Eliyahu McLean

Peace Journey in Britain

April 2004

I share with you now the second part of my recent overseas journeys for the sake of peace,
when I traveled with Sheikh Bukhari to England and Scotland in March.

In Glastonbury

Our early spring tour in the UK started on Feb 25th with the introduction of Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bukhari to the spiritual community of Glastonbury.

Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bukhari's home is a center for peace and dialogue in the Old City of Jerusalem, which his ancestors established as a center for Sufism and Uzbeki culture when they came to Jerusalem from Bukhara four hundred years ago. Sheikh Bukhari is a representative in the Holy Land of the Naqshabandi Sufi order. I work with Sheikh Bukhari to host many groups of Israeli Jews and people from all over the world for meetings of prayer, dialogue and study of Sufism at his home, which is located on the Via Dolorosa, adjacent to Al-Aqsa mosque.

Glastonbury is often called the 'New Jerusalem' because it is a spiritual center with ancient historic links to the original Jerusalem. We were invited by a group of friends, hosted by Pam Perry and the Creative Health Network. This network is a partner and supporter our work for peace in the Holy Land. They feel a responsibility as English people to support the healing process necessitated by the negative legacy of British policy in the Middle-East. Pam's specific connection to this issue comes from her father having served as a British soldier in the Mid-East. It was during this visit that it was decided to start the Jerusalem Peacemakers website.

With the Naqshabandi Sufis in London

On February 25th Sheikh Bukhari and I were invited to a 'zikr' ceremony in one of the largest mosques in London, a Naqshabandi Sufi center in the Seven Sisters neighborhood. The 'zikr' was led by Sheikh Abu'l Qasim, who is also known as the Green Sheikh, an imposing, unique personality who wears a large, green turban and flowing green robes – green being an Islamic symbol of peace and harmony. I last met the Green Sheikh in the home of a Sufi sheikh in the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza. Our encounter is captured in Yossi Klein Halevi's book At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden.

The Green Sheikh invited us to his London home. To get there, we traveled in his green bus. At his home, we were welcomed by his several wives and many children. Our guestroom is also his personal mosque. The Green Sheikh grew up in the Old City of Jerusalem, his former home being where the Western Wall plaza stands today. During the 'zikr' the Sheikh cried out passionately for peace and justice for the people whom G-d has chosen to live in the Holy Land and recited names of G-d in Arabic such as 'Ya salaam'.

At a Jewish-Muslim study seminar

On February 29th Sheikh Bukhari and I were invited to participate in a study day for Jews and Muslims hosted at Leo Baeck College in London. The day was organized by Halima Krausen, a female Islamic community leader in Germany who often comes to the Holy Land and joins our peace gatherings. With Muslim and Jewish participants from London, we studied the theme of 'struggle and surrender' in Islamic and Jewish texts.

Interview at the BBC

On Tuesday March 2nd BBC Radio Scotland did an in-depth interview with me on my work and life-story. I stressed the importance of the world hearing about the positive and hopeful things happening in the Holy Land which often do not make it into the news.

Address to the Scottish Parliament

The next day, on March 3rd I was honored to give the opening moment of reflection to the Scottish Parliament. Here it is:

My name is Eliyahu McLean. I am visiting Scotland from the Holy Land together with a Muslim Sufi Sheikh named Abdul Aziz Bukhari. Though I am Jewish, born of a Jewish mother, I also have roots on my father's side that go back to Scotland, so I'm a proud McLean as well.

Sheikh Abdul Aziz and I have come from the city of Jerusalem to show how a religious Jew and a religious Muslim can work together for peace. We help bring together Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious leaders who seek to bring spiritually based solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

We hold regular prayer-for-peace gatherings with people of all faiths in the home of Sheikh Bukhari in the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem's Old City.

Sulha

We seek to reclaim the indigenous Middle Eastern peace wisdom. In Arab culture there is a ritual called Sulha, which brings warring tribes together for reconciliation. This is related to the Hebrew word Slicha, forgiveness.

So, in the spirit of Sulha, 3 years ago we held a Hannukah-Christmas-Ramadan celebration in the Galilee. Last summer the annual Sulha gathering attracted 1,500 people.

