Sheikh Ghassan Manasra and Rev. Cherag Anna Less Phd travel to London and the UK for a late-autumn speaking tour which also includes National Interfaith Week in the UK. They are joined by Sheikh Ghassan’s daughter and AR young adult leader Zeynab Manasra, Rabbi Mordechai Zeller (trustee to AR UK and Rabbi in residence at Cambridge University), and Michael & Amanda Kenton, co-founders of AR UK.

Dinner with Syrian Refugees in London
November 8:

A number of you may have read my blogs from May about our visit with Alaa and his family, who are refugees from Syria living in London. I have recopied those blogs from May here to provide you with a back ground for today’s story (Click here to read those accounts).

Ghassan and I have stayed in touch with Alaa since May and we have learned that his brother Bahaa finally gained permission in June to move to England and join them. After two years separation, he has been reunited with his wife and children and has been living here and adapting to life in England. We are anxious to meet him and also to learn how Alaa is doing.

Of the many people we met on our last journey Alaa was perhaps the most enthusiastic person we had encountered. He expressed a great desire to learn to become an Abrahamic Reunion facilitator for interfaith text study groups. He saw it as a great method for helping the mostly Muslim Syrian Refugee community in which he is clearly a leader, to practice their English, and learn about the culture and beliefs of the English community they had now become members of.

A few months ago these dreams crumbled when we were heartbroken to learn that in August, just as Alaa had finally gained permission to work in England, he was diagnosed with colon cancer, and since then he has had his entire colon removed, and is currently in his third round of chemotherapy. It seemed that things had suddenly taken such a dire and unexpected turn for this young family, who a few months ago seemed on the verge of beginning a hopeful new life.

We have invited Alaa and his wife Taghrid and their daughter Yara as well as Alaa’s brother Bahaa and his wife and their two children to a nearby Syrian restaurant for dinner. They have told us that since leaving Syria over three years ago they have not been able to afford to go out to eat in a restaurant so we hoped this will be a special occasion for them.

The neighborhood where we stay in London is mostly inhabited by people from the Middle East. The grocery stores and restaurants advertise halal meat and feature foods common to that region of the world. The signs and menus are written in Arabic, and the staff is able to communicate with shoppers and diners in their native language. Women are typically dressed in full niqabs or hijabs. At times it is hard to remember we are in England, because it feels more like we are in a Middle Eastern country. We hope they will feel at home.

We are surprised when Alaa walks into the restaurant. He has a long beard and a full head of hair. He looks well, except for a sadness in his eyes. He explains that due to his low immune system doctors do not allow him to shave. We sit down to eat and they seem delighted to discuss the menu with the wait-staff in Arabic. The staff, who know us, and why we are here, are anxious to serve this family with love and kindness and treat them with special care.

It feels like a holiday and Alaa shyly shares, that tomorrow it is their one-year anniversary since arriving in England. As the evening continues he again expresses his desire to begin text study group for his community, but it is evident that his health is fragile and soon he appears very tired.

We take a short walk and they all express that they look forward to revisiting this neighborhood again soon as it is so comforting to be in a place that feels like home.

We stop on the sidewalk, to call an Uber and look up and see a big sign that says: “No one ever really dies.” Alaa walks over and takes a picture. It is a poignant moment as this young family considers their uncertain future.

UK Speaking Tour, November 2017

Sheikh Ghassan Manasra and Rev. Cherag Anna Less Phd travel to London and the UK for a late-autumn speaking tour which also includes National Interfaith Week in the UK. They are joined by Sheikh Ghassan’s daughter and AR young adult leader Zeynab Manasra, Rabbi Mordechai Zeller (trustee to AR UK and Rabbi in residence at Cambridge University), and Michael & Amanda Kenton, co-founders of AR UK.

Opening Hearts at Springfield Prison

November 7: Today Abrahamic Reunion’s UK tour had a presentation at Springhill Prison in Buckinghamshire, England.
Abrahamic Reunion Peacemakers Sheikh Ghassan Manasra (Director), Rabbi Mordechai Zeller (a former resident of Israel serving as the current Rabbi for Cambridge University, and a trustee for the Abrahamic Reunion in the UK), and I, Reverend Cherag Anna Less PhD, (AR Executive Director) together with Abrahamic Reunion youth leader, Zaynab Manasra, and our UK Abrahamic Reunion team, Michael and Amanda Kenton, and Yvonne Dixon the Quaker Chaplain at Springhill Prison, met to offer a presentation to approximately 80 inmates, staff members and chaplains at Springhill Prison.

