April

12-14
2011

Past Event

2011 U.S.-Islamic World Forum

Tuesday, April 12 - Thursday, April 14, 2011


Washington, DC

Content from the Brookings Doha Center is now archived. In September 2021, after 14 years of impactful partnership, Brookings and the Brookings Doha Center announced that they were ending their affiliation. The Brookings Doha Center is now the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, a separate public policy institution based in Qatar.

On April 12-14, 2011, the Government of Qatar, the Brookings Institution and the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World hosted the eighth annual U.S.-Islamic World Forum, convening for the first time in Washington, D.C. at this critical moment in Middle Eastern political history.

The U.S.-Islamic World Forum is a platform for dialogue at the highest level featuring leading U.S. and Muslim public officials, business leaders, scholars, journalists and commentators. Long seen as the world’s premier policy event for leaders with stakes in the global Muslim community, the Forum has a history of fostering unique, positive relationships between policymakers, business, cultural and religious leaders from across the Muslim World and the United States.

This year’s discussions focused on the rapid, turbulent change in the Middle East and implications for Muslims around the world.

There were five plenary sessions on topics such as civil society, the Libyan crisis, and the media.
Watch videos and read more about the plenaries »

Ten rountables held discussions on the Middle East peace process, the role of youth in the Arab Spring, Afghanistan-Pakistan relations, and many other issues.
Watch videos and read more about the roundtables »

Five working groups were convened to discuss and recommend action on issues in U.S. relations with the Islamic world, which were summarized in a paper published by the Brookings Institution. They are as follows:

Muslim-Majority and Muslim-Minority Communities in a Global Context
Humera Khan, Executive Director, Muflehun

Imam Mohamed Magid, President, Islamic Society of North America

Disconnected Narratives Between the United States and Global Muslim Communities
Ambassador Marc Ginsberg, Senior Vice President, APCO Worldwide

Anne Hagood, Managing Editor, The Layalina Review and The Chronicle, Layalina Productions

Higher Education Reform in the Arab World
Katherine Wilkins, Vice President for Communications, AMIDEAST

Building Capacity and Developing Leadership among American Muslims and Their Organizations
Brie Loskota, Managing Director, Center for Religion and Civic Culture, University of Southern California

Nadia Roumani, Co-Founder and Director, American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute, University of Southern California

The Role of Entrepreneurship and Job Creation in U.S.-Muslim Relations
Ahmed Younis, Senior Analyst, Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, and Director of Strategic Partnerships and Communications, Silatech

Mohamed Younis, Senior Analyst, Gallup Center for Muslim Studies

Forum Highlights:

Remarks by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton » (state.gov)

0FC7CD8C03194E329B3C93318491EC79.jpgU.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks at the 2011 U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Washington, D.C.

AABC18A11A2E40F1A423984F7F0821A3.jpgQatari Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Ahmad Bin Abdullah Al-Mahmoud, and Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu.

AAF71B1C4B97467CAC06CB31840D8204.jpg
Time Magazine Editor and CNN host Fareed Zakaria moderates a panel with former U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Judeh, Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister of Turkey Ibrahim Kalin, and U.S. Senator John Kerry.
(images courtesy of Paul Morse)