June 24, 2009

To the Iranian Leadership: End the Violence Immediately

To:  Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, U.N. Ambassador & Permanent Representative Mohammad Khazaee

We are leaders of organizations representing tens of thousands of U.S. citizens who love Iran: its people, culture, poetry, and land. Some of our members have traveled in recent years to the Islamic Republic of Iran to build relationships between our cultures, and have returned home with images and stories of wonderful new friends and your land’s admirable humanitarian and religious cultures. We passionately urge peace between our countries, and deeply regret the unfortunate history of U.S. intervention in Iran and its sovereignty. We believe all nations and peoples have the right to live free of the threat of unjust foreign interference in their internal affairs.

Our organizations represent national and regional U.S. peace, anti-war, and religious communities, and some of our members have held meetings with President Ahmadinejad, former President Khatami, and Iranian religious leaders to discuss common concerns about peace and humanitarian issues. We have pressed the U.S. Congress and White House on numerous issues related to Iran, including: ending sanctions levied on Iran; engaging in constructive dialogue with Iranian leaders; and formally apologizing for past actions against Iran – such as the July 3, 1988 attack by the USS Vincennes on Iran Air #655, which killed 290 innocent civilians. And while the results of the recent Iranian election are contested, we commend the election as an exercise in the building of stronger democracy in Iran, and we hope that the open expression of different ideas and visions for the future of the nation will continue.

The Holy Qur’an teaches us, “If anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people.” And today we are compelled to communicate our pain and outrage about the violence being inflicted on peaceful Iranians. The killings of innocent civilians, beatings of elderly women and young students alike, and imprisonment without charge of hundreds of civilians – done in the name of Islam – serve to slander this holy religion whose name itself means the “making of peace.”

We are inspired by the ways that the nonviolent legacy of Mahatma Gandhi has been lifted up by many ordinary Iranians in this critical moment. For indeed, Gandhi reminded us, “Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.” Our faiths and commitments to peace compel us to demand an end to this senseless brutality against the people of Iran who are walking in silence, offering nonviolent witness, and engaging in other peaceful acts of conscience.

For more than a week, violence has wracked the nation of Iran. This past weekend, official reports have stated that between 10-19 Iranians died, while other reports give higher figures. These deaths are in addition to many others who have died in previous days. Moreover, we have received reports that in Tehran on Saturday, June 20, liquid chemicals were sprayed on civilians, causing burns. Many were unable to obtain adequate medical care, as they were followed by militia forces and trapped in hospitals; the consequences of their seeking aid and refuge were either additional beatings or arrest.

We have seen no sign that this oppression of ordinary Iranians will cease. In the name of the Islamic Republic and of the constitutional rights of its people, Iran’s political and religious leaders must bring an end to the ruthlessness that is being perpetrated, immediately.

We bring no moral weight to this request as Americans. In fact we stand in the same relationship of resistance and opposition to the use of violence by the government of the United States, in its continued violent occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, its use of violence to quell nonviolent dissent around political conventions and elections, its use of torture in violation of the Geneva Conventions, and its use of imprisonment of people without charges or fabricated and unsubstantiated charges against U.S. citizens and non-nationals alike.

The Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) said, “Break your bows, sever your strings, beat stones on your swords.” Therefore we appeal to the Islamic Republic of Iran, under the guidance of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, to work to immediately stop the violence.

With deepest concern,

National Organizational Leaders
•    Salam Al-Marayati, Executive Director, Muslim Public Affairs Council
•    Rev. Paul Alexander, Ph.D., Co-Founder, Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice
•    Ryan Amundson, Chair of the Steering Committee, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
•    The Rev. Michael J. Baxter, National Secretary, Catholic Peace Fellowship
•    Medea Benjamin, Founding Director, Global Exchange
•    Rev. Dr. Leonard B. Bjorkman, Moderator Emeritus, Presbyterian Peace Fellowship
•    Rev. Rita Nakashima Brock, Ph.D., Founding Director, Faith Voices for the Common Good
•    Ken Butigan, Executive Director, Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service
•    Matthew W. Daloisio, Coordinator, Witness Against Torture
•    Rev. Richard Deats, Past Executive Director, Fellowship of Reconciliation
•    Rev. Patricia de Jong & Sam Keen, Ph.D., Co-Founders, Axis of Friendship
•    Paul Dekar, Chair of the National Council, Fellowship of Reconciliation
•    Marie Dennis, Director, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
•    Goudarz Eghtedari, Ph.D., American Iranian Friendship Council
•    Jodie Evans, Co-Founder, CODEPINK: Women for Peace
•    Priscilla Fairbank, Co-Founder, Women Against War
•    David Hartsough, Executive Director, Peaceworkers
•    Karen Jacob, National Chair, Women’s Action for New Directions
•    Rev. Kathryn J. Johnson, Executive Director, Methodist Federation for Social Action
•    Mark C. Johnson, Ph.D., Executive Director, Fellowship of Reconciliation
•    Stephen D. Jones, President, Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America
•    Kathy Kelly, Co-Coordinator, Voices for Creative Nonviolence
•    Scott Kennedy, Coordinator of Middle East Program, Resource Center for Nonviolence
•    Peter Klotz-Chamberlin, Steering Committee Chair, Resource Center for Nonviolence
•    Judith Le Blanc, National Organizing Coordinator, United for Peace and Justice
•    Rabbi Michael Lerner, Executive Editor, Tikkun Magazine; National Chair, The Network of Spiritual Progressives
•    Marie Lucey, OSF, Associate Director, Leadership Conference of Women Religious
•    The Rev. Jackie Lynn, Executive Director, Episcopal Peace Fellowship
•    Kevin Martin, Executive Director, Peace Action
•    Paul Kawika Martin, Organizing, Political & PAC Director, Peace Action
•    Stefen Merken, Chair, Jewish Peace Fellowship
•    Gael Murphy, Co-Founder, CODEPINK: Women for Peace
•    Michael N. Nagler, Founder, Metta Center for Nonviolence Education
•    Arash Norouzi & Ebrahim Norouzi, The Mossadegh Project
•    Gerald Paoli, Co-Coordinator, Voices for Creative Nonviolence
•    Alexander Patico, Secretary, North America Orthodox Peace Fellowship
•    Jill Parillo, Deputy Director for Security Programs, Physicians for Social Responsibility
•    Dan Pearson, Co-Coordinator, Voices for Creative Nonviolence
•    Rev. Allie Perry, Vice-President of the Board, National Religious Campaign Against Torture
•    The Rev. Ellen Francis Poisson, OSH, Convenor, Iran Action Group, Episcopal Peace Fellowship
•    Franz Rad, Ph.D., Chair, American Iranian Friendship Council
•    Ibrahim Abdil-Mu’id Ramey, Director of Civil & Human Rights, Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation
•    David Robinson, Executive Director, Pax Christi USA
•    Terry Kay Rockefeller, Project Director, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
•    Bill Scheurer, Editor, PeaceMajority Report; Coordinator, Peace Garden Project
•    Susan Shaer, Executive Director, Women’s Action for New Directions
•    Amy Stapleton, National Organizer, Methodist Federation for Social Action
•    Samina Faheem Sundas, Founding Executive, American Muslim Voice
•    Rabbi Karen Sussan, Steering Committee Member, Jewish Peace Fellowship
•    Rev. Rick Ufford-Chase, Executive Director, Presbyterian Peace Fellowship
•    Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Executive Director, The Shalom Center
•    Peter Wilk, Executive Director, Physicians for Social Responsibility
•    James E. Winkler, General Secretary, United Methodist Church General Board of Church & Society
•    Ann Wright, retired U.S. Army Colonel and former U.S. diplomat

