RIYADH, 27 March 2004 — A Saudi fact-finding mission to the US found that Saudis are failing to reach out to ordinary Americans.
Omar A. Bahlaiwa, secretary general of the Saudi Committee for the Development of International Trade (CIT) and head of the Saudi-US outreach program, told Arab News that ordinary Americans have an open mind and are willing to listen. “Unfortunately, their perceptions of Saudi society have been largely shaped by the media. Our task was to engage in a dialogue with them and project Saudi Arabia in its true perspective.”
The program included journalists and Vaughan Fitzpatrick, consultant to the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CSCCI). The team have visited Alabama and Georgia as part of a tour of 30 cities in the US over the next 12 months. CIT was set up to bridge the communication gap between the Kingdom and American society.
Bahlaiwa said grassroots interaction as well as visits to churches, synagogues and think-tanks had convinced him that there was an urgent need for a permanent US-Saudi Dialogue Center in Washington. He said this was necessary “to promote a better understanding of our culture, Islamic values and other aspects of our socio-economic life.”
During its previous mission, the outreach team tried to explain the Kingdom’s war on terrorism and its economic reform program. The team is planning its next trip to New York and Massachusetts in mid-April.
Bahlaiwa said most questions from Americans were on Islam, the status of women, and Saudi Arabia’s relations with Israel.
“It was pretty obvious that average Americans have a wrong perception of the Kingdom and Saudi society. They have been heavily influenced by the media. But the dialogue helped to remove those misconceptions, and the type of media coverage we got on TV and in the provincial press was positive and balanced.”
The CIT chief said one of the major aspects of Saudi-American relations was the fact that they were being conducted at the commercial level without any initiative on the part of the trading partners to understand one another. “We failed to advertise ourselves, unlike Dubai. As a result, the average American is not aware of our economic reforms, the opening up of our economy, liberalization of travel or the fact that we export $9 billion worth of non-oil products.”
Bahlaiwa said visits to five American cities so far had convinced the team that there was a need to promote better understanding “at the people-to-people level. Ordinary Americans do not have any prejudices or closed minds. They are willing to listen and they told us that we were guilty by being absent. We failed to connect with the people and spell out our policies and programs. This will be the main thrust of the outreach program,” he added.
