Khatami in US (& coming to C’ville!)

Iran’s former (reformist) president, Muhammad Khatami, arrived in the US recently for a ten-day tour. Kudos to him for coming– and that his schedule will include participation in a United Nations conference in New York on the “Dialogue of Civilizations” on Friday, held to mark the upcoming five-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
Kudos, too, to the Bush administration for allowing the visit, in what many of their more Islamophobic supporters might well see as a worryingly friendly gesture towards this person who for eight years was the President of an “Axis of Evil” power.
Khatami is even coming to our hometown later in the week (and twice, it seems… or maybe not.) I think I’ll be at two of his events here (or maybe one.) I can’t blog ’em directly because the State Dept. security people won’t allow laptops, cellphones, or whatever. Khatami and the Iranian regimne as a whole have a lot potentially dangerous opponents who are active here in the US, including people who support the “Mujahedeen-e-Khalq” organization, which has long been on the US terrorism list.
But I’ll have my ever-trusty notebook and report on whatever I can of these events.
I think it is always great to be able to break down walls of distrust, to be able to identify and discuss common goals and common threats, and increase everyone’s appreciation of the humanity of people with whose actions they might disagree… All of which tasks are, really, a good part of what diplomacy should be about… So I’m very glad that Khatami’s coming here, and I’m really looking forward to seeing the interactions he has.
Here is an AFP report on some of his first events here:

In first US visit, Iran’s Khatami calls for secular, religious dialogue
by Mira Oberman, AFP (English),
Chicago, September 2, 2006 Saturday 11:10 PM GMT– Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami, in his first public appearance in the United States, spoke Saturday about the need to create a dialogue between the secular and religious worlds.
His remarks came as Tehran and the UN Security Council head for a showdown over Iran’s nuclear energy program, which is suspected of masking an effort to develop atomic weapons.
Khatami is the most senior Iranian official to visit the United States since Washington broke off diplomatic relations following the 1979 takeover of the US embassy in Tehran.
“The people of true faith and the people who are truly concerned about humanity… These two communities can work together,” Khatami told community leaders gathered at a mosque in a suburb of Chicago.
“They can communicate among one another for the betterment and better understanding of the cause of humanity,” he said through an interpreter. “The dialogue can help to bring these two communities together.”
Khatami did not take questions from reporters or comment on the current impasse as Iran vowed to defend its nuclear program and the United States pushed for sanctions to force Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment.
Instead, he focused his 40-minute address on a philosophical discussion of how peace and human development can be best achieved.
Neither religions that preach a complete withdrawal from the material world nor the modern religion of science and materialism can eliminate insecurity, Khatami said. Only by finding a “third way” that addresses both the spiritual needs and the material needs can a “life of peace and satisfaction” be achieved, he said.
Khatami also called for greater dialogues between religious groups.
“There is a great opportunity of dialogue and cooperation and working together among people of faith and people of religion,” said Khatami, a reformist who was president from 1997 to 2005 and whose successor is the more hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
“But I mean people of true religion — I don’t mean the extremists, I don’t mean the terrorists or the people who exploit the name of religion,” he said.
Khatami, who founded and heads the International Institute for Dialogue Among Civilizations and Cultures, was granted a US visa on Tuesday even though he was president when the United States declared that Tehran backed terror activities.
Khatami was scheduled to address the Islamic Society of North America’s convention later Saturday night in Chicago.
On Thursday he is expected to address a select audience at the Washington National Cathedral. He will to attend a United Nations conference in New York on the “Dialogue of Civilizations” on Friday, which comes five years after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
He might also meet with former US president Jimmy Carter, whose presidency was marred by the 1979 takeover of the US embassy in Tehran.

(Hat-tip to co-poster Scott Harrop for the AFP piece. I think he’s also pretty busy these days…)