Circle of Hope

By Brian Baughan

Unless my memory fails me, Ghazwa al-Doori is the first Iraqi I have ever met. We introduced ourselves at the end of one of the workshops held at the AFSC Symposium on Iraqi Refugees this past Saturday. A thirty-something woman dressed in a traditional headscarf, she had shown up to the conference with her sister, with whom she lives in New Jersey.

Ghazwa and her sister were born in the United States during a time when their father was receiving a college degree. Needless to say, they are luckier than the majority of Iraqis. I had gathered that although they had spent most of their lives in Iraq, they were able to resettle here long before things really turned for the worse back home. The story is much different for their brother and other sister, who are refugees in Jordan and face an imminent deadline on their visas. Ghazwa told me that when she talks to them on the phone, she is overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness. If only they could make it over here from Jordan, they could all cram into Ghazwa’s small apartment. But she knows that’s not in the cards. “They’re alone. We’re alone. What can we do?” she said.

Ghazwa’s story was one of several heartbreaking accounts I heard Saturday. The stats were very hard to hear, too: 750,000 Iraqi refugees are now in Jordan, 1 million in Syria, and thousands others scattered throughout the Middle East and other countries. In Iraq, there are another 2 million internally displaced people. It’s the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world, and some are even calling it the worst mass displacement in the Middle East since the exodus following the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948. Making this worse is the fact that the U.S. occupation, along with sectarian violence in Iraq, is directly responsible for the tragedy.

We all have an endless number of distractions—both pointless and worthy—that divert our attention from the human cost of the war in Iraq. As Peter Lems, head of the AFSC’s Iraq Program has observed, even the peace movement has turned blinders toward the domestic situation, as protesters have lambasted the Bush administration and bickered with others over supplemental spending bills.

It’s hard to do anything when the quagmire seems unsolvable, or the legislative measures are just too confusing. But is forgetting the plight of U.S. troops an option? Or, for that matter, the tens of thousands of Iraqis who have died, the hundreds of thousands who are no longer safe in their homeland?

The finger-pointing that accompanied the recent supplemental bill debate reminded me of Jesus’ stern words about the infighting among his own community: “To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other: ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not cry.’” (Luke 7:31–32)

Peace-loving people can easily assume an air of righteousness, yet all the while sound like screechy, bratty kids in the marketplace. This symposium was different. I felt fortunate to be able to hear out a bunch of thoughtful, caring analysts and service workers who did not sound bratty, whose stubborn devotion remains with the least of these. It also felt good, in an ironic sense, to have my heart broken by those sad stories. I guess it was clear that this was the beginning of an appropriate response to dirges that had not evoked tears for years.*

We’re left with Ghazwa’s question, “What can we do?” One of the workshop leaders stated plainly what is perhaps the most appropriate answer, which is we do what we can. It is an approach that Circle of Hope’s close partner, the Mennonite Central Committee, has taken for years through its international relief and advocacy work, and what our congregations and Circle Thrifts are trying by providing funds to support MCC. Let’s keep moving.

Doing what we can will also be on the minds of the residents of Shalom House, a new Circle Venture mission team and peacemaking community, as we prepare to move into our new home in Germantown this July. A central piece of our mission will be to include Circle of Hope in its peacemaking work, so now is a good a time as any to share your ideas here about what’s in our power to help and advocate for the Iraqi refugees.

*Below are two interesting links that help paint a revealing picture of Iraqis who have remained in their country in spite of the chaos that has enveloped them. (Iraqis, it seems, also like to blog and post videos on youtube. Go figure.)

www.bl.uk/iraqdiary04.html
Published through the British Library, Saad Eskander, the director of the Iraq National Library and Archive, has documented his struggles holding down his post in the midst of dwindling funds and car bombs in his neighborhood.

http://hometownbaghdad.com/2007/05/17/episode-29-nothing-but-guitar/
Hometown Baghdad is more real than any “reality” show I’ve seen. Rather than dealing with cheesy competitions and drunken hookups, this series of videos records well-to-do 20-somethings as they slowly disperse, forced to leave behind the homes they love for a more stable life elsewhere.