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TRANSCRIPT:
Episode no. 630
March 28, 2003
BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Coming up, humanitarian aid workers in Jordan frustrated because it's too dangerous to drive more trucks into Iraq.
STEVE WEAVER (Church World Service): The risk is being hit by -- being targeted by coalition forces.
ABERNETHY: Also, the many tasks of military chaplains. Among them, helping servicemen who feel guilty about causing deaths.
JAMES MAGNESS (Head Chaplain, U.S. Navy Atlantic Fleet): It's up to chaplains to have an answer for that.
ABERNETHY: Plus, African-American Muslims -- they support the troops but most oppose the war.
Welcome. I'm Bob Abernethy. It's good to have you with us.
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BOB ABERNETHY: This week the hard realities of war set in: surprisingly tough resistance, ferocious weather, prisoners on display. In this program special reports on those trying to minister to U.S. troops and to help Iraqi civilians.
One sign of the more somber mood, the House of Representatives called on the President to declare a national day of prayer, fasting and humility.
Around the country more demonstrations for and against the war. In Alabama, Mississippi and Missouri, the Evangelical Christian Presidential Prayer Team sponsored prayers and patriotic music in support of the troops. Meanwhile, religious anti-war activists also kept up their public opposition. About 65 protestors, including a Methodist bishop, a Catholic bishop, a rabbi and several pastors were arrested in front of the White House. Liberal Jewish groups held a public ritual of rebuke and mourning for the war.
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BOB ABERNETHY: As the war developed, there were concerns about the humanitarian situation. Some aid began flowing into Iraq this week, but large shipments have been delayed by longer-than-expected fighting and an ongoing lack of security in many areas. Iraqis scrambled to get the first deliveries of aid and said more is desperately needed. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he's very worried about the situation.
He told Administration officials the U.S. has the legal responsibility to provide humanitarian aid to Iraqis who he said have been "gravely affected" by the war. The U.S. has promised to send in about one hundred million dollars in aid as soon as possible.
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BOB ABERNETHY: In Jordan, next door to Iraq, humanitarian aid workers have relief supplies but only limited access to Iraq. Paul Miller reports from Amman on the aid situation and Arab opposition to the war.
PAUL MILLER: There are daily demonstrations in Amman -- even in a freak spring snow -- against the war in Iraq and the American government. Opposition to the war is overwhelming here among both Muslims and Christians.
Father NABIL HADDAD (Melkite Greek Catholic Church): They are united by many things and especially they are united these days by opposition to war -- they don't want to see war for many reasons.
MILLER: The opposition, including prayer vigils organized by local churches but open to all, goes hand in hand with a determination to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqis.
Dr. MOHAMMED AL-HADID (Director, Jordanian Red Crescent Society): Every Jordanian will be there to try to make a difference and will try to assist and make the impact of war on the humanitarian side less horrible.
MILLER: Jordan's Foreign Minister, Marwan Muasher, said his country's policy is to end the war quickly, preserve Iraq's territorial integrity and be a gateway for humanitarian aid from all over the world.
On Tuesday, the Red Crescent leaders of the Arab Emirates and Jordan jointly sent to Baghdad the first shipment of aid since the war started.
Aid goes by truck on the only highway from Amman to Baghdad. It used to move oil and other goods constantly- but now it's mostly deserted because it's too dangerous. The few drivers who will agree to make the trip charge 2,000 dollars per run. The American military has warned them that the road is not safe.
STEVE WEAVER (Church World Service): The risk is being hit -- being targeted by coalition forces.
MILLER: Steve Weaver works for the "All Our Children Project," which has loaded its first trucks with detergent and cleaning supplies for hospitals in Baghdad. The group's goal is one million dollars in aid for Iraq's children -- more than 60 percent of the population is under the age of 17. The project's supporters include the National Council of Churches, the Mennonite Central Committee and Lutheran World Relief. They are among the many private agencies which have been providing relief in Iraq and to the Palestinians.
