PiH Programme Highlights

In July 2003, Search for Common Ground convened a meeting of over 60 non-governmental organizations, media professionals, government agencies, and international organizations - all catalysts and facilitators of Muslim-Western dialogue - in partnership with His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan. The meeting generated an action plan to improve understanding and cooperation between the West and the Muslim world which formed the basis of the existing Partners in Humanity programme.

Those who promote hatred are energetic and organized. We can be more energetic and more organized than that enemy. We must become more proactive, may I say aggressive, about moderation. We must enhance what is universal and cultivate respect for our differences. – HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal

In 2003, Partners in Humanity launched a news service, the precursor to our current Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity. The Dialogue of Civilizations news service was an English-language service published biweekly and featuring 4 timely and informative articles on Muslim-Western relations per issue.

In 2004, Search for Common Ground formed a partnership with the World Economic Forum's Council of 100 Leader's West-Islamic World Dialogue (C-100). Through these dialogues, the C-100 generated project ideas that fit closely with Partners in Humanity’s programme goals.

In 2005, Partners in Humanity re-launched its biweekly news service - the Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity – as a weekly publication and developed an on-line presence at commongroundnews.org.

In 2006, Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity expanded from English into Arabic, Indonesian and French, with plans to launch an Urdu version in 2007. Web site traffic in 2007 averaged 3500 visits per month.

Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity has built relationships with over 400 media outlets in over 40 countries in 4 different languages.

Since inception, Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity has commissioned 7 special series of approximately 6 articles each on a variety of topics ranging from ijtihad, to religious revivalism to the role of women in Muslim-Western relations.

The ijtihad series spawned a separate series of six articles by the Grand Mufti of Egypt which he published in his weekly column in Al Ahram of Egypt, just one example of the spin-off effect we have seen from the news service.

A special series by youth writers developed into its own weekly column.

10% of our reprints for our last 2 series were in Indonesia and Malaysia -- a region where we are rapidly increasing our presence due to improved language capabilities

I received six questions from individuals working for the Common Ground News Service. I hope that students and specialists in our university (Al Azhar), as well as those concerned with general intellectual matters, will take note of the effort behind these questions, how they came to be issued only after extensive information - gathering and study that could fill shelves, and after the kind of organized thought that draws connections between various facts and which does not busy itself with the illusions, trifles, and pettiness that upend the edifice of knowledge. - Shaykh Ali Gomaa, Grand Mufti of Egypt

I like the articles you distribute because they're not always safe. They move the discussion forward, they're not reiterative. They help me think in new ways about problems that really need solutions, problems that are not simple but complex. - Michael Wolfe, upf.tv

As a contributor who publishes these articles in Arab media, I regularly hear comments that express joy and optimism in an otherwise pervasive pessimism that engulfs us as citizens of a miserable and tormented Middle East. I cannot help but notice, after a [CGNews] article is published, that its idea, methodology or rhetoric creeps into and is expressed in the works of other Arab writers. – Hazem Saghiyeh, Lebanese writer, commentator and columnist for the pan-Arab newspaper al-Hayat in London.

I have found the stories provided by Common Ground News to be very informative, well-written, thoughtful and a good match with the rest of UPI's product. I'm sure they bring added value to our customers. – Claude Salhani, international editor and a political analyst with United Press International in Washington, DC

In 2006, Partners in Humanity developed a media outreach training program for reconciliation and dialogue activists. Initial training workshops were hosted in Spring 2006 in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Over 50 peace-builders were trained to date as a result of the media outreach program, resulting in over 46 direct media hits in the last half of 2006 alone.

The media outreach training project resulted in the development of a Media Outreach Guide for Peace-builders made available electronically through Search for Common Ground’s Partners in Humanity web pages.

The feedback from attendees was overwhelmingly positive:

Thanks for putting together a wonderful workshop which has produced very positive echoes around.  I am hearing very good things about it; this is an achievement that to my mind needs to be protected and nurtured as I think you have a niche there. – General Director, Lebanese Center for Policy Studies/Trainer

The workshop shed light on how to use the media to my NGO's benefit, an untapped resource that we need to use. – Workshop Trainee

My experience was amazing. I had the chance to meet wonderful people that I will never have again. The ways of how to reach the media were so useful. It would have taken 3 books and 4 lunches with each local and international journalist otherwise on how to build a good relationship. – Workshop Trainee

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