Regional and Local Leaders
•    Rev. John F. Backe, Past National Coordinator, Lutheran Peace Fellowship
•    Andrea Briggs, National Council member, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Altadena CA
•    Hank Brusselback & Gaia Mika, Dixon NM
•    The Rev. Stephen J. & Caroline C. Chinlund, Ph.D., New York NY
•    Tom Cornell, The Catholic Worker, Marlboro NY
•    Rev. Cheryl K. Cornish, Pastor, First Congregational United Church of Christ, Memphis TN
•    The Rev. Dr. Barbara Dua, Executive Director, New Mexico Council of Churches
•    Rev. Ellen M. Frith
•    Jane C. Gilman, member, Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Brookline MA
•    Talat Hamdani, mother of Mohammad Salman Hamdani and member, September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
•    Jane Harte, member, Buddhist Peace Fellowship
•    Lynda Howland, Pittsford NY
•    Bill Jenkins, Washington Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Washington DC
•    Dr. Terry Johns, Patten University, Oakland CA
•    Valerie Lucznikowska, aunt of Adam Arias and member, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
•    The Rev. Paul Mayer, NYC Forum of Concerned Religious Leaders; Co-Founder, Climate Crisis Coalition
•    Sean McConnell, Communications Officer, Episcopal Diocese of California
•    Shirley McRae, member, Religious Society of Friends, Port Townsend WA
•    Rosemarie Pace, Director, Pax Christi New York
•    Danny Postel, Member, Chicago Committee in Solidarity with the People of Iran
•    The Rev. Cecil Charles Prescod, Ainsworth United Church of Christ, Portland OR
•    Bill Quigley, Loyola University, New Orleans LA
•    Rev. Dianne Rodriguez, Pastor, First Parish Church, United Church of Christ, Northville NY
•    Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou, Senior Minister, Lemuel Haynes Congregational Church, Jamaica NY
•    Daniel R. Smith, Seattle WA
•    Trish Thompson, United Buddhist Church of America
•    Nichola Torbett, Director, Seminary in the Street, Berkeley CA
•    Bruce Wallace, Director, 121Contact; uncle of Mitchell Wallace and member, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows; and Noor, staff member, 121Contact, Brooklyn NY
•    Jeff Warner, La Habra Heights, CA
•    Adele Welty, mother of firefighter Timothy Welty and member, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
•    Dr. Stephen Zunes, Chair, Middle Eastern Studies, University of San Francisco

(Organizational affiliations listed for identification purposes)

FOR press contact: Ethan Vesely-Flad, Communications Director, 510-701-5267

Khamenei stamps authority on US relations, AFP, March 22, 2009
The swift response from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to US President Barack Obama’s overtures to Iran shows the supreme leader’s determination to keep a tight grip on the issue of ties with Washington, analysts said on Sunday. “He wanted to send a message to the whole world that he is the one who takes the big decisions,” said Parviz Esmaili, who is close to Iran’s dominant conservatives. “The silence of both President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the foreign ministry proves it,” Esmaili told AFP. Another analyst, Said Leylaz, who is close to the reformist minority in the Iranian parliament, also commented on the unusual silence on the issue from the hardline president. “I am certain that President Ahmadinejad would have wanted to give this response to President Obama himself as that would have boosted his chances of re-election,” Leylaz said.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jxlz-o2pTtBtLRTktl169QEIxL1w

Iran’s response to US shows mind-set of leadership, AP, March 22, 2009
The Iranian leader’s rebuff on Saturday to President Barack Obama’s offer for dialogue was swift and sweeping: Words from Washington ring hollow without deep policy changes.  But Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s response was more than just a dismissive slap at the outreach. It was a broad lesson in the mind-set of Iran’s all-powerful theocracy and how it will dictate the pace and tone of any new steps by Obama to chip away at their nearly 30-year diplomatic freeze.  ”It’s the first stage of the bargaining in classic Iranian style: Be tough and play up your toughness,” said Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a professor of regional politics at United Arab Emirates University. “The Iranian leaders are not about concessions at this stage. It’s still all about ideology from the Iranian side.”  For Khamenei and his inner circle, that means appearing to stay true to the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the political narrative of rejecting the United States.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/21/AR2009032101079.html <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/21/AR2009032101079.html>

Editorial: Obama strikes new tone with Tehran, Financial Times, March 22 2009
Barack Obama’s overture to Iran, delivered by video on the eve of Monday’s Iranian new year, is a smart move, tone-perfectly delivered, and a clear departure not just from George W. Bush’s bellicose attitude but the visceral animosity that has bedevilled relations between Washington and Tehran since the Islamic Revolution of 30 years ago. Mr Obama managed simultaneously to address Iran’s innate sense of cultural superiority as an ancient civilisation, and its paranoid sense of vulnerability. “The US wants the Islamic Republic of Iran to take its rightful place in the community of nations,” he said. “You have that right but it comes with real responsibilities and that place cannot be reached through terror or arms, but rather through peaceful actions that demonstrate the true greatness of the Iranian people and civilisation”. His use of the formal title of Islamic Republic implies US recognition of the revolution and abandonment of regime change. The emphasis on rights and responsibilities – the sort of discourse tailored for, say, China – suits Iran’s sense of entitlement and ambition to be acknowledged as a regional power. The address is well aimed, furthermore, not just at Iran’s leaders but at the Iranians, arguably the most instinctively pro-American people in the wider Middle East.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/617f1fb4-1713-11de-9a72-0000779fd2ac.html

Roger Cohen: From Tehran to Tel Aviv¸ International Herald Tribune, March 22, 2009
With his bold message to Iran’s leaders, President Obama achieved four things essential to any rapprochement. He abandoned regime change as an American goal. He shelved the so-called military option. He buried a carrot-and-stick approach viewed with contempt by Iranians as fit only for donkeys. And he placed Iran’s nuclear program within “the full range of issues before us.” By doing so, Obama made it almost inevitable that one of the defining strategic issues of his presidency will be a painful but necessary redefinition of America’s relations with Israel as differences over Iran sharpen. I will return to that below. The innovations in the president’s Persian New Year, or Nowruz, overture to Tehran were remarkable. He referred twice to “the Islamic Republic of Iran,” a formulation long shunned, and said that republic, no other, should “take its rightful place in the community of nations.” Here was explicit American acceptance of Iran’s 30-year-old clerical revolution.
http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=20978866

