Donna Grimes

Donna Toliver Grimes

Mary Liepold interviews Donna Toliver Grimes about her work in the peace movement.

Who are you, Donna? How do you describe yourself?

I am the Poverty Education and Outreach Manager in the US Conference of Catholic Bishops Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development. I am also a catechist in my parish and active in JustFaith, an exciting adult education program that works in parishes. I have served on the National Council of Pax Christi USA, which partners with Just Faith, and currently serve on the DC-Baltimore Regional Board. And I am active in various empowerment projects in my community. So, with humility I am learning and doing and learning some more.

In addition to various peace and justice efforts, I enjoy reading, writing, cooking, and travelling. I am an African-American Catholic and consider myself politically progressive, spiritually charismatic, and prolife all the way, from conception to resurrection. Not by any means least, I have three wonderful children.

My impression is that there are more people of color in the US peace movement now than there were 30 years ago, but the numbers are still not proportional. Is that your observation?

I’m a child of the 60s and 70s so for me advocating for peace is natural, coming straight from my high school and grade school exposure. I grew up with consciousness around the Vietnam War, and I’ve always believed wars are unnecessary. I’ve been taking in alternative radio and TV for a long time. I can’t imagine serving in the military. But many in my community, while they may have a sense that the wars are not justified, they’re not anti-military because they have brothers, sisters, uncles in the service. It’s a way to get off the streets, a chance to get ahead.

At the same time, they are conscious of justice issues. We’re starting to make some progress, but we have to do things from the grassroots up and we have to constantly link peace with justice.

When I started this job in 2000 I would look out at the annual national Catholic social  ministry gathering and see very few people of color. So I talked to the few who were there and we decided to caucus. We knew there had to be more of us outside who would be interested. They may not know the language of Catholic social teaching, but they have a rich tradition of helping each other. My grandmother who had 14 children always managed to take in others who needed food or a place to stay.

Our African American social ministry caucus wrote a letter to John Carr, the Executive Director of the (now) Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. It didn’t make everyone happy, but we were respectful and we made specific suggestions. Where were the speakers of color on these programs, and the books by authors of color? Where were the others―Asians, Latinos, Native Americans―including people with disabilities, who have very similar issues?

We asked the conference planners to bring in presenters from these groups and ask them what issues are important to them. Let them have a role in setting the agenda. And don’t assume we are always recipients of charity and assistance. We have a lot to contribute. There’s a good way still to go, but I’ve seen progress.

What strategies work for you to get people engaged?

The way to involve people is to start where they are. My parish has a lot of focus on liturgy, especially music, dance and good preaching, so when I was social justice minister I encouraged them to take that out into the community, to nursing homes and public spaces. Be observant about what’s already happening and go where the energy is. It can start small. We have a card ministry that was created to send cards to people who are sick, but the members saw for themselves it wasn’t enough just to send cards so now they visit, deliver the cards, sing carols at Christmas, bring warm socks.

There’s lots of energy around get-out-the-vote campaigns, because that affects us very personally. There’s a definite concern about violence in the streets and that’s in the media, while the truth about the wars isn’t. I come at this from my background in social justice education, but often you have to act your way into understanding the issues and becoming committed to justice. It’s important to be welcoming, to provide the basic needs when someone has a house fire, doesn’t have enough food for their children.

I have friends who care about the larger issues but they don’t feel informed enough. They’re at the mercy of corporate news outlets. They want to know more and they don’t feel they have the time to learn the facts. It’s a long-term process.

Outside of the church, how do you engage people?

The church is the hub for many African Americans, along with our fraternities and sororities, but I talk to my friends about things. I invite them to come out to peace events, and they try to read more and become informed.

Get people together to watch a movie and discuss it, even a popular movie. I got one friend to go to Promises, a movie about Palestinian and Israeli kids in Jerusalem. It was very interesting, and quite sad. Our policies on Israel are so crazy, and many people are just too busy to think things through. I think a film series is an excellent way to get people thinking and engaged in these complex issues.

Reach people through their children, get into the schools. A friend did a peace camp one summer at a nearby church, and the kids loved it. Anything to do with family issues is very important.

My parish has a Haiti ministry and it’s slowly growing. This is something I was talking about years ago, and now we have a medical mission and a sister parish. Groups have made visits, we support economic development initiatives there and are building a relationship with the local Haitian community.

I think economic justice is the strongest connector. People are concerned about how to make their dollars go further, how to have more control over their lives at the most fundamental level. I’m starting to hear that people see the connection between the war abroad and the war at home, as Pax Christi USA describes it. In DC the public education system is so challenged, and we’re told constantly there’s no money for education. Parents don’t feel they have enough options. Some are trying to do anything they can to get their kids into a private school and it’s harder and harder. They want their kids to go to college and then to have a job when they graduate. They feel that opportunities are shrinking for them and their children, even to get a decent apartment. People are very focused on their lives.