There is a lot more aid in the pipeline, coming to Amman from the port of Aqaba, or bought locally. The United Nations wants this to be a major aid conduit. But the trucking bottleneck could destroy relief plans, and conditions in Baghdad could soon worsen.
Mr. WEAVER: If the electricity goes, if the water goes, if those things go. then very quickly Baghdad will be a humanitarian crisis and if the trucks cant get in, it could be very serious.
MILLER: Jordan is also trying to help refugees. It opened two camps near the border expecting up to 100,000 Iraqis. Perhaps surprisingly, no Iraqis have turned up yet -- just a few hundred foreigners fleeing Baghdad. Most have been sent on to their home countries. The camp is run by the Red Crescent, but half the volunteers are Christians, and meals are provided by Jordan's Evangelical churches.
Mr. AL-HADID: It's not only a Muslim society. We have been coexisting together, we have been living together peacefully and we've never felt that "You are a Christian, I am a Muslim."
MILLER: There are 170,000 Christians in Jordan -- 5 percent of the population. The war has not driven a wedge between them and the Muslim majority, despite the efforts of some Muslim extremists.
GEORGE HAWATMEH (Chief Editor, Al-Ra'i Newspaper): The fundamentalists, let's admit it, they are looking for anything to exacerbate the situation between them and the Christians or between the Arabs and Muslims on the one hand and the West on the other. They use it for their own political ends and purposes. Some have been trying to do that, portraying this as a crusade and insisting upon it.
MILLER: But most here see the war in other terms -- as an economic disaster. Jordan has lost its trade with Iraq and its tourists from the West.
Mr. HAWATMEH: The economy has slowed down, confidence in the economy, the stock market -- all economic activity and even social activity has come to a halt quite literally.
MILLER: And Jordan, majority Palestinian, has long felt the effects of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on its western border. The Foreign Minister says a second crisis to the east is almost too much to cope with. For many reasons, Jordanians pray for a quick end to war in Iraq. For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I'm Paul Miller in Amman Jordan.
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BOB ABERNETHY Another kind of aid is that provided by the U.S. military for the special needs of its troops: a core of chaplains, ministers on many fronts. Kim Lawton has our report on the mission of military chaplains during war.
KIM LAWTON: U.S. troops fighting in Iraq face many dangers. According to military chaplains on the frontlines, among the risks are great spiritual perils.
JAY MAGNESS (Head Chaplain, U.S. Navy Atlantic Fleet): There are issues of fear. There are issues of courage. There are issues of trying to find how the faith is applied to this environment. I think these are the most traumatic moments anyone can ever face in life.
LAWTON: It's the mission of the U.S. Chaplain Corps to help service members -- and their families -- cope with the traumas of war. And the nation's nearly 1,400 military chaplains are actively engaged in that mission, in the Persian Gulf and at home.
Chaplains are non-combatants, but they are do accompany the troops in combat aboard aircraft carriers and on desert battlefields.
Chaplain MAGNESS: I recall just recently hearing one Army chaplain who is with one of the infantry units say, 'it's going to take a lot to separate me from my people. Where my people go, I will be there with them,' which is what separates us out from our civilian counterparts.
LAWTON: As often as possible, chaplains provide prayer and worship services, and one-on-one spiritual counseling to service members in the midst of war.
JESSICA HUNT (USS Nimitz): This is what you're here to do right now. And if we didn't do it, I think the situation would be much worse and I would be in fear for my family and the country that I love.
Chaplain MAGNESS: This is what we're here for. Our people need to know that their religious beliefs can take them out and beyond the current moment that they're in, that their religious beliefs can sustain them. That through their religious beliefs, they can find courage. They can face their fears, and as well, they can find forgiveness for what happens, whatever happens to them.
LAWTON: Military chaplains aren't allowed to proselytize. They help each service member explore his or her own faith tradition. And they minister across diverse religious lines. Lieutenant Abuhena Mohammed Saifulislam is one of three Muslim Chaplains in the Navy. He regularly counsels non-Muslims.
