>>Paul Mason: It's January 2011 and the State
Department gets the call, Hey, guys, you know
what?
Those people in -- those students in Cairo
we have been teaching about democratic values
and how to use the Internet and all that kind
of stuff, they're going to overthrow our key
ally in this region.
How did that go down?
>>Farah Pandith: So let me broaden this for
you because what happened in the Middle East
didn't happen in a vacuum.
From my vantage point, as somebody who has
been all around the world looking at Muslim
youth, those people under the age of 30, it
is very profound what happened in the Middle
East.
But there is a youthquake going on and the
ideas of young people are ricocheting around
the world.
So when you think about the impact -- I mean,
everybody on the stage earlier today talked
about what was happening with the movement
of ideas.
That's the revolution.
>>Paul Mason: It is an ideas revolution.
It is associated with youth.
When you call it a "youthquake," just flesh
that out a bit for us.
>>Farah Pandith: For me, when I look at 1.6
billion Muslims on the planet, which make
up 1/4 of humanity, most of those Muslims
are under the age of 30, 62%.
Many of those young people have smartphones
and are on Facebook.
They are putting content on all the time.
They are exploring their identity.
They are understanding how to build networks.
When I think about the power of those ideas,
specifically around the issue of identity,
I know for sure that something that is happening
with the Muslim in Sao Paulo is making a difference
to a Muslim in Jakarta.
So the youthquake that's going on, the ricocheting
of movement means that the outsider as they
look at this understands that the power and
the influence of all these ideas is taking
shape in a wide variety of ways.
That is why it is a youthquake.
It is why youth matters, why when I'm tweeting
on Twitter, I do hash-tag whyyouthmatter.
Something is going on on the planet.
We are seeing it places like the Middle East,
but we can also look at countries around the
world and see that this matters.
>>Paul Mason: What do you think that is doing,
this connectedness and the instant availability
of the technology to connect, what is it doing
to -- what happens to ideas, how ideas mutate,
and challenge each other?
>>Farah Pandith: So, I mean, this is a moment
in time for young people.
We've talked about that.
But this is also a moment of time for networks.
There are all kinds of networks.
There are positive networks, and there are
negative networks.
When we think about how youth right now think
about themselves, differences are broken down.
Your differences don't matter.
Your idea matters.
So they are not looking at what religion you
are or what -- what part of the world the
idea came from.
They're not looking at what color your skin
is.
They are looking at the power of that idea.
Similarly, when you think about how other
nefarious groups think about networks, they're
learning from positive networks.
So you look at a group like al-Shabaab, for
example, that put forward its first online
magazine, because they're learning how to
do this.
You see extremist clerics who are using social
media instead of using long descriptions of
religious theology and how they ought to do
something.
They're using it in short code, so that it
can be used on -- in social media and used
on mobile applications.
They're taking advantage.
So the importance of understanding of how
networks can be used makes a difference for
not just you and me.
Certainly for everybody in this room who is
coming from the private sector, from the NGO
sector, how you think about the influence
of your network makes a difference right now
for the young people on the planet.
Think about this, Paul.
80% of the world are teenagers living in the
developing world.
42% of the world is under the age of 25.
These networks matter.
They matter in the ways we're talking about
on this stage and they matter for businesses
and they matter for security.
They matter for a lot of reasons.
>>Paul Mason: And so let's be frank and sort
of in-your-face about this.
When young people -- let's put it this way:
You don't have to be an Islamic fundamentalist
to see an image of American servicemen urinating
on corpses to think "Maybe that applies to
me.
Maybe I identify with the corpse and not the
guy in the uniform."
What do you do about that?
What do you do about that practically, and
in the everyday statecraft of your job?
>>Farah Pandith: So I think it's really important
to understand a couple of things.
One, our government and other governments
who have had to face very difficult circumstances
on the ground, that certainly was a very serious
and very tragic occurrence have condemned
the act, and that is a very important thing
to do.
>>Paul Mason: Yeah.
>>Farah Pandith: But also, for me -- from
my vantage point and for those of you who
don't know my job, I am focusing on young
people around the world -- Muslims in Muslim
majority countries and Muslims that live as
minorities -- and understanding what they're
doing and how they're interacting and how
they feel.
The images that we see on TV makes a difference
for my job overseas.