We have to keep making the same points over and over, because that’s what the other side does. We don’t have money for housing and schools because it’s going over there―so drones can blow wedding parties to bits?

We have to have a tough skin too. People will say, here comes Donna again. I insert the message everywhere I can. As relentless as the conservatives are, that’s how relentless we need to be. Put your vision out there, the way I did with Haiti. Invite the not-usual-suspects.

At USCCB, we try to put out bite-size actions to get people moving. We’re going toward more use of Facebook and Twitter. Sometimes it’s like yelling into cyberspace: Yoohoo, is anybody out there? You’ve got to get a buzz going around justice and peace.

At the same time, you have to be committed to relationships, personal connections, and face to face is still the way to make connections. That’s how I was recruited to the national Pax Christi Council, by Jean Stokan and others, and the people I have suggested for the Board have all been very active, very engaged. Let people see your sincerity.

We don’t need to save the world. Christ did that already. But if something is bothering you, like torture or the situation of the Palestinians, maybe God is pulling you in that direction. We all have power we don’t realize we have. Learn more about the issue. Start with small actions that build up the community. Maybe buy something locally made instead of those Dead Sea bath salts.

The principle for today, the fourth day of Kwanzaa, is Ujamaaa, cooperative economics. Think about where you shop. Make gifts instead of shopping, or donate to just causes.  Start somewhere, and see where God wants to take you.

***

Also in this edition of PeaceTimes

• Race, Class, Partnership, and Peace
• Peace Depends on Us Getting to Know Each Other
• Kim’s Corner: A Good Year for Women
• Generation Peace: Join the Mentorship for Peace Class of 2012

Abby Smith

-  by Abby Smith

Happy New Year!! 2012 has arrived, and it is once again time to start taking applications for the Peace X Peace Mentorship Program that we launched in the fall of 2011. This program seeks to match professional women with an affinity for peace with young aspiring peacebuilders. We here at Peace X Peace find infinite value in mentorship, so we are looking forward to the next round of the program.

A recent study found that women say it is important to have a mentor and that most young women have been or are being mentored.  This same study shows that older women have not had the opportunities to be mentored that this generation has, which makes it all the more important to have this program. Mentorship is an opportunity to create connections across generational divides that otherwise might not be crossed. For a young woman, reaching out to someone you idolize or look up to as a role model is often intimidating. This program offers young women the opportunity to do that with dignity and comfort. The Peace X Peace mentorship program connects women based on several criteria to ensure a positive match, allowing the relationship to be easily formed and mutually beneficial.

Our just-completed pilot session had great success in matching eight pairs of women to connect in order to promote peace in future generations. As with any pilot program, we learned many of the things that we did well and also ways we can improve the program to make it more effective. We had excellent feedback from mentors and mentees alike. After reviewing these suggestions we revamped the mentorship application to ensure a higher quality match for mentors and mentees. We have also taken measures to ensure a commitment to the time frame we have set out, so that each participant is getting maximum benefit from the program. There will be more positive changes to come as we continue to develop this program to meet your needs.

Mary Beth Bognar, a mentee, had this to say about the program: “I feel very fortunate to have this resource and to have been selected for this program.” Her mentor provided information and resources to feed her dreams of traveling to Africa.

Jessica, another mentee in the program, said: “Through my mentor, I’ve learned that it is possible to have a balanced life as a peacemaker. Often this field can be consuming, with the plethora of essential work that needs to be done, but my mentor has shown me through her own life that balance is possible.” What a valuable lesson to learn early in her career!

While the mentees receive guidance and advice, this program positively impacts the mentors as well. One of the amazing women who participated as a mentor, Sannii Crespina-Flores, says this of her experience: “It allowed me to meet with a young woman who both shared her dreams and aspirations and also re-ignited my passion for sharing, and encouraged me to dig deeply into my own resources to answer questions she had.” When we connect women who have rich life experience with young women who are full of passion, we can create a power packed combination!

Another mentor in our program, Georgia, says this about mentorship, “Contact with younger people, especially those who are looking for their place, is always rewarding and enlightening.”

Whether you are a college student or a professional with 40 years of experience, this program is for you. If you want guidance on how to follow your passion, or if you need a little spark to re-ignite that passion, apply to be a mentee or mentor. We are accepting applications for the 2012 program until January 25, and we look forward to growing with you.

To apply, go to http://www.peacexpeace.org/about/mentor/

Also in this edition of PeaceTimes:

• Race, Class, Partnership, and Peace
• Peace Depends on Us Getting to Know Each Other
• Go Where the Energy Is
• Kim’s Corner: A Good Year for Women

Kimberly Weichel

Kimberly Weichel
Peace X Peace CEO

“We encourage YOU to express your voice and be the change agent our world needs.”

