wfn.org | Middle East meetings stress need for protection, aid

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

June 5, 2003	   News media contact: Joretta Purdue7(202)
546-87227Washington	10-21-71BI{316}

By United Methodist News Service

A gathering of Iraq's religious leaders and meetings with heads of government
in Lebanon and Iraq have led executives of the U.S. National Council of
Churches to renew their call for nonviolent solutions to the Middle East's
problems and for more humanitarian aid.

The Rev. Robert Edgar, staff head of the NCC and a United Methodist
clergyman, and Antonios Kireopoulos, who heads the NCC international affairs
and peace area, were among the international religious leaders,
intellectuals, diplomats and officials from humanitarian aid agencies who
attended a May 27-28 meeting in Amman, Jordan.

The meeting of Iraq's religious leaders, including Shi'ite, Sunni and
Christian representatives, to address the Iraqi crisis was convened by the
World Conference of Religions for Peace.

"The Iraqi religious leaders - Christian and Muslim - met together and really
reported that there is danger on the streets of Baghdad and throughout Iraq,
and they shared a strong conviction that the international community must
help," Edgar said. He added that he's sure the leaders will be heartened by
the decision of the countries represented at the G8 summit in France to
support the rebuilding of Iraq.

"What was important (at the meeting) was to receive confirmation that chaos
has broken out in Iraq following the military action, and that going to war
might be easier than securing the peace." Edgar reported.

In what was believed to be an unprecedented meeting, the Iraqi Muslim and
Christian leaders urged that humanitarian aid organizations increase their
assistance through Iraqi religious and other social institutions, that the
occupying forces provide security to the civilian population as they are
obligated by international conventions and that a temporary Iraqi government
be formed as soon as possible.

Their joint statement, issued May 28, asked that a permanent Iraqi government
be based on free, democratic elections and that a constitution be adopted
that would protect all religious, ethnic and national groupings while
maintaining the nation's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"I have to say that the United States and Great Britain did not help
themselves by not being prepared for what would take place after the military
action, and that was clearly in the hearts and minds of the religious leaders
who came to Jordan," Edgar observed.

"On the positive side, I think there is a very important moment right now in
the Middle East," he said. It's important for Christian, Muslim and Jewish
moderates to assist in the peacemaking in that region, he explained.

Meetings with Lebanon's prime minister and Syria's president, as well as
regional Christian leaders, made "very evident that they believe there is a
role for the international religious community, as well as the government
officials, to develop nonviolent and peace strategies for the region," Edgar
said.

The Rev. Riad Jarjour of the Middle East Council of Churches - an
organization of Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches
in the Middle East - coordinated the visits. He and the two NCC executives
were joined by William Vendley, president of World Conference of Religions
for Peace.

President Bashar el-Assad of Syria thanked the NCC and the U.S. National
Conference of Catholic Bishops for opposing war in Iraq and, more
importantly, Edgar said, for "communicating to the broader community in the
Middle East that the ultra-extremist Christians in the United States - the
fundamentalists - don't represent the total religious view."

Edgar said that the primary purpose of the visits to the three countries was
to communicate "that the moderate-to-progressive (U.S.) community stands for
nonviolence and wants to work for peace in the region."

Kireopoulos said their purpose was to bring a voice of moderation, tolerance
and mutual respect to the region.

Middle Easterners of both Christian and the Islamic viewpoints see the
proselytizing efforts of U.S. Christians in the Middle East as possibly more
destabilizing than even the war itself, Kireopoulos said. "To them, that
translates into a clash of civilizations or a crusade and that sort of thing.

"Both the Christians and the Muslims saw (our voice of moderation) as a note
of hope and not a rush to cultural and religious war," he explained.

 
 

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United Methodist News Service
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