Rami G. Khouri: Dialogue or Dictating to Iran?, Middle East Times, March 23, 2009
We should not underestimate the courage and self-confidence it took for Obama to move in this direction and to make several gestures towards Iran since taking office. He reflects real strength, political realism and much humility in being able to reverse many aspects of the belligerent Bush approach and instead to reach out to Iran. Yet the persistent flaw in the Obama approach that might prove to be fatal is a lingering streak of arrogance that is reflected in both the tone and the substance of his message. This is most obvious in his insistence – after telling the Iranians that they are a great culture with proud traditions, which is presumably something they already knew, experienced and felt on their own — on lecturing Iran about the responsibilities that come with the right to assume its place in the “community of nations”, and then linking Iran’s behavior with “terror of arms” and a “capacity to destroy.”
http://www.metimes.com/International/2009/03/23/dialogue_or_dictating_to_iran/9371/ <http://www.metimes.com/International/2009/03/23/dialogue_or_dictating_to_iran/9371

Despite Iran’s tepid response, experts hail Obama approach, McClatchy, March 20, 2009
Triti Parsi, the president of the National Iranian American Council, which favors U.S. engagement with Iran, called Obama’s latest message “historic.” He said the president took the right tack in not trying to ignore Iran’s leaders and speak only to the Iranian people, as Bush almost always did. Bush’s rhetoric helped the fiery Ahmadinejad, and Obama’s approach “now may ‘un-help’ Ahmadinejad,” Parsi said. Iranian reformists, who favor improved ties with the United States, also say the previous approach helped the hawkish camp in Iran’s divided political system, which often manipulates anti-American sentiment for political ends. While Bush was in the White House, “reformists became weak,” reformist politician Mostafa Tajzadeh said in a recent interview in Tehran. The Carnegie Endowment’s Sadjadpour said that while Iran’s internal political battles won’t be resolved anytime soon, the new U.S. diplomacy “will undermine (hardliners) and their narrative of a hostile U.S. government bent on oppressing Iran.”
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/64536.html <http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/64536.html

Iran sets terms for U.S. ties, AP, March 22, 2009
Iran wants the United States to show concrete change in its behavior toward it, for example by handing back frozen assets, but Tehran is not pursuing “eternal hostility,” said Professor Mohammad Marandi at Tehran University. “I think they (the Iranian leadership) are quite willing to have better relations if the Americans are serious,” said Marandi, who heads North American studies at the university. Marandi said Khamenei did not dismiss Obama’s overture but was “effectively saying that this is simply not enough, that the United States must take concrete steps toward decreasing tension with Iran.” But Professor Hamidreza Jalaiepour, who teaches political sociology in Tehran, said Khamenei had delivered a pragmatic message rather than one based on ideology on Saturday. If the United States eased sanctions imposed on Iran or released frozen funds, Iran was likely to respond, for example in helping to stabilize neighboring Afghanistan, he said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090322/wl_nm/us_iran_usa http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090322/wl_nm/us_iran_usa

‘No proof’ Iran seeks atom bomb: Russian minister, AFP, March 22, 2009
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday there was no proof that Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon and urged the West to respect and reach out to the Islamic republic. “There is no proof that Iran even has decided to make a bomb,” he told the Brussels Forum conference, alongside EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who on behalf of world powers has led talks to curb Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. Lavrov said the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was best placed to monitor Iran’s activities and establish whether it might try to covertly develop a weapon under the guise of a civilian programme. Lavrov said that “as long as the IAEA works in Iran,” real concerns it may develop a bomb could be allayed.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hBPU3NuguY_rj19oOwLADdyt-E2w

Amir Taheri <http://online.wsj.com/search/search_center.html?KEYWORDS=AMIR+TAHERI&amp;ARTICLESEARCHQUERY_PARSER=bylineAND> : Iran Has Started a Mideast Arms Race, Wall Street Journal, March 23, 2009
Make no mistake: The Middle East may be on the verge of a nuclear arms race triggered by the inability of the West to stop Iran’s quest for a bomb. Since Tehran’s nuclear ambitions hit the headlines five years ago, 25 countries — 10 of them in the greater Middle East — have announced plans to build nuclear power plants for the first time. The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates [UAE] and Oman) set up a nuclear exploratory commission in 2007 to prepare a “strategic report” for submission to the alliance’s summit later this year. But Saudi Arabia is not waiting for the report. It opened negotiations with the U.S. in 2008 to obtain “a nuclear capacity,” ostensibly for “peaceful purposes.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123776572203009141.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123776572203009141.html

Wife of founder of Iran’s Islamic republic dies, AP, March 23, 2009
The wife of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the father of Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, has died after a long illness, state media reported Sunday. She was 93. Khadijeh Saqafi, who was known as the “mother of the Islamic revolution,” died Saturday in Tehran, state TV said. Thousands of people, including Iran’s president and supreme leader, attended her funeral at Tehran University on Sunday. “After a lifetime of patience and perseverance, and months of sick health, the dear and respected wife of Imam Khomeini has finally passed way, leaving friends of the late imam in grief,” her grandson Hasan Khomeini said in a statement posted on the Web site of Iran’s English-language state television station, Press TV.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ikwGcpqo0p2JwanEHkViYsOE0s2QD9739J480 http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ikwGcpqo0p2JwanEHkViYsOE0s2QD9739J480

Tony Wilson
Program Assistant
Open Society Institute/Open Society Policy Center
1120 19th Street, NW- 8th Floor Washington, DC 20036
Tel. 1-202-721-5600
Fax: 1-202-530-0128

President Barack Obama made an unprecedented video appeal to the Iranian people today, offering a “new beginning” of engagement to end nearly 30 years of animosity between the two nations. Video is also on YouTube here.

Barack Obama’s Nowruz (the Iranian new year) message is the latest chapter in a presidential charm offensive that has so far been conducted at arms length and has barely touched on several key disputes.

In the video, which was shown on a number of TV networks in the Middle East, Obama said he wanted to “speak directly to the people and leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran” to make clear his desire to establish “constructive ties” between the two countries.

“My administration is now committed to diplomacy that addresses the full range of issues before us,” the president said. Strikingly, though, he mentioned none of them: not Iran’s nuclear programme, its support for Hezbollah and Hamas, nor its profound hostility to Israel.

The timing and format of the TV broadcast, with Farsi subtitles, emphasised its broad appeal – to an entire country at a time of traditional celebration rather than solely to a government whose internal complexities compound the difficulty for US policymakers.

“For nearly three decades relations between our nations have been strained,” Obama reminded his audience. “But at this holiday we are reminded of the common humanity that binds us together.”

