Words of encouragement from Washington

by Martino Pillitteri
Since the inception of Yalla Italia, three years back, we have had the privilege of meeting up with Farah Pandith on a yearly basis. Our last encounter was on March 15, 2010, when she accepted our invitation and made the long trip to meet with us at our news room in Milan, Italy.
Farah Pandith is a Muslim woman. She holds a very important position: she is the Special Representative of Muslim Communities for the State Department of the United States of America. The role was created ad hoc by Hillary Clinton to foster cooperation between the American government and the Islamic world.
We were thrilled that the ambassador of the Obama administration found time in her busy schedule to meet and exchange ideas with our group. No Italian politician has yet to agree to such a meeting.
These young Muslim Italian journalists have come together in the hope of defining their unique culture. Their aspiration is to create an inclusive definition of their culture that resonates not only with other immigrants but also with an Italian audience. Last spring they received accolades from the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune for their efforts.
Pandith listened attentively to the projects, the campaigns and the personal stories of the group. When the discussion turned to American policy in the Middle East and to Obama’s speech in Cairo our journalists got passionate. She reacted to their youthful excitement with grace.
The mood in the news room was optimistic and enthusiastic but at the time the geopolitical situation was not what it is today.
In the short two months since our meeting the situation in the Middle East has taken a turn for the worse. With the Israeli military raid of an aid flotilla bound for Gaza a peace agreement between Jerusalem and Palestine seems to be even further out of reach now. We now find ourselves engulfed in a crisis, one that could have far reaching consequences both in the Middle East and in Europe.
In March Pandith spoke about leadership, about responsibility and about the challenges that these second generation Muslim immigrants will face during their lifetime. She insisted on the importance of communication and on the role of the media in constructing a positive relationship between the different religious groups.
Given her words of encouragement, the challenges that her administration is facing and the strong relationship she has established with us, it is only natural that we ask ourselves: What next? It is our belief that the next step should include the creation of a more formal collaboration between Yalla and Pandith’s department. We will explore this hypothesis in this edition of Yalla Italia.
The Muslim youth – above all the girls – will make the difference, wrote the Yalla journalist Randa Ghazy in one of her two open letters addressed to Pandith. During her visit, Pandith said that it is in the best interest of America to value the talent of young Muslims. But this is also true for Europe.
Europe is a living experiment; its results will predict the future of multiethnic relations. Here in Europe we can create the antibodies to prevent extremism and here in Europe we can train the leaders of tomorrow to tackle the challenges that multicultural societies face.
Karima, a Yalla journalist, wrote that we must act now and challange those ideas and those values of conservative Muslims that we as young second generation European Muslims do not embrace.
The narrative of Yalla Italia has always reflected the personal stories and experiences of its writers. This narrative has acted as a shared trait between the diverse identities, ideas and points of views of our journalists.
We hope to grow as a publication. We want to become more effective, more professional. And we want to reach a wider audience. We hope to become a point of reference for second generation Muslims. This means publishing in English and Arabic, not only in Italian, and it means fostering more discussion and more collaboration.
Farah Pandith left us with a few words of advice. She suggested that we focus on capacity building, partnership building with other best practices and exploiting scholarship and fellowship opportunities. In this way Yalla Italia will be in the best position to spread its culture of innovation across the Muslim galaxy.
This edition of Yalla Italia is the first step of a new journey to understand what the future holds for us. After experiencing three years of growth we are excited to keep learning and to keep growing.
translated by Courtney Clinton