***

I feel that 2012 will be a good year for women – at least I hope so! A number of recent trends give me inspiration and hope.

First, the recent Nobel Prize for Peace honored extraordinary women Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee, and Tawakkul Karman for their courage and dedication to building peace in their respective countries of Liberia and Tunisia. The Nobel Committee awarded these prizes not just for the individual work of these three women, but also as a powerful symbol for the future to strengthen the position of women: “It is the Committee’s hope that the prize to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman will help to bring an end to the suppression of women that still occurs in many countries, and to realize the great potential for democracy and peace that women can represent.” And as Tawakkul said, “This prize is not for me, it is for the whole Yemeni people, for the martyrs, for the cause of standing up to injustice.”.

Second, the US National Action Plan for Women, Peace and Security was just launched two weeks ago, joining 30 other countries that had already developed action plans. The goal of the National Action Plan is profound: to ensure gender priorities in our foreign aid programs; to accelerate, institutionalize and better coordinate our US government efforts to advance women’s inclusion in peace negotiations and conflict prevention; to protect women from sexual and gender based violence; and to ensure equal access to relief and recovery assistance. This is a very significant milestone and road map for women.

Third, women were on the frontlines of change this past year. Women have taken leading roles in the Arab uprising, with thousands of women protesting in Egypt, Tunisia, and other Arab nations. Women have also taken leading roles during the Occupy movement in the US and other countries. Women are standing up for justice, equality, and inclusion.

Fourth, 2011 saw women continue to step into leadership positions at all levels of decision making, including five new female presidents and prime ministers in Brazil, Switzerland, Peru, Kosovo, and Thailand.

We at Peace X Peace expect to see these promising trends heightened and deepened as 2012 unfolds. We will continue to raise and multiply women’s voices, advocate for important policies and legislation that support and advance women, highlight extraordinary women on the frontlines of change, and connect women across all divides. We encourage YOU to express your voice and be the change agent our world needs.

 Also in this edition of PeaceTimes

• Race, Class, Partnership, and Peace
• Peace Depends on Us Getting to Know Each Other
• Go Where the Energy Is
• Generation Peace:Join the Mentorship for Peace Class of 2012

Samina Sundas

Samina Sundas

Samina Faheem Sundas is the founder and Executive Director of the American Muslim Voice Foundation. Her focus is on eradicating Islamophobia by fostering friendships among all Americans and walking on the path Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. paved for us. She is an advocate of civic engagement through volunteerism, with a particular interest in empowering young women to become the leaders of tomorrow. She believes that through education and social interaction we can build an inclusive and beloved community where all of us feel safe and at home. Samina lives in Palo Alto, California with her daughter, son, nephew, niece, sister, a rabbit, and a Jack Russell terrier.

 ***

Why do you call yourself a peace person, Samina?

It is a title I earned from my fellow Americans during the past decade as they witnessed the work of bridging the gap between all communities. I believe it is my commitment and dedication to our mission that has earned me this title. I have dedicated my life for the cause of creating peace and harmony in our world.

American Muslim Voice deeply believes in fostering friendships among all Americans by bridging cultural and religious gaps. Every day we promote new relationships and nurture the old ones because our country’s safety, security and peace depend on us getting to know each other.

In my home, growing up in Pakistan, my parents did not preach a lot, but they practiced Islam and lived their lives according to its tenets. The word Islam means peace and they lived peace. They also taught me by example how to have confidence in myself as a woman. I was a soft-spoken child, so I learned to sit close to my dad whenever there was a large family gathering. He would know when I wanted to say something and ask the group to be quiet so I could be heard.

We as human beings need to be connected, become friends and understand each other’s struggles and whatever issues each community has. Getting to know each other is the first step toward building the beloved community. Breaking bread together, having eye contact, always keeping the dialogue open: That’s what will bring us together as one world. Peace is equality, social justice and harmony.

Peace and justice go hand in hand. Some people want to talk about peace in isolation. I am crystal clear about how we achieve it, and that’s by pursuing social justice.

What strategies do you use to achieve this?

Sincerity is most important of all. The best strategy can fail, but warm hospitality will always prevail. That’s the heart of American Muslim Voice. It’s a very simple program: Just open your door to strangers and friends.

You do have to be brave. When people think too much, they can always come up with something that will prevent them from doing good. Take the leap of faith. In Islam, intentions are very important. God rewards good intentions, whereas nothing good comes from bad intentions. My intention is for myself and others to open our homes for luncheons, Iftar dinners and Eid brunches during the holidays. That’s the only way people will learn who we are. There’s no propaganda―just conversation in a safe environment.