The message for Iran’s leaders at this “season of new beginnings” was a reprise of the approach he signalled in his inaugural address: commitment to engagement – and in an emollient tone that again contrasted sharply with that of George Bush, who included the Islamic Republic in his “axis of evil”.

“This process will not be advanced by threats,” the president said, hinting perhaps that Americans as well as Iranians needed to take that lesson on board. “We seek instead engagement that is honest and grounded in mutual respect.”

Despite avoiding the tangled nuclear dossier – specifically Iran’s refusal to halt uranium enrichment – Obama did warn that “terror and arms” did not sit well with the “real responsibilities” that went with Iran’s “rightful place in the community of nations”.

The White House and state ­department are looking at a range of other ways to reach out to Tehran. It has been invited to an international conference on Afghanistan later this month and the US wants to see it co-operate as US forces prepare to leave Iraq.

Another idea is that the president write an open letter to the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. US officials want to avoid doing anything that might boost the chances of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the populist hardliner who is standing for re-election in June.

Reopening a US interests section in Tehran – scene of the notorious hostage-taking drama at the old US embassy during the 1979 revolution – is reportedly another possibility.

Iranian reactions to the message were predictably cautious. Akbar Javankir, an adviser to Ahmadinejad, said Iran could not forget “the previous hostile and aggressive attitude of the United States.”

The US administration “has to ­recognise past mistakes and repair them.”

That includes decades of American support for the shah. As Obama pointed out, with presidential understatement, it will not be easy to overcome what he called “the old divisions.”

On Thursday September 25th, over 250 US and international religious, political and cultural leaders gathered at a hotel in NYC to meet with the President of Iran in order to press the government of the United States and the government of Iran to engage in serious dialogue as well as to affirm the concept of interfaith dialogue. Given the climate of incendiary rhetoric, members of traditional peace churches that sponsored this event, including American Friends Service Committee, The Mennonite Central Committee, Religions of Peace and the World Council of Churches consider it their responsibility to step in and begin to cultivate the possibility for dialogue and engagement in behalf of peace when governments fail to do so. The previous evening, The Fellowship of Reconciliation hosted a meeting with over sixty peace activists with the president of Iran with the same intention. These groups are not alone in calling for diplomacy and dialogue. Five former secretaries of state urged similar action.

Meetings organized by peace and non-violence organizations and individuals with Ahmadinejad do not mean those attending agree or support specific Iranian governmental policies that are in conflict with the values of the peace community or the accompanying rhetoric about Israel, Jews or the United States. Rather, the intention is to promote the concept of dialogue and engagement precisely because of the vast gulf between governmental positions of the United States and Iran and to better understand the underlying issues of the conflict from the Iranian perspective. Ahmadinejad is a political figure who represents his country but is not identical with the whole of his country. In his role as president Ahmadinejad does not have the authority to initiate war, attack another country, promote or limit nuclear weapons or legislate Islamic law. A populist politician, his domestic policies have been failures, especially in the economic sphere. Moreover, he has not been an active proponent of human rights. On the other hand,  many US media and non-governmental organizations criticizing Ahmadinejad’s provocative rhetoric fail to educate the American public by providing in depth analysis of the underlying historic and geo-political issues that are provoking the wider conflict between Iran, the United States and Israel.

At the Thursday dinner, most speakers who addressed and questioned the President took the opportunity to challenge him on several issues. They berated Ahmadinejad for his failure to state unequivocally that he mourns the death of six million Jews during the Holocaust, asserted their opposition to all nuclear weapons, bemoaned the Iranian record on human rights and in particular the execution of juveniles, the lack of religious freedom of expression, the persecution of the Bahai community and Iran’s denial that Israel has a right to exist as a nation state.  Iran’s continual refusal to mention the name of the state of Israel and the constant reference to Israel as the illegal Zionist entity reflects the Islamic Republic’s position that Israel was created by European powers after the war to assuage their guilt about the Holocaust and that the Palestinians are paying for this with a brutal occupation. However, the language and tone of remarks about Israel are coated with anti-semetic rhetoric. Ironically, Ahmadinejad was reprimanded by the supreme leader for the statements of the Iranian vice-president mentioning the word Israeli earlier in the week. His Vice-President Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei  stated that, “Iran wants no war with any country, and today Iran is friend of the United States and even Israel. … Our achievements belong to the whole world and should be used for expanding love and peace.’ Rahim-Mashaei is also head of the Cultural Heritage Organization which is home to the Department of Inter-religious Dialogue which will be hosting the Fellowship of Reconciliation’s Interfaith Delegation to Iran in November. It is clear that there are other forces within the Iranian government, reformists forces, which are interested in a more expansive and reconciliatory approach to Israel and the Jewish community as well as the United States. While in Iran last November, many people related their extreme discomfort with Ahmadinejad’s notorious conference which attracted scores of Holocaust deniers from around the world.

Ahmadinejad may be gone from power by June due to their elections. Whether he is or is not, those in the inter-faith peace community are looking to open channels with Iranians in the Department of Inter-religious Dialogue. For those of us in the Jewish community, it is important for us to note that, unlike most other Middle Eastern countries, Iran still possesses a small but significant Jewish community. Somewhere between 12,000 and 25,000 Jews reside mostly in Teheran, Shiraz and Esfahan. As the oldest extant Jewish community in the Middle East outside of Israel, how do we protect them, reach out to them and nurture their Jewish life in Iran? The possibility of real engagement is difficult in an atmosphere of aggressive rhetoric which does nothing to create a climate of rapprochement.

While those of us who practice non-violence do not endorse the Iranian government’s anti-Israel rhetoric, it is important to be well-informed about Iran’s positions on key issues of concern. I have provided links to Daily Iran Clips for anyone who wants to research the underlying issues relating to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Iranian and Israeli relations, Iranian and US relations and other relevant topics. When a peace process commences, it is important to have already initiated contact at the grass roots level so there are people with experience who can help others negotiate the new relationship. As members of Shomer Shalom prepare for our delegation to Iran in November, we will be making every effort to be informed about and reach out to the Jewish community of Iran, to learn more about Islam, and to apply the principles of engaged non-violence to this difficult and challenging conflict. In addition, we are open to the many people of good faith living in Iran who sincerely desire to bolster a positive interfaith atmosphere

in their own country.

We know from our own experience this takes long term commitment and readiness to work through the challenges and joys of true dialogue.  The following is the speech I gave at the Hyatt Hotel on Thursday September 25th at the Interfaith Iftar dinner, along with seven other speakers. I spoke for nine minutes. Some have asked me why I mentioned Roma, Armenians, and those murdered due to sexual orientation and special needs along with Jewish people. They, too, were targeted for genocide due to the specifics of their identity.

At the end of the dinner, an Armenian bishop came up to me with tears in his eyes. “Thank you for remembering us, it was very healing.” For me, it is the struggle both to prevent violence as well as to engage in healing humanity’s deep wounds that form the content of the life of my particular practice of Shomer Shalom.

