Peace & Community

On the afternoon of our first day here in Tehran, five of us within the Fellowship of Reconciliation's 7th interfaith peace delegation to Iran were interviewed by a young adult-focused television program. (I blogged about this briefly yesterday, just after the interviews had concluded.) As I noted earlier, a central focus of the questions we were posed was our perceptions of Islam and Muslims -- both personally, and in representing what we hear and see at home in the United States.

On the way to Iran, in our European stopover in Germany, I purchased a copy of Karen Armstrong's 2006 book Muhammad: Prophet for Our Time. Armstrong well deserves her reputation as a cogent, clarifying voice on world religions today, especially in translating Islam to an increasingly interested but very uninformed Judeo-Christian (and/or secular) West. I am one-quarter of the way through this good book, which reminds me strongly of the excellent No god but God, published a year earlier by Reza Aslan.

In reading the Introduction on the plane, I was particularly struck by the following quote:

As a paradigmatic personality, Muhammad has important lessons, not only for Muslims, but also for Western people. His life was a jihad: as we shall see, this word does not mean "holy war," it means "struggle." Muhammad literally sweated with the effort to bring peace to war-torn Arabia, and we need people who are prepared to do this today. His life was a tireless campaign against greed, injustice, and arrogance.

This selection hit home for me in several ways.  First, just before leaving the U.S. on Tuesday, I read the feature story in Monday's New York Times on Debbie Almontaser, the interfaith activist in New York City who worked tirelessly to build a new high school that taught English and Arabic, known as the Khalil Gibran Academy. As the Times' excellent story details -- some six months later than it should have, in my estimation, but important nonetheless -- Almontaser was "hung out to dry" by the NYC school district on account of the heated criticism they were receiving. (It was in reaction to an article in the conservative New York Post that labeled the school educator as an extremist Muslim sympathizer, based on a furor over her interpretation of that same controversial word: "intifada.")

Her story -- being forced to resign from her position as the incoming principal of the school she had created -- not only evokes the ways in which other Muslims have been targeted around the country (see: Dr. Rafil Dhafil, Sami al-Arian, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief & Development, etc.), but even those who seek to work in partnership with Muslims. My delegation co-leader, Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, has been excorciated by some this week for the news that she would deign to visit Iran and engage the people of this country in dialogue. A well-balanced article in the conservative Israeli daily newspaper, the Jerusalem Post, has received almost 200 comments posted in response to it, most of them furious and belligerent. Fortunately, a few supporters have raised their voices online, including Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom, the courageous leader in the Israeli peace group, Rabbis for Human Rights.

I have more to say on this topic, but I think that's all for now. I learned this evening that we will have another media interview here in Tehran tomorrow, perhaps also with an Iranian national media outlet, and there could well be a continuing series of them during the remaining 10 days of our trip. Given the interest in Lynn's participation as a rabbi, it's quite possible that the questions we're given will not only address the tensions between the Iranian and U.S. governments, which we always expect to be a topical matter, but also the issues concerning interfaith relationships, especially between Muslims, Jews, and Christians. I will continue to read Armstrong's book with interest, to learn more about the history of this beautiful religion, and hope that the words that my fellow delegates and I offer about religious understanding help to strengthen peacemaking in our broken world.