Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project

Schedule of Public Events with the Najaf Delegation to Minneapolis

2009-09-13T07:49:00.001-07:00

A delegation of 14 men and women from Najaf, lraq – Minneapolis’ newest Sister City – will visit the Twin Cities this September 18 through October 2, 2009. The visit will be the first official exchange between the two cities.

The delegates will be hosted by the Minneapolis-based non-profit Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project, along with the Minneapolis Convention and Visitors Association, the University of Minnesota, Friends for a Nonviolent World, and other local organizations. The following is a list of events with the delegation open to the public. For other inquiries or opportunities to participate, please contact IARP at info@reconciliationproject.org.

9/20, 1:00 PM: Peace Garden Dedication at Lake Harriet in Minneapolis. More information at the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board’s website.

9/24, 7:00-9:00 PM: Arab Night. In celebration of the newly official Sister City relationship between Najaf, Iraq and Minneapolis, USA, a festive Arab Night will be jointly hosted by the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project and the Najaf delegation on Sept 24^th, 2009 from 7pm-9pm. Arab Night will provide an opportunity for the delegates to share a taste of their city with the community through live music, food provided by Big Marina Grill and Deli, and a display of joint projects between Minneapolis and Najaf, including water sanitation projects, art pieces and an opportunity for children to write to Iraqi kids. The public is invited to join us for an entertaining and friendship-building evening.
Where: St. Joan of Arc Church. 4537 3^rd Ave South, Minneapolis, MN 55419. $8 suggested donation.

9/26, 7:00 PM: “Art in Iraq” at the St. Mane Theatre, 206 Parkway Ave N, Lanesboro. Presentation by Sami Rasouli, Founder and Director of Muslim Peacemaker Teams. At 8:00 PM a reception at Cornucopia Art Center in Lanesboro will be held in honor of the fourteen delegates from Najaf.

9/30, 2:00-4:30 PM: “Water for Peace: An Iraqi-US Partnership.”
Location: Room 64, Biological Sciences on the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota. (1445 Gortner Avenue in St. Paul, see this link for map: http://www1.umn.edu/twincities/maps/BioSci/index.html)

According to a recent report by the United Nations, lack of access to clean water poses a significant threat to the health of Iraqi children. In the province of Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad, a unique partnership has developed to help meet the challenge of providing clean water at schools, hospitals, and clinics. An Iraqi NGO, the Muslim Peacemaker Teams, has partnered with a Minnesota non-profit, the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project, to install water filtration systems in important public sites in Najaf. This program will bring together a multi-disciplinary panel of speakers to discuss the impact of clean water on education, health, and other aspects of public life, and how a bilateral community organizing effort can mobilize citizens to impact community health issues. The program is sponsored by the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project, the Muslim Peacemaker Teams, and College of Education and Human Development and Office of International Programs at the University of Minnesota.

IARP's New Website!

2009-07-08T11:53:00.001-07:00

IARP is in the process of creating a new website. Check out the progress at our new address: http://reconciliationproject.org. All new posts will be entered on the new website rather than this blog, so this is the last post here. Hope to see you at the new site! Your feedback is welcome!

wasalaam,
Luke

Iraqi refugees release captivating album online

2009-07-05T16:46:00.000-07:00

From UNHCR:

Iraqi refugees release captivating album online

News Stories, 12 June 2009

From left to right, Abdel Mounem Ahmad on the qanun, Fadi Fares Aziz on the ney and Salim Salem on the oud.

DAMASCUS, Syria, June 11 (UNHCR) – A trio of refugee musicians from Iraq have released their first album on some of the world's leading music-sharing sites and have agreed to use the profits to help financially strapped compatriots in exile.

"Transitions," comprising 15 tracks put together by Salim Salem, Abdel Mounem Ahmad and Fadi Fares Aziz with the support of the UN refugee agency, made its online debut Thursday on iTunes, Napster, Amazon, Amie Street, IMVU, lala, ShockHound, Rhapsody and emusic.

The three used their collective experiences of life as refugees, their transitions and the uncertainty of exile as inspiration for their captivating and calming music – a mix of ancient and modern that highlights the richness and diversity of the Iraqi musical repertoire. Salim plays the oud (lute), Abdel Mounem the ney (pan flute) and Fadi the qanun, a type of zipher.

They met in Damascus after fleeing the violence in Iraq. The three men often talked about recording Iraqi music that would reach an international audience. "When I arrived in Syria, my oud was my only luggage as a refugee. I had left my country behind, but my music spoke about nothing else," recalls Salim.

His dream to record music with Abdel Mounem and Fadi turned to reality when the UNHCR office in Damascus became involved as part of its "Express Yourself" campaign, launched in 2007 to give talented Iraqi refugees in Syria a platform to express themselves artistically.

UNHCR's Damascus office contacted the iTunes last month and asked them to market the music. They referred the agency to TuneCore, a United States-based music distribution company. TuneCore then sent the music to all its partners – including iTunes – for sale. The album was recorded in Damascus.

Philippe Leclerc, UNHCR's acting representative in Syria, welcomed the release of the album. "Iraqi talent is alive. We need to continue to support it and help Iraqi refugees living in exile," he said. "Iraqi society is facing major challenges today and we hope that this music will allow people all over the world to become closer to Iraqi culture while supporting Iraqi refugees."

Salim, Abdel Mounem and Fadi have all agreed to donate the profits to a UNHCR-run financial assistance programme that provides a lifeline for some 12,000 Iraqi refugee families unable to work legally in Syria, or lacking savings. Every track downloaded will mean 60 US cents for the programme.

"This solidarity will mean a lot, not only to the refugees but also to the humanitarian aid workers who are supporting this operation," said Sybella Wilkes, a UNHCR public information officer in Damascus.

Meanwhile, "Transitions" might become the only album recorded by the three men. While Salim remains a refugee in Damascus, Fadi was recently resettled in the United States with UNHCR help. Abdel Mounem has returned to Baghdad, once a musical centre of the Arab world, though he will play a special World Refuge Day concert in Damascus next Wednesday with Salim.

"I have returned to Iraq, determined to make my future here," Abdel said. "I am part of a resistance that promotes passion for music and peace. Culture and art are still part of the Iraqi identity. Such an ingrained, deep-rooted and ancient civilisation cannot be erased in a few years."

Salim is not ready to go back, but he believes things are improving in Iraq. "During the past year, I have seen music blossoming again in Iraq," said the oud player. "We would like to dedicate this album to all Iraqis around the world, to all the people who have made this project possible and to all fine listeners of Oriental music," he added.

By Dalia Al-Achi in Damascus, Syria

We are not disturbing the peace, we are disturbing the war

2009-07-05T09:44:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting story from the blog Daily Kos:

"We are not disturbing the peace, we are disturbing the war."
by Bjorn in MN
Thu Jul 02, 2009 at 09:46:11 PM PDT

Every Tuesday afternoon a small group of peace activists stand at the busy intersection of Burnsville Parkway and Nicolet Avenue , just a couple blocks away from the largest park and ride in the southern suburbs and outside the offices of Republican Congressman John Kline. For over two years now they have been coming to this spot in Burnsville , Minnesota to exercise their first amendment right to speak out against the war that Kline is a big supporter of. Over the course of those two years the peace vigil has received a great reception from many in the community and the protesters have received a large number of honks of support from those who pass by.

The Burnsville Police Department never seemed to like the idea of a peace vigil outside Kline's office however. From early on, it appears they needed to find a way to build a case to show that these people represent a threat to public safety.

The police decided to target a sign that was frequently held at the peace vigil that said "Honk for Peace". There is a law on the books which states that a person can not honk their horn for non-emergency purposes. It is a law that the Burnsville Police were not enforcing in the past, but now people were honking in support of peace and so it was time for a police crackdown.

Officers approached the participants at the vigil and told them that their "Honk for Peace" signs were encouraging an illegal act and if anyone honked the participants of the vigil would be held responsible. Of course there is no legal precedence for prosecuting protesters when people honk in support of them and so the participants of the vigil asked the police to show them the law that prevented them from holding their signs at the intersection. In the words of Coleen Rowley who is a regular participant at the Burnsville peace vigil, "we're not disturbing the peace, we're disturbing the war." The city of Burnsville had no laws on the books prohibiting anyone from disturbing the war however, and so they tried a different tactic in an attempt to get the protesters to go away. Instead of targeting the protesters, they were going to target the motorists who expressed their support with honks.

Police set up a dragnet at the intersection one afternoon to catch and ticket those who honked while going through the intersection. Over the course of a few weeks, they were able to ticket two or three different motorists. One of those ticketed was very supportive of the vigil's message but was also very upset that the vigil continued after the activists knew police were going to be pulling people over and ticketing them. The vigil participants felt very strongly that the first amendment not only allowed them to be at the intersection but also allowed people like this woman to show their support. Eventually the Burnsville woman who was ticketed sought and received the help of ACLU volunteer attorney Howard Bass.

Bass took up the case to defend our first amendment rights and after a several month battle, he was able to get the city of Burnsville to not only drop the charges but also get a consent decree issued which affirmed the right of all motorists to honk for peace. The police agreed that they would stop pulling people over for honking and allow the peace vigil to continue. It seemed free speech had prevailed and the participants of the vigil breathed a sigh of relief.

For several weeks the vigils went on without police harassment, but then on June 23rd the police showed up and started photographing the peace vigil participants. Greg Skog who is a participant in the vigil had his camera along so he took some pictures of the police to document their actions and then asked them what was wrong. The police said they knew about the consent decree and they were not going to be pulling anyone over, but they did not explain what anyone at the vigil was doing wrong or why they were being photographed.

When the vigil participants arrived on June 30th, the police were already waiting for them. At least one officer was in the parking lot of Kline's offices monitoring the peace activists the entire time. Officers appeared to be recording driver's license numbers on notepads.

It is unclear what kind of case the police are trying to build, what is clear is that this peace group has been at the intersection for nearly two years now and every single week they have remained very peaceful and law abiding. The Burnsville Police Department is targeting and harrassing peaceful protesters and their community supporters by using intimidation tactics, but fortunately the participants in the vigil are not going to give up on their free speech rights. They are intending to be at that intersection every week, rain or shine, until the wars come to an end. Let's give them our support.

A special thanks to Coleen Rowley, Sue Skog and Greg Skog for their assistance with this post.

Tags: Peace vigil, Minnesota, war, protests, John Kline,

New art store opens in St. Paul on July 4th with exhibition of Iraqi and international student art

2009-07-03T07:32:00.000-07:00

St. Paul, MN—July 4th, 2009—A new art shop displaying Iraqi, international, and U.S. veteran art opens on July 4th on Grand Avenue in St. Paul. The Wolves Head will open with an exhibition featuring art by Iraqi citizens and local international students. The show is also supported by a local non-profit organization, the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project (IARP).

Chukouma, the owner of the new shop, says, “Some art works exhibited in the store are from Iraqis and some from international students at a local school... The art will show the international talents of the students and hopefully people will come due to curiosity of what the art is about.” The Wolves Head is located at 1665 Grand Avenue, Saint Paul and is open from 2:00pm to 6:00pm this Saturday, July 4th. Its hours are 10:00am to10:00pm on Sunday and 10:00am to 7:00pm during the week, and the show will be open until July 25^th.

The Iraqi paintings will be available for sale. The proceeds transferred to the artists are then shared with their sponsoring organization in Iraq, the Muslim Peacemaker Teams. On Sunday evening at 7:00pm there will be an informal, free jazz concert by local guitarist Rick Figucroa. Visitors to the Wolves Head may also sign up for future art classes such as jewelry making, bead weaving, quilting, a men’s sewing circle, and other fiber arts.