I would ask many people in this room if they
can name for me the name of a preacher in
Florida a couple of years ago, year and a
half ago, who threatened to burn the Koran.
I bet you most people in this room couldn't
mention him by name.
I promise you that the young people around
the world mention him by name thinking that
he represents America.
And the reason I bring up that example is
because all of our actions on YouTube, in
sound bites on the BBC, how you talk about
things, how people -- how companies react
to a particular thing, impacts the imagery.
We hear a narrative that has been out there
actually since 1993, sort of this "us" and
the "them."
Sam Huntington wrote a piece in '93 in foreign
affairs called "The Clash of Civilizations?",
the idea being there's an arrest and some
news flash.
Muslims live in every part of the world.
There are more Muslims that live outside of
the Middle East than in it.
How do we think about and give dignity to
the young people who happen to be Muslim live
on the planet?
If you're going to debunk the "us" and the
"them," you have to put into place alternative
narratives than an "us" and a "them."
And the way to do that is to get young people
who can speak for themselves and talk about
what it means to be Muslim and modern on the
planet, to talk about the difference between
culture and religion.
Those are the questions that young people
are asking.
That is how they're thinking about their identity.
So when you ask about an image, a terrible
image that happened in Afghanistan, or something
else that might be happening in another part
of the world, you are seeing an increase -- online,
by the way -- many young Muslims who are moving
into this space to talk about and define who
they are right now.
>>Paul Mason: Are you saying to us, then,
that -- I mean, we may have missed this -- that
one of the revolutions we are possibly living
through is the long-awaited and much -- much
sort of mourned the fact that it hasn't arrived
-- Muslim reformation or Muslim renaissance?
Is there an idea of redefinition going on
of what it means to be a Muslim actually through
these networks, through the horizontal spaces,
that the elites just don't realize?
>>Farah Pandith: Well, here's what I'd like
to -- I wouldn't say "the elites don't realize."
I think the vast majority of the people on
the planet that are talking about what it
means to be Muslims on the planet have stereotyped
what a young Muslim is.
And I mean that in a wide variety of ways.
What I will tell you as somebody who has traveled
the world and in the last 2 1/2 years has
been to 62 countries around the world, there
is only one data point, only one data point
that is consistent, whether I'm talking about
Tashkent or I'm talking about Stockholm or
I'm talking about Sao Paulo, and that is this:
Young Muslims are asking the question, "What
does it mean to be modern and Muslim?
What is the difference between culture and
religion?"
That identity piece is really key.
If we do not understand that they are asking
that question and that they're going to external
places to get answers to that question, then
we are missing the boat.
We have to invest in the youth of today.
We have to understand what's happening with
the identity crisis.
We have to understand why their voice matters.
And we have to understand that this youthquake
is not a negative thing.
It is a powerful thing.
Because as they see the diversity of each
other, as they learn from each other -- you
heard on the stage earlier the tools that
we can use and implement to build stronger
societies.
One of the things that has been missing is
the ability for these young voices to get
onto the world stage and be talked about with
dignity and respect.
>>Paul Mason: It just reminds me of that moment
in the 1960s when, for many people in eastern
Europe who -- and the Soviet Union, who were
involved in dissident activity and democratic
ideas in odds.
The United States seemed at that time a very
attractive pole of attraction.
They wore jeans.
They wore bluejeans.
That was the symbol.
They listened to, you know -- God forbid -- American
jazz.
That was modern.
They didn't listen to pop music.
Their painters were the abstract expressionists.
Now, we're now talking, as you say, about
a bit -- a quarter of humanity, the Muslim
youth coming to ask this question.
What does the United States have to offer
in that debate?
What is the equivalent?
Who is the Jackson Pollock?
Who is the -- who is the Vaclav Havel of the
next generation?
How do you intersect with them?
>>Farah Pandith: Well, I think there are a
couple of things that are going on.
One is our government has done a lot.
Never before in history has a President of
the United States put Muslim engagement front
and center in how we are thinking about this
demographic thing, and this is something that
President Obama did on the steps of the Capitol
in his inauguration speech.
You certainly know that he went forward and
in Cairo spread out a vision of engagement.
And I think that's very important because
it sent a very powerful message.
