At a time of dramatic change in the Arab world, senior figures from more than 30 Arab and other Muslim-majority countries will be in Washington, D.C., this week for the annual U.S.-Islamic World Forum, the first to be held in the United States. For the second consecutive year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will play a prominent role at the forum. On Tuesday evening, she will be the guest speaker at the highlight of the three-day event, an invitation-only gala dinner. Earlier in the day, the forum will be opened by Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the Turk who heads the Saudi-based bloc of 56 Islamic states. An OIC statement said Ihsanoglu would use the occasion to review relations between the U.S. and the Islamic world. Jointly organized by the Brookings Institutions Saban Center for Middle East Policy and Qatars foreign ministry, the event is the eighth U.S.-Islamic World Forum. All seven previous ones have been held in the Qatari capital, Doha. This years discussions will focus on the rapid, turbulent change in the Middle East and implications for Muslims around the world, the organizers said in a statement. The forums bring together scholars, business leaders, analysts, journalists, religious figures and officials from the U.S. and numerous Islamic countries, this year including Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia and Sudan. Clintons participation last year was the first time a senior member of a U.S. administration had taken part. It was at that Feb. 2010 event that President Obama, in a video message to the forum, named Rashad Hussain, a former White House deputy associate counsel, as special envoy to the OIC an appointment marked by some controversy. Earlier forums drew former administration members, including former secretary of state Madeline Albright, a regular. President Clinton took part in the inaugural event, in 2004, as did Yusuf Qaradawi, an influential Egyptian Sunni scholar who is regarded as the spiritual guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, and has drawn criticism for having called Palestinian suicide bombings against Israelis justifiable martyrdom operations. Other noteworthy past attendees include the then commander of U.S. Central Command commander, Admiral William Fallon; Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan, who was denied a visa to the U.S. for years until the Obama administration lifted the ban in early 2010; the late Ambassador Richard Holbrooke; and Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam whose plan to build a mosque near Ground Zero triggered a storm last year. A number of U.S. lawmakers including Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) have also taken part. At the 2008 event, a straw poll on the 2008 presidential candidates handed an overwhelming victory to then Sen. Obama. Tamara Cofman Wittes, a Brookings senior fellow participating in the forum (now deputy assistant secretary for Near Eastern affairs), observed at the time, The symbolism of a major American presidential candidate with the middle name of Hussein, who went to elementary school in Indonesia, certainly speaks to Muslims abroad. (CNSNews.com)