04/29/08:Iraqi peace activist speaks in Rhinelander - Sami Rasouli
Iraqi peace activist speaks in Rhinelander
Ruth Sproull , Manager, NewsoftheNorth.Net
Published 04/29/2008 - 3:00 p.m. CST
Sami Rasouli, left, arrived in Rhinelander last night and spoke with friends, including Paul Gilk of Merrill. He speaks to the public at Nicolet College tonight.
Sami Rasouli is one man trying to change the world. His appearance today, April 29, at 7:15 p.m. at Nicolet College will introduce Northwoods residents to a version of Iraqi-U.S.relations that they have perhaps never heard before.
Rasouli is the founder of the Muslim Peacemaker Teams, Iraq Art Project, Letters for Peace and the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project. Since March 11, he has been in the U.S. promoting these initiatives which advocate for a peaceful resolution to the Iraqi-U.S. conflict.
He arrived in Rhinelander last evening, dining and speaking with a small group of friends, introducing them to his perspective from having lived in the U.S. and Iraq. He says that most Americans are being misled about the situation by the U.S. media and that the real reason for the U.S. invasion was control over Iraq's oil.
He speaks from a personal perspective. Born in Iraq in 1952, he moved to and lived in the U.S. in 1976. Trained as a math teacher, he could not subscribe to the Baathist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baath_Party) political philosophy that the country was following at that time. "They had the attitude of 'if you're not with us, you're against us.' There was no place for me," he said.
For the next 20 years or so, until 2004, he operated a Middle-Eastern restaurant in Minneapolis. However, after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, and visiting his mother there, he decided that he had to do something about what he had seen and experienced.
"I was like a salmon which had to go home but I was swimming upstream. I felt tortured inside," he said.
He sold his restaurant, his house and car and moved back to Iraq with a vision of somehow helping to bring an end to the conflict with the U.S. by trying to bring together the people of the two countries.
Once back in Iraq, he met members of the Christian Peacemakers Team and from that experience, he decided to found the Muslim Peacemaker Teams (MPT) built on the same model. According to the organization's website, www.mpt-iraq.org, MPT's mission is to"bring all Iraqi groups together in peace to work for the good of the country by getting in the way of violence while encouraging the people to be self-sufficient."
Rasouli has met with Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr twice in Najaf. From the beginning, Rasouli said, al-Sadr has said that the U.S. invasion of Iraq is illegal and must end immediately. He continues to say the same thing today. What the mainstream media describes as al-Sadr's "army" are merely people coming into the streets to protect their neighborhoods, Rasouli said, after the U.S. destroyed all the public services and physical infrastructure.
"They are not an army, they aren't organized," he said. However, Rasouli warned that as U.S.weapons increasingly fall into the hands of thugs and criminals in Iraq, the U.S. assertion that Iraq is a country at civil war between fighting religious groups could become true. "American weapons are killing Iraqi people because of the invasion, but this is not a sectarian civil war. It is not about Shia and Sunni," he said, adding that it is estimated that 1.2 million Iraqis have died during the conflict, leaving 5 million orphans and 1 million widows.
Mike Miles has been Rasouli's driver since he arrived in March. Miles is the founder of the Northwoods Peace Initiative (http://www.peacenorth.org/) and has run for Wisconsin's U.S. congressional seat held by David Obey twice. He has traveled to the Middle East, including Iraq, many times.
He says that the Iraqi people have been under siege for 17 years since the first Gulf War. Brushing aside the fact of Iraq's aggression towards Kuwait then, he pointed out that the U.S. during that conflict broke not only international laws regarding rules of engagement but also the U.S. military's own rules when they destroyed public infrastructure such as water and sewage plants, hospitals and other civilian targets. The Iraqi people have been paying the price for this ever since, he said, with their suffering.
Rasouli agreed, also taking on what has been called the"Surge" in Iraq."The 'Surge' means profit from 90,000 U.S. military meals a day for a Texas-based food contractor. It does not mean clean water for the Iraqis," he said. Rasouli added that the only "national interest" of the U.S. in Iraq is the control of Iraq's natural resources.
So far, Rasouli has recruited 35 to 40 other Iraqis to join the Muslim Peacemakers Team. He said that this core is supported by another 90 to 100 people. Rasouli will continue to tour and speak in the U.S. until the end of May when he will again return to Iraq. See the NNN Calendar for times and locations of his speaking events at Nicolet College today (http://www.newsofthenorth.net/calendarEvent.cfm?EventID=656).