IARP Art Director Jessie Witte says, “The show will be a unique combination of artists in the community getting together.”

The Iraqi Art Project, a program of IARP, helps bridge American communities with Iraqi artists to enhance cultural exchange between the two peoples. It promotes a deeper understanding among Americans about the Iraqi culture, people and land through the transformative power of art.

For more information please contact:

Luke Wilcox, IARP Communications Director, at:

lukewilcox@mpt-iraq.org

IARP’s website: http://reconciliationproject.org

Tikkun and Imam Zaid Shakir

2009-06-22T11:14:00.000-07:00

Imam Zaid Shakir is amongst the most respected and influential Islamic scholars in the West. As an American Muslim who came of age during the civil rights struggles, he has brought both sensitivity about race and poverty issues and scholarly discipline to his faith-based work. His article in the current Tikkun, "Obsessed with Defamation and Slander," rebuts the charges of "Islamofascism" made by the widely disseminated "Obsession" DVD and in much commentary about Islam as a whole.

Imam Shakir is scholar-in-residence and lecturer at Zaytuna Institute, where he teaches courses on Arabic, Islamic law, history, and Islamic spirituality. His essays have been collected in Scattered Pictures (Zaytuna Institute 2005). For more information see his own website.

We are delighted to welcome Imam Shakir to the Tikkun/NSP Phone Forum. Monday June 22 at 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time (9:00 p.m. Eastern).

Just call 1 888 346 3950 and ENTER CODE 11978#.

The Call is FREE! No phone charge to you.

Tikkun Managing Editor Dave Belden will interview our guest for twenty minutes, then he'll take questions from YOU.

To get full details about the Phone Forum please check at www.tikkun.org.

If you need to contact someone at Tikkun, please call 510-644-1200.

And if you want a daily take on a spiritual progressive response to this amazing world, check out our new blog Tikkun Daily. Tikkun editors Dave Belden and Alana Price have started this blog in a small way and next month will be joined by others on a new page. Check out the Editor's Favorites in the right hand column.

Iraqi Delegation to Visit Twin Cities

2009-06-22T06:39:00.000-07:00

The Iraqi & American Reconciliation Project, in conjunction with the University of Minnesota; Twin Cities Peace Campaign: Focus on Iraq; Women Against Military Madness; Friends for a Non-Violent World and others are hosting a delegation of 12-15 Iraqis visiting the Twin Cities in the second half of September of this year. They will be traveling here with Sami Rasouli, Iraqi-American and Muslim Peacemaker Teams Director when he returns for an extended stay.

Coming as peacemakers and visitors, these professors, city council members, NGO directors and Muslim Peacemaker Team (MPT) members are like us, curious, smart and interested in making friends.

The delegate planning committee invites your support and participation. We are already scheduling visits to the big sites in the Twin Cities, such as City Hall, the State Capitol and various museums, but we also hope to provide our Iraqi guests with opportunities for personal interactions with Minnesotans that can create more unique educational experiences. So we are open to any suggestions and invitations.

Attention Twin Cities area residents: Could someone provide a 15-20 minute explanation of the Peace Garden at Lake Harriet and then join the group for lunch? How about a favorite restaurant that would be welcoming hosts to 13 visitors from Iraq for lunch? We plan to bring them to the Peace Vigil on the Lake Street Bridge on a Wednesday evening and also offer the Alliant Tech morning vigil particularly to Professor Askouri whose research is in depleted uranium consequences and who now works in cancer treatment.

If you think of a way you would like to join us, please email info@mpt-iraq.org or call 952-545-9981.

Draft NGO Law in Iraq

2009-06-21T18:28:00.000-07:00

Sami Rasouli, Director of Muslim Peacemaker Teams, recently provided comments for an article by Al-Sabah, a major newspaper in Iraq. The article focuses on the reaction of Iraqi NGO leaders to a draft law before the Iraqi Parliament that regulates NGO activity. Many NGO leaders have spoken out against the law, which would give the government broad supervision and power over civil society. This law is potentially very dangerous for Iraq's democracy because it would allow the government to essentially pick and choose which NGOs it wanted to allow (e.g., pro-government) and which to dissolve (e.g., anti-government). Below is the Al-Sabah article in Arabic as well as an article about the law by Niqash, in English.

government launches attack on civil society

mon 08 jun 09
Niqash

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have expressed concern over government attempts to control their activities, monitor their funding and curtail their independence.

A proposed new law giving the government the right to supervise NGOs and deny them the right of registration without due reason, has provoked strong civil society opposition. The draft law gives the government the power to dissolve any NGO or freeze its work without any judicial supervision. Additionally, the law obliges NGOs to obtain governmental approval to buy or sell any property.

"Any person who joins a non-registered organization or an organization which is not legally and properly declared shall be imprisoned for a period of six months to three years," stipulates the draft law.

Hadi Najm Lazim, a member of Hamourabi Organization, an NGO working in the field of election awareness, said that the penalties contained in the new law "disturb" him and remind him of the practices of the former totalitarian regime.

â€œOur organization is not registered because of the deadly routine and bureaucratic practices,â€‌ commented Lazim. â€œI can imagine police raiding our premises and arresting us for giving a lecture on human rights or electoral awareness.â€‌

A draft copy of the NGO law, which was discussed in parliament in April, was recently leaked to the media, creating an outcry.

The draft law is supposed to replace Bremerâ€™s administrative order number 45 of November 2003, the legal framework currently regulating relations between the government and the NGO sector. Although order 45 was heavily criticized by legal experts and civil society activists, â€œBremerâ€™s order is less stringent than the provisions of the new draft law,â€‌ said Lazim.

According to Hassan Karim Ati, a lawyer and a member of the Iraqi Society for the Support of Culture the lawâ€™s provisions directly contradict the basic aims of civil society organizations. Ati warned that â€œcivil society will be endangeredâ€‌ if the draft law is passed.

The law also seeks to monitor the activities of international NGOs, stipulating that any international organization wishing to open in Iraq needs to provide the government with the names, telephone numbers and addresses of its international and local staff. Moreover, the law stipulates that foreign NGOs should not provide more that 25% of local NGO funds.

Raad Hani, the director of Iraqis Without Borders says that "the government is putting obstacles in front of foreign organizations and their support for local NGOs and that this will discourage them in a time when we are in dire need of their support.â€‌

Critics say that the government failed to consult with civil society in preparing this law.

As a result of widespread criticism, the draft law is now expected to be reviewed and amended, but the date for this review has not been yet specified.

Al-Sabah article:

مجتمع مدني: المطلوب قانون يعبر عن رغبة لدعم المجتمع المدني

ناشطون في منظمات المجتمع المدني:
بغداد ــ شمخي جبر
اكد عدد من الناشطين في منظمات المجتمع المدني اهمية أن يعدل قانون المجتمع المدني بالشكل الذي يحقق إستقلالية مؤسسات المجتمع المدني من غير أي تأثير سلبي مباشر أو غير مباشر من الحكومة والاحزاب السياسية والدينية التي تشكلها (الحكومة)، جاء هذا في معرض التعليق على مسودة قانون المنظمات غير الحكومية الذي قدمته وزارة الدولة لشؤون منظمات المجتمع المدني، واشاروا الى ضرورة ان يتضمن القانون حقوقا لمؤسسات المجتمع المدني الفتية لا ان يتحول الى سلة من الالتزامات والقيود والشكليات التي لا مبرر لها .

اذ اوضح مدير منظمة (الفريق الاسلامي من أجل السلام) في النجف سامي عبدالزهرة المعمار:
إن رسل مؤسسات المجتمع المدني هم الضمير الحي للمسؤول السياسي. وينبغي ان يبقوا كذلك. إذ ان عليهم ان يقدموا النصح لذلك المسؤول في الدولة بدون وجل مهما كان حجمه صغيراً ام كبيراً و يقولوا له مالذي ينبغي فعله او عدم فعله بما يتناسب ومصلحة المواطن الشرعية وبما ينص عليه القانون الدستوري , لان ناشط مؤسسات المجتمع المدني الحقيقي هو الحلقة الموصلة للشعب بالمسؤول الحكومي والناطق الفعلي بلسانها و المدافع لحقوقها متى هدرت. فعليه , وبناءً على مقتضيات المسؤولية الوطنية يجب أن يعدل قانون المجتمع المدني بالشكل الذي يحقق إستقلالية مؤسسات المجتمع المدني من غير أي تأثير سلبي مباشر أو غير مباشر من الحكومة و الاحزاب السياسية والدينية التي تشكلها (الحكومة). وكذلك ينبغي الاستفادة من تجارب و قوانين مؤسسات المجتمع في دول العالم الديمقراطي الحر لا سيما ان الشعب العراقي قد قرر ان يؤسس الدولة العراقية الحرة , الديمقراطية , المستقلة والضامنة لحقوق الانسان بجوهر اجتماعي مدني متقدم.
فيما قال رئيس منظمة (المؤسسة العراقية للتنمية) في نينوى:
هنالك خلط مابين ( التاسيس ) و(التسجيل) لان منظمات المجتمع المدني تؤسس بناء على الارادة الحرة لمؤسسيها وتعتبر متاسسة من تاريخ اصدارها للبيان التاسيسي الاول والتي على الدولة عملا باحكام الدستور تسجيلها .وقد اشارت المواد 21 و 22 من العهد الدولي الاول ( ان الافراد لايحتاجون الى ترخيص لانشاء منظمات مجتمع مدني).
ـ المادة (4) الفقرة/ ب تتعارض مع المادة (2) فقرة/ ج من الدستور العراقي.
ـ امتاز فصل التأسيس والتسجيل بالاطالة والتفاصيل المرهقة ما يجعل تعديله مستقبلا عملا في غاية الصعوبة ذلك لان الامور المتعلقة به امور ادارية بحتة ليس هنالك من ضرورة لذكرها لعدة اسباب منها ان علم الادارة علم متطور ومتغير ومن العيب تحديده بنص في القانون لان تغيير اي اجراء اداري منصوص بالقانون يستلزم تغيير القانون.
ـ كان من الاجدى بالنص اضافة الفصل او دمجه مع فصل العضوية تحت عنوان (التأسيس والتسجيل).
ـ خالف النص تحديد الدستور كمال الاهلية بـ18 سنة.
ـ لم تراع مسودة القانون تأسيس منظمات للاحداث والاطفال بموجب الاتفاقية الدولية لحقوق الطفل المقر بقرار الجمعية العامة للامم المتحدة 44/25 لسنوات 1989 المواد 15،31.
فيما يرى (الناشط في مجال حقوق الانسان) المحامي مرتضى هادي الموسوي:
ان وجود قانون للمجتمع المدني وبالخصوص المنظمات غير الحكومية امر جيد ولكن يجب ان يتضمن القانون حقوقا لمؤسسات المجتمع المدني الفتية لا ان يتحول الى سلة من الالتزامات والقيود والشكليات التي لا مبرر لها.. يجب على ممثلي الشعب ان يوفوا بعهودهم التي قطعوها للشعب بان يمنحوا لهم حقوقهم ويجب ان يبدوا حسن النية تجاه المجتمع المدني ويخففوا من اتهاماتهم له بالفساد لان عاقبة ذلك سوف ترتد عليهم وبالتالي يجب ان لا نرجع للوراء بمعنى الى عصور الظلام التي كانت سائدة في ظل النظام السابق. العراق اليوم ليس العراق امس والمجتمع المدني ليس منحة جاء بها الاميركان انه موجود من زمان في العراق وقد فرضت عليه قيود كثيرة طيلة الخمسين سنة الماضية بحكم تعاقب الانظمة الدكتاتورية على العراق طيله تلك الفترة . من جانبه اوضح (الناشط والحقوقي في الناصرية) القاضي جليل عدنان خلف:لقد اطلعت على مسودة قانون منظمات المجتمع المدني المعروض على البرلمان ووجدت فيه الكثير من العيوب والتناقض بحيث اذا ما تم اقراره من البرلمان فانه سوف يثير منازعات وخلافات واسعة بالتفسير بحكم تناقض فقراته وتداخلها وعدم وضوح الكثير منها وخصوصا ما يعرف ايراد فقرات حول المنظمات ذات النفع العام دون ان يحدد ماهي والكشف عن المصالح المحتملة للاعضاء في المنظمة وهذا شيء غريب وغامض على التشريعات والنصوص القانونية العراقية كما ان ايراد الاجراءات الادارية المتعلقة باجراءات التسجيل والسجلات وغيرها امر غير مبرر وكان من المفروض ترك ذلك عاما لان علم الادارة متطور ومتغير وايراد ذلك بالقانون يجعل من الصعب تغيير أي اجراء اداري الا بتعديل القانون ولذلك ان ادعو اعضاء البرلمان الى عدم التسرع باصدار القانون لان مساوئه اكثر من الايجابيات التي فيه وحتى لايكون هنالك جدل لتغييره بعد اقراره لوجود العيوب فيه مثلما يحصل مع الدستور الحالي الذي كتب على عجالة والان هنالك محاولات كثير لتعديله .
واشار (مدير مركز صدى للتنمية البشرية، في الناصرية) المحامي غسان الصالح الى ان القانون ينص على ضرورة دعم عمل منظمات المجتمع المدني وتعزيزها بدون ان يحدد آليات واضحة لمثل هذا التعزيز او الدعم في وقت تضع فيه مواده تفاصيل واجراءات تنفي مثل هذا الدعم وتقوضه. وتابع الصالح:بناء على ما تقدم وغيره من الملاحظات الكثيرة فاننا كمنظمات مجتمع مدني وكناشطين في مجال حقوق الانسان وداعين لدعم عمل منظمات المجتمع المدني بوصفها السلطة الخامسة ندعو الى الغاء قانون منظمات المجتمع المدني بصيغته الحالية المقدمة للبرلمان وصياغة قانون جديد يعبر عن رغبة حقيقية لدعم المجتمع المدني في العراق ويعزز التحول الديمقراطي في مجتمع انتقالي، وذكر الصالح عدة ملاحظات على القانون:
ـ عدم وجود اشارة الى تمكين المنظمات غير الحكومية من تحقيق ادوارها.
ـ من المفترض بنص القانون ان يكون شكليا وليس موضوعيا، اي ينظم العلاقة بين الحكومة و منظمات المجتمع المدني وليس له ان يرسم سياسة المنظمات ويحول منظمات المجتمع المدني الى جزء من الحكومة وتحت اشرافها ورقابتها الصارمة في وقت يجب ان تؤدي هي فيها مهامها الرقابية على اعمال الحكومة.
ـ منظمات المجتمع المدني تسعى لتحقيق اهدافها طبقا لانظمتها الداخلية وليست تبغي تحقيق اهداف الحكومة، وهو الخلط الذي يثيره نص القانون بصدد الاهداف.
ـ لم تحدد تفاصيل لتعزيز دور منظمات المجتمع المدني ولا اية اشارة للتسهيلات التي يقدمها القانون ولا آليات حكومية معينة لتحقيق هذا الهدف.
ـ يجب الغاء الفقرة 3 المتعلقة بايجاد آلية مركزية كون ذلك مخالفا للدستور الذي نص على ان العراق دولة اتحادية.
ـ لم يلتفت المشرع في المسودة الى اهمية اهداف و اغراض منظمات المجتمع المدني واكتفى بالاشارة اليها بجملة واحدة في حين افرد قانون المنظمات غير الحكومية في كردستان فصلا كاملا بعنوان الاهداف والوسائل.

