Illustration by Travis Daub for FP

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For FP’s interview with Geneive Abdo about her U.N. experience and conversations with Islamist leaders, visit ForeignPolicy.com/extras/abdo.

Like many international institutions, the United Nations says it seeks to address Muslim extremism. Who else but the collection of states with the broadest mandate, most members, and loftiest goals could tackle this perversion of civilized society and threat to world order? So, when I was hired in January 2006 for a project to devise a U.N. response to the so-called clash of civilizations, it seemed a worthy way to consider this challenge on a global scale. At the urging of the prime ministers of Spain and Turkey, then Secretary-General Kofi Annan established the Alliance of Civilizations with the goal of identifying the roots of the divide between Western and Islamic societies and, ultimately, to find ways to curb religious violence.

Part of my job was to travel around the world, collecting the views of leaders of Islamist parties and movements. Their ideas would then be included in a document the alliance would publish at the end of that year. The United Nations hoped the document would receive international press coverage and generate funding for the solutions, or “practical steps,” it would propose to bridge the divide between Western and Islamic societies. There seemed to be no better way, I thought, to...