Yvonne introduced us to the audience and spoke about Springhill’s history, which served as the training centre for British Special Forces during World War II. She explained that the gymnasium where we were giving our presentation was built by the prisoners and named after Britain’s first Muslim war heroine, Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan.

Although Springhill Prison shares the same grounds as Grendon Prison, where the Abrahamic Reunion had presented last year, Springhill has a very different population than Grendon Prison, which offers a therapeutic program for England’s most dangerous and violent criminals.

Springhill is an open prison that supports the needs of about 335 long-term prisoners who are in the last few years of their sentence. At Springhill prisoners train and prepare for their release, and participate in a resettlement program that allows them to work in jobs outside of the prison during daylight hours, and return to live in the prison when they are not working.

The majority of residents in our audience were Muslims and surprisingly for us, there were a number of Palestinians.

The Palestinians inmates eagerly gathered around Ghassan to speak with him in urgent, hushed Arabic while Mordechai and I made our presentations.

After all of us had spoken there was a Question and Answer period, and initially the tone of the inmate’s “questions”, which were directed at Mordechai, began as wounded and skeptical challenges that bordered on being aggressive.

But Ghassan immediately stepped in to skillfully navigate their hostility, and soothe them with quotes from the Quran and the Hadith.

He appealed to their innate desire for peace in ways that were culturally familiar for them, and once they felt their pain had been heard and responded to, they began to soften and calm down.

As Ghassan continued to raise their consciousness to a higher level, they reluctantly began to open their hearts to Mordechai (their preconceived enemy), and me (Mordechai’s naïve American accomplice, who didn’t understand their collective Muslim and Palestinian pain), and an atmosphere of trust, hope and camaraderie began to take over.

By the time the evening was winding down the inmates were asking, “Are there more people like you?” “Are there more people who believe what you believe?” In other words, “Is it really safe, and possible, to love one another?” As they hugged Ghassan and Mordechai goodbye, and shook my hand, they admitted what “a good guy” Mordechai was, and they shared that they had never met people like us, and this evening offered them the possibility to consider a new ending to an old story that always left them feeling like the victim. They asked how they could get in touch with us when they “get out.”

The authorities and staff at Springhill also immediately came forward at the end of the program to discuss our next steps together regarding offering programs, and in-depth trainings, here, and in other prisons they are responsible for.

As we packed our things to leave, we could finally exhale and thank the dedicated staff at Springhill. We send a special thanks to Chaplain Coordinator Brenda Davies and Yvonne Dixon for their support of the Abrahamic Reunion.

August 2017, Week-long workshop at the Zenith Institute in the Swiss-Italian Alps

In the weeks before our gathering at the Zenith Camp in Switzerland this past August of the summer of 2017 there was a deadly terror attack at the third holiest site in Islam, the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in the old city of Jerusalem. The subsequent installation of metal detectors by Israel triggered weeks of rage, counter attacks, and violent clashes throughout the Holy Land, causing suffering and casualties on both sides.

Fear of provoking violence in the region has led Israel to a ban Jews from praying or making any religious expression on the Temple Mount, which is Judaism’s most sacred site.

The people in our international group at the Zenith Camp in Switzerland wondered why this had happened.

In a week-long interactive workshop led by a panel of Abrahamic Reunion peace builders that included Rabbi Mordechai Zeller of Cambridge University, Sheikh Ghassan Manasra from Nazareth Israel, Dr Anna Less, and David Less, our group learned the history, and through interactive group process explored models for peace in the Holy Land.

It was a profoundly healing week for participants, who came mostly from Germany, but also from Austria, Poland, Hungary, Switzerland, Chile, India, Australia, and America. Abrahamic Reunion peace builder Rabbi Zeller, who is currently the Rabbi at Cambridge University in England, but who grew up in Israel, and whose ancestors came from Berlin, was a major contributor both to the discussion and the healing process.

In addition, Sheikh Ghassan Manasra offered comfort and hope to the participants, whose home countries have been dealing with a massive influx of Muslim refugees from Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It is an influx that activates psychic scars in European communities still dealing with the legacy of World War II, and who struggle with fears of terrorism, and unfamiliar diversity, combined with guilt about their past. There has been little opportunity for people living in these communities to explore what is being activated in a dialogue process involving Jews and Muslims. Our interactive work, which used story telling, music, dance, deep inquiry, writing, and personal sharing, offered profound opportunities to heal the past, understand the present, and explore reassuring possibilities for the future.

