Iraqis head home after fruitful Sister City visit
After two weeks in their new Sister City of Minneapolis, 13 Iraqi delegates from Najaf departed on October 2 to head home. The delegates had a busy, productive time in the Twin Cities, meeting with hundreds of educators, business and nonprofit professionals, government officials, and Twin Cities residents. The delegates look forward to future visits and exchanges with Minneapolitans and Americans. [caption id="attachment_591" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Sami Rasouli, Director of Muslim Peacemaker Teams, and Al Nettles, IARP Board Member, at the Cornucopia Art Center for the Iraqi Art Exhibition "][/caption] One delegate, Dr. Asaad Al-Janabi, told us, "We are not here on vacation. ...
Minneapolis and Najaf are Sister Cities!
After more than a year of moving toward this goal, the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project (IARP) and our partner in Iraq the Muslim Peacemaker Teams (MPT) are celebrating the beginning of a formal Sister City relationship between Najaf, Iraq and Minneapolis, MN USA. On Friday, July 31st, the Minneapolis City Council passed a resolution by unanimous vote establishing the two cities as official Sister Cities.
Educational Materials
One day, a teacher was showing art by Iraqi students to a third grade classroom in Minnesota. A boy looked up and asked in a shaky voice, “You mean, there are children in Iraq?” In response to this innocent, heart wrenching query, the Iraqi & American Reconciliation Project (IARP) has created educational materials for school students, youth and adults. Here's how the project works: Read over the lesson plans for ideas you like. Read the background articles on schools, education, and water in Iraq. Download the PowerPoint of your choice and select the presentation format that works best for you. (Note: All PowerPoints include Speaker ...
Water for Peace Action at Al-Ghadeer Kindergarten in Najaf
Below are some images of children at Al-Ghadeer Kindergarten in Najaf, where a small water purifier unit was recently installed by the Muslim Peacemaker Teams. 150 kids attend the school. Thanks to the sisters at Racine Dominicans for donating the purifier unit. I feel bad for the kids having to sit through so many pictures! (there are many more not shown here...)
"A Quiet but Undeniable Cultural Legacy"
Anthony Shadid at the Washington Post has a recent article about the pervasive influence of the American occupation on Iraqi culture (copied below). According to Shadid, some (mostly younger) Iraqis have embraced elements of American culture like rap, heavy metal and tattoos, while other Iraqis reject the changes. Great article, makes me wonder: how many Americans could name one famous Iraqi singer, or one Iraqi TV show, or one Iraqi Arabic word, or other marker of Iraqi pop culture?
The Shape of Change
January 16th, 2010 by LukeThe Shape of Change is a multi-format project that looks at how American and Iraqi people represent and discuss concepts of change, freedom and democracy. The foundation of the project is the shapeofchange.com website, an interactive, online archive of opinions. The open-source data from the site is available for artists and educators to use as raw material for the creation of art projects, curriculum, and conversations between groups in the States and Iraq. For the archive to be successful, it must record a range of diverse opinions over a two year period as the US and Iraq separate from one another both militarily and psychologically.
To participate in the Shape of Change, click here.
Cancer – The Deadly Legacy of the Invasion of Iraq
January 16th, 2010 by LukeAn article from New America Media reports on the increase in cancer rates in Iraq. The article, “Cancer – The Deadly Legacy of the Invasion of Iraq,” can be found here.
Article about IARP’s Sami Rasouli and Peacemaking
January 9th, 2010 by LukeSami Rasouli, Director of the Muslim Peacemaker Teams (MPT) and co-founder of IARP, was recently featured in an article, “Peace group speaker split between cultures.” To read the full article, click here.
DEKALB, IL – Sami Rasouli feels split between two cultures. He has decided the only way out is a narrow corridor called peace.
Rasouli, who was born in Najaf in 1952 and spent the first half of his life in Iraq before moving to the United States, recently spoke to members of the DeKalb Interfaith Network for Peace and Justice and others at the Unitarian Universalist Church in DeKalb. He said he is 100 percent Iraqi and 100 percent American, as he speaks both languages, understands both cultures and is deeply committed to nonviolence. More »
A New Water Sterilization Unit
January 8th, 2010 by Luke
John Hays of the PureWater for All Foundation demonstrating use of the water sterilization unit
On January 2, 2010, IARP met with the Muslim Peacemaker Teams, PureWater for All Foundation, and Outreach Africa Medical Missions to discuss a new water sterilization unit. As part of IARP’s Water for Peace program, IARP and MPT are exploring this unit as a cost-effective way to provide clean water to Iraqi schools with no current access to safe water.
Background
- Lack of clean water is one of the largest threats to the health of Iraqis today. Over 60% of Iraqis don’t have access to clean drinking water. People are dying everyday from water borne diseases. An estimated 200 children die everyday from water related illnesses.
- The goal of this meeting was to work towards finding a means to solve this problem.
- John Hays and Paul Milloy invented and implemented a water sanitation system in some of the harshest environments around the world.
- MPT & IARP run a program called Water for Peace, providing schools and hospitals with clean water systems to provide children with clean, drinkable water. More »
Water for Peace Action
January 3rd, 2010 by LukeThanks to the generosity of Joan and Philip Haan and other donors, water sanitation systems were recently installed at two schools in Najaf, Iraq: Al-Basmalah and Al-Siraj Al-Muneer schools. The installations were part of IARP’s Water for Peace program.
Iraqi-American peace activist seeks to ‘build bridge’
December 13th, 2009 by LukeSami Rasouli, Director of the Muslim Peacemaker Teams, has been speaking to audiences in Minnesota and Wisconsin about peacebuilding in Iraq and the United States. Check out this article by Mary Grieco of the Catholic Herald: “Iraqi-American peace activist seeks to ‘build bridge’.”
You can hear audio from one of his presentations here.
Greeting Cards that Support Peace and Reconciliation
November 28th, 2009 by Luke
You can now support peace and reconciliation by purchasing greeting cards from IARP. Designs are original art by Iraqi artists and all profits support Iraqi artists and the peace-building work of the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project (IARP) and the Muslim Peacemaker Teams (MPT).
Click here to see all Greeting Cards.
Sami Rasouli Speaks at University of Minnesota-Duluth
November 18th, 2009 by LukeSami Rasouli, Director of the Muslim Peacemaker Teams and IARP Board Member, recently spoke at the University of Minnesota-Duluth about the work of IARP and MPT to build connections and peace between Iraqis and Americans. Sami also spoke about the current situation in Iraq and the challenges of rebuilding Iraqi society. Below are a few photos from the event:
Blog Post by Dick Bernard: Iraq Revisited October 2009
November 1st, 2009 by LukeThe following is a post by Dick Bernard on his blog, “Thoughts Towards a Better World“:
“Iraq” is one of those words-never-uttered-in-polite-conversation these days. Even in the protest community, out-of-Afghanistan is more in as the issue du jour.
Iraq does come up, but only indirectly, and not by name: there is worry about our horrible national debt…but not much focus on where much of that national debt came from: almost a trillion dollars in off-the-budget money spent on our now eight year “War on a Word” (See #mce_temp_url#). To focus on that would be bad form…we must look forward, one would protest.
Ho-hum or not, we went, last night, to hear Sami Rasouli and his son,Tariq, talk about Iraq. Sami is well known in my area; I know Sami, though not well. He’s Iraqi, left Najaf for the broader world back in 1976; ultimately settling in the U.S. in 1986. He became a successful restaurateur here, an American in all the conventional ways.
2003 was the time of the shift in attitude for Sami. More »