ABUHENA MOHAMMED SAIFULISLAM (Chaplain, Norfolk Naval Base): One of the unique things as a chaplain in the military, regardless of what faith group we come from. Every faith is important to us. We minister to each and every individual, regardless of their faith group.
LAWTON: In addition to combat zone ministry, chaplains are helping to notify families about casualties and working closely with military mortuary units.
Colonel SCOTT WUESTHOFF: The wing chaplain and I that had been standing out there to meet, greet the airplane, went onboard and we said a prayer for our fallen comrades and their families.
LAWTON: Chaplains are also counseling service members here, as well as those still being deployed to the Gulf. And they are actively ministering to the military families who are left behind, providing practical help and spiritual support.
Mary-K Balzell's husband Jerry was sent to the Gulf in January. She says the war has been particularly distressing for families who can watch the combat unfold live on television. The support of her chaplain, she says, has been invaluable.
MARY-K BALZELL (Ombudsman, USS Saipan): I know he has given me words of encouragement. You know -- "Set boundaries for yourself. Allow yourself to watch so much television. You know, meditate if that's what it takes. And don't get overwhelmed. If it's too overwhelming, then it's time to pray."
LAWTON: Chaplains say one of their toughest responsibilities may be helping members of the military deal with the difficult moral dilemmas raised by this war.
Chaplain SAIFULISLAM (preaching): Something good will come out of it. And that's our hope. And that's our prayer.
LAWTON: Some observers wondered whether Muslim service members would feel conflicted about fighting a war against a predominantly Muslim nation -- a war that is strongly opposed across the Islamic world. Those concerns were heightened after an American Muslim soldier was accused of attacking his own unit in Kuwait last week. But Chaplain Saifulislam says there is no such conflict.
Chaplain SAIFULISLAM: I think we should take the religion out of it. You know, if you look into the other countries who are helping America, they're Muslims too. So you know, we have both sides into it. And in America, there are a lot of Muslims here too. So I don't see it as a religious issue.
LAWTON: Jay Magness oversees chaplains for the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. He acknowledges people across faith lines can have a hard time reconciling their war duties with their religious beliefs. He says that's where chaplains come in.
Chaplain MAGNESS: We spend a lot of time listening. It's very easy to go in and tell someone what they ought to think and how they ought to believe in situations where they're in such trauma. It's much more important, though, to listen and find out exactly what the trauma is they're trying to deal with, then to help them find what their own faith tradition says about this.
LAWTON: Magness worries about the long-term consequences for service members who see the destruction and devastation of war, and realize their own involvement in it. He recalls a conversation with a serviceman who loads bombs onto fighter planes.
Chaplain MAGNESS: When he could catch me alone without any of his friends around, he came up to me and asked, "Chaplain, wonder if my bombs really did what we intended for them to do? What if they did kill people?" It's up to chaplains to have an answer for that, to help people work through that, to be restored to wholeness, so we don't leave people jettisoned aside because of what they do in service of their country.
LAWTON: Magness says he believes that job can become even more complicated when civilian religious leaders proclaim that a war is not just.
Chaplain MAGNESS: There are some people who believe that the protests and the questions being raised by some of the civilian denominations doesn't faze the servicemen. I tend to differ with that. They do hear this. And when they know that they're not being supported, particularly by their own faith communities, it sometimes comes as a very real shock to them.
Ms. BALZELL: It's very hard, very hard. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, whether they oppose the war or if they are for the war. If they are going to protest, they still need to say, "We do support the troops." Because, you know, it's so hurtful.
LAWTON: Religious anti-war activists, including those arrested in front of the White House this week, insist their opposition does not mean a lack of support for the troops.
Reverend ROGER GENCH (New York Avenue Presbyterian Church): I'm making a statement primarily against the political establishment that has promoted this war. And this is not in any way, shape or form against the military. And every Sunday, we pray for them.
LAWTON: But Magness says civilians often may underestimate the moral complexities facing those in combat.