Two more examples of Letters for Peace

2009-06-15T20:39:00.000-07:00

Here are two more letters written recently by young students in Iraq and the U.S. as part of IARP's Letters for Peace program:

"A Quiet but Undeniable Cultural Legacy"

2009-06-08T19:46:00.000-07:00

Anthony Shadid at the Washington Post has a recent article about the pervasive influence of the American occupation on Iraqi culture (copied below). According to Shadid, some (mostly younger) Iraqis have embraced elements of American culture like rap, heavy metal and tattoos, while other Iraqis reject the changes. Great article, makes me wonder: how many Americans could name one famous Iraqi singer, or one Iraqi TV show, or one Iraqi Arabic word, or other marker of Iraqi pop culture?

A Quiet but Undeniable Cultural Legacy
U.S. Occupation of Iraq Will End, but a Host of American Influences May Linger

By Anthony Shadid
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, May 31, 2009

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/30/AR2009053002145.html

BAGHDAD

Across the street from the tidy rows of tombstones in the British cemetery, mute testimony to the soldiers of an earlier occupation, Mustafa Muwaffaq bears witness to the quieter side of the United States' six-year-old presence in Iraq.

In wraparound sunglasses, shorts and shoes without socks, the burly 20-year-old student waxes eloquent about his love for heavy metal of all kinds: death, thrash, black. But none of it compares, he says, to the honky-tonk of Alan Jackson, whose tunes he strums on his acoustic guitar at night, pining for a life as far away as a passport will take him.

"You know, I wanna go to Texas and be a country boy," he said, as he stood in the sweltering shade of Baghdad's Academy of Fine Arts. "I wanna be a cowboy, and I wanna sing like one."

All occupations eventually end. When this one does, history's narratives will be shaped by the cacophony it wrought -- the carnage unleashed by the U.S.-led invasion that threatened Iraq's notion of itself as a country and that will haunt generations to come.

But the whispers may linger just as long -- the far quieter way in which two cultures that often found it difficult to share the same space intersected to reshape Iraq's language, culture and sensibility. From tattoos of Metallica to bellybutton piercings, from posters for a rap concert in Baghdad to stories parents tell their naughty children in Fallujah of the Americans coming to get them, the occupation has already left its mark.

There is the bellicose language of the checkpoint: "Go" and "Stop" (often rendered as "stob" in a language with no "p"), along with a string of American expletives that Iraqi children imitate with zeal. In parks along the Tigris River, they play "tafteesh," Arabic for inspection. Iraqi troops, sometimes indistinguishable from their U.S. counterparts, don the sunglasses considered effeminate in the time of Saddam Hussein.

Some Iraqi youths even dip Skoal tobacco.

"It's inevitable that they're going to leave a trace on us after they depart," said Yahya Hussein, a soccer coach, former player and denizen of Baghdad's Karrada neighborhood.

'These Are the Times'

Hussein left Kawkab al-Sharq cafe -- named for a legendary Egyptian singer of another era -- where waiters ferried tea, Nescafe and a water pipe known as a nergilla, a word taken from Persian. His family's history in Karrada stretches back 11 generations, and as he strolled along the neighborhood's main thoroughfare, he spoke with the authority of experience.

"All this," he said, pointing at a kiosk, "came after the occupation."

Rickety stands along the street overflowed with goods. Toy guns emblazoned with the moniker "Super Police" sat next to imitation handcuffs and walkie-talkies. A doll dressed in fatigues, with dog tags around its neck, carried an M-16 rifle, familiar to Iraqis as a weapon of the U.S. military. With a squeeze of the doll's hand, Freddie Mercury belted out Queen's "We Will Rock You" to a street speaking Arabic.

"These are the times," Hussein said.

Bootleg copies of "Star Trek," "Valkyrie" and "Marley & Me" were on sale, along with CDs by Eminem, 50 Cent and Massari. On a wall was an ad for a concert by Rap Boys, billed as the "first and biggest rap party in Baghdad."

Youths asked a barber across the street for the latest haircut, which they call "spiky"; one barber insisted that the name came from a soldier's nickname for his military dog. The soldier's version of a crew cut is called "Yankee" (or, sometimes, "bankee").

Businesses hawked camouflage-patterned men's underwear. "Harley," a kind of biker boot, went for $125. "Texas," the cowboy version, cost $100.

For each item, Hussein had a simple phrase: "after the suqut," the fall of Saddam Hussein.

The Long Perspective

Iraq remains a proud country, its people bridling at what they see as the condescension inherent in the United States' modern-day equivalent of a civilizing mission. History, thousands of years of it, forms the refrain of any conversation: Mesopotamia gave birth to civilization, and at its medieval zenith, as Europe slumbered, Baghdad was a city of racetracks, law schools, museums, libraries, hospitals, zoos and insane asylums.

The country's past shamed its present, and in the wake of Hussein's fall in 2003, many Iraqis, however suspicious, were willing to give the Americans the benefit of the doubt. Now, many blame them for everything from sectarian strife to Baghdad's disrepair. The only kind of American most Iraqis have met is a young, gun-toting soldier, and a look of scornful incomprehension often greets a question about the Americans' cultural legacy.

"What are they leaving behind?" asked Mohammed Chayan, a 45-year-old painter sitting with friends at the Madarat Cafe and Gallery, near a wall of concrete barriers.

"There's never really been interaction with society," he said. "When they came to visit, it wasn't artists who showed up. It was soldiers coming down from their tanks."

"They were isolated," admitted Mohammed Rasim Kasim, a filmmaker and photographer. "But," he added, "I have to disagree with my colleague."

Kasim, a bearish, cheerful man, said that before 2003 he had traveled only to neighboring Jordan. Since then, he has visited the United States, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Germany and Austria. And an image lingers from his travels: recognizing a car in Berlin as a U.S. military vehicle not because it was part of an armored convoy snarling traffic for a mile behind it, as in Iraq, but because he spotted the tiny inscription on its license plate: "U.S. Army."

"It was written so small," he said, still amazed at how inconspicuous it was.

"I'm not defending their presence, but that's not all it was. We have to be honest," Kasim told his friend. "We paid a very high price, but it was the price of freedom."

Chayan shook his head.

"We haven't seen a bright side," he said. "Well, there's no bright side to colonization, we can say that. But the Americans could have left something positive behind. What makes me sad, wherever I go, whenever I go, I just see remains of destruction."

A friend of Chayan's stopped by briefly. "Peace be upon you," he said. The two men traded words of endearment in a staccato burst of familiar Arabic: "My heart," "My dear," "My soul." Then Chayan bade him goodbye: "With peace." His friend's response was distinctly Iraqi, a word borrowed decades ago from English and now used as a greeting, as a farewell, as thanks or as welcome.

"Hello, hello," he said.

The British Interlude

The British entered Baghdad in 1917 to end Ottoman rule, with the same pledge the Americans would make. "Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators," proclaimed Maj. Gen. Sir Stanley Maude. Like the Americans, the British faced a revolt, in 1920, led by a segment of the population that had grown frustrated and resentful at the heavy-handedness of a foreign army.

British rule lasted until 1932, and its waning influence ended with the fall of the Hashemite monarchy in 1958. By then, it had left an indelible mark on Iraq's culture and society. Everything from post offices and nightclubs to the railway stations and double-decker red buses that ran in the capital until the last days of Hussein's rule bore a British stamp. So did the military, the judiciary, the health system and the ministries.

Even today, English instructors in Iraqi universities favor a British accent.

"The British created the system. We inherited it from them," said Adnan Pachachi, an 85-year-old lawmaker and former diplomat who entered Iraq's foreign service in the last years of the monarchy. "Of course, Iraqis then added to it."

