Inter-faith visit to Iraq — e-mails from RayThis is a selection of the e-mail messages that Ray managed to send from Iraq to let friends and congregation know what he was doing. 23 February 2004 Hello Everybody I am very well if a little tired. Writing this to you from an internet cafe just down the road from Jo Wildings place in Baghdad. It's been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster the last week and there is so much to tell you all about it, with so much still to come I am a little overwhelmed about how to communicate it all to you. So instead of typing out my now 40+ pages of journal I will just talk about a couple of things that have really been on my mind. It's very bizarre being in Baghdad a city with all the communication networks we so much seem to rely on in the modern world down. In fact it's probably easier for me to contact all of you than it is to get in touch with someone else on the other side of this city! What also seems bizzare when living in Baghdad amongst the Iraqi people is our own political debate about last years invasion. The endless pouring over govt documents about WMD's and the amounts of money being spent on this or that new inquiry about this or that aspect of this or that decision seems highly irrelevant to the day to day struggles of people here. I have been living with Shia families in Baghdad and there is certainly a palpable level of relief amongst the people I have met that Saddam has gone. It is no surprise to me that this should be the case when you hear these people's stories, all the people I have met are either directly victims of the 'old regime' as Hussein refers to it or have had family members who were. I have been into houses that from the outside look like you normal suburban house in Baghdad to walk into a house of real horror - Security houses taken from families deemed to be traitors and turned into torture chambers. I've listened to neighbours tell the stories of having to hear the screams of prisoners endlessly day after day for years, I have met some amazing people like Bushra a woman in her 40s with such a calm and kind face open and compasssionate who lost 6 of her brothers and her father in the early 80s and still lives in a house only a few doors away from a house that had been turned into a detention/torture centre. I have met Quays a man who spoke of his experience of torture and although It didn't make literal sense to my non arabic understanding ears certain things made perfect sense - the marks still on his legs and wrists from being hung by wire, the methods of torture that he graphically demonstrated to us that included the dislocation of both his shoulders; the fear, the longing to tell the story' the response to being heard at a time - even now - when his story seems to be an embarrassment to those more concerned with 'getting on with the job of reconstruction' than with healing. I was impressed by the strong sense of faith in both these people of faith - the Shia Muslim faith that I am learning so much about whilst being here. The issue of those who were executed or tortured under the old regime is a big one amongst the Shia's who suffered greatly under Saddam. At the Free Prisoners Association Office in Kardymeia in Baghdad the place is swarming with people wanting to investigate their relatives story when were they executed and where to read the file to find what they were executed for. We pay a visit to see if Husseins group in the UK CROHDI can make connections with the FPA of Iraq. After meeting with the Deputy Chair of the organisation we are taken to a room that has some torture equipment in it. The electricution bench has a British company's name upon it. And I am reminded yet again that in the 1980s the UK was a friend of Sadaam and companies like these were given Billions in govt grants to trade with Iraq. Outside the room a group of people surrond us to tell us there stories - they think I am a journalist - Hussein just turns to me and says 'so many people with so many stories of pain' looking a little overwhelmed he again turns his tape recorder on and listens as the little woman in full Abaya tells him of the story of her own torture and exile.... The deputy Chair of the FPA told us they have 140,000 files and they believe this is just the tip of the iceberg of those who disappeared..... People who have disappeared is also a topic of discussion at the Christian Peacemaker Team offices in Karradir Dakhill just two doors down from Jo Wildings Circu2Iraq house that I visited this afternoon. However the people who have disappered after arrest have more recently gone missing ..since the US/UK military took control of Iraq. Estimates of Human Rights groups put the figure at 18,000 the US authorities themselves estimate it at 13,000. 