Inter-faith visit to Iraq — YEP article
On Friday 13 February 2004 the Yorkshire Evening Post published an excellent article about the planned visit to Iraq by Hussein Mehdi and Ray Gaston, and this is reproduced below.
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PARTNERS IN PEACE: Hussein Mehdi and Revd Ray Gaston who are joining forces to go to Iraq |
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Picture: Steve Riding |
Bridge builders
How a church and an Islamic centre in Leeds are forging links with Iraq
BY PETER LAZENBY
A LEEDS church and an Islamic centre have joined forces to build a bridge of friendship between schools and communities in the city and in Iraq.
They are hoping to raise £100,000 to build a health and community centre and establish links between schools in Leeds and the community of Al Qurnah in southern Iraq.
The church’s vicar and a leading figure from the Islamic centre will fly out to Iraq on Monday to begin making the links.
The Reverend Ray Gaston, Vicar of All Hallows Church at Hyde Park in Leeds, and Hussein Mehdi, a school governor from Morley who attends the Islamic Centre and Mosque at Hanover Square in Leeds, met through inter-faith activities involving Ripon and Leeds Diocese of the Church of England and Islamic organisations.
The church and the Islamic centre were keen to promote knowledge and understanding of each other’s beliefs.
The church and Islamic centre were brought closer together by the war on Iraq, which Mr Hussein had left with his parents as a child of seven in 1969.
Mr Mehdi’s wife’s family suffered terribly under Saddam Hussein. Her three brothers disappeared in 1983 and after the war were found to have been murdered. Their bodies have never been found.
When the war was over, Mr Mehdi attended a Leeds conference organised by the anti-war movement, but found there was little information about conditions in Iraq.
Health
‘Many areas of Iraq are deprived. It has the world’s second largest oil reserves, yet in the villages it is worse than Afghanistan,’ he said.
‘It was deprived under Saddam Hussein and it got worse under the sanctions.’
From Mr Mehdi’s knowledge came the idea of establishing links with the Al Qurnah community, which is at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and of raising funds to build a health centre.
The project is also intended to link schools in Leeds and Al Qurnah.
‘We have a target of £100,000 for a health centre, and part of it could be a community centre and youth centre,’ said Mr Mehdi. ‘We are hoping to raise funds from local businesses in the West Yorkshire region. From my experience, people here in Yorkshire are generous towards good causes.’
Mr Gaston is enthusiastic about building the links.
‘We are speaking to local schools,’ he said. ‘Hussein invited us to go to Iraq with him and we fly out on Monday.’
Mr Mehdi will have another difficult task when he gets there — discovering where his wife’s brothers were buried.
‘The graves of my wife’s brothers have never been found,’ he said.
He does not know why the men were murdered.
‘We have to ask Saddam Hussein that when he is tried,’ he said.
peter.lazenby@ypn.co.uk