Words borrowed from the British still litter Iraqi Arabic, albeit with a local inflection: glass, bottle, bicycle, rail, battery, ice cream, counter, blanket, jerrycan, gear, dashboard (dishbool), table (tabla) and lousy (malyous). "Wrongside" means to drive the wrong way down a one-way street. Some argue that the word for tea glass, istikaan, comes from the phrase "ice tea can." (Others insist the word is derived from Persian.)

And, of course, "hello."

American Dreams

Abu Naji was the nickname Iraqis gave their British occupiers. There remains no equivalent for the Americans, but a slew of words describe those who imitate them. The older term for someone becoming more American than Americans was mitamrik, or Americanized. More conservative types here call such people khanazeer or quruud, "pigs" or "monkeys." One student at the Academy of Fine Arts coined another name.

"Am-raqis," she said.

The students agreed there has been an infitah, or opening -- the word many use for the plethora of influences that followed the occupation, imported through the Internet and satellite television, each banned to varying degrees under Hussein. But many of them echoed the question heard at the Madarat Gallery: What has freedom brought?

"You can say what you want to say, and you don't care what anyone else thinks," said Raed Ibrahim, a 23-year-old painter at the academy. "That's my freedom. Anyone can grasp it."

Shahid Shaker, a 21-year-old sculptor, looked at the ground, then spoke up. "Don't exaggerate," she told him softly. "Yes, the occupation brought freedom. But it destroyed culture, too. We're being educated in a culture of violence."

"Sometimes," she added, "there is too much freedom."

Imported pornography is sold openly in Baghdad's Bab al-Sharji market. Popping pills is something of a fad. On campus, dating has grown more permissive. The reality TV show "American Idol," broadcast by a Saudi-owned satellite channel, has its fans. Citing songs by 50 Cent and Metallica conveys a certain hipness. So do tattoos; Shaker says 40 percent of students have one, a remarkable figure given that they were once a mark of prison time.

"I'm going to get one as soon as I get the money," Ibrahim volunteered.

'Havee Matel Mark'

Mark Apram, the most popular tattoo artist in Baghdad, charges $50 for his work. Twenty-nine and married, he sometimes works from his cramped apartment, where a wall bears the words "Havee Matel Mark" over his painting of a red-eyed devil with pitchfork. ("Did I spell it right?" he asked.)

The room is a potpourri of American influences: a picture of an FHM model laminated on his coffee table; a stuffed Taz, the Tasmanian devil from Looney Tunes; an Incredible Hulk action figure. His shirt, embossed with images of Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg, reads, "The Hood, the Bad and The Guilty."

"Anything American, I love it," he said. "It's what makes me happy."

Apram estimates that he has done a million tattoos since the Americans invaded, inspired by the Internet and by designs he saw on soldiers' arms when they rolled up their sleeves. "Maybe even more," he responded to a look of disbelief.

He is an advertisement for his own work. His left arm bears the images of a scorpion, the sun, the Virgin Mary and the name of an old girlfriend, Rana. (His pregnant wife has begged him to remove that one.) Being right-handed, he has left his right arm bare. On his right leg are tattooed a dragon and the letter E, for Eminem.

Butterflies and flowers are most popular with girls, he said. Men prefer skulls, a barbed-wire-like design, Metallica and the names of daughters, wives and girlfriends. Some ask for a dragon. A teenage boy wanted a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

The Internet has been influential, he said, as have satellite TV channels. But as he sees it, his success is a legacy of the presence of tens of thousands of American troops in his country.

"They're the origin of all of it," he said. "They're teaching us how to act."

A Military Lexicon

The military aesthetic may prove to be this occupation's most lasting cultural artifact. If the British can claim credit for an array of industrial words used by Iraqis, including "radiator" and "machine," the Americans are responsible for a military lexicon that is still evolving.

"Hummer" has entered Iraqi dialect as the word for the armored jeeps known as Humvees, as has the Arabic-inflected plural, Hummer-at. "Buffalo" is the word for MRAPs, the hulking Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles. "Chocolate, mister!" or "Soccer ball, mister, soccer ball!" children shout to troops in Sadr City, a Baghdad slum of soggy trash and stagnant pools of sewage.

Badg-at has become Iraqi Arabic for identity cards. Other words and phrases have been picked up from soldiers at checkpoints or conducting house raids or foot patrols: "Relax," "Please," "Sorry," "No problem," "Oh, my God," "Give me five." Almost any youth can hurl a string of American expletives whose Arabic equivalent would earn them a slap across the face.

The war has inspired new Arabic words, as well. Hawasim, the name Hussein bestowed on his last battle in 2003, has come to mean booty looted in its aftermath. Arabic rendered literally from English at checkpoints -- "Prepared to capture criminals" or "Prepared to help" -- reads like the Arabic subtitles of an American movie.

As in the Palestinian territories, where security forces sometimes copy the style of their Israeli occupiers, Iraqi soldiers are now sometimes indistinguishable from their American counterparts, resembling a scaled-down version of a football player.

There is the desert camouflage, along with sunglasses and, occasionally, gloves. The black leather boots of the Hussein era have given way to a khaki suede variety. Holsters have gone from the hip to the thigh. The soldiers are equipped with kneepads, though they usually droop down to their ankles. No one was seen with a flak jacket before the invasion. Nor did anyone roll up their sleeves or tuck their pants into their boots.

Even the posture is American: rifle carried high, finger on the trigger.

And a fist thrust forth has come to mean stop.

"They look like peacocks," declared Abu Ali Rubai, a 60-year-old uniform vendor. "They wear this and that," he said, pointing at a holster nicknamed Rambo, combat boots called Swat, and plastic handcuffs. "They're like a child playing with toys."

He ruffled through bags filled with the gold-colored insignia of the old army's medical corps, tanks, special forces and artillery. He pointed out the colors of the berets that no one buys anymore -- blue for air force, beige for infantry and red for military police. Then he grabbed fistfuls of new badges, most of them in English and Arabic. There was Special Forces, with its skull and crossed arrows (sometimes written as Special Farces). "Iraq Army" was printed in English. So was SWAT. One badge read, "Ministry of Interiors."

Rubai cast a longing eye at his favorite uniform, worn by Abdel-Karim Qassem, the officer who overthrew the monarchy in 1958, in a portrait that hangs behind his desk. It was a woolen, British-style uniform with a hat known as the sidara, or faisaliyya. Four blue versions of the hat still hung from nails in the wall, gathering dust.

"The old ones were more distinguished," Rubai said. Then he recited a stanza by Maaruf al-Rusafi, a nationalist poet who died in 1945.

The English are not our saviors,

Even if they have made pledges to us in writing.

When has a strong man had pity for the weak?

How does a master make a pledge to his sheep?

We are but prisoners in their hands

And by the pledges they have written that shackle us.

By God, even if we were monkeys,

Monkeys would not accept being our kin.

Images of Iraqis: Shock and Cliché?

2009-05-29T07:26:00.001-07:00

I recently came across a great photo essay on the enduring suffering of Iraqis: SUFFERANCE: Iraqi Victims of War (some images graphic). Below are two images from the essay.

These images are both sad and powerful. They provide a window into the lives of Iraqis hurt by the war and conflict. They personalize the reality of life for Iraqis. Many Americans, including me, are shocked by this reality. As with the power of art in general, these photos can transform perceptions of reality.

Yet the "shock factor," unfortunately, wears off. According to Susan Sontag, in our culture “the image as shock and the image as cliché are two aspects of the same presence" (Regarding the Pain of Others, 23). The images above are shocking (and important reminders of the continuing and enduring suffering of Iraqis), but many Americans have seen similar images for the last six years. What has already shocked soon becomes passé. Images that were once scandalous cease to be beyond our boundaries and instead move within our understanding. We become inured and numbed, consumers of spectacle.

What does this say about us? About our relationship with the depicted Iraqis? Can photos such as these provide more than an initial spark of motivation to change the reality of the depicted, or does that reality simply become part of "the way the world works"? Does the sympathy that photographs can engender have any real worth? If feelings of pity and sympathy fail to translate into action, are they less than worthy, i.e., can they reflect negatively on us as perpetrators of some further crime of inaction against the depicted?

Sontag also writes, “for the other, even when not an enemy, is regarded only as someone to be seen, not someone (like us) who also sees” (72). As a stillframe window, the image shows only a moment of the other's life. We do not see the whole story, the person's family, home, work, daily life, etc. In this sense the image is all too often a product to be consumed, with the power to shock and change perceptions, but not to develop a relationship or sense of personal connection with the depicted. By itself, an image soon becomes old hat.

While photos in the media are often intended for this limited function - to shock and then become cliché - images can serve a more positive function when incorporated into a larger narrative and project of building personal connections. The photo essay above, SUFFERANCE: Iraqi Victims of War, for example, displays images of Iraqis suffering not simply to shock and sell, but as part of an ongoing project begun in July 2008 photographing and documenting the lives of Iraqi refugees in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. There is a larger narrative that the photographs support and that aims to engage on a deeper level than shock. While our culture tends to consume images for the pleasure of viewing them, these images of Iraqis are used as points of entry into greater personal involvement with the lives of Iraqis.

My concern with this post has been the value or utility of photos for social justice, rather than any inherent value as art. In their general use in the media, photos reflect a disturbing appetite for shock, consumption, and inaction. As part of a larger project of social justice, however, photos can act as powerful inroads to greater personal engagement and action.

So the next time you see a photo of suffering or pain, think about the entire story and life behind the image. The person in the picture also sees, and looks at photos, and wants to understand more of your life.

Letters for Peace: a letter from Chris

2009-05-14T15:40:00.000-07:00

Below is a letter from an American student to an Iraqi student, translated and sent by the Letters for Peace program. Letters for Peace seeks "to create an atmosphere of trust, respect and mutual understanding between the young people of America and the young people of Iraq. The purpose is to open channels of communication so that students might open their heart to one another and find that what we have in common is greater than what separates us."

______________________________________________

Dear Iraqi Friend,

We have just read some of the letters you are writing about what life is like in Iraq today. It is amazing to know that we are the same age and yet our lives are so different. It must be pretty tough to have to deal with so many hard things like schools closing because of fighting, bombs in markets when you are shopping, friends being killed or just disappearing. I sure hope that people figure out what to do to stabilize conditions for you again.

I wonder if you have any sports in your school? I play basketball, which you would probably like if you don’t know the game. What kind of music do you listen to? I wonder if we have heard any of the same bands? I learned that you don’t use computers much because of electricity shortages. I hope that changes soon.

Well, I wish there was something I could do to make things better in your country. With the new U.S. president, Barack Obama, there is a good chance that things will get better.

Take care,

Your friend,

Chris

صديق عزيز في العراق

لقد قرأنا بعض الرسائل اللتي كتبتموها عن الحياة في العراق اليوم ومن العجب أن نعرف أننا في نفس العمر و مع ذلك حياتنا مختلفة جدا. لا بد من أن يكون صعبا جدا التعامل مع هذا العدد الكبير من الامور الصعبة مثل إغلاق المدارس بسبب القتال و القنابل في الأسواق عندما تتسوقون و وفاة أو اختفاء الأصدقاء. ارجو من الناس ان يتعلمو ما يجب عمله لتحقيق استقرار الأوضاع لكم مرة أخرى.

أتساءل إذا كان لديكم انواع من الرياضة في مدرستك؟ انا ألعب كرة السلة ، والتي ربما تحبها لو كنت لا تعرف اللعبة. الى اي نوع من الموسيقى تستمع؟ أتساءل إذا كنا قد استمعنا إلى نفس الفرق الموسيقية. علمت انكم لا تستخدمون الكمبيوتر كثيرا بسبب نقص الكهرباء و ارجو ان يتغير ذلك قريبا.

اتمنى لو كان هناك شيء يمكنني القيام به لتحسين الأمور في بلدكم و اظن ان مع الرئيس الاميركي الجديد ، باراك أوباما ، هناك فرصة جيدة بأن الأمور ستتحسن.

