DownloadMay 12, 2008 issue
MCC makes peace personal through Iran contacts
By J. Daryl Byler Mennonite Central CommitteePage:
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AMMAN, Jordan — When nations threaten rather than talk to each other, organizations such as Mennonite Central Committee can sometimes help build bridges of understanding.
In light of growing hostility between the United States and Iran, MCC plans to redouble its advocacy efforts and increase people-to-people contacts with Iran.
Face-to-face relationships have been the core of nearly two decades of MCC work in Iran.
When a major earthquake in 1990 killed more than 30,000 people and destroyed mountain villages in Iran’s northwestern provinces, MCC’s first response was to send people, not money. Eventually, MCC helped build 15 health houses — simple primary care centers — for damaged villages and began a long-term partnership with the Iranian Red Crescent Society.
In 1998, MCC started a student exchange with the Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute in Qom — the center of religious training in Iran. Four American couples have studied Farsi and Islam at IKERI, while developing friendships with Iranians. During the same period, two Iranians have done Ph.D. work at the Toronto School of Theology and learned to know Mennonites in Ontario.
The exchange has built a foundation for three conferences between Mennonite theologians and Shia Muslim scholars, in 2002, 2004 and 2007.
MCC’s Iran program gained high visibility in 2006, when MCC organized the first of three meetings between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and religious leaders from Canada and the United States. These conversations focused on issues that divide the two nations as well as ways that people of faith can build trust.
As a starting point, religious leaders have urged Ahmadinejad and President Bush to stop using rhetoric that defines the other using “enemy” language.
MCC’s Iran program has two primary goals: to promote understanding and friendship between the people of Iran, Canada and the United States; and to promote peace between the governments of the countries.
MCC regional representatives have found Iranians eager for conversation and for relationships with the West that are built on mutual respect.
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