WASHINGTON, Nov 16: The United States, confronted with widespread unease in the Islamic world over its military campaign in Afghanistan, has launched a massive effort to win over the hearts and minds of Muslims.

As part of this Muslim outreach campaign, the opening prayers for Thursday’s session of the House of Representatives were read by Imam Yahya Hindi of Georgetown University to mark the beginning of Ramazan.

After the prayers, Representative David Bonior and several other Congressmen spoke on the spirit of Ramazan, which was described as a treasured time for Muslims all over the world. They sent a message of greetings on the advent of the month of fasting.

On Monday, President George Bush will play host to ambassadors from OIC countries at an Iftar dinner at the White House and Secretary of State Colin Powell will also organize a similar gathering later during the month. This will continue a tradition begun during the Clinton administration.

The Bush administration has been taking great pains since Sept 11 to emphasize that its war against terrorism is not directed against Islam or Muslim countries. However, the feeling is that the message is not getting through in the Islamic world and that a greater effort is required to reassure Muslims of American aims and objectives in the current campaign.

Part of the reason for the communication failure is the loose language used by President Bush and senior officials in the early days after the terrorist attacks, when it almost appeared as if the US was talking in terms of a clash of civlizations and religions.

As recently as this month, the president in an address to the nation said terrorists wanted to “kill all Americans, all Christians and all Jews”, a phraseology that was again picked up by Muslim commentators as reflecting bias and prejudice on the part of the administration.

Ironically, most Muslim organizatons in America had backed Mr Bush in last year’s presidential campaign and now find themselves caught up in trying to explain recent administration steps that are perceived as smacking of racial and religious profiling, or at least having that effect during implementation.

Ramazan itself has posed problems for the US campaign, with Muslim leaders urging America to initiate a pause in its bombing of Afghanistan. The US had so far held the view that it could not halt the bombing till its military objectives were achieved, but with this week’s dramatic events leading to the Taliban withdrawal from Kabul and the reported general disarray in Taliban ranks, it just might be possible for Washington to lessen the intensity of its air attacks.

The White House and the State Department are said to believe that the occasion of Ramazan should be used to highlight the administration’s sensitivities to Islamic tradition and belief. A new undersecretary for public diplomacy has been appointed at the State Department, and the official, former advertising executive Charlotte Beers, was quoted as saying on Thursday the US wanted to utilize an important time like Ramazan to say to Muslims: ‘We understand, we hear you, and we would like to keep this dialogue open’.

The Ramazan events and overall coalition publicity in Muslim countries is being organized by information centres in Washington, London and Islamabad. The Islamabad centre is headed by administration official Greg Jenkins.