Minister reveals ways to bring Middle East peace

Students gathered to hear Palestinian peace activist and minister Aziz Sarah speak about how the teachings of the Bible and the Quran can be used towards ending conflict in the Middle East at the Douglass College Center Wednesday evening.
“Extremism happens because people say they believe in something but they don’t practice it,” Sarah said. “All religions have things that can encourage people to work together, and things that may make them want to hate each other.” 
During the speech, Sarah discussed his experiences growing up in Jerusalem, and his work with the Parents Circle-Families Forum, a non-profit that focuses on reconciliation between bereaved Israeli and Palestinian families.
“We wanted to bring him here to hear a real experience of what’s going on in the Middle East, and to hear more perspectives on the conflict,” said Ross Lippencott, a Mason Gross junior and president of Campus Advance, a group that aims to spread awareness of the Bible through biweekly discussions and organized the event. 
Sarah first spoke about extremism and its origins, and said when he was nine years old, Israeli officials arrested his older brother. 
Sarah said his brother was beaten, tortured and put in prison. 
He was released after a year because of his deteriorating health and died a few days later, Sarah said.
“It changed my whole life,” Sarah said. “I wanted to know who was responsible and why, and I wanted to get revenge.”  
He gave historical examples of radicalism among Muslims, Jews and Christians, citing scripture from each religion.
A video was shown about the work of the Parents Circle-Families Forum, which Sarah has been the chairman of since 2006. 
Sarah delineated alternatives to violence and extremism and what audience members could do to encourage peace.
He said everybody should learn about other groups for themselves and to make a choice to go in a direction other than violence. 
Sarah used quotes from the Bible and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad to support his points.
“Anger can be used for good or for bad,” he said. “Just because somebody killed my brother, it doesn’t mean that I need to hate.” 
Audience members said they liked Sarah’s discussion of “praying for your enemies,” a phrase used the most in the Book of Matthew. 
“I’m very happy to hear Aziz encourage us all to do something, and to pray for our enemies,” said Dwight Overby, a Neptune, N.J. resident who attended the event. “We all need to do something for the Middle East and work towards more understanding.” 
Sarah also shared stories from his life about how much progress can be made by talking with people from different groups.
“When you come to people with love, it’s a lot more effective than bullets or war,” he said.
He ended his talk by answering questions from the audience about the origins and politics of the conflict. 
Campus Minister David Ibrahim said the event was very informative. 
“We wanted to bring someone with first hand experience.  I found that there are many similarities between the Bible and the Quran,” Ibrahim said. “What I took away was that everyone wants peace, it doesn’t matter what your religion or background is.” 
Several attendees were also very touched by Sarah’s personal narrative. 
University alumnus Farah Mondelus said that she felt that Sarah’s account was more accurate than anything seen on television.
“All you see on the nightly news is conflict and more conflict,” she said. “It’s good to learn about the alternatives, and to see that most people want peace.”

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