Rami G. Khouri at PostGlobal

Rami G Khouri

Beirut, Lebanon

Rami George Khouri is a Palestinian-Jordanian and U.S. citizen whose family resides in Beirut, Amman, and Nazareth. He is editor at large, and former executive editor, of the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper, published throughout the Middle East with the International Herald Tribune. An internationally syndicated political columnist and book author, he is also the first director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, and also serves as a nonresident senior fellow at the Kennedy School of Harvard University and the Dubai School of Government. He was awarded the Pax Christi International Peace Prize for 2006. He teaches annually at American University of Beirut, University of Chicago and Northeastern University. He has been a fellow and visiting scholar at Harvard University, Mount Holyoke College, Syracuse University and Stanford University, and is a member of the Brookings Institution Task Force on US Relations with the Islamic World. He is a Fellow of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (Jerusalem), and a member of the Leadership Council of the Harvard University Divinity School. He also serves on the board of the East-West Institute, the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University (USA), and the Jordan National Museum. He was editor-in-chief of the Jordan Times for seven years and for 18 years he was general manager of Al Kutba, Publishers, in Amman, Jordan, where he also served as a consultant to the Jordanian tourism ministry on biblical archaeological sites. He has hosted programs on archeology, history and current public affairs on Jordan Television and Radio Jordan, and often comments on Mideast issues in the international media. He has BA and MSc degrees respectively in political science and mass communications from Syracuse University, NY, USA. Close.

Rami G Khouri

Beirut, Lebanon

Rami George Khouri is a Palestinian-Jordanian and U.S. citizen whose family resides in Beirut, Amman, and Nazareth. He is editor at large, and former executive editor, of the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper. more »

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Personal Piety, Public Power

Turkish secularists, and others of similar mind in Europe, have gone way overboard on this issue of the headscarves, using a symbol and instrument of personal piety as a surrogate for threats to their country's national identity and governance system. Women and girls wearing headscarves certainly are a symbol of Islamic identity spreading in society, and they do reflect growing numbers of individuals who manifest their religiosity in their dress and behavior. This should not be a problem, any more than holding national prayer breakfasts in Washington, D.C.

Such personal religiosity is also gaining public expression in other lands where religion and politics often mix, including the U.S., Israel, Lebanon and other places. It is best handled by explicitly distinguishing between personal piety and the exercise of public political power and authority. It should be considered a perfectly acceptable expression of personal piety for a woman to wear a headscarf, just as for a strapping, born-again Christian football player to kneel and pray in the end zone after he scores a touchdown in the U.S.

Secularists in Turkey and elsewhere should respond to the headscarves issue by exploring more deeply why so many Muslims have embraced their religion more explicitly; they will find that the political and economic system in their country is probably failing many people, who find succor and security in faith, family, community and other communal structures.

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