But you also have the Secretary of State,
Hillary Clinton, who has recalibrated the
way we at the Department of State are engaging
with young people.
Citizen diplomacy is key.
It is central.
It's very important to her, the way in which
we're shaping, listening to the voices on
the ground.
Everything that I do is grass roots and community-driven.
Two, the power of social media.
"21st century statecraft" is the terminology
the secretary uses to describe this.
This is really powerful.
That an average citizen can send a direct
message to me on Facebook or Twitter or to
an ambassador or to a senior government official
is unprecedented.
The power of the citizen to move those ideas
forward, to let us know.
I learn about and see young people all around
the world.
I connect an idea in Oslo with Nouakchott,
Mauritania.
It is important for us to understand the power
of like-minded thinkers to come together.
We understand that if you put smart people
together that are working on things together,
you're building networks that will have far
more power than a government.
So when you ask what can a government do,
there are things that a statesman, a leader,
a commander in chief can do, but there's so
much that we can do.
The greatest strength of my government -- and
I believe most governments in the world -- as
they think about the issue of youth is to
be the convener and the facilitator and the
intellectual partner with the ideas that we
hear on the ground.
Give them the space to build.
Give them the tools that they know how to
affect things.
Somebody earlier on the stage today talked
about the nuances, that everything is not
the same.
How important is that fact?
Something that is happening in Madrid is not
the same thing that is happening in Barcelona.
And we need to understand that when we talk
about youth and we talk about Muslim youth
in particular, that you cannot paint people
with the same brush and protect -- pretend
everything is the same.
>>Paul Mason: You've been privileged to go
to many of the places we're talking about
and in the eye of the storm.
Looking ahead, where do you think this is
going?
Where is the network bit of it going?
Where is the youth bit of it going?
Where is the democracy bit of it going to
end up?
Is it going to end up, as we did three years
after 1848, with dictatorships returning?
>>Farah Pandith: So I think it's very dangerous
to be looking into a crystal ball and to pretend
that you know what's going to happen.
There are so many external facts that can
happen.
One thing I know for sure.
You cannot pull back the component of information.
People are thirsty and searching and want
to be connected.
They're sharing their ideas online.
We have a moment in history.
This window is open right now when we look
at this.
It is the investment all of us must make -- government,
the private sector, NGOs, and others -- to
understand how we give the tools to this generation
so that they can move their ideas forward.
I am somebody who is positive.
I do believe in the ideas that are happening
within these Muslim communities who are pushing
back against extremist ideology that's coming
in to prey upon their communities in some
places.
They're creating opportunities that are very
organic, that make sense for their particular
community, that may not make the same sense
in another part of the world, but they're
learning how to use the power of their facility
to be able to create that -- sort of fortify
themselves from external ideologies.
We have to give them that space to do it,
we have to give them the levers to do it,
and we have to help them to put more alternative
narratives on the planet than they -- than
a narrative of extremism, and to suggest that
there is a monolith where, in fact, we understand
that there is much diversity.
>>Paul Mason: And when those people see people
in your own country going onto the streets
and saying, "Hey, even this country is due
for a big change, even this country" -- remember
the 99% Bat Signal projected onto the Verizon
building.
What do you -- you know, what do you say to
them?
Because the people -- the people in there
-- you know, in Burma, people in Egypt are
seeing that and they think, "I can see this.
I can see that -- I can see there's a sort
of commonality."
And yet you're sitting there, you're the government
of that country, and it's your cops who, at
the end of the day, are distributing pepper
spray into the faces of some of these demonstrators.
>>Farah Pandith: Well, one of the things we
talk a lot about when I go into youth situations,
a community discussion, a university, is to
talk about the principles that are embedded
in our Constitution, and that is extremely
important for many ears to hear around the
world; to understand that while America is
not perfect, that our laws are sacred to us
and we are working very hard to make sure
that we give dignity and respect to every
individual.
The last piece I would say on that, too, is
that from the vantage point of those people
who are Muslim who are overseas, they're very
interested in how western countries treat
their Muslims.
They are extremely interested about the conversations
that are happening here in Europe and about
-- about Muslims.
They're extremely interested in the way in
which we give dignity to all people, regardless
of race, religion, or anything else.
>>Paul Mason: Farah Pandith, thank you.