Holy hutzpah

We are two deeply wounded people who are blessed and destined to share the same land together, the Land of the Prophets. Though it is called by different names, Israel and Palestine, we believe that the path of spirituality can serve as a bridge for people on all sides.

People ask us, "With all the bad news, how you can work for peace?" My rebbe, Shlomo Carlebach, taught me a key principle which I hold onto. It is called 'holy hutzpah'. We have to have the hutzpah, the audacity, to believe that peace is possible.

City of Peace

Sheikh Bukhari often says that Jerusalem is the heart of the world, and that by healing Jerusalem we will heal the world.

Jerusalem has several meanings. In Hebrew, yeru-shalayim, 'you shall see peace', and in Arabic, or-shaleem, 'the light of peace'. So we hope to return Jerusalem to its true purpose, to be the peace capital for the whole world.

So we invite you, the Scottish people, to join us in this endeavour. Join us in this sacred work – come to visit us in Jerusalem, or send us your prayers, or build bridges of understanding, here in Scotland.

First Annual Festival of Middle Eastern Spirituality and Peace

March 3rd-6th 2004

In March 2003 when Ibrahim Abuelhawa and I were invited to speak in Edinburgh, Scotland, our event was so successful that our host Neill Walker was inspired to plan a 10-day-long 'Edinburgh Festival of Middle Eastern Spirituality and Peace' hosted by the Edinburgh International Center of World Spiritualities. The center co-sponsored a series of events around the theme of spirituality and the Middle East, in which Sheikh Bukhari and I were among the main speakers.

Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bukhari and I invited the Green Sheikh to join us in Scotland and the three of us gave a very moving public talk and led a prayer session with members of the wider public from Edinburgh. The Green Sheikh emphasized that the holy places in the Holy Land should serve as a bridge to peace and not as a cause for hatred and separation. He called the Western Wall in Arabic 'Harat ul Salaam' the wall of peace and the Dome of the Rock 'Sahrat ul Salaam' the rock of peace and the entire land 'Ard ul Salaam' the Land of Peace. Sheikh Abdul Aziz spoke about Jerusalem as the heart of the world and our need to heal Jerusalem, because if the heart is sick, the whole world is sick.

The highlight of the Festival was a one day conference, at the Quaker meeting house in Edinburgh, with teachers from Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Sufi, Ismaili, Baha'i, Zoroastrian and Druze traditions. Sheikh Bukhari and I facilitated a joint prayer session from the Jewish and Islamic traditions.

The Sheikh joined me at Shabbat morning prayers at the Edinburgh Orthodox synagogue. The rabbi of the synagogue, David Rose, publicly welcomed the Sheikh from the bimah (stage) saying, "it is a big honor that the first Moslem guest in our synagogue is a Sheikh from Jerusalem."

On March 6th at Saint Mary's Cathedral, there was a major Middle Eastern theme 'One World Peace and Justice Concert' with world music including African drumming and Egyptian dance. As a closing event for the entire concert, Sheikh Abdul Aziz and I had everyone form a large circle. Joining us were Saudi and Iraqi ex-patriots and members of the Scottish Jewish community. We had everyone chanting together 'shalom' and 'salaam' and then we all walked towards the center of the circle with our voices in unison praying for the peace of Jerusalem.

The Highlands of Scotland were also calling me as my roots are Scottish. I took a 3 day journey to the magical Isle of Skye and bore witness at Culloden, the site of a massacre in 1745 ending the final Highlander rebellion against the English.

University of Bradford

At the National Prayer Breakfast last February in Washington DC I had met a Lebanese woman Karen Abi Ezzi, chair of the Department of Peace Studies of the University of Bradford in England. She invited me to speak to her graduate students and March 10th I gave a talk to them about our work. There were students from all over the world who are studying conflict resolution and peace building. I connected with Ben Mussanzi wa Mussangu, who is the head of a reconciliation center in the Republic of Congo. He commented on the many parallels in our work of healing deeply traumatized societies in conflict zones.

Sevenoaks

In the community of Sevenoaks, south of London I wrapped up my speaking tour of England and Scotland. A very welcoming audience organized by a friend and ally there, Jane Ozanne, brought together a diverse group that included Jews, Christian peace activists and Church clergy from several denominations.

Shalom, Salaam,

Radash Eliyahu McLean

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