Muslim peacemaker to speak in International Falls
Sami Rasouli’s impassioned defense of peace arises not only from the war’s devastations, but also from his own inner conflict — the result of watching the two countries that he loves at war.
If a spokesperson for peace could be custom designed, it would be tough to create one who is more fluent on the culture and currency of the Iraq war, or one more believable, than Rasouli.
A rare combination
Rasouli is described as 100 percent American and 100 percent Iraqi. A citizen of the United States, his native land is Iraq. Born in Najaf in 1952, he lived the first half of his life there. He spent the other half as the proprietor of Sinbad’s Cafe and Market in Minneapolis, an awarded restauranteur and community leader. He understands both cultures and speaks both languages.
Rasouli believes that his unique background provides him with “an eligibility to be the messenger between the West and the East.” Rasouli is the originator of the Muslim Peacemaker Team. The acclaimed spokesman has addressed the United Nations, and is deeply committed to nonviolence as a method of conflict resolution.
In 2003, Rasouli made the decision to return to Iraq after the U.S. invasion and occupation of his homeland. He is currently on his fourth tour in the U.S., speaking about the last three years which have sent him deep within the fabric of Iraqi society.
Leaving his
homeland for America
Rasouli, with a degree in education for math and Arabic, said goodbye to Iraq at the age of 24. He felt there was no place for him in the increasingly terroristic and oppressive Baathi rule of Saddam Hussein. “There was no democracy, there was no freedom,” he said. Rasouli remembers Hussein’s explicit and haunting message: “If you are not with me, you are against me.”
Rebelling against the crippling stronghold of Hussein’s Baath party regime, Rasouli came to the U. S., the Twin Cities in particular. He opened “Sinbad’s,” which offered Middle Eastern cuisine. It was no ordinary restaurant.
Sinbad’s introduced Islamic culture to the metro area. “It was more than a good restaurant,” said Rasouli. “It was an oasis, where guests could a taste a bite and a bit of the Middle East, without needing a passport.” The business was the recipient of many awards for excellent food, welcoming service and atmosphere, from several Minnesota publications. Sinbad’s became an embassy for Arab-Muslim culture with its music and aromas offered along with books about Islam and Arab cooking, politics and history.
During those years, 1989-2004, Rasouli also earned a reputation as a passionate peace activist and cultural promoter in Minnesota. He became an active spokesperson for Arab-Americans and was elected to several cultural boards. He participated in many religious dialogues and political interviews with newspapers, television, radio and magazines. In 1999, he received the Ambassador of Peace Award from St. John’s University in St. Cloud.
Then came the tragedy of 9/11 when Rasouli heard a chilling echo: “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.” But the message came from U.S. Pres. George W. Bush, in an address to a joint session of Congress on Sept. 20, 2001. The words tormented Rasouli and initiated a depression which would eventually rob him of any personal peace.
Who were the enemies? Who were the terrorists? Who was Bush threatening?
Leaving Minnesota
By the time the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, Rasouli’s personal dichotomy was making him physically ill. And it should be noted that Rasouli speaks from an American perspective.
“After the war started, I simply couldn’t live as an American — the aggressor against Iraq — my homeland. I struggled. I couldn’t eat or sleep. I had no social life. I was seeing my own country attack my birth country.”
With four married sisters, his immediate family clan in Iraq has more than 40 people. Finally, with word of his critically ill mother, Rasouli left his comfortable Twin Cities lifestyle behind and returned to Iraq.
“I’m going to miss the beautiful people here, the beautiful experience I enjoyed in this country. But I want to go there for the love of the country and people, and to continue to reflect on the successes I’ve had here,” he said upon leaving.
In the Iraqi province of Karbala, Rasouli was “fortunate to meet some beautiful Christian peacemakers” from the U. S., the United Kingdom, Canada and other places. “They were there to promote the same things that I wanted, and their stories were inspirational.”
The Christian peacemakers proved to be the model for Rasouli’s Muslim Peacemaker Team: A non-violent response to the violence that erupted in 2003. MPT is an active organization whose mission is to bring Iraqis together. MPT also stands to remind the world that not all Muslims are terrorists, and many are working for peace.
Conditions in Iraq
Rasouli went to show his native country that there is goodness in the world.
That can be very difficult according to the peacemaker, with President Bush addressing the American public with this justification for the war: “We’re fighting it there, so we don’t have to fight it here.”
“The Iraqis did not take that well when their lives and their homes are destroyed. Who are the enemies?” asked Rasouli.
Rasouli believes the Iraqi melee is neither religious or secular. He believes that central in the conflict is government, American agendas, and oil interests. “It is very much like a big business deal,” he said. “The United States ousts Saddam Hussein and it brings them power.”
Rasouli issues a reminder that the fight in Basra, the second largest city in Iraq, wasn’t between religious or ethnic groups but one sect, led by the al-Sadr militia. He said that rivalries between the Shiite government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the Mahdi Militia were not just about differing ideologies, but also stemmed from the illicit oil business in the southern city of Basra.
“The conflict was provoked by oil, and was also a movement against the occupation, and U.S. companies who control oil in Iraq. Under the control of the U.S., not much is left for the Iraqis.
“The Iraqi people want to have their sovereignty without outside influence, they want to have homes, education, drinking water that is not infected.”
Human cost
Rasouli’s voice is gentle and calm, but the tension is evident in his methodical depictions of complicated issues weighted in controversy. And there is angst as he begins to discuss the reality of war’s brutal toll.
He reports that 1.2 million Iraqi have been killed in the last five years, resulting in the orphaning of five million children. And half a million children under age 5 have died of malnutrition and the shortage of medical care. “Childhood is dying in Iraq,” he said. “Iraq has become broken. There is so much suffering.
