A Christian Arab exodus

In Chile's capital Santiago, there are over 70,000 Christian Palestinians, representing the largest Christian Palestinian concentration in the world apart from the Palestinian territories, reports Hussein Shobokshi, a prominent journalist who hosts the weekly current affairs program Al Takreer on Al Arabiya. In a recent article, he writes:

Christian Palestinians have fully integrated in Chilean society to the point that two of them have been selected in the Chilean national soccer team.
The plight of Christian Palestinians is not unique. There are several glaring examples of the "big exodus" of the Christians of the Middle East from their countries. Copts have arrived in large numbers in Montreal, Canada, and in Sydney, Australia, in addition to various cities in the United States.
The Maronites of Lebanon have migrated to Europe, especially France, in addition to South America, Australia, Canada, and the United States. Many Greek Orthodox Christians in Jordan and Syria have migrated to various countries in the world.
Many Copts and Greek Orthodox Christians have left Sudan for Europe. Recently, Baghdad and Mosul have been emptied of over 50 percent of their Christian inhabitants. Some of them have left out of fear, others voluntarily, and the rest have been forced to leave.
What is the meaning of these indicators? There is definitely a reason for the migration of the Christians from their countries, leaving behind their properties and homes. It is obvious that the environment and climate of the Middle East no longer tolerate peaceful coexistence, especially with the Christians. Otherwise, how could this continuous and big exodus be explained?
Malicious fundamentalism and insane extremism occurring now in religious discourse and ideology stoke up hatred of the People of the Book (Christians) in a way unconnected with the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, as if there is an attempt to invent a new interpretation of an old and noble religion.
The offensive launched by some Islamic figures through the various media in the Arab world against the Western world, criticizing some unfair practices against Muslim communities in Western countries, criticism that is sometimes justified, must be accompanied by a real application of the meanings of tolerance and respect for the People of the Book, which are the basics of Muslim religion.
Emptying the Arab world of its Christians because of an extremist and convulsive interpretation of Islam by some Muslims will create a more extremist environment because the Christians of the Orient were and still are an example of the ability of religions to coexist in the Middle East
It is the responsibility of all the people of the Arab world to put an end to the bleeding resulting from the migration of the Christians of the Middle East.
However, the painful question remains: If the Muslims cannot coexist with each other, how can they coexist with the Christians?

Harmonizing coexistence

Shlomo Gronich is an Israeli Jew, Lubna Salame an Israeli Arab Christian. Together, as musicians in a group called Adamai, they promote a dialogue on how Jews and Arabs can coexist in their native land.

Adamai, an amalgam of Arabic and Hebrew words meaning mankind, earth, blood and water, recently performed in New York at the annual meeting of the Abraham Fund, the nonprofit organization based in Jerusalem and New York that works to improve Jewish-Arab relations worldwide.

Adamai's members think music can be important for promoting interfaith understanding. The group includes Jewish, Arab Christian and Arab Muslim musicians. Their sound is a blend of Jewish tradition, classical jazz and pop.

The group's often high-paced rhythmic set in Hebrew, Arabic and English brought Jews, Arabs - in fact everyone - to their feet in a cavernous ballroom in downtown Manhattan. "Your children won't be sent again to war," sang Gronich in English, on the anthem "Mother Earth." "Use your heart, forgive, that's what it's for."

The Abraham Fund has supported coexistence projects in Israel since it was founded in 1989, and Gronich and Salame have collaborated with the group for five years. They formed Adamai in May 2005 and continue their mission at a critical time as Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip and Hamas assumes leadership of the Palestinian territories.

"Coexistence would be a dream come true," Gronich said before the concert, "but I wish it would not be a dream... What we are trying to do is not easy. "We hope to make connections and build bridges," he said. "But I don't think about it too much. I do what I have to do, and I hope that the music speaks for itself.

Gronich laments the fact that "Mother Earth" is getting little to no airplay on Israeli radio. "Mother Earth is the sound of hope, so why not listen?" he said. "This is the bitterness of reality in our country."

Gronich has spent much of his career preaching the ideals of coexistence, not just among Jews and Arabs but among all peoples living in Israel. He has 18 albums and three Israeli Oscars for music composition.

