wfn.org | Support Peacemakers through Faithful America

["NCC News" <pjenks@ncccusa.org>]

Prayer Vigils and Support Letter for Peacemakers;
An urgent request from Christian Peacemakers everywhere

Four members of the Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) in Baghdad were kidnapped
November 27 and are held hostage in Iraq.  The kidnappers have threatened to
kill the peace activists by Thursday, unless all prisoners in US and Iraqi
detention centers are released. 

CPT is an ecumenical peacemaking agency associated with the Church of the
Brethren, Mennonites and Quakers. Its members are deeply committed to
non-violent peacemaking and are willing to put their lives on the line to
make it happen.

The four hostages are: Tom Fox, 54, Clearbrook, Virginia, Norman Kember, 74,
London, James Loney, 41, Toronto, Canada, Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, a
Canadian. More information on them are found at the Christian Peacemaker
Teams website: www.cpt.org

Tom, Norman, James and Harmeet are in Iraq for the sole purpose of bearing
witness to the love of God as it is expressed through the sacrificial
presence of the Prince of Peace. Because of their lifelong commitment to
Jesus and the holy calling of peacemaking, these our brothers live to bear
witness to the fact that violence is a sin against God. Indeed, they have
consistently carried that message to the Coalition forces, first by
condemning the political decisions to make war and later by expressing horror
at the degrading violence the war begets. Long before the media reports, they
were the first to protest the torture of prisoners in Abu Ghraib Prison.
Their message of peace was also expressed to those whose attacks on Coalition
forces escalated the violence and whose suicide bombs took the lives of
thousands of innocent human beings.

Many international organizations, including Arab Muslim leaders have
condemned the taking of these hostages and have demanded their release. 

On Wednesday, Jerusalem Post reported that leaders of Palestinian political
factions gathered in Hebron to issue a statement in Arabic about their
experiences of seeing the CPT working in Palestine, and their personal
knowledge of the three kidnapped members and their important work on behalf
of the Palestinian people. Read their statement is here:
http://www.cpt.org/iraq/response/palstatement.htm

On Sunday, the largest Sunni Muslim party in Iraq, the Iraqi Islamic Party,
called for the release of the hostages, saying that the "kidnapping is a
dream opportunity for the supporters of the war against our country who say
that Iraqis cannot tell the difference between those who support them and
those who oppose them."

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C9F67A1B-0DAB-4713-8277-7DBB6CB763E9.h
tm

The World Council of Churches also made the following statement:
http://www2.wcc-coe.org/pressreleasesen.nsf/index/pr-05-73.html

Although in consultation with CPT and in view of the delicate nature of the
situation, we had refrained from making a statement thus far, this week we
seeking two actions.

1. We call on our churches to take the lead in organizing ecumenical and
interfaith candlelight prayer vigils throughout the coming week highlighting
the messages: "Love your Enemies;" "End the Occupation;" "Release the
Peacemakers." Please  Register your prayer vigil at 
http://www.cpt.org/iraq/response/PrayerVigils.htm

2. We encourage you to sign on to the following interfaith open letter which
has been initially signed by the following religious religious leaders and
many others: Dr Sayeed Syeed, head of the Islamic Society of North America;
Sheila Musaji, editor of The American Muslim; Abdul Malik Mujahid, chair of
the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago; that Council as a
body; Anwar N. Haddam, elected Member of Parliament of Algeria (Dec 1991),
chairman, board of trustees, Education for Life, Northern Virginia, and
member, executive committee, Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations of
Greater Washington Area (CCMO); Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad of Bethesda, MD; Muhammad
Ali-Salaam of Boston; Abdul Cader Asmal, MD, PhD; 
Rev. Robert Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches;
Rev. Osagefyo Sekou, Director of Clergy and Laity Concerned about Iraq; Rev.
Peter Laarman of Progressive Christians Uniting in California; and by Rabbi
Arthur Waskow, Rabbinic Director of The Shalom Center. 

This letter will be transmitted to Al Jazeera TV, which is the likely media
channel for the kidnappers, each day this week with the list of signatories.

Please go to www.faithfulamerica.org to add your signature. 

The letter follows:

--------
To those who are holding the Christian Peacemakers Team in Iraq, and to
people everywhere of all Traditions of Faith and Peace:

We who write you affirm what all the traditions teach that trace their
spiritual origin to Abraham: 

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all teach explicitly that to kill even one
human being ?- even more strongly one who is doing no harm, most especially
one who is seeking peace and nurturing human bodies and communities -- is to
destroy a world. All other religious traditions agree about the holiness of
human lives.

This teaching applies to all innocent Iraqis and foreigners who have been
killed or taken away in Iraq out of anger against the US occupation -- and it
applies with special clarity and strength to the members of the Christian
Peacemakers Team who are being held in Iraq. 

Like us, they too opposed the US attack. They came to serve the Iraqi people.
They came not only to urge peace but also to live peace.

We who have opposed the US invasion and occupation of Iraq call on all who
live in Iraq to seek the release of these people into safety and freedom. And
we call on all people of good will everywhere to join in this call.

No doubt, those who planned and executed the US invasion and occupation of
Iraq will cite this capture as evidence for the rightness of their action. We
utterly reject this logic, and affirm that the war undertaken by the US has
multiplied the violence it pretended to oppose. 

We hold morally responsible for the lives of these Christian Peacemakers both
those in Iraq who have taken them, and those who have brought about the
deaths of thousands of Iraqis and Americans by pursuing this war.

Once again, we call for a swift end to the US occupation of Iraq and for
peaceful action by the entire human community to assist Iraqis to achieve
their own self-government. 

And we send our loving prayers to those who have become victims of their own
loving commitment to peace, justice, and healing.

Please sign the letter by going to www.faithfulamerica.org

Contact NCC News: Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2252, pjenks@ncccusa.org; or
Leslie Tune, 202-544-2350, ltune@ncccusa.org