234 people were arrested at the village of Abu Hisma last November - the water was cut off by the military and has not been reconnected for 8 months a wife of the local school teacher was shot dead going to the villages one water supply after curfew. A bomb was dropped on the house of a suspect - Hebron style and the village citrus grove destroyed . People are prisoners in their own homes the village is surrounded by barbed wire and a 5pm curfew is in operation so no one can enter or leave the village after dark. Similar things are happening in other villages like Abu Siffa and Al Jazeera village all within the so called Sunni triangle. The CPT are working to highlight these cases and puit pressure on the US authorities by encouraging lobbying from the States and the UK logon to their website www.cpt.org to find out details of their Lent fast for Healing and Justice. There is so much healing needed to be done in this country so much pain - stories of torture, war, violence, fear of future division, fear of others who are different, relief at change, fear of change - so many painful and confusing feelings. But also I have experienced a wonderful hospitality, I have learnt a lot about how to welcome the stranger into your home - people with so little offering so much and also a depth of faith that has certainly been the saving of some of those who have experienced the worst. If you pray please pray for these people all of them Sunni and Shia, the tortured and the torturer. Please pray for a better future where the light of people's faith may inform the politics and life of this land and act yourself to put pressure on our own authorities to own up to thier compliance with the dictatorship of the past , act too to stop the oppression of the occupation that is going on now and demand that the international community put proper resources into helping the Iraqi people heal themselves of these wounds created by those very nations who now claim to be offering them liberation. And pray for me and Hussein as we continue on this journey together may our understanding grow and God willing may we help in whatever small way we can to bring healing and peace. Love and blessings 24 February 2004 Hi everyone Just a quicky as Hussein uploads some pictures from his digital. Today's been a quiet day Hussein was interviewed at his wife's families former house for the C4 programme I spent most of the morning chatting to an ex SAS C4 security guard - interesting!!! One of the depressing things at the moment is seeing so many guns. Not just the soldiers who are actually not as visible in Baghdad as I thought they would be but outside certain places communication centres, offices of different groups etc. The other evening we were due to travel across the city quite late at night and Muaufaq - Hussein's cousin and our driver brought out his Kalashnikov fully loaded to ride across town with. I refused to get in the car with the Machine gun much to M's bewilderment and Hussein's amusement. We travelled without it in the end. Tommorrow we visit a mass grave with C4 team. It is the grave that Hussein's relatives are believed to have been buried. Not looking forward to that. Things are geting busy for Ashura lots of litle processions happening in the area we are staying at the moment in the build up to next week. Off tonight to see a procession. Thursday sees me hopefully playing a clown in a Baghdad School with Jo's Circus2Iraq and then it is off to Kerbala for the next few days - I am supposed to be speaking at a conference in Karbala on Saturday - until Ashura next Tuesday and then down south for a couple of days hopefully connecting with War Child and visiting some projects in the south with the hope of connecting with one that the Church and Islamic centre can jointly raise funds for in Leeds - before returning to Baghdad to get ready for the journey to Syria a week on Saturday and then home. I am not sure I will get the opportiunity to communicate again by email may be able to phone some of you when we get a satelite phone from C4 on Weds/Thurs for 24 hours - who knows. Love and blessings 2 March 2004 Hello Everyone Sorry to have not been able to regularly communicate. But getting the time and finding the places is a bit difficult. In Kerbala now on the eve of Ashura so things are really exciting and lively - loads of processions, 100,s of thousands if not millions of pilgrims. It's difficult to write these emails because there seems to be so much to put in! This time I will concentrate on practical connections and ideas for action on my return. Yesterday Hussein and I went to Najef south of Kerbala and met with a lovely Immam who runs the Theological School and is involved in community action. We talked to him about a project that helps to fund free prescriptions for the poorest people in Najef. At the moment they have a number of Doctors involved in the network but would like to involve more but need extra resources. We talked about the possibility of trying to raise money for this on a regular basis - what would seem a little to us would go a heck of a long way over here. Just raising $500 a month would double the network. Hussein and I have talked about the possibility of setting up an Iraqi Solidarity Fund whose aim would be to help Iraqi people establish and run their own initiatives towards healing and peace with three areas of interest 1 Relieving economic deprivation 2 Helping to heal the wounds of the experiences of prisoners and their families under the Saddam regime 3 Helping the victims of War perhaps with an emphasis on child victims. We have already made contact with groups that would fulfil 1 and 2 as we made good connections with the Free prisoners Association in Baghdad and they need resources to do more work. The Najef project would come under 1 and we hope to make connections in the south with a project that would fulfil no 3. If anybody out there would like to be involved in this let me know ASAP. As I said in my first email the debate