Because bad news tends to grab the headlines away from good news, we often fail to notice or even really don’t hear about hopeful activities and statements. For this reason I have been trying to pay special attention to good news and call other people’s attention to them. Below are ten tidbits picked out of the releases I receive daily from the Middle East. If you, my readers, like this, I will do it again now and then.
- In early June the spiritual leaders of the four main Islamic sects in Lebanon held an “urgent summit” and afterward made a joint statement warning against inflammatory rhetoric over sectarian differences. They said that such rhetoric would merely widen the gaps between faith communities. Their statement emphasized the religious fraternity of all Muslims and the national unity between Christians and Muslims. They also expressed their confidence in Lebanon’s ability to address internal problems in a manner that rises above sectarianism.
- Shortly before the Islamic “summit” a gathering of Christian leaders agreed on the need to re-emphasize the unique Lebanese model of co-existence. Acknowledging that the country is passing through a turbulent period, they agreed on the need for initiatives supporting coordination between Islamic and Christian spiritual leaders to prevent the use of religion as justification for extremism and violence. They also called for the Arab League to issue a statement expressing the need to protect diversity in the region and suggested the formation of a committee that would coordinate with other Arab Christians to create a strong line of communication between the region’s Christian minorities.
- “Four years after its historic Jasmine revolution, Tunisia has continued to surprise the skeptics, becoming the Arab world’s most profound democratic experiment as well as a regional rampart against extremism. This has included several rounds of successful democratic elections–with over 9,000 candidates in the latest parliamentary elections–and a landmark constitution.” This quote from William Lawrence, Director of MENA Programs in the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, at a recent conference in Washington was preceded by reminders that the country’s democracy continues to be under assault by extremists.
- An organization called the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) maintains women’s safe houses for survivors of domestic violence and refugees displaced by ISIS. These safe houses not only provide shelter and protection for women but gives them political education in issues such as gender justice and trains some to be leaders for coming generations. The OWFI also works with the War Resisters League to encourage a grass roots movement to end militarism and war.
- The War Resisters League together with Tadween Publishing has produced a book, Against All Odds: Voices of Popular Struggle in Iraq which reveals ways that the Iraqi youth, labor organizers, environmentalists and feminists have by peaceful means resisted occupation, repression and violence. (I have not read this book.)
- Giving a victory speech, after being elected head of the National Council of the March 14 political party in Lebanon, Samir Frangieh announced that he is preparing for an “Intifada of Peace” to create a framework for overcoming confessional and sectarian polarization in Lebanon. He called for civic groups of all kinds to work against violence and discrimination, while promoting moderation and democracy in the Arab world. The March 14 party is composed of a coalition of several political groups.
- Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenaged Nobel Prize winner, spent June 12, her 18th birthday, in Lebanon establishing a school for 200 Syrian refugee girls in the Biqaa Valley. In a speech Malala called the international support for refugees “stingy.”
- The Lebanese Ministry of Education is asking the international community for an additional $100 million to fund formal public education for 100,000 more refugees. Many thousands of Syrian and Iraqi refugee children have been unable to go to school at all since becoming displaced. In hopes of integrating them into Lebanese schools, the ministry is testing thousands of them to ascertain their grade level and hopes to enroll 10,000 immediately in a four-month Accelerated Learning Program to help them catch up some of what they have lost. This program is part of a project called Reaching All Children with Education, which is being implemented, according to the Beirut Daily Star, by Sonia Khoury.
- One thousand four hundred and seventy-three undergrads took diplomas this spring from the American University of Beirut, a university founded by Presbyterian missionaries that admits to every class a quota of students from each country in the Middle East.
- Seventy-two Syrian refugees are expected to arrive in Uruguay before the end of the year, a second part of the 117 families that this small country of just 3.3 million people promised to take in. The promise was jeopardized by budgetary problems last year, but now Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa has stated that the government will honor its commitment, because Syria is “suffering a brutal humanitarian crisis” and the refugee families are “living a real hell on earth.” Uruguay was the first Latin American nation to offer a resettlement program for Syrian refugees. Other nations have also followed suit.