Separate Worlds, Shared Dreams

John Esposito

1. According to the interviewees, what can young people do to improve relations between these two cultures? What role can communication technology play in enhancing mutual understanding? What are its limitations?
2. How, if at all, does your perception of Islam and Muslim culture differ from that of older generations? What information do you draw on when forming your perceptions?
3. How do you think Muslim youth form their opinions of Americans like you? In your view, are their views an accurate picture of American culture and politics as you perceive them?

Mark Sommer

1. What roles, if any, do you think young people can effectively play in helping to shift the political discourse on this issue? What strategies would you utilize to strengthen the voices of your generation?
2. What aspects of youth culture do you think best reach across geographic, religious, and/or ethnic boundaries?
3. What aspects of youth culture are unique to particular places, people, or religions?
4. In what ways could the universal aspects of youth culture serve as the basis for bringing the conflicting cultures together?
5. What role do the Internet, the blogosphere, and other communications technologies play in the lives of young people? How do they currently connect youth across cultures and how might they be utilized to enhance those positive connections?
6. How can youth living under repressive regimes in the Middle East maintain contact with their counterparts in the West without endangering their own freedom and well-being?

Faical Baamer and Joseph Phillips

1. How do the young people in this interview characterize globalization? Do you agree? Defend your position with specific reasons and/or examples.
2. What role do the interviewees see for themselves as young people in shaping an increasingly globalized world? What tools or strategies do they envision as supporting their roles?

3. What role can digital technologies – audio, video, the Internet and blogosphere -- play in reducing barriers and create greater understanding? What is the nature of the nearly universal attraction to these technologies among youth? In what respects do they isolate and in what respects do they bring people together? How can their isolating aspects be reduced and their connecting potential be enhanced?
4. Engaging youth as active participants in dealing with social concerns appears to be on the upswing. In your view, what explains this trend? What are the pros and cons of engaging young people as leaders and actors on issues of political or social concern?

5. Describe an experience in which you engaged youth (or, if you are a young person, in which you were engaged by an elder) in addressing a problem in your community or organization. How did the situation play out and what were the outcomes? What lessons can you derive from that experience that apply to the challenge of creating cross-cultural understanding between young people across cultural divides?
6. This interview highlights the reflections of youth, their potential role in the world, and important issues of access to technology and information. What can you do in your work, organization, or community to enhance the use of communications technologies and the dissemination of accurate information about this and other major global issues?

Anwar Ibrahim

1. In Ibrahim’s view, what issues most contribute to a sense of frustration and anger among Muslim youth in many parts of the world today?
2. What does Ibrahim suggest is the best strategy for supporting youth in their efforts to reform the policies of their often repressive and unresponsive governments? What examples do we have in recent years of successful youth movements that achieved substantial change? What strategies did they employ? How did they make use of technologies to advance their causes?

3. Why do religious fundamentalism and political extremism exercise such a powerful attraction for some youth in the Muslim world today?
4. What roles do you think young people can play in the formation, implementation, or evaluation of their government’s policies? What are the constraints on their influence? Do young people deserve a place at the policy table or in the arena of public discourse? If so, why? What strengths and weaknesses do youth bring to the conversation?

5. Think about your own school experiences and the cultural diversity (or lack thereof) you encountered in those years. What were the biggest challenges and rewards of having the experience you had? Based on your personal experience, how has your life been affected by meeting and getting to know people of different cultures?
6. Ibrahim suggests that many Muslim youth despair of changing the political and social circumstances in which they live. What, if anything, can outsiders do to offer a measure of hope to Muslim youth – and/or youth in any context -- struggling to improve their situations? Which of these strategies are you prepared to implement yourself?

Mark Sommer

1. What are the common issues and unique differences between the experiences of youth in the West and youth in the Muslim world? How much of the difference is cultural and religious and how much is widely disparate social and economic circumstances?
2. What did you learn from this set of interviews? What did you find most persuasive and what left you skeptical?
3. What questions remain or emerged after listening to these interviews?
4. What common themes, if any, carried through most or all the interviews in this program?
5. What might you do in your daily practice – as a student, in an organization, in your community, or as an individual citizen – to act on what you learned from this program?
6. Has your perspective on the issues raised in this program? Have your views about the proper relationship between people in the West and the Muslim world shifted? If so, how? What issues do you want and/or intend to learn about in greater depth?