If people have concerns or questions, we answer them. When we open our doors, our homes, and our hearts, we send a message that we trust you. By accepting our invitation, our guests send the same message. That’s how we build trust. There’s only one rule: Don’t sit with someone or talk with someone you already know. We provide a safe, fertile environment to foster the seeds of new friendships. We also hold Peace Picnics outdoors, since people who are not ready to join us need a visual. They need to see that people of different ages, cultures, faiths can be together, have fun and build friendships.

We want our fellow Americans to join us in a new campaign we started in 2011, National Invite Your Neighbor to Dinner Day, on the first Sunday of October. All our work is inspired by the Koranic verse 49.13, Surah Al-Hujurat: “Oh humankind, we have created you from a single cell and divided you into nations and tribes so you may get to know each other, not despise each other.”

Do you ever find other Muslims unwilling to take part in your programs?

No, I have not experienced that. Once they understand the intention of creating a beloved community they are excited about it. If they are reluctant, it is for the same reason my fellow Americans are reluctant: fear of the unknown and inability to take a leap of faith. The results are always positive once they give each other a chance. Too many Americans focus on what divides us rather than what binds us. As you know well, ignorance breeds fear and person to person contact relieves that fear.

How long have you been doing this work?

I have been working for peace for 12 or 15 years but I founded American Muslim Voice in 2003. It has spread from Palo Alto to San Jose, Woodland, Sacramento and even New York City. If I had funding for two staff members, I believe we could take it national and one day, global. But even little by little, it will continue to grow. Six other organizations now join me in promoting Peace Picnics.

What has been the best thing, the most rewarding thing about your work?

It’s the relationships. People ask me why I’m not burned out. My parents knew what kind of work I was going to do, so they trained me well. When choosing a path, they taught me, never focus on the end result. Enjoy each step along the way. Each person I meet, every relationship I build is immensely satisfying. It gives me internal peace that billions of dollars could not buy. I know I am part of a greater scheme, following the will of God. I have beautiful relationships with the Fellowship of Reconciliation, September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, Peace X Peace, Code Pink, Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice, Friends of Human Relations, and too many other organizations to list, and I build on them every day. When we’re in trouble, like with the massive NYPD-CIA infiltration surveillance program that was exposed in August of this year or the scariest provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act that appears headed for President Obama’s signature, we send them an email and ask them to sign on our letter knowing they will. That shows deep trust and friendship, and I cherish each one of those relationships. We only raise about $25,000 a year, but we’ve had enormous success because of our friendship, coalitions and alliances.

Our organization is not just for Muslims; we have a Japanese-American on our Board. I invite everyone to join us.

What was your low point?

Getting started was hard because the typical image of a leader is a man with a Ph.D. At first people couldn’t see me as a leader, but now I have paid my dues, and they see I’m not going away.

What’s ahead?

In January, we’re starting Muslim Women’s Leadership Training, funded by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, with a group of 12 women ranging from high school to a 55-year-old. SVCF is providing a skilled consultant who will give four hours of training each month. The women are excited and I am too. The foundation saw that this fills a gap―as I said a minute ago, most women are not seen as leaders and don’t see themselves as leaders.

I know from my own life that when you learn something at an early age you will keep it, no matter how busy you become. When a girl receives respect, confidence, trust and empowerment from the men in her family the way I did, she becomes a leader. If not, these are things she can learn, and the earlier the better. All my life I have been blessed with wonderful teachers and friends. Providing that for these young women is a sustainable plan for building peace.

***

Also in this edition of PeaceTimes

• Race, Class, Partnership, and Peace
• Go Where the Energy Is
• Kim’s Corner: A Good Year for Women
• Generation Peace:Join the Mentorship for Peace Class of 2012

Mary Liepold

Mary Liston Liepold

One statement calls racism and xenophobia “the most serious threat to world peace and therefore to the human right to peace.” Do you agree?

***

Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., probably the best-known peacebuilders in the US, if not the world, were both people of color. Yet if you go to a peace rally or a meeting of a peace organization in most US neighborhoods, you’ll see a rather notable preponderance of pale. What’s up with this?

First let me acknowledge that this is my personal observation, unsupported by statistics, and that (by the same subjective gauge) it’s less true than it used to be. The peace movement is not a formal institution, so stats are hard to come by. I’ve done internet research (some of which I’ll share in the sidebars) and asked a few of you how it looks from where you sit, but I’d love to hear from others.

Assuming this subjective impression is correct, the questions include why and what to do about it. Two women I admire, one African American and one an American Muslim, will describe what they do about it in the next segments. But maybe a few sub-questions need to be raised first.

Is the issue race or class? Those in the 99% who are working two or three jobs to make ends meet don’t have much time for meetings, and those who aren’t working may be either too busy looking for work or too discouraged to engage. What’s more, the “invisible knapsack” of privileges I wear to demonstrations and everywhere I go as a white American includes a get-out-of-jail card that many immigrants and minority citizens don’t have.