Chaplain MAGNESS: I don't think any man or any woman in his or her right mind wants to go out and kill somebody. Nonetheless, for the perpetuation of freedom, for the perpetuation of our world, and to find justice, sometimes we're faced with doing just that. It's my belief that we religious people, are much more in the business of finding ways to help people be forgiven and to be restored to wholeness and fullness than we are to justifying what they do. In some ways, justifying what they do even cheapens life, I think.
LAWTON: And as the dangers mount for U.S. troops on the ground, chaplains pledge to face the perils with them. I'm Kim Lawton reporting.
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BOB ABERNETHY: A Washington Post-ABC News poll this week asked American whites and blacks whether they support or oppose the U.S. having gone to war in Iraq. Among whites, 78 percent said they support the war. Twenty percent were opposed. But among African-Americans, just 35 percent supported the war. Sixty-one percent were opposed.
Of all African Americans, the most conflicted may be African American Muslims, who make up about a third of all Muslims in the U.S. In this week's Muslim Journal, the leader of the largest group of African American Muslims, W. Deen Mohammed, is quoted as saying "Only the Iraqi people are punished by war, not Saddam Hussein." Mohammed also said he is "strongly against" the war.
We asked correspondent Judy Valente, in Chicago, to visit a mainstream Muslim center and talk with African American Muslims about the war.
JUDY VALENTE: John Shabazz begins his Friday prayers at the Ephraim-Bahar Islamic Center on Chicago's south side. His wife, Fatimah, prepares the meal that will follow the service. Each had converted to Islam 40 years ago, before they met. They are opposed to the war in Iraq.
JOHN SHABAZZ: I'm not in favor of the war, seeing innocent people slaughtered, whether they're Muslim, Christian, Hebrew.
VALENTE: But, as Americans, they are conflicted.
Mr. J. SHABAZZ: We're all Muslims. we're all Americans. So we're saying we are American hyphen Muslim -- of equal value.
FATIMAH SHABAZZ: I feel I'm an American Muslim and a Muslim American. That covers it all. Our ancestors paid the price. We paid more than the price to be what we are.
VALENTE: The Shabazz's 32-year-old son, Omar, is an air force reservist. He has been called up and is awaiting orders to Kuwait.
OMAR SHABAZZ: I consider myself an American citizen that's a Muslim, that's part of a universal brotherhood. There's no such thing as black Muslims. There's only Muslims. We're all one family from one God.
VALENTE: His father, an army veteran who served in Korea and Japan, told his son
Mr. J. SHABAZZ: I said, "Brother Omar," I said myself, "Personally I wouldn't go. Period. There would be nothing to debate." I said, "But I'm not telling you what to do. You have a mind of your own."
VALENTE: Omar will go to Kuwait if ordered to. A civil engineer, he is unlikely to have to raise his gun against fellow Muslims.
Mr. O. SHABAZZ: That would be very hard to do. That would be very hard for me to do right now. You never really know, sometimes, until you get put into an actual situation.
VALENTE (to F. Shabazz): But Muslims have killed Muslims many times. How do you reconcile that?
Ms. F. SHABAZZ: That's on them. Whatever you do as an individual is on you.
VALENTE: Omar says that when he was on active duty, other Muslims were conflicted about being in the military, but were there for training and education.
Mr. O. SHABAZZ: It was a tool. You used it for what you needed, and when you finished it you moved on to something else. And I think that's the feeling of a lot of Muslims in the military today. Many of them -- they love this country and they will support this country. But when the see something going on in the east, the first thing they assume is, it's not necessary an attack on terrorism, but it's more of an attack on Islam.
Imam NATHANIEL OMAR (at pulpit) Islam is a religion of brotherhood and sisterhood. Islam is a religion that makes all of us one family.
VALENTE: These moderate Muslims are concerned about America's view of Islam.
