Promoting Inter-Ethnic and Inter-Religious Dialogue in Iraq
Iraq has long been affected by political turmoil, the most recent being the invasion of the Islamic State, who have been oppressing the local population and most importantly non-Muslim minorities and other ethnic and religious groups. As a result, people have been forced to flee their homes and towns looking for a safer shelter for themselves and their families.
The Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) has been highly affected by the displacement crisis. Other cities in Iraq have also received a high percentage of internally displaced persons from Mosul and Kirkuk (Shia'a and Turkuman) as well as Najaf, Karbala, and Babil provinces.
In response to the alarming situation in Iraq, civil society organizations along with non-governmental organizations are working on various projects to develop local capacities and to address the conflict and related issues. Their aim is to strategically contribute to peace and security in Iraq and the region as a whole. Youth and academics have been targeted as key stakeholders in the Iraqi social fabric and are seen as instrumental in strengthening social cohesion and promoting civil society initiatives and dialogue between various ethnic and religious groups. The emergence of a sustainable culture of dialogue and peace education promotes diversity and conflict transformation.
For that purpose, the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University (Harrisonburg, Virginia) partnered with Iraqi al-Amal Association with the intention of strengthening social cohesion among the internally displaced population and host communities particularly in Najaf and in all of Iraq as an end result. Internally displaced persons and the host community youth in Najaf Province will initiate peace interventions to promote peace conditions through multiple projects addressing inter and intra-communal divisions. These projects will be funded by a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) grant. In Najaf, Kufa University is the main partner for Iraqi al-Amal Association, which is supporting the development of connections among youth from different ethnic and religious groups, with Eastern Mennonite University playing an advisory role.
In preparation for such a tedious job in a highly volatile context, Alma Abdul-hadi Jadallah (Adjunct Professor of Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, President and Managing Director of Kommon Denominator, Inc.) along with two S-CAR doctoral students (Cynthia Nassif from Lebanon (2016 cohort) and Najla El Mangoush from Libya (2015 cohort)) and Ahmad Tarik (Iraqi alumnus of EMU’s graduate program in Conflict Transformation), have worked on designing workshops on conflict resolution in Arabic for both youths and academics.
Dr. Jadallah personally travels to Iraq to facilitate around six workshops with local partners, whereas the rest of the team works on project design and proposal evaluations for youth projects to be implemented by the end of June 2017.
Youths are then coached and mentored throughout the process learning how to design a project, seek funding, and implement a project that will then be evaluated. Academics who undertook this workshop will also seek to integrate those learnings in their teaching.
The goal of this project is for participants to gain knowledge in conflict resolution and peacebuilding and to develop their capacity to be involved and to initiate peace interventions that are sustainable for peace in Iraq through universities and youth platforms.
This project is hopefully the beginning of a partnership that will continue to grow and develop. It brought together a team of professionals from the Middle East some living abroad and some living in Iraq itself. With ripple effects, we hope that this project will contribute to the broadening of perspectives of youths and academics taking this workshop as well as support host communities and those internally displaced to promote a culture of diversity and tolerance through dialogue and peace education.