مع اطيب التمنيات,

صديقك كرس

Water for Peace Action at Al-Ghadeer Kindergarten in Najaf

2009-05-14T15:12:00.000-07:00

Below are some images of children at Al-Ghadeer Kindergarten in Najaf, where a small water purifier unit was recently installed by the Muslim Peacemaker Teams. 150 kids attend the school.

Thanks to the sisters at Racine Dominicans for donating the purifier unit.

I feel bad for the kids having to sit through so many pictures! (there are many more not shown here...)

Education for Peace

2009-05-12T09:37:00.001-07:00

Below is a recent note from Sami Rasouli, Director of Muslim Peacemaker Teams (IARP's partner in Iraq):

Dear friend,

"Schools across Iraq are crumbling as a result of a lack of government attention as well as rampant corruption, leaving many children without any means of education say observers." By Nizar Latif / Wasit

Read: http://www.niqash.org/content.php?contentTypeID=74&id=2420&lang=0

Meanwhile IARP & MPT are trying to do a positive difference toward Iraqi children's lives by reducing the violation of Human Rights, hardship of living conditions, violence & abuse applications, and improving their education system.

Please read this report:

EDUCATION FOR PEACE ACTION
IN NAJAF

English as a foreign language for Third graders at Iraqi schools:

The Iraqi Ministry of Education had a successful experiment of teaching English as a foreign language for Third graders in the province of Al-Muthana last schooling year (2007-2008).

IME had added the program as a new curricula for 3rd grade students at all schools across the country during current schooling year (2008-2009). English as a foreign language program begun to be taught at 5th grade in the past. The education community across the country is pleased for such positive change and development, even some educators and education experts are calling for earlier start with the program as early as 1st grade to begin with. The students are learning to listen, point, make, say words and eventually getting engaged in conversation between each other without leaning writing, reading or grammar skills at this stage of learning. The idea is to enable this group of early age kids to use a foreign language by providing them skills of active methods of communication.

MPT considers this curricula development is very important for the students at this stage of age where kids could discover other's culture through learning other's language, since MPT and IARP are engaged actively in several projects (Letters For Peace for instance) aimed to connecting children of both US and IRAQ.

Teachers, students and their parents are happy for this exciting program, but schools are lacking necessary visual aids such as flashcards, audio system and wall charts that make teacher's job easy and help students to get best results of learning process.

MPTers Mr. Ayad Khoshi, Principal of Al-Hiwariyoon Elementary and his Supervisor Mr. Abdul Khuder Abbas have suggested to MPT the possibility to provide the school with the needed VA by scanning the 42 colored pages of the newly assigned 3rd grade book-Iraq opportunity (please see photo below) and printing 21 large sizes of 2 pages together (1.2m X 80cm) as extremely helpful tool for English teachers.

This educational action was under taken by MPT 6 weeks ago as a response to Mr. Khoshi and Mr. Abbas request to show how VA for leaning a foreign language is important and also urging the officials in charge at the Iraqi Eduction Ministry to make them available for schools next year.

English teacher Mr. Anmar Jasim has reported that the experiment of using the wall charts at 2 of his English classes has improved kids learning up to 95% against 55% before using them.

There are over 16,000 elementary schools in Iraq.

Helping kids learn English will eventually help a whole Iraqi generation to understand American culture and become friends toward other people who speak English as an International language.

Thank you for your time and good work to heal our wounded world.

Peace,

Sami Rasouli
Muslim Peacemaker Teams
Najaf, Iraq

"The Promise of Freedom" documentary

2009-05-08T08:16:00.000-07:00

"The Iraqis who believed most in America are now running for their lives. Who will save them?"

Below are trailers for "The Promise of Freedom," a documentary about Kirk Johnson, an American aid worker trying to help Iraqis who are in danger because they cooperated and worked with the U.S. over the last six years.

IARP Reconciliation Report

2009-05-08T07:21:00.000-07:00

Below is a simplified version of the second edition of IARP's new e-newsletter, the Reconciliation Report. If you would like to subscribe to the newsletter, please email info@mpt-iraq.org with the word "subscribe" in the subject line, or leave a comment here on this blog.

IARP Reconciliation Report
Issue 2, May 2009

Art shows, water systems, and expanding outreach
By Kathy McKay, Executive Director

Greetings from the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project! I hope this second edition of the Reconciliation Report finds you well and enjoying spring.

I want to thank you for your support for IARP. We're particularly excited about a number of art shows in the U.S. and Iraq, new water sanitation systems providing clean water for Iraqi schools and hospitals, and our expanding outreach efforts--none of which would be possible without you. This edition includes information on these activities, a note from Sami Rasouli (Director of Muslim Peacemaker Teams), and links for you to learn and act.

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Art Shows

IARP believes strongly in the power of art to transform perceptions and ideas. An Iraqi artist's expression of war and occupation provides a window into her personal experience. For Americans, this window can counter the objectification of Iraqis as mere recipients of U.S. action (as depicted in photographs and media; e.g., American soldiers with guns bursting into an Iraqi home) and instead personalize Iraqi life.

A number of exciting shows are displaying Iraqi art this spring and summer. At United Theological Seminary in New Brighton, MN, the gallery show Art of War: Artists in Dialogue will be on display through June 15th. The show includes art from U.S. veterans and Iraqis. In conjunction with the gallery show, Iraq War veteran and UTS student Luke Leonard will hold a public discussion on May 6th about the situation in the Middle East. IARP hopes to see you there!

Through July 5th, the Salir a la luz gallery brings to light the interconnectedness of the world and enters "into the lives of children in war-torn Iraq." The children's art exhibit is from War Kids Relief, an organization that connects Iraqi and American youth. The Salir a la luz gallery is open Tuesday-Sunday 12-6pm or by appointment and is located in the Blair Arcade Building (lower level) at the corner of Selby and Western, St. Paul, MN.

IARP will display Iraqi art at Art-A-Whirl, the large art weekend in Northeast Minneapolis from May 15-17th. IARP's display will be at 1400 Van Buren St. IARP will also showcase Iraqi art at the Sabes Jewish Community Center and the Lanesboro Arts Center this September-November.

In Iraq, IARP's partner organization Muslim Peacemaker Teams (MPT) recently hosted an art show in Najaf for Iraqi artist Shaima'a Saad. Images from the show, which over 500 people attended, can be found on IARP's blog.

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Water sanitation systems

With support from IARP and a number of American groups, Muslim Peacemaker Teams continues to install water sanitation systems at schools and hospitals in Iraq, providing clean water for Iraqis. Below are some recent photos sent by Sami Rasouli, Director of MPT.

IARP and MPT are thankful for the many people who have expressed interest in contributing to the Water for Peace project. Dr. Marcus Eriksen and Anna Cummins are currently on a 2000 mile cyclying/speaking tour on the U.S. West Coast to bring attention to two water issues: plastic waste filling the ocean and the critical need for clean water at schools around the world. Part of their mission is to raise awareness and funds for water sanitation systems in Iraq. Dr. Eriksen says, "Anna and I firmly believe that if every citizen could choose two causes (one human rights cause and one conservation cause) to know well, teach about, and defend with time and money, then the world would be a much different place. For this tour down the coast, we chose 'Plastic waste in our seas' and 'Clean water for schools.' We hope to make difference." Their website can be found here.

For teachers and others interested in the water situation in Iraq, IARP has a short synopsis of the situation here.

More pictures from the Water for Peace project can be found here.

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Expanding outreach

IARP is working hard to expand its outreach, connecting with a number of groups and individuals. Our new blog provides an open place for you to explore and contribute to IARP's work. We invite you to submit activities, events, articles or other content that expresses your views on reconciliation, peace, and the relationship between Iraqis and Americans. IARP also has a Facebook group and Twitter online.

Recently, IARP Board Member Matt Gilroy visited a number of local and national organizations that support peace and human rights in the U.S. and Middle East. IARP is exploring ways to collaborate with Friends for a Non-Violent World, AMIDEAST, Global Action for Children, Friends Committee on National Legislation, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Washington Office, and others.

IARP also recently met with War Kids Relief to talk about collaboration and exchanged some exciting ideas. Both organizations work with kids and students in Iraq and the U.S. to build friendship and peace. What if there had been programs like the Young Ambassadors Program and Water for Peace 40 years ago, throughout the U.S. and Iraq? Would the same war have happened? It's much harder to go to war with your friends than your "enemies."

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Sami Reports
A note from Sami Rasouli, Director of the Muslim Peacemaker Teams

Dear IARP and friends,

Congratulations! If there is any kind of CHANGE taking place or will take place in the US since January 20th, 2009, CHANGE of minds and hearts would be what we need in Iraq, and this is happening right now, day after day in Najaf due to your fine work of peacebuilding and extending bridges of respect and understanding between people of the US and Iraq. I would like to report to you about Water For Peace action that took place this morning at Al-Khawrnaq High School for boys (700 students) in Najaf. The School is an old teaching institution, was established in 1923. I personally had attended my 7th, 8th and 9th grades in the sixties. A large unit of 300 Gallons of drinking water production purifier has been installed at the school. Thank you!

School Principal, Staff members and students have expressed with enthusiasm their appreciation for you and the donors of the gift they have received and friendship you are offering. They also have listened with interest to MPTer Samirah (project coordinator) who graciously explained MPT & IARP plans for Minneapolis-Najaf sister city project.

More reports to come soon.
Best,

Sami Rasouli, Muslim Peacemaker Teams

______________________________________________________________

Update on Najaf delegation planning

IARP continues to plan for a delegation from Najaf, Iraq to visit Minneapolis this coming September. Members of the delegation will include professors (likely a Dean and a Department Chair) from the University of Kufa, a representative from the Chamber of Commerce of Najaf, one or two members of the Najaf City Council, representatives from two or three women-focused NGO's, representative(s) from the Social Science research group AFAAQ, and a member of the writer's group currently corresponding with a group at the Loft in Minneapolis. Several of these visitors already have communicated with individuals here in the Twin Cities.

The Najaf residents are reportedly excited to meet people here that they have communicated with, to see how our city is run, and see how we live.

The delegation planning group has met once and is looking for more volunteers to make sure this is a rich, relaxing and educational visit for our friends from Iraq. Please respond to info@mpt-iraq.org if you would like to be involved.

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Links
UNAMI Human Rights Report: the recently released report from the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, covering the period from July 1 to December 31, 2008.
Peace with Justice Center (Vermont): provides some good resources for peace and justice activists.

Blogs of the Month
Preemptive Love Coalition: "Life-saving heart surgeries for Iraqi children & cooperation between communities at odds."
Checkpoint Baghdad: Newsweek's Iraq blog. Stories are usually interesting and informative.
From Baghdad to New York: "Iraq as Iraqis see it and love it."

Take Action!
The Shape of Change project is an expanded sculpture project, investigating Iraqi and American concepts of political change, independence and civic agency. People across both countries are answering questions ranging from the meaning of democracy to the importance of national identity. Answers will be collected in an open source data base and interpreted in several ways. As content evolves in response to political events, artistic renderings of the data will function as evolving representations of change. If you are interested in the project, you can read more information and fill out the questionnaire here.

Urge President Obama to support Iraqi refugees.

Minneapolis-Najaf Sister City Initiative: If you live in Minneapolis and have not yet contacted your Council Member, please consider doing so. We encourage you to have a personal conversation specifying why you think establishing a Sister City relationship between Minneapolis and Najaf, Iraq would be good for Minneapolis citizens. You can find your Council Member's email and phone number at www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/council.