And what movement am I talking about, exactly? Is there one movement or a lot of them? How do we decide who’s in and who’s out of the peace movement, when some of us work at the level of personal peace and others shape national and international policy? Is my yoga teacher a peacebuilder? I think she is. If we add all the good people who work to strengthen the pillars of peace, like education and economic empowerment, maybe the movement is more diverse than I think. What do YOU think?

I’m writing to raise questions and invite your partnership in searching for answers, so this is at best a shallow introduction to a deep and knotty issue. The only assertion I’m out to make is that it behooves us as people of peace to be actively welcoming and inclusive and to commit ourselves to uprooting racism from our societies and ourselves. Opening our eyes to its pervasiveness is an important first step.

In 2009, 163 international NGOs signed on to an Asian Legal Resource Center statement, “The Human Right to Peace vs. Racism,” addressed to the 10^th session of the UN Human Rights Council. The statement grew out of consultations on the Universal Declaration of the Human Right to Peace linking racism and peace. It calls racism and xenophobia “the most serious threat to world peace and therefore to the human right to peace.”

That’s strong language. Do you agree? Disagree? I look forward to your comments.

Also in this edition of PeaceTimes

• Peace Depends on Us Getting to Know Each Other
• Go Where the Energy Is
• Kim’s Corner: A Good Year for Women
• Generation Peace:Join the Mentorship for Peace Class of 2012

The 2011 Women, Power, and Peace Award Winners

-by Mary Liston Liepold
Editor in Chief

Monday evening December 5, at the Woolly Mammoth Theater in Washington, DC, our Peace X Peace annual awards spotlighted the many facets of Women, Power, and Peace. The evening began with an informal reception where award winners mingled with attendees to the strains of music by DC’s own LEA.

Peace X Peace staffers greet award attendees

First on the formal program was Patricia Smith’s original Women, Power, and Peace…at play. Awardees Louise Diamond and Sahar Taman, speaking their own words, joined four actresses from the Woolly troupe who voiced the words of 26 other women around the world, while their images were projected above the stage. These peace exemplars ranged from Hillary Clinton, Yoko Ono, current and past Nobel Peace Prize laureates, and former Women, Power, and Peace awardees, to a subsistence farmer and mother of five in Sudan and a schoolgirl in Canada. Their narratives alternated with relevant data points and our founder’s own reflections, gathered for the blog in We Are Rising, and It Feels Good.

Patricia Smith presents Louise Diamond with the Patricia Smith Peacebuilder Award

Next the six winners took turns receiving their awards and offering brief remarks. Diamond sounded the keynote in hers, when she stepped away from the podium and her notes to show how a woman in Sarajevo located her own power in her heart. Palestinian Laura Boushnak described seeking out subjects for her photography whose stories have not yet been told.

In accepting the Peace Philanthropy Award for the Global Fund for Women, Board member Gay McDougall noted that the Fund has provided grant support for two of the three 2011 Noble Peace Prize recipients. Claire Charamnac, representing her friend and co-founder and Generation Peace Awardee Claire Naylor, pointed out how much Claire has accomplished at the age of 22. “Imagine what she may do in the next 10 years!”

Women LEAD, the organization co-founded by Claire and Claire, does its work in Nepal. Both of the remaining awards honored work to heal hostility or misunderstanding between the Arab and Muslim world and the West. Sande Hart, founder of the California-based Spiritual and Religious Alliance for Hope, or S.A.R.A.H., was inspired by the aftermath of September 11, 2001. S.A.R.A.H.’s record of dialogue, service, education, and collaboration earned the Community Peacebuilder Award.

Peace X Peace CEO Kim Weichel presents Gay Macdougal of the Global Fund for Women with the Peace Philanthropy Award

Sahar Taman, selected for the Connection Point Award, brought the awards segment of the program to an emotional close with her appeal for the use of religion as a bridge to understanding, rather than a gulf leading to conflict.

Following the awards was a screening of one of the new Catalyst videos, Friends against the Wall, featuring Palestinian comedy performer Ihsan Turkieh and Israeli physician Aliza Savir. As the two women clasp hands and pledge that their grandsons will not grow up in a divided nation, they repeat “Enough is enough.”

CEO Kim Weichel bade audience, awardees, and sponsors good night with a call to support Peace X Peace in building cooperation and ending war. She quoted the artist Huong, featured in Patricia Smith’s theater piece: “Tell me what you do, and I will tell you what you can do for peace.”

Sahar Taman

“Dialogue alone is not sufficient. Building partnerships and addressing common interests is what is needed.”

