Pakistani American Friendship on Capitol Hill
By Elisa Frost
In the heart of Washington, DC, on Tuesday, May 21st, the Pakistani American Political Action Committee (PAKPAC) hosted their 3rd Annual Capitol Hill Bipartisan Iftar.
PAKPAC is a non-partisan group that was founded in 1989 to advocate for federal policies that will “promote good governance, education and security in Pakistan and civil liberties in the United States.” The evening, hosted on the PAKPAC office’s rooftop, with a striking view of the US Capitol Building, was a remarkable showing of partnership between Americans and Pakistanis who gathered from across the country.
Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University’s School of International Service, gave the keynote lecture during the dinner. MrsRiffatChughtai, who was the 2017 National Board President for PAKPAC, served as the MC for the evening. In her introduction of Ambassador Ahmed, she noted that the BBC had called him the “world’s leading authority on contemporary Islam,” called him her role model, a leader of interfaith, and highlighted the impact of his dialogue with Dr Judea Pearl, the father of journalist Daniel Pearl who was murdered by terrorists in Pakistan, across the USA, Canada, and UK. Dr Zulfiqar Kazmi also introduced Ambassador Ahmed and described him as "The Rumi of our age and a blessing to all spiritual people of all faiths,” and noted that “his humanity embraces all."
Following Ambassador Ahmed’s lecture, he was honored with the Diplomatic Leadership Award in recognition of his decades of work promoting better understandings of the other, past and present. His most recent project was a quartet of studies examining the relationship between the West and the Islamic world, which he worked on with a team of young American scholars and travelled across the US and the world. The four studies were: Journey into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization (2007), Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam (2010), The Thistle and the Drone: How America's War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam (2013), and Journey into Europe: Islam, Immigration, and Identity (2018). Journey into America and Journey into Europe were accompanied by documentaries of the same name (2009 and 2015).
During the 1990’s Ambassador Ahmed also notably produced his Jinnah Quartet and Living Islam. which comprised of a feature film Jinnah (1998), starring Christopher Lee in the title role; a documentary, Mr Jinnah: The Making of Pakistan (1997), which included exclusive interviews with Jinnah’s daughter; a graphic novel, The Quaid: Jinnah and the Story of Pakistan (1997); and a biographical study, Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity: The Search for Saladin (1997). Ahmed presented and narrated the six-part BBC TV series Living Islam (1993) and authored the accompanying book of the same name.
That evening, Congressman Jim Banks (R-Indiana) and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, who serve as Co-Chairs of the Pakistan Caucus, were also honored by PAKPAC. Congressman Banks was awarded the National Security Leadership Award and Congresswoman Lee was awarded the Civil Liberties Leadership Award.
The evening was a remarkable example of unity as community members from both sides of the political aisle came together to celebrate their commitment towards policies that advance civil liberties in the United States and improve conditions in Pakistan. In a time where there seems to be conflict in every direction that we look, it is heartening to see such significant moments of friendship.
(Elisa Frost is the Program Assistant to the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University’s School of International Service)
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