takes issue with how Islam is portrayed in the media.’ ‘

‘You get these shows that are like, ‘Why won’t Islam agree with democracy?’ and that passes as discourse,’ Zito said. ‘So to hear this guy not even bother to address that, but to talk about building a relationship instead was really refreshing.”

Nakhleh told The Daily Free Press that it is important not to confuse the totalitarianism in Islamic countries with the religion of Islam.’

‘It is not that Islam is inimical to democracy,’ Nakhleh said. ‘It is that Islamic dictators are inimical to democracy.’