[Dialogue] Church Leaders to Visit Tehran, Hope to Defuse Nuclear Tensions

[Harry Wainwright]

Church Leaders to Visit Tehran, Hope to Defuse Nuclear Tensions

By Katherine Boyle
Religion News Service 

 

WASHINGTON - A delegation of 13 U.S. Christian leaders will travel to Iran
to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Feb.

17-25 to foster dialogue between Iran and the U.S. and promote a diplomatic
solution to tensions between the two countries.

 

The group has arranged meetings with Christian and Muslim religious leaders,
women serving in the Iranian parliament and former Iranian President
Mohammad Khatami. Several delegation members met with Ahmadinejad during his
trip to New York City last fall, when the idea for the visit to Iran was
born.

 

The trip was organized by the Mennonite Central Committee and the American
Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group. Others participating include
Sojourners/Call to Renewal; the Episcopal, Catholic and United Methodist
churches; the National Council of Churches and Pax Christi USA.

 

The leaders also hope to use person-to-person exchanges between Iranians and
Americans to help each group overcome cultural and religious stereotypes.

 

"People in our country and people in their country have many
misunderstandings," said Mary Ellen McNish, general secretary of the
American Friends Service Committee. "We want to try to forgive each other
and come to an understanding about how we can go forward in a peaceful way."

 

David Robinson, the executive director of the Catholic organization Pax
Christi USA, said he believes the trip will help change persistent
stereotypes about Iranians.

 

"We have a real opportunity to have dialogue, to get past the enemy images
that have been in the U.S. culture for over 30 years now, since the hostage
crisis," Robinson said. "Overcoming (these stereotypes) ...

could very well help to overcome the growing tension between our nations."

 

The delegation also hopes to address Ahmadinejad's comments denying
historical evidence for the Holocaust and a recent conference he held in
Iran on the subject.

 

"We are very concerned about his remarks," McNish said. "We were concerned
about the conference. We believe the Holocaust is a historical fact, and one
of history's greatest human tragedies, and we believe we need to continue to
engage him on this."

 

McNish said the group was "not enthralled" with some of Ahmadinejad's
answers to their questions about his position on the Holocaust and Iran's
nuclear ambitions during their meeting in New York.

 

However, she added that "the key to the whole trip is that dialogue and
diplomacy are the key to the future" for Iran and the U.S., not "threatening
rhetoric" by either side.

 

Copyright C 2006 Beliefnet, Inc.




 

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