Members of the Duke and local arts community met with Farah Pandith, the U.S. State Department's special representative to Muslim communities on Wednesday.
The meetings included lunch with Muslim students and Duke's Muslim chaplain Abdullah Antepli; a public policy colloquium led by political science professor and director of the American Grand Strategy Program Peter Feaver; and a talk on the Doris Duke's vision of supporting Islamic art and culture, given at the launch of Doris Duke's Shangri La exhibit at the Nasher Museum of Art.
Since taking up the new position of special representative in 2009, just weeks after President Obama's historic Cairo speech to the Muslim world, Pandith has traveled to more than 80 countries in an effort to increase the level of U.S. engagement with foreign Muslim communities, with a focus on youth and grassroots movements.
Pandith said that while these outreach efforts are not part of a "hearts and minds strategy," the connections forged and U.S. support provided on the ground have served to help to break down the post-9/11 "us vs. them" narrative.
"We as the U.S. Government have to engage with all of humanity," she said. "The one quarter who are Muslim have to be a part of that."
Pandith previously visited Duke in 2011, and, saying she was impressed with Duke's engagement with Muslim communities both on and off campus, she promised it won't be her last.
Her visit was sponsored by the Duke Islamic Studies Center, American Grand Strategy (AGS), Muslim Life at Duke and the Nasher Museum of Art.