[259.1] IRAQ INSURGENCY... AGAINST PEACEMAKERS

[Updates 02/12/05: CPT Briefing; Petition; Taking risks for peace; Words of hope for Iraq detainees.

The appalling violence in Iraq is claiming many victims among those who try to challenge the cycle of revenge - through peacemaking, reporting and pilgrimage. Such is the logic of terror. In remembering especially the hostage and international Christian Peacemaker Teams at the moment, it is also important for us to recall that the majority of those killed, captured and torture are Iraqi and Muslim - and that many who carry out these actions tragically do so in the name of religion as well as ideology. The report on Ekklesia (excerpted below) gives more information and background. There is a good feature on CPT here. Their occasional feature column is also worth looking at, including the report earlier this year from Fallujah.

Search goes on for Christian peacemaker kidnapped in Iraq -28/11/05
The search continues tonight for a Christian associate of an organization that places violence-reduction units in crisis situations around the world, who has been kidnapped in increasingly lawless Iraq, alongside an American and two Canadians.

Two British Muslims on a religious pilgrimage have also been killed in an indiscriminate bus ambush by insurgents that also injured three other people.

Hostage Professor Norman Kember, aged 74, is a long-time advocate of nonviolence. He has been involved both in the Baptist Peace Fellowship and in Fellowship of Reconciliation (FoR), an international network of religious pacifists. [Continued...]

FoR commented yesterday: "Norman has consistently stood for peace and against violence and war and opposed the invasion of Iraq from the beginning. We ask all members and supporters of the Fellowship to pray for the safe return of Norman and the other aid workers to their families. We will post more news .. as soon as we can." [See also: UK CPT]

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