Karin von Hippel in the News: US Aid and Islam

Karin von Hippel appeared in an article on Islam and U.S. development money in the Washington Post today:

...some scholars say that restrictions on USAID and other American civilian agencies have undercut the United States' ability to win the hearts and minds of Muslims in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia, where Islam plays a central role in public and private life.

Karin von Hippel, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said military commanders have been given much more freedom to fund Islamic causes -- such as rehabilitation of mosques and assistance for religious schools. She argued that U.S. civilian agencies need to be given the same flexibility.

Von Hippel said many officials have simply steered clear of Islamic charities because they do not understand how they function and fear that their careers could be harmed if they inadvertently support an entity that later turns out to be linked to militants. "We can't just sit on our hands, which is what we have been doing for the past eight years," von Hippel said.

The article goes on to discuss the tension between engaging with Islamic societies and countering extremism while maintaining the seperation between church and state. Does the constitutional mandate to seperate church and state extend to foreign aid? Why is the military more free to engage with Islam than civilian groups?

Islamic charity groups, as PCR's work and this New York Times article about Swat Valley refugees show, are outstripping America's in terms of effectiveness. Something must be done to keep up.

Read PCR's report Mixed Blessings: U.S. Government Engagement with Religion in Conflict Prone-Settings.

Photo from whiteafrican using a Creative Commons license.