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Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project
Join IARP's Facebook group or follow us on Twitter
Visit IARP's website or Blog
Email IARP
Donate online and help strengthen the work of IARP. Donations can also be sent by mail to:
Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project
1346 Westwood Hills Road
St. Louis Park, MN 55426

Iraqi Music

2009-05-04T06:13:00.000-07:00

These Iraqi music artists were recommended to me by a Lebanese friend... If anyone has other suggestions of Iraqi artists they like, please let me know!

UPDATE: LNyousif at From Baghdad to New York recommended Naseer Shama. I love it! LNyousif also recommended the great Ismail al-Farwache (who lost his leg in the 1991 Gulf War) and collected the Photos of Iraq below with a few different Iraqi music pieces. Thanks!

Naseer Shama:

Ismail al-Farwache:

Iraq in Photos:

Kazem al-Saher:

Haitham Yousif:

Hatem al-Iraqi:

The Art of War: Public Forum and Art Show

2009-04-30T18:18:00.000-07:00

On May 6th, Iraq War veteran and United Theological Seminary student Luke Leonard will hold a public discussion about the situation in the Middle East. The forum is in conjunction with the ongoing show Art of War: Artists in Dialogue, currently on display at UTS. See flyer below for more information.

Salir a la luz

2009-04-30T17:16:00.001-07:00

This looks like a fantastic show about the interconnectedness of the world. It's open until July 5th, Tuesday-Sunday 12-6pm or by appointment. Location is the Blair Arcade Building (lower level) at the corner of Selby and Western, St. Paul, MN. If you can go, go!

LIVING IN LIGHT
April 24 – July 5, 2009

Opening Friday, April 24 ● 6 pm – 9 pm
Wine and hors d'oeuvres

Paintings by Kelli Bickman, Photog raphy by Connie Bickman, and Mixed-media by Iraqi War Kids Relief

Everyday we are reminded of our how our lives intersect with others at home, at work and in our communities. This show brings to light how that interconnectedness extends around the world by encouraging us to bring home the playfulness of the Buddha and other deities, share the stories of women from around the world, and enter into the lives of children in war-torn Iraq. Come see yourself in the lives of others and then, like these artists, envision the role you play in making this a better world.
Watch for the many special events during this extended 10-week show!
To preview the current show, click here.

After the opening, come visit us:
Tues - Sun 12-6 or by appointment
Salir a la Luz is located in St. Paul in the Blair Arcade Building (lower level) at the corner of Selby and Western (map).
Or visit us on the web at: www.saliralaluz.com

Handicapped accessible. Please call for information (651.340.1957). Additional parking across=2 0Selby courtesy of the St. Paul Urban League.

Top: K. Bickman, Christ Buddha, 5' x 7 '
Middle: War Kids Relief, Doll #17, 11 x 14
Bottom: C. Bickman, Aboriginal Dance, 11 x 14

Main Gallery

Kelli Bickman is a multi-media artist who has traveled the world extensively and been fortunate to study with several spiritual masters, including the Dalai Lama and Geshe Micheal Roach.
In 2007 she ventured to India and spent several months living in a Tibetian Buddhist Nunnery studying tangka paintings and temple art. Come see the influence of these experiences in the “Images of Enlightenment” paintings on exhibit at Salir a la Luz. Special events to follow.
Left: Naga Om, 34 x 22

	Minnesota Gallery			Children's Gallery

	We are pleased to carry over the popular exhibit by award-winning photojournalist Connie Bickman. With photos and stories from around the world, Connie let's us enter into the lives of others to better see our own. Watch for coming events where Connie will share her own story and life-changing experiences! Above: Golden Offering, 11 x 14			The children's art exhibit is from the War Kids Relief (WKR) program. WKR connects American and Iraqi youth through a program centered on a pen-pal and art exchange. Come learn how they empower children to become Youth Ambassadors for their countries, leading towards a more peaceful understanding between nations. Special events include mini-Youth Ambassador workshops and A Soldier's March for Peace!

165 western avenue, suite 10 • saint paul, mn 55102 • www.saliralaluz.com • info@saliralaluz.com

Collaborators

2009-04-23T05:07:00.000-07:00

IARP and War Kids Relief (see below) have had an initial meeting to talk about collaboration and exchanged some exciting ideas. Seems like a perfect fit: we both work with kids and students in Iraq and the U.S. to build friendships and peace. If current distrust between Iraqis and Americans is left unaddressed, it could "lead to a future generation of tension among these two groups, and the price paid could be extremely high." What if there had been programs like War Kids Relief and Water for Peace 40 years ago, throughout the U.S. and Iraq? Would the same war have happened? It's much harder to go to war with your friends than your "enemies."

War Kids Relief
War Kids Relief was founded in 2005 by Capt. Jonathan Powers, former artillery platoon leader in the Army's 1st Armored Division, as a way to help Iraqi children deal with the adverse effects of the war. Now an in-house program of Children's Culture Connection, War Kids Relief is harnessing the creative potential of children in both Iraq and the US to promote peace, tolerance and respect for different cultures through their newfound friendships with one another.

With donor support we will replicate this program all across the U.S. and Iraq in a sustainable, long term program.

Young Ambassadors Pilot Program

In 2009, War Kids Relief will be launching the first Young Ambassadors Program to promote peace, tolerance and respect for different cultures among Iraqi and US youth.

The Need in Iraq:
Iraqi youth lack exposure to other cultures. Many have negative impressions and ideas about Americans. On a daily basis, Iraqi youth are negatively influenced through magazines and books that contain extreme ideas encouraging violence. Rarely are young people exposed to alternative viewpoints. These disengaged Iraqi youth are more vulnerable to military recruitment, depression, alcoholism, drug abuse, and radicalization. Many have lost their families and homes in the current war and have no constructive outlets to express their pain, fear and frustration.

The Need in the US:
In America, young people have little knowledge of the realities of life for young people in war-affected areas. Many have an inaccurate understanding of the current war in Iraq, believing that all Iraqis are the enemy, and leading to negative stereotyping, fear and distrust of people of Arab descent. Many American children have also lost their own parents, relatives and loved ones in the war. Currently there are almost no channels of communication open between Iraqi and American youth. This lack of communication and misunderstanding, left unaddressed, will lead to a future generation of tension among these two groups, and the price paid could be extremely high.

War Kids Relief, in partnership with the Iraqi NGO, the Darstan Group, is changing that. Together we will be conducting a program that will:

-Create a friendship bridge between the Iraqi and USA children by pairing middle school students in the US with their peers in Iraq through a creative cultural exchange.

-Expand the cross-cultural understanding and tolerance of the US/Iraqi youth to help them understand and appreciate one another's cultures.

-Promote tolerance, peace and the principles of human rights among the selected Iraqi youth to enable them to work for social changes among their families and communities by acting as focal points for peace education.

-Educate US youth about the Iraqi cultures and people, and build compassion towards their peers living in war-affected areas, with a realistic view of how they can help.

Free Educational Materials Promote Friendship Among the Peoples of Iraq and the US

2009-04-21T04:31:00.000-07:00

www.mpt-iraq.org/teachers.html

My friend, children of America,

I’m your friend from Iraq. I love you and love all the children of the world. My people love to live in peace. I want to play and grow up looking to the sun of freedom. Please I don’t want war. Let us be friends. Let our both people be friends loving each other.

Your friend, Hind, age 10, Karbala, Iraq

Dear Iraqi brother,

I really wish this war would be over. I dream of a day when there is no war or killing. I want peace throughout the world. I am 12 and in seventh grade. I hope that one day you can play freely.

Love, your brother, Wilson K., St Paul, MN, USA

Letters for Peace - first sparked by letters written by Iraqi teens to their peers in the US, the Letters for Peace program has generated approximately 800 letters back and forth from US schoolchildren to their Iraqi counterparts. Iraqi letters are translated into English; American letters into Arabic and all are distributed to age-appropriate schools in each country and placed on a website for mutual viewing. The need for translators has brought spouses of Arab students at a local college in MN into the project; as an extra dividend, these volunteers get to read heartfelt desires for peace emanating from US schoolchildren.

Water for Peace – a project initiated by Vets for Peace in response to the deteriorating water sanitation problems, Water for Peace is a service-learning project that raises funds to provide Iraqi schools with potable water. Available to US schools, clubs, and religious institutions, this project links a US organization with a recipient school. Photos of the installation process and the resulting happy, healthier children help to build bridges across our cultures that have been torn apart by war.

These projects are sponsored by the Iraqi & American Reconciliation Project (IARP) of MN whose mission is to promote reconciliation between the people of the United States and Iraq in response to the devastation affecting Iraqi families, society and culture.

IARP’s projects offer simple means to enable the people of both countries to shed layers of immobilizing fear, to see beyond the notion of “enemy” when they consider each other. IARP works in tandem with the Muslim Peacemaker Teams (MPT) of Najaf, Iraq. The Najaf MPT chapter is directed by Sami Rasouli a US citizen for 26 years, who returned to his homeland after the US invasion of Iraq to help his people pull together to survive the chaos of occupation. Mr Rasouli, with strong roots in both cultures, serves as a bridge-builder, helping to explain the peoples of each country to each other.

For a brighter future for children everywhere, as one step to move nations beyond war, please join us in writing letters and / or providing clean drinking water to the youth of Iraq. Let your teacher friends know about this project, too. Meet us at www.mpt-iraq.org/teachers.html

Mpls artist illustrates new book on extraordinary Muslim women

2009-04-18T13:30:00.000-07:00

Minneapolis artist Heba Amin was recently featured in a Star Tribune article about her work illustrating a book on female Muslim heroes (some of her illustrations are above). Amin says, “I’m very aware of cultural stereotypes. The image of Muslim women in the United States is of veiled, oppressed people who have no voice. But in fact, Muslim women have a long history of remarkable achievements.” A little-known but very true fact.

The book, “Extraordinary Women from the Muslim World,” was awarded a National Best Books 2008 Award and a Moonbeam Peacemaker Award. More info on the book can be found here.

On a (kind of) related note, EngageMN.com recently published an article on Muslim feminism and Muslim women in Minnesota: "For Muslim Women in Minnesota, Complex Identities".

The Shape of Change

2009-04-14T11:44:00.000-07:00

The Shape of Change is an expanded sculpture project, investigating Iraqi and American concepts of political change, independence and civic agency. People across both countries are answering questions ranging from the meaning of democracy to the importance of national identity. Answers will be collected in an open source data base and interpreted in several ways: as online data visualizations, physical sculptures, and a series of dialogues between paired Iraqi and American cities. Data will be publicly available for collaborations between Iraqi and American artists. As content evolves in response to political events, artistic renderings of the data will function as evolving representations of change.

The theme of change was ubiquitous throughout the US presidential campaign, and now that a new American president and many new regional Iraqi leaders have been elected, the need to discuss what political change actually means is imperative. The piece will explore if/how these concepts differ across cultures, and how desire for them is manifested or displaced.

If you are interested in the project, you can read more information here and fill out the questionnaire here. Pass the request along to people in as many different locations with as many different view points as you can.

Shape of Change Questions

In the current US elections, both political parties and voters across the country have cited the need for change, but people are seldom specific about what they feel change means. How do you define political change?
What do you feel would constitute meaningful change in your country? Do you feel this is possible?
What changes do you feel are required to improve the relationship between Iraq and the United States?
What do you feel constitutes true independence?
What do you feel needs to happen for Iraq and the United States to be fully independent of each other and when will you know that this has been achieved?
What do you feel constitutes true individual freedom? Do you feel this is possible in a democratic society?
Are you free to exercise choice in your life? Do you feel you have the ability to choose between meaningfully different political options in your country? If not, how might this situation be improved?
Do individuals have a political voice in your country? Do you enjoy freedom of expression? Do you feel that expression should ever be curtailed by government?
What is the potential for individuals to affect political change where you are?
Is national identity important and/or necessary? How would you describe your nation’s identity? Is it defined in relation to other countries?
What do you feel is the meaning of the word democracy?
What country and what part of that country are you from?

