Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and Najaf city employee Hiba Qader in Minneapolis, October, 2011

In 2009, Minneapolis residents worked with the city council to approve a “Sister City” relationship with Najaf, Iraq. A sister city relationship is about building peaceful relationships between the people of two cities. President Eisenhower launched the idea in 1956, when he called for exchanges between Americans and people of other nations.

Since 2009, Minneapolis residents have hosted seven delegations from Najaf for professional training and friendship-building, sent unarmed individuals (“citizen diplomats”) to Najaf, and helped provide clean water to tens of thousands of students and hospital patients in the Najaf area. Projects and partnerships have developed between academics, businesspeople, artists, and others in the two cities.

This February, six Iraq Ministry of Culture staff persons from Najaf will visit Minneapolis for training on event and festival management, coordinated by Meet Minneapolis: Official Convention + Visitors Bureau. Invited by the Governor of Najaf Province, a large delegation from Minneapolis plans to travel to Najaf in 2012.

As a staff member of the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project (IARP), the Minneapolis-based nonprofit organization that manages the sister city relationship, I had the opportunity to travel unarmed to Najaf last summer, carrying with me a letter of friendship from Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak to the people of Najaf and the governor of Najaf Province. Hosted by Sami Rasouli, the Iraqi-American director of IARP’s partner organization in Najaf, the Muslim Peacemaker Teams (MPT), I helped teach English classes and visited local families for five weeks.

My thoughts after returning to Minneapolis were similar to those of a Najafi physician after he participated in a medical delegation to Minneapolis: “I am so honored to gain your friendship. Meeting with you made a great difference in my life and thoughts. Thanks for all that you did for me. Hope to see you soon.”

These are small-scale efforts, but they offer an alternative to the narrative of American domination and superiority often present in our country’s foreign policy. In fact, it is in part because they are small-scale that “city” and “citizen” diplomacy can see past the rhetoric and positioning of nation-based international relations. Our country and our foreign policy need the occasional, or frequent, reality check that we are dealing with people and not ambiguous entities called, “nations.”

The relationship between America and Iraq (and America and the world) depends not only on our nation’s actions, but also on the actions of our nation’s communities. The Minneapolis-Najaf sister city relationship is a model of alternative diplomacy–with a peace-building impact that would make President Eisenhower proud.

Luke Wilcox is a staffperson of the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project. He can be reached at luke (at) reconciliationproject.org.

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“As Iraq War officially ends, Minneapolis program aims to repair ethnic hatred“
Joe Cadotte, Free Speech Radio News, 12/19/2011

“The last US combat troops left Iraq over the weekend after nine years of war that left nearly 4,500 US soldiers and more than 100,000 Iraqis dead. Thousands more were injured and millions displaced. Much of the country remains in ruin. As physical rebuilding of Iraq continues, one organization has been trying to mend the relationships between ordinary Americans and Iraqis. Since 2004, the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project in Minneapolis has been repairing cultural and ethnic damages from the war, one family at a time. The group has hosted 40 Iraqi professionals in Minneapolis in an effort to dispel stereotypes of Iraqi and American culture. FSRN’s Joe Cadotte caught up with some of the Iraqi doctors visiting Duluth and files this report.”

To listen to the report, click here.

Sami Rasouli, director of our partner organization, the Muslim Peacemaker Teams, discussed the withdrawal of US troops on the December 16 edition of Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez. Read the transcript or listen to the interview below, or click here to visit the story on the Democracy Now! site.

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By Joshua Hill and Luke Wilcox

Maan Kareem

As the US military prepares to withdraw from Iraq, a group of Americans and Iraqis have been working for the last seven years to counter the effects of the war and support civilian partnerships instead. The Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project (IARP), a nonprofit organization based in Minneapolis, supports reconciliation between Iraqis and Americans through art, education, health, and exchange programs.

On October 16, IARP and its partner in Iraq, the Muslim Peacemaker Teams, brought a delegation of medical professionals to Minneapolis from its Sister City of Najaf, Iraq, for a 17-days of professional training and exchange. Among the delegation was Maan Kareem, director of three prosthetics and orthotics centers in Iraq. Kareem came to the US with a mission: find a supplier to provide high-quality raw materials for assembling and fitting prostheses at his centers in Iraq.

Since 2003, at least 80,000 Iraqis have lost limbs. The need for high-quality prostheses has skyrocketed. Unfortunately, there is little access to high-quality, affordable raw materials needed to produce prostheses, according to Kareem.

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Journey Home – A Story of the Iraqi Diaspora

American troops are due to leave Iraq by December 31st, 2011. Despite having a trained military and reduced incidence of violence, the future of Iraq is uncertain. While armed forces can be trained to protect citizens, the infrastructure and well-being of a people are not so easily repaired. While the USA will soon eliminate its military presence, the outside world has had very few accurate glimpses into the daily struggle for Iraqis and refugees in neighboring countries.

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