Mark Johnson's blog

“I’m sorry, but someone has to tell America that this designation of holy space is merely part of a mass hysteria that really scares me.”   Rabbi Bruce Warshal

We have shared messages from Amos Gvirtz of the FOR branch in Shefayim, Israel a few times in the past. His blog entries through “Don’t Say We Don’t Know” are often only a short paragraph.

It was our introduction to the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations which co-hosted a stellar panel of experts on the Middle East for a discussion of the future of Muslim-West relations. 

Twenty-Four Anti-Torture Activists Acquitted in Trial for Protest at the US Capitol Calling for Guantanamo’s Closure and the Investigation of Deaths at the Prison

Divisiveness has long come from within the culture while attributed to external forces. This is a principle of the “war on terror.” Create “the other” and then demonize them, disguising what should be a cause of celebration, our diversity, as a threat. We are sadly reminded of this ugly practice again in recent weeks at levels high and low.

—Why has this trouble broken out just now,
and panic? (Faces have gone so solemn.)
Why are the streets, the squares emptying so fast,
and all the people brooding as they turn back home?

Community Board 1 in Lower Manhattan will revisit a decision previously approved by a 9 to 1 vote to support a Mosque in the Warren Street area this evening.

The earlier approval has now generated criticism born basically of ignorance and misappropriated emotions.  It could be helpful to let Community Board members know that there is strong public support for the project from within the FOR community and among friends in other organizations such as September Eleventh  Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. Below is an interview with Daisy Kahn from the American Society for Muslim Advancement by Bruce Wallace and posted on the 121Contact Blog Site.

Dr. Hakim’s Statement on behalf of the Proposed Delegation of Afghanistan Youth from Our Journey to Smile reads like a poem.

We’ve just heard the ‘unearthly’ NASA dreams to go beyond the Moon, to land on Mars or an asteroid.

Before more Afghans, Palestinians, Iraqis and international soldiers are killed, we, the ordinary people of the world, need to show them that we’ve tried as hard as NASA, that their everyday efforts to love and be loved carry as much worth and dignity.

The Romans had their Ides of March, ours are the Ides of April. The signs are not encouraging, the auguries disturbing. Our taxes are still spent on a highly militarized economy while our needs for health, education, and justice go underfunded and are in disarray. In the face of escalating vituperation, the fact that we do need to be deeply concerned about our priorities and social processes must be balanced by a return to and respect for civil discourse. One of the best places to look for models of powerful leadership in service to societal needs is in the civil rights movement.

I had lunch this week with a labor union organizer from Iran seeking support for the rights of workers in Iran. One of his biggest fears was that the implementation of additional sanctions would serve the interest of Iranian leadership making the case for foreign intervention as the reason for solidarity across all sectors in Iran. While it may appear that factions in Iran are sharp and irreconciliable there is a clear warning that movements in the direction of reform, and the well-being of the Iranian public, would be severely affected by new sanctions. Jim Fine's assessment below extends that analysis and provides background we should have in hand on the state of the sanctions legislation in Congress.  Mark C. Johnson

From Jim Fine at FCNL:

Even though we might be made blind to the evil afoot, we will not be silent. This is the lesson of modern history. We will sing a new song as strangers in a strange land: Let My People Go. While the Egyptians, Israelis, and Americans conspire to keep us from seeing the conditions of life in the world’s largest prison (sorry, no visiting hours this month), there is a chorus, a voice, 43 nations rich, which is lifted in greater harmony and crescendo than ever before to call for raising the siege of Gaza and thereby increasing the security of Israel.