Maliki's crackdown on Awakenings: a hint of larger ambitions?

2009-04-13T22:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Foreign Policy's Marc Lynch discussed the recent tension and violence between members of the Awakening Councils (as many as 100,000 former insurgents who cooperated with the U.S. in 2007-2008 against al-Qaeda) and the Iraqi government. Led by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi government has cracked down on a number of Awakening leaders in the past few weeks, arresting some on charges of planting roadside bombs, extortion, robbery and links to al-Qaeda. Many Awakening members contend that they are being targeted because of a sectarian agenda in the Iraqi government (most Awakenings are Sunni, while Maliki's government remains Shiite-dominated). Members also fear "betrayal" by U.S. forces, who had been paying them but recently turned over management of the Awakenings to the Iraqi government, which has failed to pay or find promised jobs for many Members. In response to the arrests and perceived betrayal of the Iraqi government and U.S., some Awakening members are reportedly responsible for or linked to the recent spate of bombings in Iraq. If this tension continues, Iraq could see a return to higher levels of violence and insurgency.

As Lynch writes, some believe that,

"narrow, sectarian perspectives in Baghdad are winning out over the Iraqi national interest with potentially devastating consequences... Most Arab writers (for example, the Kuwaiti Shamlan Issa in al-Ittihad yesterday) point the finger at the continuing lack of progress on political accomodation and national unity -- which for them, generally means the accommodation of Sunni interests and the integration of the Awakenings. The "resistance camp" paper al-Quds al-Arabi has been covering the "coup against the Awakenings" as closely as have the Saudi-owned media (though with a bit more schadenfreude). Many of them are reading the crackdown on the Awakenings through as unmasking the 'true Shia sectarianism' of Maliki's government -- reinforcing their pre-existing, deep skepticism about the new Iraq...

I've been warning about the potential for trouble with the Awakenings project for a long time, and it would be easy to say that those predictions are now coming due. But I think it's way too early for that -- there is still time for these troubles to demonstrate the costs of political failure and to become the spur to the needed political action.

That's why it's really important that the United States not now begin to hedge on its commitment to the drawdown of its forces in the face of this uptick in violence. It is in moments like this that the credibility of commitments is made or broken. Thus far, the signals have been very good -- consistent, clear, and tightly linked to continuing pressure on political progress. President Obama reportedly pushed hard on the political accommodation front during his stopover in Baghdad last week, and General Odierno did very well to emphasize on CNN yesterday that the U.S. is firmly committed to removing its troops by the end of 2011. Maliki and everyone need to take a deep breath and strike power sharing deals before things go south, and understand that they will pay consequences if they don't."

I agree that things are still far from beyond repair, but I'm less sanguine than Lynch appears to be about Maliki's intentions. In the back of my mind, in the part focused on Middle East politics, I can't help but suspect the centralizing actions of Maliki over the last few years might point to a deeper ambition for power. For example, cracking down on militias and establishing two security forces (the Baghdad Brigade and the Counterterrorism Task Force) reporting directly to the prime minister have perhaps improved security, but they have also strengthened significantly Maliki's position. Improving security remains a priority concern for Iraqis (according to a Pentagon report, security is now the number 2 concern for Iraqis, having been passed in January, 2009 by the need for improved basic services), but security enforced by a strong central state is a double-edged sword. In the Middle East and North Africa, there are too many authoritarian leaders adept at ruling through the various tools of co-option and coercion. As Lynch says, "Maliki's government sees very clearly how fragmented, mutually mistrustful and competitive the Awakenings are." I think that can fairly be extended to the political parties and sectarian groups in Iraq.

With a divided political scene and civil society, it's all too possible for Maliki to play one group off the other and emerge as the final arbiter of political bargaining, granting patronage to some and punishing others who challenge him. This possibility is still only a possibility and Maliki has a ways to go before he has that kind of power, but after looking at Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Tunisia, Syria, etc., it would be a good idea, I think, for people to pay more attention to Iraq's possible return to authoritarianism (albeit likely a kinder version with the cosmetic trappings of democracy). Maliki is not yet "one of the guys" in the club of rulers in the region (a large reason why is that Maliki is Shia and nearly all of the Arab leaders are Sunni and suspect Maliki of a sectarian agenda), but he seems to be trying.

Iraqi Artists

2009-04-10T10:05:00.000-07:00

Glad to see that the role of a Public Diplomacy Official in Muthanna, Iraq includes supporting Iraqis in their efforts to preserve Iraqi culture.

Muslim Peacemaker Teams, IARP's partner in Iraq, also recently hosted an art show for Iraqi artist Shaima'a Saad at the Youth & Sport Najaf Center. Below are some images from the show, which over 500 people attended. This is a good example, I think, of an Iraqi artist empowered by a peace-building non-profit organization and then helping to change others' perceptions and ideas through art.

Light a candle for the Iraq Museum in Baghdad

2009-04-08T06:26:00.000-07:00

While the massive destruction of life and infrastructure in Iraq after the 2003 US invasion received much media attention (and rightly so), the damage to Iraq's cultural heritage has mostly left the spotlight. In the looting after the invasion, many invaluable objects in the Iraq Museum in Baghdad were stolen or destroyed. The loss of a part of a country's history and culture is often forgotten as a consequence of war. Looking back, we need to remember and accept our responsibility for this loss.

Saving Antiquities For Everyone is holding a Candlelight Vigil for the Iraq Museum this April 10-12, 2009. Click here to see how you can participate. In Minnesota, there is a Candlelight Vigil on April 10 at 6:00PM at Macalester College. Details can be found here.

Fallout from economic crisis and low oil prices in Iraq

2009-04-07T06:28:00.000-07:00

Here's an excerpt from last week's Iraq Crisis Report about the fallout in Iraq from the global economic crisis and low oil prices. Funny how coverage about the domestic crisis always trumps the global repercussions (often worse than here in the U.S.).

Thanks to the Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance.

"The dramatic fall in global oil prices has already cancelled around US$600 million in electricity contracts and will now force Iraq to cut spending on basic services that its war-weary citizens need, such as sewage treatment and power supply. Last summer, oil prices were at US$147 per barrel, and have decreased to under US$50, resulting in the Iraqi government slashing its 2009 spending plans twice. Parliament then decided to slash more money, leaving the government US$58.6 billion to spend on rebuilding the war-torn nation. The parliament’s version of the budget has yet to be approved by the council of ministers. Meanwhile, Iraq’s plans to build and renovate infrastructure have been neglected. Initially, US$5 billion had been allocated for Iraqi municipalities for development, but 60 percent has been chopped off. They will get around US$340 million. (Reuters, March-31)"

Sister City Project

2009-04-01T19:23:00.000-07:00

For quite a while now, IARP volunteers have been working to establish Minneapolis and Najaf as Sister Cities. What does that mean? A Sister City relationship is a formal agreement signed by the governing bodies of each city committing to long term sharing of cultural, educational, and citizen resources.

I'll admit, I had no idea that Minneapolis currently has EIGHT Sister Cities (only two are Scandinavian). However, establishing such a formal relationship with an Iraqi city would have a large impact, I think, for a few reasons. Many people, myself included, feel strongly about the past, present and future U.S. relationship with Iraq; beginning a Sister City relationship would be a mutual statement of friendship and cooperation between the people of Najaf and Minneapolis. Looking at how damaged the U.S.-Iraq relationship currently is, the importance of making this statement official and "legitimate" should not be underestimated. It would be a big boost toward our large goal of reconciliation.

People on both "sides" who have doubts about the other would be exposed to exchange programs and events, in the media if not in person. While media coverage can play a large role in building support FOR war and vilifying the "enemy," it can also be effective in countering such attitudes. And those who actually participate in exchanges will experience Iraqi culture, and some will develop long-lasting friendships.

Currently IARP and its partner in Najaf, the Muslim Peacemaker Teams (MPT), run or are affiliated with a number of exchange programs that make the two cities de facto Sister Cities. These include Letters for Peace, Water for Peace, the Iraqi Art Project, and exchanges between the University of Minnesota and the University of Kufa. This fall, Sami Rasouli, an Iraqi-American who resides in both Minneapolis and Najaf and is Director of MPT, will lead a delegation from Najaf to Minneapolis. The Sister City relationship would highlight these current opportunities for people to connect with their neighbors in Iraq.

Also, importantly, having these programs already in place means that the official relationship would cost Minneapolis very little money (paramount on City Council Members' minds).

If you're interested in helping promote the Sister City relationship and are a Minneapolis resident, you can phone or email your Minneapolis City Council representative and ask him or her to join Council Member Betsy Hodges as a co-sponsor of the initiative to establish a Sister City relationship between Minneapolis and Najaf. You can find your Council Member's email address and phone number here.

Water in Iraq

2009-03-30T04:55:00.000-07:00

Water in Iraq

How many times a day do you drink water? Do you stop to think what might be in it, besides “just water”? In the U.S., many peole take safe water for granted, but in Iraq, water can be dangerous. According to the Red Cross, about 40% of Iraqis today lack access to clean water, putting millions at risk of contracting water-borne diseases just from drinking tap water. 36% of drinking water in Iraq’s capital city, Baghdad, is unsafe in a good month, and 90% is unsafe in a bad month. Water-borne diseases such as diarrhea, typhoid, and hepatitis are the biggest killers of children under 5.

Imagine nearly losing your six year old son, or your friend, to a disease contracted from drinking bad water. After this happened to one Iraqi man, he began devoting a huge portion of his monthly income to buying clean water from private tankers. Many Iraqis spend a third or more of their income on clean water. For the poor families who cannot afford to buy any clean water, the only option is to drink water that smells of human waste and carries multiple diseases. One man says his infant daughter’s continuous illnesses and his constant nausea confirm that the water is bad: “We are the poor. No one cares if we get sick and die. But someone should do something about the water. It is dirty. It brings disease.”

Why is water in Iraq so bad? Iraq's waste-treatment systems – similar to what we have in the U.S. – are obsolete, and sewage is poured into the country’s main sources of water, such as the Tigris river. Iraq’s upstream neighbors Syria, Turkey, and Iran have all built dams reducing the flow of clean water into Iraq. According to U.S. Vets for Peace, “Since 1991, the water supply and sanitation sector has experienced steady but devastating decline. Aging infrastructure, poorly maintained equipment, leaking water and sewer networks and low technical capacity are some of the key problems of the sector. Only 9% of the urban population outside Baghdad is served by sewerage systems, while the northern and rural areas do not have piped sewage systems.”

The country’s water infrastructure (treatment plants, pipes, etc.) has steadily worsened over the last two decades for a number of reasons: neglect under Saddam Hussein in the 1980s and 1990s, the U.S. bombing that forced Iraq to leave Kuwait in 1991 and hit Iraq’s infrastructure, international sanctions during the 1990s, and the U.S. invasion in 2003 that led to sectarian fighting. Since 2003, insurgents have targeted the country's water system and killed 500 of Baghdad's engineers. More than 2,200 doctors and nurses have been killed and more than 250 kidnapped, and at least 20,000 have left the country.

While U.S. reconstruction teams, the Iraqi government, and relief organizations have been working to repair and upgrade water and sewage treatment plants, there is a long way to go. Much more is needed to help provide Iraqis with clean water. Water for Peace is one attempt to do that. Initiated by Vets for Peace, it is a service-learning project that raises funds to provide Iraqi schools with drinkable water. Available to US schools, clubs, and religious institutions, this project links a US organization with a recipient school. Photos of the installation process and the resulting happy, healthier children help to build bridges across our cultures that have been torn apart by war.

