The centrist founder of Operation HOPE, a Los Angeles-based financial literacy organization, was recently in Saudi Arabia. He opines: "The challenges and the problems are very real in the region. Even in
Saudi Arabia, where I visited. The death of our Ambassador, a good and
noble man, who treated the Arab world with so much respect and dignity
that he even learned the language, consistently deferred to the culture,
and fought for their independence from a tyrant, underscored just that.
But this absolute and irrational radicalism is not the whole story of
the region, nor even the vast majority of it. It is not what I found last week while I was in Saudi Arabia, nor my
trips prior to this, to places in the region such as Jordan and Dubai,
and important regions near, such as Turkey. But this is all we are fed
about the region, and as a result, all that we seem to know. Fear. And
this lack of knowledge creates and fosters more fear. And then, after the fear, enter new things like this senseless
violence... and the world simply wants to throw up its hands, and give
up."
Mr. Bryant urges his fellow Americans to not give up on the Middle East: "But you and I cannot afford to give up on the Middle East. More so,
they (the people and leaders in the Middle East) cannot afford to give
up either. We are all in this, together. The people I met want progress, and are just as frustrated by the
fringe movements that seem to be overtaking the hopes, dreams and
desires of their children, and the region, as we are. But unlike the
rest of us who have the luxury of looking at this world comfortably from
the outside, they are actually living in it, daily. What they need are
answers, and when I was there I think I found one. What they need are JOBS. Specifically, small business, entrepreneurship and new job creation. The problem in the Middle East in general, the challenge in Saudi
Arabia, and the problem in places like Libya in particular, are all the
same problem. It's not Islamic extremism, per se, at its core -- as this
is the result, not the cause. Its a lack of opportunity for the poor,
the underserved, and specifically for young men."
John Hope Bryant Op-Ed: The Middle East That I Know