ON RECONCILIATION

I learned this teaching from my Muslim friend and peacewalk partner Abdul Rauf Campos Marquetti.  Abu Hurayrah quoted the Prophet, peace be upon him, “You will not enter paradise until you believe, and you will not believe until you love one another. Then he added: Shall I tell you something which will help you to love one another? The Companions replied: Yes, O messenger of Allah. He said, Get into the way of greeting each other. This practice is also found within Jewish tradition, so I will begin this evening’s talk on Religion as a Pathway to Peace with a greeting of peace.

Salaam/shalom aleichem/asalaam u-aleikum rahmat allahe oo barakat hu

Religious life for many of us leads us upon unexpected journeys. I have had the opportunity to visit Iran this past May as part of the 7th delegation of the Fellowship of Reconciliation to Iran hosted by the Iranian Department of Inter-religious Affairs.  Kesh-varetoon khili qash-an-geh. Our delegation was especially moved by our experience at the masjid of Jamkaran just outside of Qom at the well of wishes where the Mahdi is said to have appeared 100 years ago to give hope and comfort to all those who long for peace. In the spirit of peace I am honored to speak about religion’s role in peacemaking.

When engaged in dialogue or conversation, it is a Jewish custom to begin with a verse of Torah. I have chosen the section of Torah I wish to chant based on the this evening’s theme: How religion can contribute to solution of the world’s problems. I will recite, translate and then interpret Parashat Kedoshim, the chapter called  ‘holiness’ found in the third book of Torah known as Vayikra in Hebrew and as Leviticus by English speakers which addresses the question of how religion can guide us in solving the world’s problems. Torah councils us that no matter what problems face us, we are to engage in solutions through dialogue, reconciliation and peace building measures, as it is written, the entire Torah is for the sake of peace. Dialogue, reconciliation and peacebuilding are central values in Jewish tradition. Dialogue brings many perspectives together, gives special attention to minority opinions and must be conducted by treating everyone with respect. Reconciliation involves a process of acknowledgment of past wrongs, restorative healing work and forgiveness. Peace building includes taking all the necessary steps to create peace without engaging in harmful acts. The following instructions and many other instructions found in Jewish rabbinic tradition also implicitly recommend non-violence as the preferred method for engaging in the struggle for reconciliation and peace.

Now I will chant the blessing and the passage from Vayikra, Chapter 19 verses 16 to 18:

Do not be a talebearer or spread hate among the people.

Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor.

Do not hate your brother or sister in your heart

Rather speak directly to your brother and sister about your concerns

Do not take vengence. Do not bear a grudge against the children of your people.

Love your neighbor as yourself, I am YHVH

I will interpret these words according to the tradition of interpretation by which I was ordained as a rabbi. I stand before you today as a rabbi rooted in the lineage of those in the Jewish community who follow the path of engaged non-violence which is called shomer shalom. As a shomeret shalom I renew a vow of engaged non-violence every year at Yom Kippur.  My teachers, those whose memories are a blessing, and those who still walk upon this earth, have taught me the way of non-violence as I seek peace and pursue peace (Psalm 34:15). I stand in the tradition that teaches: “Individuals and entire peoples must order their lives according to what is taught: A human being should concern herself more than she not injure others than she not be injured.* For when a human being tries to KEEP WATCH/Shomer that she not injure others, by that very act she enthrones in the world, the God of truth and righteousness and adds power to the realm of justice. (*Tosafot of B. Kama 23b) Like Rebbe Nachman of Bratislav and other teachers from the lineage of non-violence in Judaism, I view war as a form of idolatry and acts of militarism as a desecration of God’s name. This informs all my actions in behalf of peace building.

I also want to honor the tradition of non-violence of the peace churches  here today who also believe in the importance of seeking and pursing peace through religious dialogue and public witness and who reject militarism, military violence, capital punishment and war as a viable and legitimate mode of solving conflict or obtaining justice. In another part of the Torah, the book of Psalms we learn:

Seek peace and pursue peace, the sages ask, why does the verse repeat itself. Would it not have been enough to state the command once?  Why does the Torah say both seek and pursue.  We have received this oral tradition:(Vayikra Rabbah 9.9)

“Seek peace for your loved ones and pursue peace with your opponents and enemies;

Seek peace where you live and pursue peace elsewhere;

Seek peace with your body and pursue peace with your resources;

Seek peace for yourself and pursue peace for others

Seek peace today and pursue peace every tomorrow.

Peace is not envisioned as a quietist or passive stance. Rather shalom, the condition of harmony and well-being for the whole of society and the human heart of the believer is a condition that must be actively sought and publicly acknowledged for the sake of preventing violence and building peace.

That is why I stand here today, even when many of my co-religionists are dismissing, demeaning or boycotting this important conversation. I want to make clear that there are many thousands of Jewish people within my community whose voices are not heard, but nonetheless support dialogue as both a religious obligation as well as a way to give witness to hope.

I am of the lineage of those who believe the struggle for peace through non-violence is the greatest spiritual jihad. The spiritual meaning of the word Yisrael has the same meaning as jihad: that is, the struggle to walk a divinely commanded path, to follow the requirements given to us at Sinai to live a life of righteousness.

I would like to interpret Vayikra. The first verse of the passage states:   Do not become a talebearer or spread hate among people. Hate speech is to be avoided because it often leads to acts of violence. As you are well aware, I come from a community that has experienced the genocidal results of hate speech leading to hate action. I know the country of Iran recognizes the Holocaust as I understand that there was a widely viewed television series dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust this past year in Iran which was watch by millions of people. I would like to remember for a blessing all those who have died in our world, on account of war.

I mourn the death of all young men and women sent to soldiering in conflicts not of their making.

I mourn one half a million Iranians who died in the Iran Iraq war,

I mourn the millions of Iraqis have been killed, injured and displaced by a war the United States initiated in Iraq.

I also mourn the forty million people who died in the second world war, including

two million armenians, one million roma, tens of thousands  who died on account of sexual orientation as well as those who were targeted for murder based on special needs. And of course, I mourn my own extended family, six million Jewish people who were murdered because European historical anti-semetism made it acceptable to see us as less than human. Because of the Holocaust, I learned from the rabbis who ordained me and guide me, to be active in preventing further suffering of all human beings as a primary religious call to action. That is why I, like thousands of Jewish Americans, Israelis and Europeans have joined with other peace activists across the globe to work tirelessly for Palestinian human rights, as well as Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation through the path of non-violence.

For, as the next verse of Leviticus instructs us: Do not stand idly by the shedding of blood of your neighbor. We are commanded not to be silent or passive in the face of prejudice, militarism, violence or structural injustice which privileges some while exploiting others. In fact, challenging systems of injustice is essential to peacemaking.