Additional sources for Iraqi water situation

International Red Cross (March 2008):

http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/iraq-report-170308/$file/ICRC-Iraq-report-0308-eng.pdf

Veterans for Peace (2007):

http://www.iraqwaterproject.org/images/Hamdan-Jessir-Water-Project-Report.pdf

IRIN humanitarian news and analysis (April 2009):

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70920

Government Accountability Office (September 2005):
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05872.pdf

Water Webster Iraq (news source about water):

http://waterwebster.org/IraqWater.htm

Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction:

http://www.sigir.mil/reports/Default.aspx

CBS News (August 2007):

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/08/03/eveningnews/main3132093.shtml

USA Today (August 2008):

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2008-08-01-Iraq-water_N.htm

Iraq

2009-03-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

By Michael Kiesow Moore

For Sami Rasouli

Invoke the ancient scribes of Sumeria, who by carefully plying wedge
shaped hieroglyphs onto red clay cuneiforms, and in the course of

tabulating the sales of property and goats, invented writing. Hear the
story of Gilgamesh, the world's first hero, how after the death of his

true friend, Enkidu, sought the end to death itself. It was a futile task and
Gilgamesh settled for inscribing his name into tablets of lapis lazuli, and

by the near permanence of stone and poem, claim immortality.
Remember Eridu, the first city. Mesopotamia has no Garden of Eden

where life begins with flowers and trees. Instead, in the beginning of time, the god Marduk creates a city from which all things spring: Marduk constructs

a reed frame on the face of the waters. He creates dirt and pours it out by the
reed frame. In order to settle the gods in the dwelling of their hearts' delight,

he creates mankind. In Marduk's new world, holiness is civilization.
Celebrate the elders of Uruk who said governance was a civil duty, and

so they never recorded their names for posterity. Faceless is their
remembrance, but is this not a better model for governing?

Summon old Baghdad, once the shining center of the Islamic world.
Let me tell you how it was built: After the epic battles between the

Umayyads and the Abbasids, it was decreed that a new capital
would be formed, east of Damascus. In 762, Abu Jafar al-Mansur, the second

caliph of the new dynasty, traveled the length of the Tigris River. He found a
little village on its west bank - surrounded by palm trees, connected to the

Euphrates by canals. The caliph laid the first brick, and 100,000 laborers arrived
from the cities of Mosul, Kufa, Wasit, and Basra, from Syria, Persia, and other

lands. The Golden Gate palace of the caliph held its center, topped by a green
dome and connected to the Great Mosque. The palace opened its doors to the

far-flung reaches of Arabia. The caliph named his new city "Dar es-Salaam" -
the City of Peace. The city filled with fountains and public baths, the streets always

washed and swept clean. Water flowed into homes from aqueducts, rooms cooled
by screens of wet reeds. Marble steps led to river's edge where at anchor you can

see Chinese junks, Assyrian rafts resting on inflated skins, thousands of gondolas,
decked with little flags, carrying people to and fro. Outside the city are parks, gardens,

and villas, adorned with varnished frescoes and tiled vermilion murals. In the City
of Peace, the Academy of Wisdom was formed, a great library where you could find

the works of Aristotle, Plato, Hippocrates, Ptolemy, Archimedes, Euclid, and the
Torah. Studying there were Islamic, Persian, Greek, Hindu, and Jewish scholars.

Over the millennia Arabian scholars discovered algebra, calculus, and trigonometry;
they built great celestial observatories scattered throughout the lands; they

established the decimal system, invented the zero. Forget not the words that were
coined there: nadir and zenith, star names like Rigel and Betelgeuse.

------------------------------------------

I am told that all Iraqis today are poets, for when gazing upon their deserts' golden
plains, the blazing sun in sapphire skies, the gentle waters of the Euphrates,

how can anyone stop the torrents of poetry

that spill like rivers of flower petals?

Welcome!

2009-03-09T16:19:00.000-07:00

Welcome. Ahlan wa sahlan! This is the first post of the unofficial blog of the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project (IARP). Since you've gotten this far, you're obviously an intelligent and caring person (or you're lost), so I won't say much in the way of an introduction. IARP is an international non-profit organization based in Minneapolis, MN and Najaf, Iraq. It supports reconciliation between Iraqis and Americans through education, art, and development programs. The plan for this blog is to provide you with news and resources relevant to the relationship between Iraqis and Americans; the fields of reconciliation, conflict transformation and development; and the activities of IARP. By reading this blog, you will become even more intelligent and knowledgeable about these things (we hope).

In lieu of a longer explanation of IARP, below is a copy of an article I wrote about the organization's work, published recently in the Twin Cities Daily Planet.

Minnesotans and Iraqis work together for reconciliation

by Luke Wilcox | February 25, 2009 • Iraq can seem far from Minnesota, both geographically and culturally. While nearly six years of military operations in Iraq have brought images of war and its consequences into American homes, the culture and people of Iraq have rarely followed. Many Americans support peace with Iraq, but know little about Iraqis and wonder how much impact one person can realistically have in a violent world. For a group of Minnesotans and Iraqis, the answer is, “more than you think.” For the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project (IARP) and the Muslim Peacemaker Teams (MPT), interpersonal and local community connections – rather than strategic agreements between national governments – are exactly what is needed to sustain an enduring process of reconciliation and peacebuilding.

Based in Minneapolis and Najaf, Iraq, IARP and MPT work as partners to build stronger connections between Iraqis and Americans through education, art, and humanitarian aid. Their programs include exchanging handwritten letters between Iraqi and Minnesotan students, showcasing Iraqi art in Minnesota, and finding Minnesotan communities, businesses, and other groups to sponsor water filtration systems for Iraqi schools with no access to safe drinking water. In January, IARP and MPT installed filtration systems at three schools in Najaf, with more schools planned for February and March.

Besides providing clean drinking water for students, the partnership between MPT and IARP is a concrete example of Iraqi and American citizens promoting “reconciliation.” More than resolution of a dispute, reconciliation within the framework of conflict transformation seeks to repair broken relationships and establish “right relationships” of justice, peace and equality. As John Paul Lederach notes, reconciliation “is built on and oriented toward the relational aspects of a conflict… and create(s) an encounter where people can focus on their relationship.” As the U.S. military slowly draws down its presence in Iraq over the coming months and years, it will be important for Americans and Iraqis to engage in sustained, deliberate and creative efforts to promote reconciliation.

Despite significant (yet fragile) progress in the security and political situation in Iraq, the wounds of war remain in both Iraq and the U.S. Consider the following numbers:

• 151,000 violent Iraqi deaths from March, 2003 through June, 2006.

• 2 out of 3 Iraqi children without access to safe drinking water and 4 million Iraqis considered food insecure and in need of food assistance (November, 2007). Only 17 percent of Iraq’s sewage treated before entering the country’s rivers and waterways (March 2008).

• 4.2 million Iraqis displaced from their homes – 1.8 million refugees outside of Iraq and 2.4 million inside Iraq. Four out of 5 Iraqi refugees report having witnessed a shooting and 3 out of 4 report having had someone close to them killed or murdered (March, 2008).

• More than 4,100 U.S. military casualties in Iraq (February, 2009). About 20 percent of Iraq war veterans report symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder or major depression (October, 2008).

• Approximately $650 billion spent on Iraq war operations by the U.S. (July 2008).

The last six years have bound the histories of Iraq and the U.S. together. If a real partnership between the two countries is to emerge from these six years, local and community connections that promote reconciliation and build grassroots support for peaceful and just foreign policies will be critical.

Such connections will be important, in part, because we live in a globalized and interconnected world. While nation-states (like Iraq and the U.S.) remain the most visible actors on the world stage, the effects of globalization have increased the importance of international corporations, international organizations, and direct, “people to people” dialogue and interaction. Increasingly, the world is tied together through the environment, the global economy, global security, and global communication. With a focus on human rather than national security, many international NGOs and individual actors recognize that, in the 21st century, the future well-being of all people is increasingly interconnected.

While some argue that international peace and reconciliation are unrealistic or even irresponsible goals for nation-states to pursue in a chaotic and dangerous world, too often this argument misperceives reconciliation as an all-or-nothing, ideal end state. Instead, reconciliation is an imperfect, practical process with concrete and achievable steps that can support national (as well as global) interests and security. For example, a process of reconciliation could help alleviate the current, widespread anti-Americanism among Arab populations. Anti-Americanism harms U.S. interests in the Middle East in several ways: government allies in the region find it harder to cooperate with the U.S.; greater instability follows a greater disconnect between repressive, pro-American governments and anti-American populations; anti-American movements find it easier to recruit new followers; and the U.S. has less “soft power” (everything “American” – values, culture, and policy – is less attractive). By taking steps to address grievances and change policies that are perceived as unjust, anti-Americanism can be reduced and foreign policy goals made easier to realize. President Obama took one such step on January 26 when he gave a television interview to the Arabic news station al-Arabiya. In the interview, he asserted his commitment to listen to the Arab world and the Muslim world and his readiness “to initiate a new partnership based on mutual respect and mutual interest.”

Of course, words must be followed by actions in order to demonstrate sincerity. One initial action that Americans can take is to acknowledge the truth, a common first step in processes of reconciliation. The Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project, for example, begins with an acknowledgment that the U.S. invasion of Iraq caused widespread suffering among Iraqis (and among all those affected by the war, including U.S. military personnel and their families). Because this truth – or any “truth” – about history depends on one’s perspective in history, it is important to listen to multiple perspectives (in this case, to Iraqis and to others around the world), and especially to victims. Then, after listening and acknowledging, it is important to apologize for past wrongdoing and admit guilt or responsibility. The corresponding step of forgiveness occurs in some processes of reconciliation but not all, and cannot be imposed.

Acknowledging truth and accepting responsibility usually must be followed by concrete action to redress past wrongs. Such action usually takes the form of retributive justice (perpetrators held accountable and punished), restorative justice (perpetrators, victims, and their communities undergo a process to repair and rebuild their relationships), or distributive justice (goods in a society are redistributed in a more just manner), or a combination of these three. Restorative and distributive justice generally entail some form of reparations, or compensation offered to victims. Besides economic reparations, social and political reparations (e.g., greater political rights) are possible. While not exactly reparations, the water filtration systems installed by IARP and MPT offer aid to victims of the conflict in Iraq with the goal of transforming relationships between Americans and Iraqis.

In order for a process of reconciliation to endure, it is important to build trust and create assurances that past grievances will not reoccur. At the interpersonal level, cultural exchanges can develop shared values and increase mutual understanding and respect, thereby decreasing support for future use of force or violence that could harm the other. For example, IARP’s Iraq Art Project brings art from Iraq to local Minnesota communities with the aim of building “on the transformative power of art (to) personalize relationships with Iraqis.” Local galleries, coffee-shops and businesses host art shows of paintings by Iraqi artists and expose Minnesotans to the people and land of Iraq. IARP then sells the paintings, giving part of the proceeds to the artists and part to MPT to support its reconciliation efforts in Iraq. Similarly, IARP’s Letters for Peace program facilitates exchanges of letters between Iraqi and American students in order to create personal relationships and plant seeds of understanding and respect.

Such programs offer creative ways to decrease the distance between Americans and Iraqis at a critical juncture in the relationship between the U.S. and Iraq (and between the U.S. and the world). Nearly six years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Americans and Iraqis have been bound together by war. Now is the time to turn those ties into a more peaceful, shared future. As organizations like IARP and MPT recognize, this can only happen in local communities – one personal connection at a time.