“And many organized criminals are now in Iraq, kidnapping, and robbing its museums and other wealth. Educational and health care systems are collapsing. More than one million widows with kids are trying to survive.”
But Rasouli is also devastated by the loss in his adoptive country. “Here in the U.S., 4,000 of those in uniform have been lost. American soldiers come back destroyed. In 2005 alone, 6,000 of those who served committed suicide. And over 70,000 Americans have been maimed.”
Irrevocable mounting debt
Even as a mathematician, Rasouli cannot get his mind around the staggering sums invested in the Iraq War, as projected in the book “The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict” by Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel-prize-winning economist, and Linda Bilmes.
“One illustration of these amounts,” Rasouli explained, “shows that every minute costs us $500,000, every day $720 million, every month $12 billion.” He said the figures make him dizzy and are beyond his comprehension.
“Even one billion is troubling,” said Rasouli and offered the following perspective on the quantity of a billion: “A billion seconds ago — it was 1973. A billion minutes ago, Jesus was alive. A billion hours ago, our ancestors were living in the stone age. A billion days ago, no one walked on earth on two feet.”
Then this shocking perspective: “A billion dollars ago was only eight hours and 20 minutes at the rate our government is spending it. If we traveled back to the time of Christ at the beginning of the Gregorian calendar; and began to set aside $1,350,000 every day of every month of every year right up to today, we still wouldn’t have enough to pay off the more than $3 trillion that our administration will have increased the national debt.
“Let’s imagine what else those dollars could do,” Rasouli went on. “In just one day, the $720 million saved could buy homes for nearly 6,500 families. And 84 new elementary schools could be built. About 35,000 scholarships would help students go to college and over 12,400 elementary teachers would have work.” Other comparisons can be found at americanfriendservicecommittee.com.
Rasouli’s beliefs
Sami Rasouli is a Muslim who embraces Islam as his cultural earth. He says the fact that he and his wife live together with both Sunni and Shi’a religions (two of the main denominations of Islamic faith) exemplifies a commonality, even though history attributes 1,400 years to rivalry.
The difference between Sunni and Shiite is subtle; one survey revealed that many members of Congress don’t even know the difference. Most were more focused on the terrorist groups “Hezbollah” (Shiite) and “Al Qaeda” (Sunni) but still weren’t sure what defined them.
The main difference between the Shi’a and Sunni religions is political, according to Rasouli, and it results from a schism that developed after the death of the prophet Mohammed over a disagreement on whether his cousin Ali, or a group of others, was the rightful heir.
Both Rasouli and his wife believe in Allah, the Koran, Mecca and pray the traditional five prayers. There are subtle differences in the way they pray, and their children combine them. “So we have a democratic house,” he said.
But in reality, Rasouli sees himself as more secular. When he came to the states, he lived in a Christian international culture with lots of Jews, Christians, Buddhists and non-religious people, he said. His philosophy is, if in a church or mosque, to be fully spiritually engaged, respectively. “In a sense, I believe our creator created all of us out of love, and loves us all without discrimination. He could be called Allah, God, Yahweh or Buddha. Our religious journeys never stop. They are an acclimation and learning process that keeps going as long as the universe continues.”
Working for peace
His wife, stepson and newborn child also remain in Iraq. Rasouli alternates trips to educate and be a model for peace in America between offering physical and psychological help to the Iraqis.
He says “the surge” has not worked. “What is needed is a different kind of surge — a surge of medical help, a surge of caring, a surge of love.”
“Iraqis feel betrayed that they are not freed or democratized from violence.”
The mediator and minister says that the Iraqis are not our enemies. “We should stop the labeling and the rhetoric; stop Bush from describing them as terrorists. Psychologically, we need to build bridges, not walls.”
MPT is currently working with the city councils of Minneapolis and Najaf, to be granted the healing gesture of “sister city status” making Najaf a free zone from U.S. occupation, with hope that other cities will follow.
“My work is my survival,” said Rasouli, whose translated name is “messenger.” Rasouli believes the human family is all brothers and sisters of all origins. “Our DNA shows that we are all related. We should pay attention that what we have in common is greater than what separates us.
“Americans can reach out to Iraq to prove that we care about the world. We no longer have any option but to believe in each other, and trust each other in care and love. Fear needs to be eliminated.
“Peace is possible.
“We are all children of one God.”
Your personal bridge to peace
Those interested in purchasing Iraqi units of water for peace, or sponsoring schools and hospitals, or supporting people-to-people projects with the arts, and letters of cultural understanding, should contact the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project: 952-545-9981, fax the same. Or e-mail at iarproject@aol.com. The Web site is mpt-iraq.org. Tax-deductible donations can be made out to: Intermedia Arts with designations to the IARP, c/o Intermedia Arts, 2822 Lyndale Ave., So. Minneapolis, MN 55408, in support of Muslim Peacemaker Teams.
Sami Rasouli’s presentations at Falls High School and RRCC are ecumenically supported by these local churches: First Lutheran, St. Thomas Catholic, Zion Lutheran, Holy Trinity Episcopal and Faith United Church of Christ.
If you go:
WHAT: Speaker: Sami Rasouli
WHEN: Tuesday • 7 p.m.
WHERE: Rainy River Community College Theater
WHY: Rasouli is an American citizen and native of Iraq who has founded the Muslim Peacemaker Team. Hear his unique story. Free of charge, but free-will donations will be accepted for MPT. Artwork & cards by Iraqi artists will be for sale.
Rasouli will speak at Falls High School Wednesday morning.
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