11/10/2014

Dialogue on Peace with Iraqi Religious Leaders Includes ELCA Representative

From the ELCA News Blog

Religious leaders from Iraq, Norway and the United States have made a commitment to research the prospects of building peaceful relations among people and states experiencing conflict and violence and to “normalize” such work and dialogues, according to the Rev. Stephen Bouman, executive director for congregational and synodical mission of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

“I believe right now, with extremisms surfacing from all religions, that we are in a struggle for the soul of our Abrahamic faiths,” said Bouman. Apart from politics, Bouman said that religious leaders can have an effective role in brokering peace, coexistence and initiating humanitarian response in places like Syria, Iran, Iraq and elsewhere.

Through the Peace Research Institute Oslo and The Catholic University of America, a group of Sunni, Shiite, Christian, Turkmen and Kurdish religious leaders from Iraq met in Istanbul this year in an effort to maintain religious dialogue and seek action together for peace. Bouman, who was one of four U.S. participants invited by the research institute, said that this is the first effort by the institute “to create safe space for Iraqi leaders. My presence was in service to that process. I have been participating in the Iran dialogues for the past seven years.” To help facilitate the dialogues, Bouman said there are mutually agreed upon guiding principles.

“The first is that we must be secure in our own religions, in our own identity. A second tenant is that no one gathered has special access to God; there is no absolute inside track to God. Third, we come to the table as interpreters of our own religious texts,” said Bouman.

The Rev. Trond Bakkevig, pastor of the (Lutheran) Church of Norway and a participant in the dialogue, said a fourth tenant is that religious “text can be used in service to war, conflict, etc. Texts are also infused with ethos of forgiveness, reconciliation, etc. These should guide our interpretation. Religious leaders can escalate conflicts by intensifying religious elements. When religious leaders enter a dialogue, they have to agree on an internal discipline.”

“And finally,” said Bouman, “Inter-faith means that the dialogue has to be made public. People need to see us talking and acting together and identifying mutual acts of mercy.”

Many of the dialogue participants shared stories of suffering, terror and death, particularly wrought by ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and Islamic State), which is striving to create an Islamic state across Sunni areas of Iraq and in Syria. A woman at the dialogue table told stories of women being sold, thousands of young men killed and the demolition of buildings and infrastructure by ISIS, said Bouman, adding that the Christian presence in Iraq has greatly diminished. “We heard harrowing, horrific accounts of human suffering. We saw a film clip of an ISIS massacre of 3,000 young cadets (mostly Shiite) at an Air Force base. The room went silent and tears flowed.”

“They were also members of the dialogue group who have been forced out of their homes by ISIS fighters,” he said. “They addressed their concerns in our meeting. But the fact that Sunni, Shiite, Christian, Turkmen and Kurdish religious leaders were gathered at the table was an amazing statement of faith.” Bouman noted that a group of Izidi religious leaders were also invited to the meeting in Istanbul but unable to come, adding that “One Izidi leader said, ‘When the soul is destroyed without a sin and the land is usurped by force and man is displaced coercively, that is repugnant injustice.’ And so began communication they sent to us.”

“I felt I saw history unfold during the first meeting of Iraqi religious leaders convened by Norway and accompanied by four American leaders. Our U.S. group included U.S. Rep. James McDermott of Washington and two leaders from Catholic University of New York,” said Bouman.

“Unlike the Iranian process, where safe space is created by not being too public, this process is meant to be shared as broadly as possible. Congressman McDermott committed to reading an Izidi statement into the Congressional Record, and I will share it broadly through the ELCA Conference of Bishops and our church’s ecumenical and interfaith partners,” said Bouman, adding that he will continue to commit and participate in dialogue among these religious leaders.