Ruth Sproull , Manager, NewsoftheNorth.Net
Published 04/29/2008 - 3:00 p.m. CST
Sami Rasouli, left, arrived in Rhinelander last night and spoke with friends, including Paul Gilk of Merrill. He speaks to the public at Nicolet College tonight.
Sami Rasouli is one man trying to change the world. His appearance today, April 29, at 7:15 p.m. at Nicolet College will introduce Northwoods residents to a version of Iraqi-U.S.relations that they have perhaps never heard before.
Rasouli is the founder of the Muslim Peacemaker Teams, Iraq Art Project, Letters for Peace and the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project. Since March 11, he has been in the U.S. promoting these initiatives which advocate for a peaceful resolution to the Iraqi-U.S. conflict.
He arrived in Rhinelander last evening, dining and speaking with a small group of friends, introducing them to his perspective from having lived in the U.S. and Iraq. He says that most Americans are being misled about the situation by the U.S. media and that the real reason for the U.S. invasion was control over Iraq's oil.
He speaks from a personal perspective. Born in Iraq in 1952, he moved to and lived in the U.S. in 1976. Trained as a math teacher, he could not subscribe to the Baathist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baath_Party) political philosophy that the country was following at that time. "They had the attitude of 'if you're not with us, you're against us.' There was no place for me," he said.
For the next 20 years or so, until 2004, he operated a Middle-Eastern restaurant in Minneapolis. However, after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, and visiting his mother there, he decided that he had to do something about what he had seen and experienced.
"I was like a salmon which had to go home but I was swimming upstream. I felt tortured inside," he said.
He sold his restaurant, his house and car and moved back to Iraq with a vision of somehow helping to bring an end to the conflict with the U.S. by trying to bring together the people of the two countries.
Once back in Iraq, he met members of the Christian Peacemakers Team and from that experience, he decided to found the Muslim Peacemaker Teams (MPT) built on the same model. According to the organization's website, www.mpt-iraq.org, MPT's mission is to"bring all Iraqi groups together in peace to work for the good of the country by getting in the way of violence while encouraging the people to be self-sufficient."
Rasouli has met with Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr twice in Najaf. From the beginning, Rasouli said, al-Sadr has said that the U.S. invasion of Iraq is illegal and must end immediately. He continues to say the same thing today. What the mainstream media describes as al-Sadr's "army" are merely people coming into the streets to protect their neighborhoods, Rasouli said, after the U.S. destroyed all the public services and physical infrastructure.
"They are not an army, they aren't organized," he said. However, Rasouli warned that as U.S.weapons increasingly fall into the hands of thugs and criminals in Iraq, the U.S. assertion that Iraq is a country at civil war between fighting religious groups could become true. "American weapons are killing Iraqi people because of the invasion, but this is not a sectarian civil war. It is not about Shia and Sunni," he said, adding that it is estimated that 1.2 million Iraqis have died during the conflict, leaving 5 million orphans and 1 million widows.
Mike Miles has been Rasouli's driver since he arrived in March. Miles is the founder of the Northwoods Peace Initiative (http://www.peacenorth.org/) and has run for Wisconsin's U.S. congressional seat held by David Obey twice. He has traveled to the Middle East, including Iraq, many times.
He says that the Iraqi people have been under siege for 17 years since the first Gulf War. Brushing aside the fact of Iraq's aggression towards Kuwait then, he pointed out that the U.S. during that conflict broke not only international laws regarding rules of engagement but also the U.S. military's own rules when they destroyed public infrastructure such as water and sewage plants, hospitals and other civilian targets. The Iraqi people have been paying the price for this ever since, he said, with their suffering.
Rasouli agreed, also taking on what has been called the"Surge" in Iraq."The 'Surge' means profit from 90,000 U.S. military meals a day for a Texas-based food contractor. It does not mean clean water for the Iraqis," he said. Rasouli added that the only "national interest" of the U.S. in Iraq is the control of Iraq's natural resources.
So far, Rasouli has recruited 35 to 40 other Iraqis to join the Muslim Peacemakers Team. He said that this core is supported by another 90 to 100 people. Rasouli will continue to tour and speak in the U.S. until the end of May when he will again return to Iraq. See the NNN Calendar for times and locations of his speaking events at Nicolet College today (http://www.newsofthenorth.net/calendarEvent.cfm?EventID=656).
Submitted by wnpj on Fri, 05/02/2008 - 2:56pm.