Religions for Peace

I recently discovered an organization called, Religions for Peace. The organization was founded in 1970 and claims that it is the largest international coalition of representatives from the world’s great religions dedicated to promoting peace. The organization dedicates itself to stopping war, ending poverty and protecting the earth. Based  in New York City, the organization has Dr. William F. Vendley as its Secretary General.


Religions for Peace is currently furthering a campaign for shared security called, Arms Down! The campaign has the three goals of 1) abolishing nuclear weapons, 2) stopping the proliferation and misuse of conventional weapons, and 3) redirecting 10% of military expenditure to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. At its campaign page, signers can petition to ask all governments to make an official pledge to cut their military budgets by 10% and to re-allocate those funds toward development.


Recently, Religions for Peace sent a letter to Ban Ki Moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations, on behalf of Middle East peace. The letter called for the inclusion of the Abrahamic faiths in the peace process:



We believe that seeds of genuine peace can be found within the elements of a vision of peace shared by Judaism, Christianity and Islam. We further believe that these seeds need to be watered by principled multi-religious cooperation. We are convinced that such multi-religious cooperation is an irreplaceable dimension of the genuine search for a just and comprehensive peace, and therefore must be appropriately linked to the diplomatic peace process.


In response to the attacks on Christians gathered in church for prayer and those on Muslims on pilgrimage in the nation of Iraq, Religions for Peace expressed its deep sorrow about the violence against the religious communities. "We extend our sympathy to Christians and Muslims in Iraq who have suffered violent attacks, grieving with them for those who have died and suffering with them for those who have been wounded," they said.

Memorial Day~2010

This is proving to be a noteworthy Memorial Day.

US military member deaths in Afghanistan have now hit 1000. Icasualties.org calculates 1007. That site also states that 4400 US military members have died in Iraq now. I also note that many Afghan and Iraqi militants and many, many more civilians have died because of our presence and actions in their countries. CostofWar.com of the National Priorities Project declared on Sunday that total dollar cost of the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001 has now hit $1 Trillion.

Al-Jazeera reported that Israel attacked today a flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza and killed 19 activists on board, injuring dozens. CODEPINK: Women for Peace strong condemned the attack and called on President Obama and Congress to issue a STRONG CONDEMNATION of the "abominable" attack and for it to be accompanied by action: an immediate cut off of all aid to Israel and sustained pressure on Israel to lift the siege of Gaza. “We need our leaders to show their commitment to peace by condemning this act, launching an immediate inquiry, calling on Israel to lift the siege of Gaza, and supporting an immediate halt to arms supplies for Israel,” said Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK, who has travelled four times to Gaza. For more information on the flotilla, see the Gaza Freedom March, Free Gaza, and  Witness Gaza.com which has video from the ship.

May Peace Prevail in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Israel-Palestine, and in the United States and in its foreign policy.  MAY PEACE PREVAIL ON EARTH! I DECLARE WORLD PEACE. It is a matter of life and death.

Those Imperial Brits

I have started reading a fascinating book about Afghanistan, actually about a person of Afghanistan. The book by Eknath Easwaran is entitled Nonviolent Soldier of Islam: Badshah Khan, a Man to Match his Mountains  (Tomales, CA: Nilgiri Press, c.1984 and 1999.) Badshah Khan, who lived from 1890 to 1988, was a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi.

I bought the book after 9-11, but had not read it. I recently spotted it on our bookshelf and decided that with ongoing U.S. military activities and current offensive in Afghanistan, it was time to read it.

What I just read, in the first part of the book, in the third chapter, I believe I need to share. We need to pay attention to history and learn from it. Seeds have always been sown in the past which bear fruit later on. The British of the Empire had particular actions in Afghanistan which are continuing to play out and which we even seem to continue. Like today, this involved foreign policy doves and hawks and geopolitics.

What I just read and want to pass on involves the people we call today the Pashtuns, the primary ethnic group of Afghanistan that forms the basis of the Taliban. The British referred to these people as Pathans (rhyming with batons). Their lands involved parts of Afghanistan and what we call today, Pakistan. The Pashtuns have also been called, Paktuns--hence, the name Pakistan.

I quote from the book:

The borders between Afghanistan and India were ill defined and not easily defended. When Russian troops clashed with the Afghans in 1885, the Conservatives insisted it was Britain's's 'bounden duty'  to build a permanent buffer zone between British India and Imperial Russia along a secure border. The obvious location for the border was the range of mountains between Afghanistan and British India. High and rugged, their narrow passes were easily defended. The only problem was that this placed the buffer garrisons squarely within the homelands of the Pathans. Not even Forward School hawks were eager to arouse Pathan ire. But the protectors of the Empire felt that they had no choice: India, Britain's prize possession, must be defended at all costs.

In the autumn of 1893, Lieutenant Henry Durand was sent to Kabul to negotiate a border between Afghanistan and British India that would effectively hand over to the British most of the Pathan homelands, historically part of the Afghan empire. The proposed border--the 'Durand Line'--cut through the heart of the Pathan nation, leaving a third of all Pathans in Afghanistan.

The Afghan amir [ruler] warned the British that they had more to lose from the settlement than he did. 'If you should cut the Pathan tribes away from my domain,' he wrote the viceroy in desperation, 'they will not be of any use either to you or me. You will always be engaged in fighting them or be involved in some other trouble with them and they will always go on plundering.'

The British forced the issue. ... (pages 47, 48)

A few pages over in the book, the author quoted another author on Annie Besant, an English woman in India writing on the British Frontier War:

We loudly proclaimed that we had no quarrel with the Pathan nation, yet we burnt their villages, destroyed their crops, stole their cattle, looted their homes, hanged their men as 'rebels' if they resisted, while we drove out their women and children to perish in the snow.

From out of the darkness moans of suffering reach us, and we shrink in horror from the work which is being done in our names. These starved babes wail out our condemnation. These frozen women cry aloud against us. These stiffened corpses, these fire-blackened districts, these snow-covered, blood-stained plains appear to humanity to curse us.

Englishmen, with wives nestled warm in your bosom, remember these Pathan husbands, maddened by their wrongs. Englishwomen, with babes smiling on your breasts, think of these sister-women, bereft of their little ones. The Pathan loves wife and children as you do. He also is husband and father. To him also the home is happy, the hearth sacred. To you he cries from his desolate fireside and from his ravaged land. In your hands is his cause. (pages 52, 53)

Here is a short video to update:

The Shooting at Fort Hood

Dear People,




The walking wounded are among us, including in the military and in families. Most of us are wounded in some way, some more than others.



My condolences go to the families of those killed at Fort Hood, Texas in the recent attack by alleged perpetrator, Army psychiatrist, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.



My thoughts and concerns go out to the injured and their families.



My thoughts and concerns also go to Maj. Hasan, himself, and his family and with American-Arabs, Muslims, Middle Easterners, etc. who may receive a backlash of harassment and possible hate attacks.



May Justice and Peace Prevail.