***

Connection Point Manager Yasmina Mrabet interviewed Sahar Taman, Co-Founder of Journeys to Understanding and the 2011 Connection Point Award winner, about her work in interfaith dialogue in Egypt. Her responses are below.

Tell me more about your work in interfaith dialogue. Why is it important?

Religion is important. For too long we have understood that separation of church and state and freedom of religion means keeping religion personal and private. It isn’t. It is public and in-your-face. Religious adherents from all faiths are proud of their beliefs, raise their children as co-believers, and seek to build religious communities. It’s a big part of all of our identities. Ignoring religion as part of the societal and political dynamic has been a “hide your head in the sand” avoidance tactic. We need to share about our faiths and to share about ourselves. That is interfaith dialogue. It humanizes us within the context of our faith, which cannot be divorced from our humanness.

For too long religion has been seen only as a source of divisiveness and conflict. I am not sure how much truth there is to that, when there are most always other factors such as wealth and power involved. We don’t say often enough that religion is what keeps civility going in our world. Societal laws only enforce what our religions teach us: decency, graciousness, and generosity. In the United States we do not give credit to the immense good our pluralistic religious landscape provides, including social services, humanitarian aid, and education. The poor would be poorer without the generosity of money and time from congregants of churches, mosques, and synagogues. While these efforts are too often perceived as underhanded opportunities to proselytize, there is generally little truth in that, as the motivation is to give. In the end people who need help get it.

This same good will is true in the Middle East where I work, or in the rest of the Muslim world. Without religious people providing for the (much) less privileged, these societies would have even larger economic, educational, and political and social problems.

I work in interfaith dialogue in the international setting. It is part of citizen diplomacy: outreach from common citizens across borders to know each other, understand each other, clear the misperceptions, and perhaps stop the irrational fear of the “Other.”  Most often when you break bread with the “Other”– Muslim, Christian, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist or any faith practitioners–you realize that they are human just like you.  Really, most times it’s that simple.

What is your view on the current work needed in Egypt, given the dynamics of ongoing revolution?

I believe that the most important of interfaith dialogues at this time is partnership building between Egypt’s Muslims and Coptic Christians. Throughout Egypt’s revolution of January 25^th, which is still ongoing, there have been incidents of violence and church burnings. Many Egyptians believe this rift is manufactured by powers seeking to create chaos in the country. Generations of Egyptians attest that throughout their lifetime Egyptian Muslims and Christians were Egyptians first, and tension and sectarianism did not exist. What is happening now is dangerous, especially in light of other tensions and violence as Egypt goes through intense growing pains of democracy.

Moaz Eddin Street in Cairo

Part of the growing pains is building self-rule and self-sufficiency both at the national and local levels. I am developing a project in Egypt that addresses the interfaith dialogue but also develops partnerships between Egyptian Christians and Muslims. Dialogue alone is not sufficient. Building partnerships and addressing common interests is what is needed.

What is the biggest challenge in doing this type of work?

The biggest challenge is getting people to the table. Trust-building is the most important step, and it’s a great responsibility. People want to know your intentions, why you want to bring them together with individuals from other faiths, and you need to be up front and transparent. Other challenges are ensuring safety for participants. The Arab Spring is still blooming, so in most countries it is still quite dangerous for local people to participate in a dialogue on religion. It is often seen as an inroad to political discussion and flagged under the radar of treason against state security. The danger to the locals is what we have seen before us on the TV for the last several months: intimidation tactics, questioning, even kidnapping and killing. The danger is not to the outsider, to the Americans and internationals, because we leave. Yet we often do not know what happens to those who we engaged with after we leave.

Other serious obstacles include the fear of the unknown, but once people are at the table, that is usually overcome and we get to know the “Other.”

In what ways does interfaith dialogue contribute to social change for women, particularly in the case of Egypt?

I recently came back from a forum in Egypt, sponsored by the Global Peace Initiative of Women (GPIW), a U.S.-based NGO where I was a participant and convener. The topic was Universal Values as the Foundation for Societal Transformation. GPIW’s model is to bring international spiritual leaders and practitioners of all the world’s faiths to convene as contemplatives with local people in places with recent societal upheaval, such as Egypt’s 2011 revolution, which is still ongoing. Most of the Egyptian participants were women. They represented all segments of Egypt’s society, which is not homogenous as has been previously portrayed. These women were university professors, spiritual leaders, rural and urban women, privileged and not so, modern and traditional, educated at different levels, of diverse opinions. The international participants were from as varied places as India, Germany, the U.K,  the U.S.,  Pakistan, and Uganda, and represented Hindus, Buddhists, practitioners of yoga and meditation, and Sufi Muslims and Sufi Christians. The Egyptian women led the discussion revealing a clear vision for the transformation of Egypt and making clear that they were part of the leadership.