TARIQ EL-AMIN: America doesn't have a clear understanding of Islam, period. Let alone Islam and its relevance to the African-American. There are more commonalities between Islam and Christianity than there are differences. We who call ourselves Muslims, we're no different from the good Christian.
VALENTE: DePaul University Islamic scholar Aminah McCloud.
Professor AMINAH MCCLOUD (Author, "African-American Islam") Christian ministers, journalists, writers, ministers are all over the radio and the television, casting Islam as evil, casting its followers as evil, and that the world must be rid of them.
VALENTE: Professor McCloud suggests that some African-Americans see Islam being bullied by America.
Prof. MCCLOUD: African-Americans here see the world very differently from other Americans. They see it as an underdog. There's still lots of racism.
VALENTE: At this prayer service, many black Muslims were suspicious of America's motives in Iraq -- and saddened at the loss of life. But do they think it is a war against Islam?
NIMAT MUHAMMAD: I don't think it's about Islam. I think it's about something else. It's just something they're not telling us.
VALENTE (to Ms. Muhammad): What do you think it's about?
Ms. MUHAMMAD: I don't know. Probably control -- having more control of other countries, but not really about Islam.
Mr. EL-AMIN: You put in a democracy that is favorable to American interests and foreign interestsbut I think it is real nearsighted to simply say it is a war against Islam.
VALENTE: Their spiritual leader, Imam Sultan Salahuddin, says his believers were unanimously opposed to the war.
Imam SULTAN SALAHUDDIN: As Muslims we are taught not to be aggressors, and this way it appears our government is being very aggressive. We believe that changes in Iraq, as bad as Hussein is, should come from within. God says in the Koran, the Muslim book, that we never change the conditions of a people until they change what's in their hearts.
VALENTE: But now that the war has started, the Imam supports the coalition forces.
Imam SALAHUDDIN: Most definitely. We have our sons and daughters in the military, so we definitely support them. We hope for a speedy solution to this problem.
VALENTE: Many Americans are conflicted about the war -- these people, perhaps, more than most. Because they are both loyally American, and faithfully Muslim.
For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I'm Judy Valente in Chicago.
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BOB ABERNETHY: In other news, more religious violence and protests in the Indian state of Kashmir. Early in the week, suspected Muslim militants shot dead 24 Hindus in a village near the summer capital of Srinagar. It was one of the deadliest attacks ever against Hindus in the Muslim-majority state. Indian police said the attack was part of an ongoing Muslim separatist struggle backed by Pakistan. On Tuesday, friends and families mourned the victims and participated in a traditional Hindu cremation ceremony.
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BOB ABERNETHY: Here at home, more belt-tightening measures by the Roman Catholic Church. The diocese that covers all of New Hampshire announced it will close the home of Bishop John McCormack by June 30. The diocese says sexual abuse claims wiped out the church's savings. That controversy and the lagging economy are also blamed for lower donations. Closing the bishop's large brick home should save $47,000 a year.
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BOB ABERNETHY: Meanwhile, a Catholic elementary school in Los Angeles found its own way to deal with budget deficits. Hoping to raise more money than the regular Friday fish fry, St. Michael's Elementary decide to try its luck at the track. About 100 people contributed $25 each toward making a bet at Santa Anita. The gamble paid off. They picked six winning horses and won nearly $200,000. Sister Mary Catherine Antczak says she and the other nuns prayed for a good day at the races and their prayers were answered.
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BOB ABERNETHY: And finally, remembering the prisoners of war. Special prayer services, candlelight vigils and yellow ribbon campaigns are being sponsored around the country in support of the troops -- and in particular, in support of American servicemen and women being held captive by the Iraqis. Those prisoners of war are subject to the U.S. military code of conduct, which spells out what a prisoner can and cannot say and do and then concludes, quote, "I will trust in my God and in the United States of America," unquote.
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BOB ABERNETHY: That's our program for now. I'm Bob Abernethy. There's much more on our Web site. For audio and video clips from this program and special interviews, essays, commentaries and links to other resources, join us at pbs.org or America Online, keyword: PBS.
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