Towards a global perspective . . .

You all may have seen something about this. The Bushies are doing their best to secure their permanent war on the way out. They have just added a new country to those subject to unprovoked attacks. The US brought Special Forces into Syria by helicopter, who then killed eight civilians, including four children and a woman, last weekend. Of course, they have an excuse. They say they attacked a man known to facilitate bringing foreign fighters and weapons into Iraq. If they knew that were the case, then they should have informed the Syrian Government and given them an opportunity to address the problem.

The arrogance of the US and other members of the international community amazes me. A post on the Syriacomment blog complained that last year the Syrian Government went so far as to make some studies on Syria compulsory in the American School and forcing the students to take Arabic. Syria has now said they will close the American School, which is attended by the children of UN workers and corporations like Shell. Who can blame them? Imagine if that were the US and some resident foreigners insisted that they did not want their children to study American Culture or History, and the English language in school.
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I’m on a business trip in Boston. I don’t have a lot of time to do things, but I took off this afternoon. After first spending some time at the Christian Science Plaza, I went on a DUCK Tour. Since it is just a block from my hotel, I started with a stroll through the Christian Science plaza. The Christian Science Buildings, and the plaza are very beautiful. There are fountains at one end of the plaza and a large pool in the center, with water that is constantly in motion. As I approached, there is a tower in front of the fountains, on the far side a half moon shaped building, and to my my right, across the pool is the old church. Behind it it the Mary Baker Eddy Library, and the press where the Christian Science Monitor is published. On a nice day, the plaza would be a wonderful place to sit. Today was cold and windy, so I contented myself with walking around the Plaza, snapping numerous photos, and touring the old church, built in 1906 and the Mary Baker Eddy Library.

I don’t know enough about the Christian Science religion to say much, however, the inside of both the original chapel and a larger chapel built more recently in an extension are beautifully architected and exquisitely decorated. Read the rest of this entry »

A few days ago, Amy Goodman had a segment about negative and hostile framing of Arabs in the media, by the candidates (both of them). Worse, they discussed a highly prejudicial film targeting Arabs called “Obsession”, millions of copies of which have been distributed though out ‘swing states’ by an Israeli based not-for-profit organization, apparently interested in swinging the voters in these states toward voting for McCain. The clip they showed from the film was extremely prejudicial. It was the “Arab< =>Terrorist” logic on steroids. It was ugly and frightening.

The evening before that, James Zogby, who has a talk show, “Viewpoint’, which addresses Middle East Issues, and who is a tireless advocate for better communication and understanding between East and West, took a moment to talk about his response to a much played comment made by John McCain on the campaign trail. McCain told a follower that Obama is “not an Arab”, he is a “good family man”. Zogby said that he responded with an op-ed piece stating that he is an Arab, and a good family man as well, and he did not feel that one identity should exclude the other. He went on to express gratitude for the numerous positive responses he had received from readers. I was struck by his sincerity, and by the empathy his honesty elicited. One response he shared was from an individual who said “We are all Arabs” today. It struck me because, immediately following the attacks of 9/11, there were vigils in Iran, and people there said “We are all Americans today”.
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I got these stories from the Mosaic show of 10/07. For those who don’t regularly listen to Mosaic News on Link TV, you can find a link to a page where I have the show embedded on the left hand sidebar of my website. You can also find the show’s homepage here. Mosaic provides glimpses of the news from various National and Satellite TV Stations in the Middle East. It is a half hour show that airs on LinkTV, Monday through Friday at 10:30 pm. All their shows are available on their website. They provide a very interesting insight into what people are thinking about in the Middle East.

So, two stories about Saudi women caught my eye yesterday. The first is a clip from New TV in Beirut Lebanon, listing some recent, bizarre fatwas pronounced by powerful clerics in Saudi Arabia. They sound like jokes from late night TV, but apparently, they are real and enforceable legal assertions.
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Just over a week ago, I was privileged to attend a meeting convened by Fellowship of Reconciliation on behalf the the Iranian Diplomatic Mission in the US, where 150 representatives of US peace and justice organizations, and religious communities met with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, who was accompanied by members of his staff, Iranian Foreign Minister Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, and U.N. Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee.   Eleven activists, including myself, stated an array of the most frequently asked questions to the President, while he listened courteously, and, along with some of his staff, took copious notes, and which later allowed him to addressed each question in some manner.

For myself, I thought the exchange went extremely well. Of course, President Ahmadinejad wasn’t going to tell us everything we wanted to hear. There are tough issues, and the fact that our questions were accepted and our viewpoint was respected is a significant accomplishment. However, it was a case where it was clear, that you get what you give. We took the risk of extending ourselves, and were met half way. We met a man who is looked on by many of us as a challenging adversary, with respect and dignity. In return our dignity was respected, and our dearest values were reflected in the occasion. Was is it political? Sure, to an extent it was. Is that a problem? Not in a political context.
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