The text continues: Do not harbor hatred of your brother or sister in your heart. This mitzvah relates to the inner dimension of peacemaking. Even in the face of violence and the struggle for human rights we are told to remember that we are all one human family. As the Persian poet Saadi states, we are all cut from the same jewel. If part of the jewel is harmed is not the whole jewel harmed? Hatred is a form of alienation and is linked to fear and violence. Therefore peacemaking begins by trying to erase hatred of others from one’s heart, to see the other as a full human being, to know that the flaws we find in others are also flaws within ourselves. We are to judge everyone from z’khaf zechut, a place of merit, and thus begin to build an atmosphere of trust out of which peace can grow even as we make every effort to redress wrongs.  Rather than respond to violence with violence we are told: speak directly to your brother or sister about your concerns. The Torah urges direct negotiations, acts of face to face reconciliation as the way to peace. I pray for this insight as it relates to the government of the United States and the government of Iran.  As the next verses categorically states, as a matter of religious obligation, we are not to take vengeance, nor bear a grudge. This is a weighty obligation and the heart of the instruction to act non-violently, even in the face of violence. This instruction is explicated further as the central tenet of all our traditions: Love your neighbor as you love yourself.  I am YHV. Love is not a sentiment, but a condition in which we face obstacles to peace with the view that the man or woman who stands before us is indeed our brother or our sister. We are commanded to choose love and not fear, love and not violence, love

and not war.

The Baal Shem Tov used to say, if he didn’t get his point across with instruction and interpretation, he would tell a story. Morning Prayer. Inshallah

They want to destroy hope, therefore I shall preserve it by any possible means.

They want to kill trust. Thus I will reach out to others, Africans, Asians, Arabs, Americans and Jews alike.

They want to imprison people in labels and stereotypes. I will strive to maintain a dialogue, always focusing on the individuals rather than the symbol.

They want to kill joy in me, thus I will laugh again.

They want to paralyze me, therefore I will take action. They want to silence me–therefore I will speak out.

From a speech given by Mariane Pearl in Sydney, Australia in March 2004.

David Batty
guardian.co.uk, Friday June 13 2008

Shirin Ebadi at a media forum in Germany this month. Photograph: Felix Heyder/EPA

The Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi is not a woman easily stopped in her tracks – she has been held in jail and faced repeated death threats, but continues to speak out against the abuses of the theocratic regime. On the doorstep of the BBC’s Bush House in central London, though, an American tourist waves the Nobel peace laureate and her entourage aside, complaining loudly: “Do you mind? We’re trying to take a picture!”

It serves, perhaps, as a reminder for Ebadi – who has spent the day being treated like a VIP by the BBC World Service – of the challenge she faces in attracting western interest to her cause.

With the international community fixated on Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Ebadi says there is dwindling scrutiny of human rights in her homeland, and the hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has taken advantage of this to increase repression.

“Since the world started focusing on the nuclear programme, the human rights situation in Iran has worsened every day,” says Ebadi, who won the Nobel prize in 2003.

Dozens of activists have been prosecuted and condemned to prison, the lash or both. Arrests, detention and judicial harassment are increasing, with journalists, lawyers, students and trade unionists particularly targeted.

“The morality police interfere more in people’s everyday lives,” she says. “They recently announced they would carry out inspections in private homes and companies. In Tehran there was also a plan to target hooligans on the streets, but it led to a lot of innocent young people and women being arrested.”

Ebadi, 60, has been relatively lucky. She was born in 1947 to a non-traditional Muslim family. She was treated as an equal with her brother and encouraged to go to college. In 1975, aged 23, she became Iran’s first woman judge. She lost her position after the Islamic revolution in 1979 when conservative clerics insisted that Islam prohibits women from holding such an office. She was allowed to practice law again in 1992, and since then has turned her legal skills against the Islamic republic she once supported but now opposes due to its human rights abuses.

Ebadi recently took her campaign to the mid-west United States, where she found sympathy among ordinary Americans upset by bellicose rhetoric about Iran. She is perturbed at how contestants in the US presidential race have cited their preparedness to attack Iran. In April, Hillary Clinton said she would “obliterate” the country if it attacked Israel.

“It is very concerning,” she says. “Undoubtedly a military attack on Iran would worsen human rights in the country. Look at Iraq – now the fundamentalists have a pretext for their extremism. No one talks about freedom of speech or human rights. People just want a safe shelter.

“Do you think that since the US troops arrived in Iraq that the Iraqi people have become prosperous? As a human rights activist I tell the people of the world that if you want to help people in Iran the solution is not to launch an attack.”

There is little sign that western leaders are listening. This week, George Bush once again raised the possibility of military action, warning that “all options are on the table”. A US-EU summit in Slovenia threatened new sanctions against Iran if it fails to end uranium enrichment.

Ebadi says the nuclear standoff has made the Iranian regime attractive to disaffected young people elsewhere in the Middle East whose governments are unelected.

“Disenchanted young people have turned to Iran for inspiration, a country that takes every opportunity to burn the American flag. But can the Iranian government represent a good system of government? No.”

The world needs to know that every day the lives of Iranians are “getting poorer and more impoverished” due to the regime’s internal oppression and confrontational foreign policy, she says.

“There are close to 10 million people under the poverty line. That’s one out of every seven. And that is according to official government figures, so let’s imagine the reality.

“The consequences of Iranian policies domestically should be revealed around the world, so [young people in the Middle East] understand that just opposing the US isn’t going to solve the problems they face. We’ve been saying ‘death to America’ for years but our people have been getting hungrier.”

Ebadi says that to tackle the surge in support for Iran among the young in the region, the US must stop supporting its undemocratic regimes. “What is interesting is almost all the undemocratic regimes in the Middle East – Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates – is they’re all friends of the United States,” she says.

“If the US were to stop supporting their governments they would fall immediately. So the people of those countries don’t feel good about American foreign policy and view it suspiciously.”

Ebadi was always unconvinced by the Bush administration’s view that regime change in Iraq would create a domino effect bringing democracy across the Middle East. “It was a flawed argument from the start. If a country genuinely believes in democratic reform it’s not going to wait for another country to reform before taking action.”

Her hopes hinge on obliging the regime to adhere to the international human rights conventions it has ratified. She is in London to promote a new book on the rights of refugees in Iran that sets out how international and Islamic law can be used to protect them.

Iran signed the United Nations declaration of human rights in 1975. Activists say the government is in violation of the treaty. But last year the much-criticised UN human rights council removed Iran from a list of countries that were being closely monitored.

There have been six visits to Iran by investigators since the council was established in 2006, but their recommendations have not been implemented. Ebadi says abuses have gone unchecked, and she is calling on the council to reappoint a special rapporteur to bring the regime to account.

At a conference in Geneva this week, Ebadi called on the international community to strengthen the council, as it remains a last resort for many victims.

