FOR's blog

Mark Johnson, director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and several other FOR members were among more than 200 national leaders of religious organizations who wrote to Speak of the House Nancy Pelosi today calling for passage of the Fair Elections Now Act. In response to last month's extraordinary 5-4 ruling by the Supreme Court on the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case, faith communities across the religious spectrum, faciliated by Common Cause, contacted Congress today to express their deep concern for swift action. The letter reads:

February 3, 2010

Dear Speaker Pelosi:

We members of the Interfaith Gaza Satyagraha international peace delegation to Gaza beseech President Mubarak to let all the members of the Gaza Freedom March enter Gaza and walk in solidarity with the Palestinian people on December 31, 2009. We are deeply distressed by the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the ongoing blockade of goods and services into Gaza. As clergy, religious leaders, and people of faith from the traditions of Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Buddhism, we are called not to stand idly by, but to walk with those who are crying out for help.

Opening the borders is a righteous act, as it is written in the Qur'an, "Those who believe in Qur'an and those who follow the Jewish scriptures and the Christians ... and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord, on them shall be no fear. (Surah 2, Ayat 62)"

The Fellowship of Reconciliation's executive director, Mark Johnson, leaves the United States today for the Middle East. He'll be heading to Egypt to help lead the Gaza Freedom March next week -- to be joined by FOR members from around the world and hundreds of other international peace activists.

But Mark and these peace people won't get into Gaza without your help! Please act now.

• TAKE ACTION: Currently, Egyptian authorities are denying marchers the ability to cross from Egypt into Gaza. Please send a message to the Egyptian embassy, urging them to allow Mark and other nonviolent peace activists to cross the border.

On December 31st, the Gaza Freedom March will bring together more than 1,400 people from across the globe to march alongside Palestinian peoples living in Gaza. This nonviolent demonstration to break the siege of Gaza represents the largest gathering of international solidarity activists in the Middle East in history. The Interfaith Gaza Satyagraha is an affinity group of the march: more than 40 participants from a dozen U.S. states plus Canada and Australia have already signed up to give religious witness to the need to open the borders and break the siege.

"Our common ground is a deep concern about the disastrous impact of the blockade of goods and services upon the people of Gaza," said Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, co-founder of the Shomer Shalom Network for Jewish Nonviolence.

The Fellowship of Reconciliation today joined with 33 other national peace and anti-war groups to issue an open letter to President Obama that strongly opposes his anticipated decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan with the commitment of tens of thousands of additional U.S. troops.

The document calls increased war spending, in light of the ongoing U.S. economic crisis, an “utter folly” and names the war “a war against ordinary people, both here in the United States and in Afghanistan,” which “if continued, will result in the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of U.S. troops and untold thousands of Afghans” and “cause other people in other lands to despise the U.S.” as “the world’s richest nation making war on one of the world’s very poorest.”

The Muslim American Society has announced a forum on nuclear proliferation and nuclear abolition next Thursday, Nov. 19, in Washington, DC.

Faith, Fear and Future of Nuclear Weapons Inter-Religious Response to the Global Crisis
Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009, 2:00 to 3:30 PM
Rayburn House of Representatives Office Building, Room 2168
50 Independence Ave SW, Washington, DC

Presenters will include:

• Jonathan Granoff, President, Global Security Institute and international nuclear abolition advocate
• Dave Robinson, Executive Director, Pax Christi USA
• Ibrahim Ramey, MAS Freedom Civil & Human Rights Director
• Moderated by MAS Freedom Executive Director Imam Mahdi Bray

Here's the Fellowship of Reconciliation's Colombia update for September 2009.

• Thanks, and a Request
  
• Bases and UNASUR Update
  
• Beyond the Peace Community...
  
• Damming Magdalena: Emgesa Threatens Colombian Communities

Today marks the eighth anniversary of the tragic terrorist attacks in the United States, and as we have every year since 2001, the Fellowship of Reconciliation joins members of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows in calling for alternative methods of addressing international conflict. Today, Peaceful Tomorrows released a statement saying, "As the 8th anniversary of the loss of our loved ones approaches, we at September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows remain hopeful that the world and our nation will stop all violent acts in the names of our loved ones. We advocate now as we did on that fateful day that the response to evil must not be more evil, that it must be a response that envisions, not just peaceful tomorrows, but peaceful todays. It is beyond time."

In September 2001, when family members of those who died that day courageously urged our government to not retaliate with violence, FOR stood with them, and served as Peaceful Tomorrows' first fiscal sponsor. Now, eight years after the U.S. government invaded Afghanistan in retribution for the attacks, our nation is mired in a deepening war with rapidly growing casualties of both troops and civilians.

On September 20, Dr. Hildegard Goss-Mayr of Vienna, Austria, will receive the Pacem in Terris 2009 Peace and Freedom Award in Davenport, Iowa. Goss-Mayr, often nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, is a preeminent teacher of nonviolence. The Honorary President of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, she has taught the theory and practice of active nonviolence throughout the world. Her books and articles have been widely translated and used by social change movements and communities.

Colombia monthly e-newsletter

• Action Alert: Colombia Military Bases, or South American Peace?
  
• Religious and Grassroots Leaders Urge Suspension of Base Talks
  
• Obama's Choice: Documents Show U.S Seeks Colombian Bases for Training & Operations
  
• Letter from the Field: "Yanquis Fuera!"
  
• British MPs Urge End to U.K. Military Aid
  
• Protests in Colombia Increase Despite Oppression of Dissent
• News Briefs: Anti-Mili; Witness Paid to Testify Against Peace Community
• World Summit for Peace: Bogotá, Colombia -- October 1-4, 2009