Peace Tour to the UK
Blogs through the lens of Dr. Anna Less, Co-Founder and International Executive Director of the Abrahamic Reunion, May 14th – June 6th 2017

Preface

This is the third speaking tour to the UK that The Abrahamic Reunion’s International Executive Directors, Dr. Anna Less and Ghassan Manasra, have done on behalf of the Abrahamic Reunion. Anna’s husband David Less, another founding member and Chairman of the Board, accompanied them on part of this tour to hold a fundraiser in London for the Abrahamic Reunion, before leaving for Germany, where he met with the Abrahamic Reunion’s German board.

While in London Anna, Ghassan and David worked with the AR UK team, founded by the AR UK board members Amanda and Michael Kenton.

Michael and Amanda did a brilliant job of organizing this tour, which included speaking engagements at a prison, a synagogue, an interview on BBC radio, and many other exciting events coinciding with the beginning of Ramadan.

The blogs represent the views and experiences of Dr. Less as she traveled through the UK with Ghassan and her husband on a trip that represents a significant step forward in creating a network of Abrahamic Reunion peace-builders in the UK.

The first blog recounts aspects of David and Anna’s interview with Clare Balding at the BBC 2, where Clare hosts a live weekly Sunday morning program from 7 – 9 AM that focuses on various faith issues, called Good Morning Sunday.

Blog 1: BBC2 Radio Interview

In the interview we begin by describing our work in the Holy Land; we talk about building bridges and connections, we describe our Iftar dinners, the text study groups, and our interfaith prayer gatherings in Jerusalem. We also talk about our upcoming fundraisers and programs. It feels like word about the AR’s work is really getting out to the UK, work that can offer so much to this country

David tells the following story:

Many years ago I was privileged to be mentored by a very great teacher who believed in the principle of harmony and love as the very essence of religion. He taught me to always look at life through the lens of two words: “what if?”

In my five decades of work, with religious leaders from many of our world’s faiths, I have often asked this question regarding the differences and variations of beliefs in religions.

What if we could honor the basic tenets, customs and traditions of any religion and yet pierce the veils of separation and find the living core common to all.

For the first time in our known history we are developing a global civilization. By knowing the basic practices and beliefs of the other we can become inwardly global.

Dialogue and understanding emerge naturally, when respect and knowledge are seminal.

Our group, the Abrahamic Reunion, has brought thousands of the inheritors of Abraham’s vision together to experience in houses of worship, in eating together, in sharing prayers together, an opportunity to rekindle our deeply rooted generations old memory of the family of Abraham.

What if we really lived that memory?

He concludes by reading Rumi’s poem

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about.” Rumi

Dear Friends,

Last year when we came to England Ghassan and I spoke at a Quaker meeting. One of the attending Quaker ministers there, Yvonne Dixon was so moved by our talk that this year she arranged for David, Ghassan and I to speak at Grendon Prison where she is a chaplain.

Grendon Prison is the United Kingdom’s only therapeutic prison community for the treatment of serious sex offenders and violent criminals.

Below are some excerpts from an article about typical inmates at Grendon Prison that I read to prepare myself for my experience there. The article is about “Adam” and “Eddie (not their real names).”

Hello, I’m Adam. I’m serving life for murder. I killed my daughter.”

I wasn’t expecting that, writes Home Affairs Producer Ginny Sandringham. I was prepared for “I killed somebody”, or “I killed another gang member”, or “I killed my best mate because he was sleeping with my wife”, even. But this was something different. For the next few minutes I couldn’t think about anything else. His words echoed round my head as he carried on talking, telling me how much time he’d already served (eight years) and how much of his tariff he still had to serve (seven years).

“But the thing is”, he said, “I’m having to come to terms with what I’ve done because I have to talk about it every day with the guys here. I have to talk about my feelings and re-live the events leading up to the moment it happened.

“It’s what I signed up for. I knew the only way I was going to get through this was to come to Grendon (prison) and try and turn my life around by facing my demons.”

“I’m going to be taking part in psycho-drama soon”, he tells me, “which is where we act out the crime with the other inmates. I’ll have to go over the night I killed my daughter in detail, not only from my perspective but from my wife’s and my daughter’s.”

He looks absolutely terrified at the prospect.

