Iran Dialogue 2008

Kudos to Iran peace delegate Priscilla Fairbanks. She attended the meeting with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that FOR organized in September and today her op ed about the value of dialogue appeared in the Albany Times Union. Here's an excerpt:

Our meeting in New York City took place in the midst of the fear, accusations and bellicose rhetoric surrounding most conversations about American-Iranian relations. It is human nature to be defensive when accused or threatened. Conversations cannot be productive under those conditions. Engaging in dialogue is a nonviolent choice. Fellowship of Reconciliation provided an opportunity for us to ask tough questions. No, they weren't answered directly by the president, but they were presented and received.

There are more than one million people of Iranian descent living in the United States. Approximately one-half of that large diasporic community live in southern California, but the population is spread across the country. Three organizations that represent efforts by Iranian-Americans to prevent war between the U.S. and Iran participated in the September 24th meeting that the Fellowship of Reconciliation hosted between President Ahmadinejad and members of the U.S. peace and anti-war community: the American Iranian Friendship Council (based in Portland, OR); the American Iranian Council (based in Princeton, NJ); and the American-Iranian Friendship Committee (based in Armonk, NY). Other Iranian-Americans were in attendance, and other such organizations had been invited but did not attend (including the National Iranian American Council and the Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran).

The Fellowship of Reconciliation has just finished preparing the transcription of the English translation of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's remarks to the U.S. peace and anti-war community, delivered at the meeting hosted by FOR on September 24, 2008 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City. That transcription follows. We thank everyone for their patience.

Last week, the Boston Globe printed an opinion piece by Jeff Jacoby, "A US welcome mat for Ahmadinejad," which condemned the September 24-25 meetings held between the Iranian President and members of the U.S. peace and religious communities. Joseph Gerson, a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the director of programs at the Boston-based New England office of the American Friends Service Committee, wrote the following response. The Globe would not agree to print Gerson's Letter to the Editor due to its length, and also decided to not print a vastly-cut 400-word version submitted by Gerson, also due to it exceeding its word limit. We offer the original version here:

A meeting with Iranian President Ahmadinejad is not going to be without controversy. Detractors say: to give this person a platform means to accept all of his opinions, or perhaps even to kneel in front of him. They call for isolating him, and for marking him as an outcast.

I can understand some of these concerns, but ultimately this kind of attitude is the problem. Not to talk with each other means not to know each other, and this leads to a point where people blindly follow their ideologies.

Perhaps this is a comfortable way to think, offering black-and-white clichés about problems, but unfortunately the world is too complicated to divide it in good and bad states. As a German, I know what it means to follow an ideology. More or less the whole 20th century, Germany was involved in one war after another; we even built up walls between our own people. Of course, this was all done in the name of the "right ideology.“

An excellent article appears in the current issue of The Jewish Week, focused on Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb's presentation at the interfaith "iftar" dinner with Iranian President Ahmadinejad last Thursday, September 25th. Titled "Speaking Up to Iran Leader -- Gingerly," the article describes the courageous speech by Gottlieb at the event, as the only Jewish leader speaking that evening. Rabbi Lynn is a long-time leader in the Fellowship of Reconciliation, having worked at FOR many years ago with the Jewish Peace Fellowship and having led some two dozen interfaith peace-building delegations to Israel & Palestine over the past quarter-century. In April-May 2008, Rabbi Lynn co-led a civilian diplomacy and peace-building delegation sent by FOR to Iran.

As a part of last Wednesday's meeting with the President of Iran, our group presented him with a gift. It was a framed work of calligraphy, seen at right. The risks of a direct translation by a non-Arabic speaker are high. Above is a photo of me presenting the gift to President Ahmadinejad.

The work of art by Mamoun Sakkal illustrates, in classical Kufi script, a verse from hadith (sayings of the prophet Mohammad). A paraphrase of the Sura might be understood to remind us that “it is good to begin each day with a reflection on how we will personally advance the cause of peace and justice in our lives and work."

In preparing for the conversation between political leadership from the Islamic Republic of Iran and representatives of the U.S. peace movement, the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) invited over 300 individuals and groups to attend and asked each to submit, first, a description of the work done by their group and successes in using active nonviolent means to effect social change, and second, to raise a concern or ask a question about relationship between the United States and Iran.

Reflections and feedback have been coming in to FOR from across the U.S. peace community about this past Wednesday’s afternoon meeting we hosted with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as well as our Thursday morning follow-up strategy session on preventing war with Iran. Here are a few of the comments we’ve received thus far:

Doris Abdullah, U.N. representative, On Earth Peace agency:

Thank you for a brilliant evening of dialogue with President Ahmadinejad and members of the United States Peace community. As a member of that Peace family, I found the evening both informative and helpful for future conversations and interchanges between ourselves and Iran. I was especially moved by the opening framework expressions of the "opportunity to love or welcome the stranger, capacity to trust one another and practice in hospitality."