Salame grew up in the port city of Haifa, known as the most forward-thinking city in Israel, a place where its hilly streets are lined with art exhibitions celebrating its diverse population. "My neighbors were from everywhere," she said. "And in school, I learned to love other people. This pushed me to want to do something more."

"Religion, itself, is a tool to sometimes do other things, said Gronich. "I become Jewish when I am on stage, as I bring different religions together. Each one has his own god, but there is only one God, and he belongs to all of us. Jerusalem belongs to all of us."

Journalists discuss conflict

A course on "Conflict-Resolving Media" is being held from today at the University of Sydney Center for Peace and Conflict Studies for an international group of media professionals, including a large deleagtion from the Phillipines.
The course was organized by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), and seeks to engage the journalist participants in examining the influence of media in attempting to prevent or moderate violence.
The program, which runs from January 11-17, will also introduce creative ways for journalists, media development workers and media activists to apply principles of conflict resolution.
Participants will diagnose war journalism and peace journalism, and analyze conflict in a journalism context.
Lecturers of the course include veteran journalists Dr. Jake Lynch and Annabel McGoldrick, who are both experienced international reporters and authors of several publications and books on peace journalism.
The course program is supported by the AusAID, in line with its efforts to support the attainment of lasting peace and accelerated development in the Asia region through strategic promotion of a culture of peace.
AusAID is among the donor agencies supporting the on-going implementation of the multi-donor funded Action for Conflict Transformation for Peace (ACT for Peace) Program, a 5-year undertaking that seeks to address the needs of several war-ravaged and vulnerable areas in Southern Philippines in particular.

Bomb victim's fight for reconciliation

Michael Lapsley, an Anglican priest who was expelled from South Africa for working against apartheid and who later suffered a bomb attack that blew off his hands, is visiting |New York from cape Town today and will lecture at the Nyack headquarters of the Fellowship of Reconciliation organization.

Lapsely founded the Institute for the Healing of Memories, an organization that gives people a place to examine  how Soth Africa's history has affected  individuals psychologically, emotionally and spiritually.

In his lecture, he will address how the lessons learned in South Africa can be applied to other nations and conflicts. Lapsley travels to conflict areas and holds workshops to teach people how to resolve conflict through nonviolence.

"The focus everywhere is on how the past of the countries has affected individuals," said Lapsley. "The context is different in all countries. In Rwanda, it is genocide; in Australia, it is the relationship between indigenous people and white Australians; in Northern Ireland, between Republicans and Loyalists. The context may be different, but there is an underlying pain that is common to each situation."

Lapsley's Institute of Healing typically holds two-and-a-half-day workshops aimed at helping people come to terms with the violence in their lives. Twenty-five people get an opportunity to tell their life story and explore their past at an emotional rather than intellectual level. The workshops use creative efforts like artwork, community theater and storytelling to draw people out.

On April 28, 1990, just weeks after Nelson Mandela was released from prison, Lapsley opened his mail in his home in Zimbabwe and was blasted by a letter bomb hidden inside the pages of a religious magazine.

The explosion took out the ceiling of three rooms of his house and ripped a huge hole in the floor. Lapsley was sitting down when he opened it, and survived the blow. However, his hands were blown off, one eye was permanently destroyed, and his eardrums were shattered.

Tutu's rebuke sets black cat among white pigeons

Archbishop Desmond Tutu recently complained that whites are not doing as much as they could for reconciliation. This has been met by two peeved responses.
One says South Africans should put race behind them and move on. In the second response, white public figures suggested that Tutu has unfairly picked on whites, ignoring their magnanimity.
But critics say to "forget race" in the present society is to ratify injustice and allow those who gained unfair advantages to maintain their privileged position. Blacks say it is no accident that those who want to "forget race" are almost always those who benefited from it in the past.
Besides, as one commentator wrote, suggesting to forget race "is like suggesting we ignore gravity."
Race remains the key fault line in South Africa and is likely to remain so for generations. Much of the public debate is really a discussion about race, often disguised as a dialogue on policy issues.
On many issues, there are cross-racial agreements and disagreements within race groups. But political attitudes to key policy questions are sharply influenced by race.
And an important aspect of the racial divide, black critics argue, is an often encoded assumption by whites that they are superior and that black competence is either a myth or something that has to be proved.
Given this, however desirable a color-blind SA may be, it has never existed, does not exist now and, unfortunately, is unlikely to exist any time soon.