At the end of his trial the judge told Adam: “You will have to live with what you have done for the rest of your life.”

But by coming to Grendon it’s even harder than that. He has to re-live it every day.

“Eddie”, a former gang member from Birmingham, is in for murder.

“All I had ever known was how to be part of a gang”, he said. “It was normal for me to have a gun in my hand. It was normal to be violent. When I got sent to prison my mates were already there.

“Coming here is probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done. (Here) You’re asked to talk about your feelings – something you never do in a gang. You’ve got to accept people who are different, and you have to control your anger. If you’re violent you’re out. It’s the complete opposite of being in a gang.”

This is the story that most of the inmates tell. The decision to come to Grendon is not an easy one.

To us on the outside it seems like a no-brainer: a high security jail surrounded by violent and desperate men or a prison where violence isn’t tolerated, you can wear your own clothes, and take part in therapy? But we haven’t lived the lives they have.

As we drive through the loops of barbed wire to enter the prison grounds, Yvonne explains that the Grendon Prison grounds also house the Spring Hill Prison, which was used during the Second World War as a radio transmission centre for Special Operations Executive . I am stunned to realize that my spiritual teacher’s sister Noor Inayat Kahn, who was trained as a radio operator sent her radio transmissions to these very grounds throughout the war. After the war, theses facilities were converted to become the UK’s first open prison. And in recent years the gymnasium here was dedicated to, and named after Noor Inayat Kahn.

I feel her hand reaching through time and space to guide this experience as we sign in and enter a chamber where we, and our bags are searched. They confiscate my jump drives and my pack of chewing gum.

“Some one could use it to make an impression of a key,” they explain.

We are escorted through hallways hung with excellent and very detailed artwork done by the prisoners with lots of time.

We enter a large and very cold gymnasium to set up for our presentation. We are told that our program is “very popular” and over 65 inmates have signed up to come. More chairs and benches are brought in. The prison therapists, clergy and staff also want to see what we are presenting.

We are introduced to the prison’s Imam and other clergy members.

As people file in and take their places, I can’t keep myself from trying to identify who is the staff and who are the inmates. Many people in the audience wear religious symbols, necklaces or beards that identify their religious affiliations.

David and Ghassan each speak eloquently about the work of the AR. When Ghassan speaks in Arabic and references the Quran and other Islamic texts, the Imam and various audience members light up and nod. When David speaks from the heart people around the room respond with profound recognition and applause.

I show the power point, and explain our activities, and afterwards there is a question and answer session. The questions are deep and heartfelt, and are followed by refreshments and an opportunity for the audience to speak with us individually.

A young Muslim inmate filled with light introduces him self. He tells us our work of bringing people from insular religious communities to meet with others was so important. He describes how growing up in an insular Muslim community in London had led to his radicalization and ultimately to this destiny.

We were told that in the after math of nine eleven he had murdered someone in retaliation for the media’s portrayal of Muslims, and he has been in prison since that time. I try to feel back through the years to nine eleven and consider what I had experienced in my own life since then and I try to imagine what he had experienced….

He said that in about 5 years perhaps he would released and it was his dream to be able to work with an organization like ours to promote interfaith harmony.

Another man approaching middle age with a long beard introduced himself as having an English, Jewish Mother, and a Muslim, Pakistani father. He shared had been in prison since the age of 17. He didn’t expect to be out soon. He wondered if he could work for the Abrahamic Reunion from within the prison. He said he had good computer skills and this work was exactly what he had been looking to do. He wondered if there was a way he could be of use to us, and to our work.

Others who had been involved in religiously motivated hate crimes came forward to express their support and admiration and share how important they felt our work was.

Chaplains came forward to ask how they and the inmates could learn to start an AR inspired interfaith study program.

As we rode the train home each of us described how profoundly and deeply moved we were by our experience there. We shared that it could potentially be a life altering experience for each of us personally and perhaps for the Abrahamic Reunion in general. We joked about presenting to a “captive audience” but our joking was an attempt to alleviate the profound sense of responsibility that each of us was experiencing as we continued to imagine how the Abrahamic Reunion could serve this community, and as we recognized the potentially far-reaching effects that work could have.

When I arrived home and opened my computer I had inquiries waiting from the directors and chaplains at the prison explaining that ‘radicalization’ in prisons is a very important topic that needs to be addressed and wondering how we could work together in the future.

We are absorbing this.