Interfaith dialogue contributes to social change for women because women are part of it; often they are leading it. When the dialogue is at the grassroots level, it goes beyond the involvement of official clergy, the Muslim Imam or the Rabbi or Pastor. Then women come in as participants and leaders and carry the conversations forward. Women’s involvement in this type of dialogue is not seen as threatening to the societal power factors. After all, economics—money—is usually not a part of interfaith discussion. However, in the human-to-human experience that is a dialogue, I have seen women honored and empowered because of, not in spite of, their roles as nurturers and caregivers, as mothers, daughters, and wives. Women grow and change because of their experiences and societies change for the better. Regardless of what we often see, all faiths teach respect for women.

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Find out more about our Connection Point initiative on http://www.peacexpeace.org/connection-point.

The views and opinions expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Peace X Peace.

Louise Diamond

-Louise Diamond

In her 2000 book The Courage for Peace (Conari Press, Berkeley, CA, 2000, pages 36-38), our 2011 Patricia Smith Peacebuilder Award winner describes a challenge she undertook at a transition point in her career. This account registers with me as a personal challenge. How do you feel when you read it? Please share your comments below.

“It’s time,” I heard from deep within, “to take what you know about healing at the individual, family, group, organizational, and community levels

to the international arena. It’s time to bring the lessons of peace to places of ethnic conflict.”

This guidance was hard to accept. Who, me? Work internationally? In places of war?

I had three university degrees, but I had deliberately never taken a course in International Relations or Political Science, or anything even remotely related to issues of war and peace. I hardly even read the newspapers, preferring to avoid that helpless feeling that came with hearing about war-induced famine, oppressive totalitarian regimes, nuclear threats, and other such unpleasant topics. Now I was to place myself in the midst of these violent situations, and seek to bring sanity and peace? It was beyond imagining!

I realized that I needed to prepare myself for this challenging task. The preparation took several forms, one of which was to deal with my own strong aversion to violence. I understood that if I were to work in war zones, I would be exposed to a level of violence previously unknown in my life, and to the people who were both perpetrators and victims of that violence. I would likely face soldiers with weapons, and sometimes those weapons might be pointed at me! Me, who avoided conflict at all costs, and wanted to run when anyone even raised their voice―I would have to stand in the midst of fighting and offer myself as a guide and witness to a better way.

To do this, I realized, I would need to operate in such a setting without reacting―without immediately judging the participants or shrinking from the reality and totality of their experience. I could not afford to let my own revulsion get in the way of understanding the dynamics of the conflict, and its effect on all the parties, including the ones holding the weapons.

In order to deal with this aversion to violence, I decided to psychologically desensitize myself. I spent a year going to every war movie I could find and reading stacks of soldiers’ memoirs and true-life accounts of wartime adventures. I didn’t limit myself only to the tales of soldiers. I also read about the experiences of doctors and nurses, bystanders and victims, leaders and followers.

At first I would have to leave the theater in the middle of the film or close the book partway through. Gradually, I was able to stay to the end without running away. I began to come to terms with the experience of violence, and the profound damage it does to all the parties involved.

Beloved Woman Warrior

There came a time when I noticed a slight shift over some invisible boundary, when I started to feel inside myself the thrill of the kill that was portrayed in these books and movies. It was subtle at first, but eventually I had to admit that I was having a visceral experience of what people call bloodlust. I could understand the rush, the heightened state that some soldiers described as they poured the power of destruction into “the enemy.”

I could also experience the fear of the firefight, the terror of the trenches or the night patrol, the horror of seeing your friends blown apart beside you, and how that horror could be translated into unthinking brutality against fellow human beings. At the same time, I came to relate to the desire and willingness to live through this kind of nightmare for a greater good―the intention to serve and protect people. When I came to know in myself this range of emotions and possibilities, I met the warrior within, with all her potential for violence and service, and I was humbled.

What grew in that strange year, with the juxtaposition of offering loving care to my failing parents while simultaneously immersing myself in horrific war stories, was a view of both the particle and the wave. As the particle, I found myself capable, given the right circumstances, of being just as vicious as the most bloodthirsty killer. As the wave, I understood the nature of human suffering when we stray too far from the Spirit of Peace.

Overall, the result was the birth of deep compassion in me for all of us who cause hurt to, and have been hurt by, one another. Armed only with this compassion, I felt ready to take my place as a peacebuilder in places of deep-rooted conflict around the world.

Patricia Smith Melton

In WOMEN, POWER, and PEACE … at play, the theater piece Patricia Smith Melton created for our 2011 Women, Power, and Peace Awards, many voices swirl and weave together in an organic dialogue. Our audience will see the faces and hear the words of the three 2011 Nobel Peace Prize awardees, several of our own past and current award winners, and other magnificent women of peace, both famous and relatively unknown. What follows is selected from just one of the voices―the collective woman-voice we might call The Poet.