“Unfortunately the Iranian government has not followed the recommendations of the UN rights agencies,” she says. “But the fact the recommendations are recognised by the government shows that the Iranian people do have rights and have the confidence to demand that they are respected. So though the UN reports may not have practically led to results, psychologically it has been a great boost to the morale of the Iranian people.”

Ebadi remains optimistic that reform is achievable. Her hope lies in Iran’s youthful population – almost 70% aged under 30 – which is hungry for change and prepared to fight for its freedom.

She cites the example of one of her clients, 32-year-old Maryam Hossienkhah, a journalist and member of the One Million Signatures Campaign for equal rights for Iranian women.

Hossienkhah was arrested in November for writing articles demanding respect for women’s rights under the Islamic constitution. Her bail was set at the equivalent of £75,000.

Ebadi says: “She told the judge, ‘I refuse to do that. I’m innocent but I’ll go to jail.’ As soon as she arrived in the jail, she started giving advice to the women about how to defend their cases.

“She sent a message out to her friends and colleagues that the prison library didn’t have a good book collection. So other members of the campaign brought in books and in less than 20 days the prison had a full library. Finally the judge said to the prosecutor, ‘You’ll have to get this woman out otherwise she will cause chaos!’”

Hossienkhah was released in January after her bail was reduced to just over £3,500. There are many similar cases before the courts, says Ebadi. “I’m glad to say that the more harsh women’s lives become, the more determined they are to overcome them. The will of these women is very powerful and that poses a challenge for the government.”

Shirin Ebadi’s latest book, Refugee Rights in Iran, is published by Saqi at £12.99. www.saqibooks.com

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/13/shirinebadi.iran

June 14, 2008 | 6:12 p.m. CST

COLUMBIA — Lily Tinker-Fortel clenched the passenger door armrest as her Iranian taxi weaved in and out through the congestion of cars, motorbikes and pedestrians on Valiasr Street, the longest street in the Middle East and the busiest 12 miles for Tehran’s 13 million residents.

“Imagine a busy street lined on both sides with beautiful, towering sycamores. Miles of sycamores,” Tinker-Fortel wrote in her blog on June 9, 2008, recounting her first afternoon in Tehran.

It was day one of a 12-day, 21-person civilian diplomacy trip that took the 24-year-old peace activist from Columbia to numerous Iranian historical and cultural centers of the villages Qom, Esfahan, and Abyaneh, and the city of Shiraz. Tinker-Fortel, community outreach coordinator for Mid-Missouri Peaceworks, was part of an interfaith delegation that went to Iran in May on a mission of fellowship.

The Fellowship of Reconciliation, the oldest and largest interfaith organization in the United States, organized the delegation and began their Iranian program in December 2005. According to Leila Zand, director of the organization’s Iran program, the delegation sends civilian diplomats into Iran to meet Iranian civilians, government officials and religious leaders from Iran’s Muslim majority and those in the minority Armenian-Christian, Iranian-Jewish and Zoroastrain communities.

“In the Iran program the main goal is to educate Americans and Iranians,” Zand said. “Its really important to see that Iranians are just like us and its really important for Iranians to know that Americans don’t always accept their (the American) government’s policies.”

Tinker-Fortel recalls that although the 36-hour trip from Missouri to Tehran was exhausting, her adrenaline kept her wide-awake.

“We were embarking on this very exciting journey for all of us. Anytime you are in the midst of a new experience your senses are definitely alert and excited,” Tinker-Fortel said.

Tinker-Fortel believes the purpose of her trip and the concept of civilian diplomacy is to get past the political rhetoric in the lead up to war and get back to the human component of violent conflicts.

“What gets lost is that we are talking about human beings. It’s tragic that it’s lost,” Tinker-Fortel said.

Tinker-Fortel used the kids she met and saw in Iran as an example.

“A picture comes to mind of these boys and one was eating an ice cream cone,” Tinker-Fortel remembered. “They like cool cars, they read books. And they go with their moms and dads to the park. They have hopes and dreams, too.”

Tinker-Fortel has given presentations to organizations and friends in Columbia about her civilian diplomat experience in Iran as part of a campaign to educate Americans about Iran and correct misconceptions about Iranian society.

Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, co-founder of the Muslim-Jewish Peace Walk and the Shomer Shalom Institute for Jewish Non-Violence, was a fellow delegate to Iran and believes civilian diplomats can build bridges of understanding and influence their societies towards peace.

“Its part of our duties as citizens to create peace on the ground. It has to be intentional,” Gottlieb said.

Both women experienced firsthand Iranian anxiety of the possibility of war with the United States as Tinker-Fortel was confronted with the fear while exploring the Imam square of Esfahan, the second-largest public square in the world.

“I woke up early and went with a couple of other women to explore the square,” Tinker-Fortel said. “As we were shopping for scarves we were approached by three other women, one knew English and a conversation was born.”

The American women explained who they were and showed the Iranian women their peace advocate buttons. Tinker-Fortel recalled that as the conversation ended the English-speaking woman began crying and asked them to tell American people that Iranians are friendly.

“It was one of the first times I experienced the fear of an American-led or -sponsored war with Iran,” Tinker-Fortel said.

She explained that Iranians have witnessed war in recent history and have vivid memories of the Iran-Iraq war.

The Fellowship requested Tinker-Fortel join the delegation after she worked with Mid-Missouri Peaceworks to bring Stephen Kinzer, an author and lecturer, to Columbia. Jeff Stack, coordinator of the Mid-Missouri Fellowship of Reconciliation cited her compassion and articulation as reasons he believed she was a good representative to Iran.

“I’m encouraged by this next generation that she seems to represent,” Stack said. “She is a person working hard to help support and make possible a more creative and constructive uplifting society.”

Long-standing political and cultural tensions between the United States and Iran have increased recently with U.S. opposition to Iranian attempts to develop a nuclear program. As recently as Thursday, President Bush repeated his willingness to include military force as a viable option to curtail Iran’s nuclear program during a meeting with European leaders in Germany, according to other media reports.

“We literally spoke to hundreds of people who expressed their hope that the U.S. would not bomb their country,” Rabbi Gottlieb said.

Tinker-Fortel’s experience in Iran has increased a sense of urgency for her to use civilian diplomacy to effect change by encouraging citizens to demand more from their elected officials.

“We have a great opportunity to reclaim the way we are represented,” Tinker-Fortel said. “I’m just another person trying to share that with others, bring it back to the people. There’s nothing to lose by trying diplomacy.”

Sister Ellen Francis from the Episcopal Order of St. Helena’s Convent in Augusta, Georgia has officially begun a weekly “fast for peace” in regards to Iran and the United States and Israel. Sister Ellen Francis is an American who has traveled the world for peace and human rights activism for many years. She had the privilege of living in Iran for ten years and since then has made many more trips there for civilian diplomatic reasons. I had the honor of going on one such trip with Sister Ellen Francis in March of this year. As one can read from my own personal blogs about the trip, it was a once in a lifetime experience that I will not soon forget. Not only did I gain tremendously as a person from the trip culturally, I believe we made amazing progress as a group in our collected goal of fostering more peace and harmony between the people of the United States and Iran.