in UK seems so irrelevant to the realities out here. And when faced with the reality of the regime it seems irresponsible of those of us in the Anti-war movement for not having seriously addressed the Human rights question when standing against war. I haven't changed my opinion about the war but I feel the anti war movement in UK has little connection with the Iraqi people. Should we not be talking to Iraqi's and asking them what kind of demands and issues we should be raising? It seems to me that a number of areas could be addressed politically by the anti-war movement 1 The question of resources being put into helping the survivors of torture and imprisonment under the regime and helping families locate the whereabouts of their executed loved ones. This is being downplayed by the occupation forces and the governing council. It's a very hot issue among iraqis and everyone has a story to tell. We could demand the international community put money into this and resource Iraqi organisations to take a lead on it and manage the process. It is embarrasing for US/UK as many of the events took place in the 80s when Sadamm was 'our friend' so no wonder they want to keep it quiet. Why not make 20th March demonstration END THE OCCUPATION START HELPING THE IRAQI PEOPLE HEAL THE WOUNDS OF TYRANNY AND WAR 2. There is a real cynicism about the occupation and the role of the US. Even amongst those who are prepared to work with them - that is a minority and mainly returned exiles from what I can see. However there is not any real support as far as I can tell for armed resistance and certainly not for bombing. I have been mainly living amongst the Shia who make up 65% of the population and perhaps had most to gain from the downfall of Saddam whose power base was amongst the Sunni so I admit to having views from a particular perspective. The Shia leaders I have spoken to have no illusions about the Americans but the big issue they are trying to create a United movement about is Free Elections. Should we not also be taking up this issue - Elections under UN control perhaps? In some places local people are organising there own elections. This is interesting stuff but we seem to be obsessed with whether Blair said this or that on this or that date and we are all still banging on about WMD's! Sorry if this is a bit ranty. Here endeth the political lecture. The journey has also been a real spiritual awakening for me to the beauties of the Shia faith. The story of Imamm Hussein has themes that so resonate with Christian spirituality. I spoke on this at the conference on Immam Hussein and the current situation at the University of Kerbala yesterday. I will try to type out my talk and send it round maybe tommorrow if I get the chance. The guy who runs this internet Cafe was at the talk yesterday telling me how moved he was by it and giving me a free session on the basis of it!!! Hence the long email! There were people from a wide variety of backgrounds speaking a very progressive sounding Sheikh and lots of passionate poetry that the Shia are famous for. After I spoke the facilitator introduced the next speaker as an advisor to the Minister of Culture. By the time he had reached the podium three quarters of the audience had left! Was it a political statement? The audience were predominantly young to middle aged and there were lots of young women - no women on the speakers list though! I was interviewed and appeared on local TV and Lebanese TV and interviewed by one of the papers associated with a polical party here. BTW I was in full cassock and dog collar all day and my Tam was on my head to cover my dreads and looked more like a bereta (is that how you spell it?) So everyone can have a good laugh when you see the pictures - Oh and Salaam Pax who writes for the Guardian and does a regular Blog on Iraq on the Web was there filming a piece for Newsnight so I may be on there if anyone cares to watch out for it. Hussein is hassling me to finish off now he wants to arrange some interview with an Arab TV station or something so I must go. Really enjoying my time with him and his cousion who is our driver - we are getting on great. So much more to say ....thought I would make this one a bit more upbeat and practical but there are so many hard and sorry stories to tell. Keep praying for the people of Iraq and keep praying for me and Hussein as we continue this journey. Love and Blessings 12 March 2004 Hello Everyone Thanks for all your support prayers and encouragement. I am now back in Leeds although it all seems like a dream. I will be in touch soon about some projects in Iraq that people might like to help raise money for. And I have had some invitations to speak and we are hoping to organise some meetings here at All Hallows. Meanwhile I attach something I wrote based on the address I gave at Karbala University on the Saturday before Ashura. You might as a bit of background glance and one of the websites below to get a sense of the Shia Muslim interpretation of the Imam Hussein story which features in my talk and was the subject of the conference. Please feel free to forward this onto anyone who might be interested.
Love and blessings
http://www.irib.ir/worldservice/englishRADIO/ISLAM/huss-mar.htm http://home.swipnet.se/islam/articles/Imam-Hussein.htm http://www.shianews.com/low/articles/islam/0000087.php
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