Iran

Iran

From your WebWeaver, on Oct. 8, 2007

We regret the necessity of opening a new web page to deal specifically with the growing danger of some kind of US military action against Iran, but that seems to be the way it is.

If you have thoughts or information of your own, or helpful resources on the subject, please send a note, and we'll add them here.

Iran invites Bush to speak at university [10-8-07]

After all the media excitement about the visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to New York a couple weeks ago – and the unusual (is that an adequate description?) reception given to him as he spoke at Columbia University, there seems to be little media interest in what happened soon thereafter. Admadinejad told Iran’s state-run TV network that if President Bush ever visits Iran, "we will allow him to make a speech" at a university there.

Find the report in the Washington Post >>

Witherspooner Gordon Shull, of Wooster, Ohio, called this to our attention with this quick note:

Media coverage of Ahmadinejad’s visit surprisingly ignored two important items. First, in his talk at Columbia, he invited Columbia students to visit any of Iran’s (400?) academic institutions in Iran. Second, I saw a glancing item on CNN that he had invited Bush to speak at the university in Tehran. I haven’t seen this reported anywhere else. Did it happen? If it did, isn’t this hugely important? Would the media leaders just decide that it was a gimmick, not worth reporting?

Your Webweaver has not been able to find any further mention of this interesting side-light on Ahmadinejad’s visit. We are not aware of any eager response from the White House. Or any other response, for that matter.

Three Presbyterians join in dialogue with Iran’s Ahmadinejad [10-3-07]

Three Presbyterians were among a delegation of more than 100 religious leaders who met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Sept. 26 during his visit to the U.S.

The two-hour dialogue, held at the Church Center for the United Nations in New York City, was the second in a series of conversations focused on establishing a dialogue between people of faith in the United States and the people and government of Iran.

The dialogue was organized by the Mennonite Central Committee and endorsed by American Friends Service Committee, Church of the Brethren General Board, Mennonite Central Committee, Pax Christi, Sojourners/Call to Renewal, the World Council of Churches' Commission of the Church on International Affairs and other groups.

The Rev. Victor Makari, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s coordinator for the Middle East and Asia Minor and Jinishian Memorial Program, said the denomination's primary purpose for participating in the dialogue is the PC(USA)'s ongoing commitment to our church partner in Iran.

Other Presbyterians taking part in the discussion were Joel Hanisek, the PC(USA)'s United Nations representative, and Catherine Gordon, associate for international issues in the PC(USA) Washington Office.

The full report from Presbyterian News Service >>

Iran: The Next Quagmire [9-5-07]

As the US escalates its threats against Iran and its assertions of hegemony over the Middle East, reporter Chris Hedges gives us a sharply moral perspective on what’s going on.

He begins:

The most effective diplomats, like the most effective intelligence officers and foreign correspondents, possess empathy. They have the intellectual, cultural and linguistic literacy to get inside the heads of those they must analyze or cover. They know the vast array of historical, religious, economic and cultural antecedents that go into making up decisions and reactions. And because of this—endowed with the ability to communicate and more able to find ways of resolving conflicts through diplomacy—they are less prone to blunders.

But we live in an age where dialogue is dismissed and empathy is suspect. We prefer the illusion that we can dictate events through force. It hasn’t worked well in Iraq. It hasn’t worked well in Afghanistan. And it won’t work in Iran. But those who once tried to reach out and understand, who developed expertise to explain the world to us and ourselves to the world, no longer have a voice in the new imperial project. We are instead governed and informed by moral and intellectual trolls.

Chris Hedges, a Pulitzer prize-winning reporter, was the Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times. He spent seven years in the Middle East and reported frequently from Iran. His latest book is American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.

The rest of the story >>