TADHAMUN تـضـامـن

Tadhamun (solidarity) is an Iraqi women organization, standing by Iraqi women's struggle against sectarian politics in Iraq. Fighting for equal citizenship across ethnicities and religions, for human rights, and gender equality.

جمعية تضامن تدعم المساواة في المواطنة بغض النظر عن الأنتماء الأثني أو الديني وتسعى من أجل العدالة الأجتماعية و حماية حقوق الأنسان في العراق

Friday, July 6, 2007

British vicar takes the Alpha course to Iraq


As Canon Andrew White has been portrayed in the western media as a 'peace and reconciliation campaigner' for Iraq, it is worth remembering that he is an enthusiast for the war on Iraq. We thought this article from last year is relevant.
The Sunday Times, UK June 11, 2006 Christopher Morganhttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/

A British priest is teaching an evangelical course in the heart of Baghdad, introducing Iraqi Muslims to Christianity.
Canon Andrew White has converted a number of Muslims using the Alpha course despite the threat of a religious backlash in one of the world's most dangerous cities.
White is the parish priest at St George's Church, Baghdad, and leads services in a makeshift chapel in the grounds of one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces [in the Green Zone].
In the past year people have been killed at the entrance to St George's, which has now been barricaded by concrete. A number of the lay leaders have been murdered.
White offers 10-week Alpha courses to both Muslims and westerners living in the city. He emphasises that the aim of the courses is not to convert nonbelievers, though eight out 20 Iraqis who attended the course have become Christians. He recently conducted a baptism in Saddam's former private swimming pool.
The 41-year-old, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, is not deterred by the violence. Early on Easter morning we could hear the sound of bombs contrasting with birdsong, White said. 'Between the birds and the bombs, it was a wonderful service. This is the best parish I have had in my life.'
In recent months he has been forced to stay away from St George's because it is so dangerous. Some of the congregation cross the city to attend the chapel, which is located in the safer international zone.

White is fully aware that converting Muslims is a sensitive issue. Just yesterday I was asked to baptise some Muslims, but we have to be very careful over this, he said. There are Muslims who have asked to convert, but the reality is that it has to be done very quietly.
�The main point of the Alpha course is to provide a proper Christian foundation. A lot of people on the course have been nominal Christians already. Its not just about getting new converts.
Most attending the course in the chapel are from the armed forces or from construction companies working in Iraq. A civil engineer, who worked in the international zone until last year and asked to remain anonymous, said: I had to do a double-take as I saw a young girl playing the guitar at the front with her M16 rifle propped up at her side.
The engineer witnessed two Muslims secretly converting to Christianity: They came to faith but they had to move away [from the area].
The worship White leads is unmistakably evangelical: he uses a projector and screen to lead the congregation in singing hymns and choruses.
Alpha courses are designed to introduce people to the basics of Christianity. More than 6m people are said to have attended the courses in 150 countries since they were first developed at the Holy Trinity Church in Brompton, London.
White, who led some of the earliest Alpha courses in London 16 years ago, uses videos and DVDs from Holy Trinity to instruct his Baghdad congregation.
He became the parish priest of St George's last summer after previously acting as a personal envoy to the Middle East for George Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury.
His friends call him the 'vicar of Iraq'. He has been involved in the negotiation for the release of more than 90 hostages and helped free Kate Burton, the British human rights activist, in Gaza in December. 'I don't fear death in the slightest,' he says. I have been shot at so many times now. Danger, death threats, bullets flying over my head, this is just part and parcel of my daily life.
The Alpha courses are aggressively marketed in the UK, with extensive cinema campaigns containing celebrity endorsements, in the hope that they will reverse the decline in church attendances.
But a growing number of clergy are concerned about the evangelical phenomenon, saying it is manipulative, authoritarian and superficial.
Kenneth Wakefield, a vicar with the Launceston Team Ministry, Cornwall, is one of a number of clergy to have criticised Alpha over recent weeks.
'It's like a nice glass of Coke, all fizzy. But once the fizz has gone, what have you got left? You can't live on bubble and froth all the time', he said. 'It's Noddy theology. It feeds privatised religion. It's all about me and my God'.
Malcolm Brown, a priest and academic from Cambridge, claims people have been alienated from the church by the insidious marketing of Alpha as the definitive expression of the Christian faith.

Petition sign and circulate:

Release Iraqi women hostages, victims of terrorism themselves

بعيدا عن الوطن؛ حراك التضامن مع الوطن فنا، شعرا وكتابةً
Away from Home; Memory, Art and women solidarity: you are invited to an evening of poetry and music 22/3/2017 18:30 at P21 Gallery London click here for more details
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Public meeting at The Bolivar Hall, London Sat.14/5/2016 at 15:00 IDPs : Fragmentation of Cultural and National Identity



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Protest the suffering of Iraqi Christians: No to terrorism No to state terrorism.Hands off our minorities. Hands off our people. Shame on the human rights violators on all sides. Assemble 11:30 on 28/7/14 near Parliament Square, near Westminister tube station London. For more past events click here

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Useful links






Halt All Executions! Abolish The Death Penalty!

We women of Tadhamun condemn the persisting practice of arbitrary arrests by the Iraqi security forces. We condemn their arrests of women in lieu of their men folk. These are 'inherited' practices. We are alarmed by credible media reports of the Green Zone government’s intentions of executing hundreds of Iraqi men and women.


For more info click here
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Professor Zaineb Al Bahrani of Columbia University NY speaking at a our meeting on the destruction/damage to historical sites in Iraq

On youtube: Part1
Part 3
Part4
One more video:



Human Rights Watch: No woman is Safe

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Articles published on this site do not necessarily reflect the opinion of WSIUI or its members


المقالات المنشورة على هذا الموقع لا تعكس بالضرورة آراء منظمتنا أو أعضاء منظمتنا


Samarra Minrate built in 852 AD

Samarra Minrate built in 852 AD
Building of 1 500 massive police station !
From the angle of the photo, it is possible to calculate that the complex is being built at E 396388 N 3785995 (UTM Zone 38 North) or Lat. 34.209760° Long. 43.875325°, to the west of the Malwiya (Spiral Minaret), and behind the Spiral Cafe.
While the point itself may not have more than Abbasid houses under the ground, it is adjacent to the palace of Sur Isa, the remains of which can be seen in the photo. While the initial construction might or might not touch the palace, accompanying activities will certainly spread over it.Sur Isa can be identified with the palace of al-Burj, built by the
Abbasid Caliph al-Mutawakkil, probably in 852-3 (Northedge, Historical Topography of Samarra, pp 125-127, 240). The palace is said to have cost 33 million dirhams, and was luxurious. Details are given by al-Shabushti, Kitab al-Diyarat.
Samarra was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO at the end of June. The barracks could easily have been built elsewhere, off the archaeological site.--
Alastair Northedge Professeur d'Art et d'Archeologie Islamiques UFR d'Art et d'Archeologie
Universite de Paris I (Pantheon-Sorbonne) 3, rue Michelet, 75006 Paris
tel. 01 53 73 71 08 telecopie : 01 53 73 71 13 Email :
Alastair.Northedge@univ-paris1.fr ou anorthedge@wanadoo.fr