UW News

April 16, 2009

Arab public opinion is topic of lecture April 22

Arab Public Opinion: Change and Continuity since 9/11 is the title of a lecture by Shibley Telhami to be presented Wednesday, April 22. Telhami, who holds the Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace at the University of Maryland, is this year’s Farhat J. Ziadeh Distinguished Lecturer in Arab and Islamic Studies.


The lecture, which is at 7 p.m. in the Henry Art Gallery Auditorium, will analyze the trends found in annual Arab public opinion polls in the Arab world since 9/11, focusing on attitudes toward collective identity and foreign policy. In particular, Telhami will review Arabs’ attitudes toward Arab and Islamic identity as well as the degree to which they identify with individual Arab states. The analysis will assess the impact of American policy after 9/11 and how it has influenced Arab perceptions, as well as the impact of the information revolution on the way Arabs see themselves.


In addition to his position at the University of Maryland, Telhami is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of several publications on international politics and Middle East affairs and has been very active in the foreign policy arena.


Telhami was appointed to the board of the U.S. Institute of Peace by Former President Clinton, and he served as the adviser to the U.S. delegation to the United Nations during the Iraq-Kuwait crisis of the early 1990s. He has also been a member of the American delegation of the Trilateral American/Israeli/Palestinian Anti-Incitement Committee mandated by the Wye River Agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians.


The lecture is free and open to the public.