We are the deepest heartbeat on our planet.
We have roots like great trees, reaching into the earth.
We have the vision of the hawks, seeing small gems near and far.
We have the arms of nature’s vines, holding everything around us.
Our strength and nourishment travel far, like mighty rivers.
In our hands small treasures are held, large works are created.
We heal our families and communities.
In our minds and hearts, we see the future.
In our lives, we create it.

We are commanded in our deepest nature to love.
It cannot be analyzed.
We are commanded in our deepest consciousness
to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
We are in allegiance with Mother Nature,
the archetypal goddesses, the life force in seeds, the Divine Energy Source.
Love loses nothing when it takes on another’s pain.
Helping someone else is love cycling out and back in.
Infinite re-cycling, ultimate sustainability.

More important than how you go through life is how life goes through you.

Women know where everything is in the house —
socks, can opener, homework, the telephone tree for school;
where everything is in the community —
bribery, power struggles, quiet heroes;
the needs of our world — ferocious love, gentle courage, forgiveness,
informed minds, connections, less shock and awe.

There is a battle between love and fear, inclusion and exclusion,
generosity and greed, power with and power over,
and it needs to be named as such.
It is where we live.
We are all “others” — women and children and poor
and men and needy and rich,
the ill, the blessed, the deprived.
All languages are one language.
All hearts are one heart.
We are in each other’s hands.

A piece by Huong, an artist featured in the play

Women find their safety in going towards the stranger:
“Are you hungry?  Can I feed you?”
“Do you have children? Oh, how nice, we both have children.”
THAT is what should be launched from missiles!

If peace work waited to be done perfectly, it would never get done.
Creating peace is messy:
It stands up to big powers, false notions, extreme emotions,
and the cold selfishness
of those who cannot look themselves in the mirror
for what they have done to others.

Between 9 and 10 in the morning I can hold the children,
fight for freedom, give strength to the men,
fix a casserole,
and have compassion for strangers
even when they are scary.

We are in the care of each other.
We know it in our bones and hearts
as a rose knows to bloom,
as birds fly their migratory paths,
and seasons come and go.

We are the mirror holders, the people who speak up.
We occupy and boycott.
We choose NOT to go numb.
We clean up damage and stand up to injustice.
We are the power of nonviolence.

The wounds across us are symphonies of scars, concerts of losses.
Our wounds express us, make us art.
We are burnished like used silver and well-trodden floors,
etched like chopping blocks and knobs on ancient doors.
Repressed through millennia,
we are remembering who we are.
We are rising, and it feels good.

Abby

By Abby Smith
Administration and Outreach Manager

“There are so many different ways to build peace! It was a great honor to read through all of the nominations and see so many women working for peace worldwide.”

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Happy November, friends! This year I am one of the judges for two categories of our 2011 Women, Power, and Peace Awards, the Community Peacebuilder Award and the Generation Peace Award. The award winners will be announced soon, so keep an eye out for those names! Meanwhile, I want to tell you about all of the excellent nominations we got, and how grateful we are to each one of you who made the effort to submit nominations.

What an awesome experience it was to get to read all of the nominations as they came in! My belief in peace and the peace process was confirmed and then taken higher time and time again. There are some amazing women and men out there working to bring peace to their communities and to the world. We had nominations for peacebuilders in Bangladesh, India, Ghana, Lebanon, Kenya, Israel, Canada, Afghanistan, the UK, and the US. It’s exciting to know that these are just a few of the places where people are actively advocating for peace in our world.

We saw many common threads among the peacebuilders nominated, and to me, those commonalities prove that collaboration and cooperation can build peace. One of those common threads was women bringing communities together for community service projects. In several cases these communities were diverse ethnically, religiously, and in age. The women nominated felt that bringing communities together and breaking down the barriers of differences would let peace flow freely while also doing something to serve the entire community.

Several other women nominees do their peace advocacy through peaceful protests and hunger strikes, to really show that their belief in peace is unwavering.  These women make self-sacrifices to educate others about the peace process and encourage others to get involved in their own way.

Last, but not least, was the common thread of education, which is crucial to peacebuilding. Many of these women took up the task of educating their communities, though they all went about it in different ways.  Some women raise awareness by helping others tell the stories of how conflict has affected their lives. Some reach out to their communities through games and organized events to educate them on peace and show that peace can bring people together. Many even go into the classrooms and begin educating children, because they are our future and peace begins at the bottom and trickles up.

There are so many different ways to build peace! It was a great honor to read through all of the nominations and see so many women working for peace worldwide. We must show that there are many more peacebuilders than people who support war. So, get involved! Take inspiration from these women, and take your peacebuilding higher, starting today.