Related articles and links |  1 of 4

The Rev. Canon Andrew White has taken the cross of reconciliation into the harshest conflicts of the Middle East, talking regularly with leaders like Yasser Arafat and Ariel Sharon, as well as all religious leaders in Iraq. He is director of Coventry Cathedral's International Center for Reconciliation in England's West Midlands, which includes an international ministry known as the Community of the Cross of Nails. After the German Luftwaffe bombed the 14th-century Cathedral Church of St. Michael in a 1940 air raid, Anglicans made a cross from medieval nails found amid the rubble of the still-standing ruins. This cross has become the symbol of reconciliation that has driven the ministry since.

White also serves as the Archbishop of Canterbury's Special Representative to the Middle East. Based in Jerusalem, he spoke with CT's Jeff M. Sellers by telephone during a stopover in England about the religious future of post-Saddam Iraq.

What are the religious challenges in Iraq?

We're really in a very, very dangerous situation. The whole religious future of Iraq is at a crossroads. One, we need to ensure that we can support the Christian minority, but in a way that does not segregate them from the Muslim majority. Two, we've got to be careful of the extremist influences from outside—not least the Iranian Shi'ah influences. And then we've also got to be careful of some of the Sunni Wahhabi influences and the way that they will try to pour money into institutions and things and get people on their side.

How can the rights of Christians be protected?

We're not going to be able to do it any other way than by maintaining the positive relationships that we've created over the years—there's no way that we can put a wall around them and ghettoize them. We need to ensure that the churches in the West are engaging with the Christians in Iraq. We need to ensure that there is an open dialogue between the Shi'ah majority and the Christians.

What about protecting against the Iranian Shi'ah influence?

This is more complex. But I think the only way we can prevent that is by strengthening the moderate Shi'ah influence in Iraq. Historically, most Shi'ah are not moderates. Most of the Shi'ah around the world are actually quite militant. But that has not been the case in Iraq, because there's never really been the opportunity for dissent. In the 1991 uprising, it was the Shi'ah who rose up against Saddam, and it was the Shi'ah who suffered the most. So the really difficult thing is that these people have suffered so much, and there is now a real sense of jubilation—but also a very real danger because of that.

How much of a link is there between the Iraqi Shi'ah and the Iranian Shi'ah?

All of the Iranian Shi'ah community looks to Iraq spiritually—Iraq is the historical base of the development and growth of the Shi'ah movement. Many of the great historical shrines of the Shi'ah movement are in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities. So, many, many Shi'ah from around the world want to come to Iraq, not least from Iran. Over the last three years, the Iraqis started allowing Iranians to come on pilgrimage to Iraq.

What threat do the Sunni Wahhabi pose?

There is really potential for some kind of Sunni backlash, partly because they have had all the power and now they will lose it. Saddam Hussein didn't like the Shi'ah, but he didn't like the Wahhabi either. I remember a recent meeting with Naji Saberi Ahmed, the former Iraqi foreign minister, and him saying to me, "Don't forget, Andrew, we started the war on terrorism. We find a terrorist, whether they be a Wahhabi or a Shi'ah, and we kill them." And that was true in a way. Iraq being a very secularist state would not actually entertain opposition of any sort.

next page... |  1 of 4

July 2003, Vol. 47, No. 7