Gathered around a table with Karachi-based bloggers on Tuesday evening, Farah Pandith, the US Special Representative to Muslim Communities, asked, “can’t a person do more than one thing at a time?” The question was raised as a way to get around the fact that most conversations about America’s relations with Muslims around the world are held hostage by contentious issues arising in the context of the war against terror. She was trying to make the point that even while governments wrangle about drone attacks and Blackwater, Americans and Muslims can begin to engage on a grassroots level.

Ms Pandith’s optimism about people-to-people relations strengthening ties between the US and global Muslim communities is a cornerstone of US President Barack Obama’s foreign policy. Speaking in Cairo last June, he called for a “new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect.” Indeed, Pandith’s very position – this is the first time a special envoy for Muslim communities has been appointed – is a testament to the US government’s commitment to reaching out to the Muslim world.

But over a year into Obama’s term in office, and relations between the US and Muslims remain strained. The Afghan troop surge; the spread of Al Qaeda into Yemen; the Transportation Security Administration’s heightened security requirements for US-bound travelers from many Muslim country; the delay in closing down the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay; escalating drone attacks in Pakistan; and, above all, the failure to convince the Israeli government to enforce a complete settlement freeze – these issues have hijacked any meaningful engagement between the US and Muslim communities. On campuses, on streets, and online, young Muslims are increasingly complaining that Obama can talk the talk, but balks when it’s time to walk the walk.

That’s where Pandith enters the picture. Talking to Dawn.com, she argues that Americans and Muslims can connect beyond the ambit of security issues, and, more importantly, that they can engage at a people-to-people, rather than political level. “We should focus on issues that we as humans want to work on, beyond the security component, to shift the paradigm of engagement.” She imagines an increasing number of collaborations between Americans and Muslims in the fields of education and sci-tech and through entrepreneurial initiatives.

In Pandith’s opinion, the US can help build networks of like-minded people across the Muslim world. The US government can act as a “convenor, facilitator, and intellectual partner,” she says, and help forge partnerships on the basis of common ideas and common goals. “We want to mobilise people from the grassroots up; we are telling our embassies to connect deep and wide within their communities.”

Pandith’s goal of grassroots engagement relies heavily on harnessing the power of social media to traverse boundaries – geographic, social, and cultural. That’s why she met with bloggers during her trip to Karachi: “Bloggers can write about what they see on the ground, and add a texture and component to the discussion. They can get out good ideas from young people about the future.”

By being attentive to blogs and social networks, Pandith also hopes to better understand the needs and aspirations of different Muslim communities. “Muslims are not a monolith,” she acknowledges, emphasising the need to understand the circumstances of each Muslim community separately. She points out that since September 11, 2001, hundreds of studies interrogating how Muslims think and identifying what they want have been commissioned and circulated in the US. “But when did we ask Muslims themselves what they think and what they want? Why are we talking about them as if they’re from Mars?” she asks.

If social media holds the key to better understanding, entrepreneurship, in the opinion of the Obama administration, is the concrete way to establish long-term partnerships between Americans and Muslims. This spring, about 150 entrepreneurs from Muslim communities have been invited to a two-day Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship in Washington. The summit is an initial attempt to deepen ties between business leaders and social entrepreneurs in the US and Muslim world.

In addition to the summit, Pandith is looking for ways to support individuals with big ideas. “We want to think creatively, we want to bring different people to the table [and set up introductions], we’re working with firms that promote entrepreneurship in the US to get ideas [on how to go about this].”

But for real engagement – particularly of a long-term, entrepreneurial variety – to work, the Obama administration has to overcome the trust deficit that currently exists in Muslim communities with regards to the US. To truly succeed, Pandith’s vision of frequent people-to-people interactions and collaborations will have to unfold in a conducive environment in which the US is seen as a superpower that genuinely respects Muslims.

Take Pakistan, for example, where many people with ties to American citizens or boasting degrees from foreign universities are eyed with suspicion and accused of being unpatriotic. Even the greatest social entrepreneurship venture or individual-level capacity building will not change the hearts and minds of the wider public.

Ultimately, grassroots mobilisation of Muslim communities will have to be accompanied by grand gestures from the top as well so that Muslims, especially young ones, become confident that engagement is an administrative priority, and not just a talking point.

For instance, in Cairo last year, Obama stated that he “[rejected] the view of some in the West that a woman who chooses to cover her hair is somehow less equal.” At the time, the comment was understood to be an implicit rejection of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s initiative to ban the burqa in France. Now that the ban is about to be implemented, Obama has been silent. “The US government has to respect the decisions of a sovereign country,” explains Pandith. That may be true. But it is on these sorts of hot-button issues that Muslim communities would welcome American engagement. After that, people-to-people interaction may just flourish organically.

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