As one can clearly see from this website and so many others, there are hundreds of thousands of people all over the world who are taking pro-active steps of action to not only assure that a few ignorant people who happen to currently work for us (think “government employees”) don’t needlessly attack the people of Iran militarily, but are also working to actually create and foster more peace and harmony between our two countries – which is at the end of the day what everyone says they want. Right?

Even the worst of them, the absolute most treacherous, murderous, and caniving monsters in the world today – (think Bush Jr. and Sr., Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Libby, Limbaugh, Rove, the Clintons, many of the current “Ayatollahs” serving in the government of Iran, et al. – for more detailed information on the history of some of these heinous names, start your research by studying the Project for a New American Century here), claim that they are “working towards peace.” The problem is that it is hard sometimes to see the logic of a few people’s methods – such as bombing other countries as just one example or sponsoring terrorist acts as another. But at the very least we can agree that “peace and harmony between our countries” is what everyone “claims” to want.

Sometimes it is more obvious when someone’s actions are more aligned with “working towards peace.” The work of groups such as The ANSWER Coalition or UFPJ or Amnesty International or Star’s Edge are all good examples of this. They actually walk the talk. Many more organizations exist and can be found on the TuneInTurnOnHelpOut.org website. Many examples can be found in groups that are even smaller all over the world… sometimes just the actions of ONE.

One such example comes in the form of a beautiful person by the name of Sister Ellen Francis who has begun a weekly “fast for peace with Iran campaign.” I am inspired, moved, and challenged by Sister Ellen Francis’ bold commitment. More information can be found on her own personal blog and in the letter she sent in this week re-printed below. If you want to join her please feel free to visit her blog and email her. And let us know here at PeaceWithIran.com if you also plan on participating.

As always, keep those articles, blog posts, lecture and event notices, activism updates, and other interesting items pouring in – and most importantly keep up the real world actions for peace. Everyday. Do something.

Sincerely,
The Raconteur

Dear Ed,
I’ve started the fast, and am feeling really good. I’ve posted a notice on my blog (ellenfrancis.blogspot.com), and also some advice about fasting. I think that the prayer is the most important part, and that people could join in just doing that, or fasting from one type of food, or partial fasting for part of the time. Maybe on another day, too — Wednesday is the best day for me since it’s our “day off” here in this convent.

Just think of all the people in the world for whom fasting isn’t an option but a WAY OF LIFE.

Isn’t it great that The Call Iran Project in Washington went so well? Carah Ong posted a notice about it on the Fellowship Of Reconciliation Iran listserve.

So let me know if you’d like to join in some way, and I’d be really happy for the publicity through the PeaceWithIran website. The more the merrier, and the more powerful we will be! I’m going to write an article for the Episcopal Peace Fellowship newsletter and maybe for our newsletter too. A few people have left comments on my blog.

Yours in Peace,
Sister Ellen Francis

*When you call, ask for the aide who handles international affairs or foreign policy. Tell them you’re calling to encourage the Senator or Representative to: (1) Work for direct, unconditional, and comprehensive talks between the U.S. and Iran; (2) Remind them that the U.S. and Iran share common interests in a stable Iraq, Middle East and Afghanistan. (3) And emphasize that just as the U.S. pursued negotiations with North Korea and Libya it’s now time to talk with Iran.

Capitol Switchboard at (202)224-3121 (Also, this toll free number is mentioned in publicity for the event: 800- 788-9372).

The “axis of evil” has no relevance for me when I think of Iran, a country I’ve found to have a human, loving, hospitable face throughout 40 years of encounters. I lived in Iran between 1968 and 1978, and started returning again, this time with peace delegations, in 2005. It is one of the great joys of my life to see the layers of misunderstanding and fear gradually fall away from those who visit Iran today for the first time.

One delegate recently said, “I met a mullah on the street and he was so sweet! Who would think of a mullah being sweet?” Another delegate, well-traveled in the Middle East, said, “Iranians are the most hospitable people I have ever met.”

A Jewish delegate said he had been told to be careful: “They might shoot you if they find out you’re Jewish.” He was amazed to see Jews worshiping openly and walking down a street in Tehran wearing their yarmulkes. He wasn’t shot, but was mobbed by the worshipers at a synagogue who were delighted to find a Jew among us.

The younger people on our delegations have been surprised to see the variety of fashions on the street, as well as learn that young Iranians find ways to meet and to date. The artists in our delegation were thrilled to see the throngs of Iranians gathered at the tombs of the famous poets, Hafez and Sa’adi, and we witnessed Iran’s great love for music. In Isfahan, one young man with a shopping bag stopped to sing a love song below a pedestrian bridge. He sang as though the mournful and exquisite song was not performance but just a normal part of everyday life.

These images contrasted vividly with the Western media’s portrayals of Iran, often showing only a sea of black and waving fists.

When Iranians learn that we are from the United States, the consistent response is: “We really like American people, we just don’t like your government.” This is usually followed by the question, “Why does Bush want to bomb us?” Some ask why there are sanctions against Iran, and why the United States wants to change their government. “If there’s to be any change,” they say, “we want to do it ourselves.”

We also know that life in Iran can be difficult, especially in the political sphere. Reform candidates are often vetoed before the elections, and still there are hundreds of candidates who run for a very few slots. The parliamentary elections were looming when we went. Some people said they would not bother to vote; one woman said she would rely on her studious father for his own analysis of the candidates. The official religious minorities (Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians), on the other hand, were proud to tell us they have their own representatives in the Majlis, the Iranian parliament.

A few days before the election, we met with former President Khatami, and it was easy to sense his continued commitment to the reform movement, as well as his deep disappointment that he had been unable to do more during his term in office. He said that peace is what’s most needed in the world today, yet it is rare to find in international relations. He noted that war has been glorified in our cultures and histories, by everyone from Homer to the revered Persian poet, Ferdowsi.

Iranians have a deep and persistent memory of history: they remember the 1953 coup and removal of Prime Minister Mossadegh by the CIA, while Americans recall the photos of the U.S. embassy officials in blindfolds. We have two distinct historical memories and have not had diplomatic relations for 30 years, leaving no opportunity to get reacquainted and work towards reconciliation.

Iran is not perfect, and there continue to be human rights abuses and curtailment of freedom of speech. But based on my experiences, I believe there is absolutely no justification or rational cause for military intervention or sanctions against Iran. External efforts toward “regime change” are counterproductive for building trust and for reform.

I believe that Iran is ready to enter diplomatic negotiations, on the condition that all parties be respectful and sincere in their efforts to bring about reconciliation and thus start building a more peaceful world.

Ellen Francis is an Episcopal priest and sister of the Order of St. Helena. She lived in Iran in the 1960s and 1970s and since 2005 has co-led several delegations to Iran sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).