Friday, June 26, 2009
This is just a quick link to follow -- an "aside." These are links to interesting things that, for one reason or another, I didn't place into a full posting. Click the link to visit the full article. Go to the blog index for a regular listing of posts.
CAMERA: Mennonite Central Committee Silent on Iran - 'In addition to sponsoring the two dinners and interfaith pilgrimage mentioned above, the Mennonite Central Committee has had multiple face-to-face contacts with scholars from the Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute (IKERI) located on Qom, Iran. This institute is directed by Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi, described by The Star (Toronto) as "spiritual adviser to Iran's hard-line president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad."...at the conference's end, "the Mennonite delegation expressed its gratitude to IKERI for unsurpassed hospitality, delicious meals, comfortable accommodations, and excellent conference meeting space." IKERI apparently treated its Mennonite guests with more respect and deference than the Iranian government has shown to its own citizens. According to CNN, witnesses report that government security forces are beating people like "animals."
"Well intentioned," at least in theoretical terms, and naive and stupid as a bag of rocks. These types of theoretical do-gooders and "pacifists" end up being used by the world's most macabre henchmen, and then put themselves to bed each evening, congratulating themselves for their moral superiority.
I'd like to see them tackle the DRC (the Congo), not from their Western confines and their cossetted remove, but from within the Congo itself, or Sudan, or Zimbabwe, etc.
Michael:
The MCC has a significant presence in the DRC.
In that case, I rightly stand corrected. Truth is, I should have known better and am embarrassed for having reacted, painting with such a broad brush. It was presumptive and unkind of me to do so.
Thank you for the correction.