Media Advisory

JHU-ACLU in conjunction with Americans for Informed Democracy and JHU Muslim Students Association will present a panel discussion titled, "Hope Not Hate: The Future of U.S.-Islamic World Relations, at Home and Abroad," at 7:30 p.m., on Wednesday, Sept. 28, on the Johns Hopkins University's Homewood campus. The discussion will focus on how U.S. national security and foreign policy has come to frame perceptions of Muslim communities and impact their possibilities for integration and assimilation. The panelists will also address how an official discourse linking Islam with terrorism poses a challenge to a peaceful future between the U.S. and Islamic worlds.

The panelists are Tim Edgar, legislative counsel for national security and immigration for the ACLU; Hafid Quosar, an intelligence analyst; and Radwan Masmoudi, president of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy. Waleed Hazbun, a professor in the university's Department of Political Science, will serve as moderator.

The event is part of a global initiative to commemorate the Sept. 11 attacks with citizen dialogue on how to improve Western-Muslim relations. The "Hope not Hate" initiative begins with town hall meetings across America and then features videoconferences that allow Americans to talk over live video with citizens in Europe and the Muslim world about how to build a better, safer world. This town hall series is supported by Americans for Informed Democracy, a non-partisan, non-profit organization that seeks to engage Americans in discussion about the U.S. role in the world. See www.aidemocracy.org.

For more information, contact Claire Edington at (508) 259- 0760 or ,a href="mailto:claire.edington@jhu.edu"> claire.edington@jhu.edu.