MUSLIM OUTREACH - THE INDIRECT APPROACH

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ISTANBUL 000175

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EUR/PPD - MHURLEY, VWALKER, CTEAL
STATE INFO EUR/SE, IIP/G/EUR, R

SENSITIVE

E.O 12958: N/A
TAGS: SCUL KPAO PREL TU
SUBJECT: MUSLIM OUTREACH - THE INDIRECT APPROACH


1. (SBU) Summary: While remaining steadfast in opposition to
U.S. policies on Iraq and the Middle East, Islam-oriented
opinion leaders and broader audiences of devout Muslims in
Istanbul and the surrounding areas have been receptive to
our public outreach on other topics of common interest. Our
ongoing efforts to present a positive, multi-dimensional
view of the United States appear to have had some success in
moderating the anti-American sentiment that we routinely
encounter. For impact on our core foreign policy issues,
long-term, sustained outreach on these broader topics is
vital to our public affairs effort. End Summary.


2. (SBU) The Istanbul and Marmara region includes a
disproportionate share of Turkey's economic base,
universities, media and cultural life. It is also home to
about one-third of Turkey's 70 million citizens, including a
large and influential Islam-oriented population. Reaching
out to them is our top priority. At the same time, these
groups are difficult to engage with our traditional public
affairs programming. They are generally not found in
university faculties, and they do not attend jazz concerts
or art openings. We have responded with new strategies.


3. (SBU) The difficulty in conveying our message on key
foreign policy priorities was exemplified by the
difficulties we had in December in programming Max Boot, a
fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations whose views and
writings closely support the Administration's policies
toward Iraq and the Middle East. When we offered to
schedule Boot for a talk at leading Bosphorus University,
the political science department refused to allow Boot to
speak before its students. Likewise, the Islam-oriented
daily newspaper Zaman refused to interview Boot, and the
Istanbul office of the ruling Justice and Development Party
(AKP) refused to attend a roundtable with him. In the end,
we did bring together good audiences at events we sponsored
-- usually around meals -- and a number of contacts
appreciated the debate. However, we note that two of the
three newspaper articles about Boot's visit were negative.


4. (SBU) In contrast, offering programming on other topics
of common interest opens doors to audiences that we cannot
reach with our traditional public affairs offerings. In
October, regular contact with the AKP Istanbul branch,
especially with a senior party member whom we sent on an IV
program in 2003, led to an invitation for U.S. elections
speaker Tom Schaller of the University of Maryland to attend
an iftar (the meal that breaks the daily Ramadan fast) and
address over 200 party members afterwards. Schaller engaged
the audience for 90 minutes -- 45 minutes past the allotted
time -- until the AKP host was forced to apologize for
ending the session. Schaller and the consulate staff were
surrounded afterwards by inquisitive AKP members who stayed
to ask questions about the elections, the speaker and the
U.S. in general.


5. (SBU) On November 3, the Consulate hosted a breakfast and
panel discussion at the Conrad Hotel to coincide with the
announcement of the U.S. election returns. We invited
guests to join us for a suhor (the pre-sunrise breakfast
that precedes the daily fast during Ramadan) and a
discussion panel that included a prominent AKP economist.
Forty guests came to the suhor and over 400 attended during
the rest of the morning, with significant participation from
the more devout sectors of society. An unprecedented 43
media organizations covered our event live. The fact that
the Consulate had used the event to host a suhor was
mentioned frequently, and two national newspapers featured
it the next day in their headlines. We still hear about it
from our contacts.


6. (SBU) We took another opportunity to engage our target
audiences when we brought out Steven Smith, a speaker on NGO
development from the University of Washington. Over the
course of several days, Smith addressed over 600 NGO
representatives, half of whom worked with Islamic grass-
roots organizations. At a meeting with the board of TGTV
(Foundation for Volunteer Organizations in Turkey),an
Istanbul-based umbrella group for Islamic NGOs, many of the
23 attendees were initially openly hostile. "Why are these
Americans here?" asked one participant; another openly
protested the TGTV President's decision to invite Smith to
address the group for 30 minutes. An hour and a half later,
the President reluctantly ended the lively Q&A session. In
stark contrast to our cold welcome, most of the NGO
representatives followed Smith out of the room to prolong
the dialogue, thank him for participating, and wish us on
our way. The next day, Smith was the sole speaker at a
lively conference in Bursa that continued for three hours.
The audience of 103 NGO representatives was full of head-
scarved women from social service NGOs sitting beside
Islamic human rights activists. In the evening, the NGO
host and three leading AKP members joined us for dinner to
discuss NGOs, politics and American foreign policy.


7. (SBU) Comment: We have taken a few lessons from our
experiences in reaching out to Islam-oriented and devout
Muslim audiences in the Istanbul and Marmara region. First,
we must invest considerable time and energy in finding and
developing relations with new Islam-oriented audiences and
groups, most of which disagree with our policies and are
reluctant to be openly associated with the Consulate.
Second, because these people are difficult to engage with
our traditional educational and cultural fare, we must
carefully design programs with topics that appeal to these
new audiences, and with costly interpretation (many of our
audiences are not English-speaking). Anecdotal evidence
suggests that these public affairs programs are giving some
of our new audiences a more positive image of the United
States. We expect these programs are also changing the way
they look at our policies in general.

ARNETT