grassrootspeace.org

November 5, 2007: This website is an archive of the former website, traprockpeace.org, which was created 10 years ago by Charles Jenks. It became one of the most populace sites in the US, and an important resource on the antiwar movement, student activism, 'depleted' uranium and other topics. Jenks authored virtually all of its web pages and multimedia content (photographs, audio, video, and pdf files. As the author and registered owner of that site, his purpose here is to preserve an important slice of the history of the grassroots peace movement in the US over the past decade. He is maintaining this historical archive as a service to the greater peace movement, and to the many friends of Traprock Peace Center. Blogs have been consolidated and the calendar has been archived for security reasons; all other links remain the same, and virtually all blog content remains intact.

THIS SITE NO LONGER REFLECTS THE CURRENT AND ONGOING WORK OF TRAPROCK PEACE CENTER, which has reorganized its board and moved to Greenfield, Mass. To contact Traprock Peace Center, call 413-773-7427 or visit its site. Charles Jenks is posting new material to PeaceJournal.org, a multimedia blog and resource center.

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Contents - Archives - War Crimes - GI Special - Student Activism - Links

War on Truth  From Warriors to Resisters
Books of the Month

The War on Truth

From Warriors to Resisters

Army of None

Iraq: the Logic of Withdrawal

Chicago Religious Leaders Urge Bush To Avoid War
Council: 'Untold Lives' Could Be Saved

The following article is reprinted from the Associated Press as a "fair use" for educational purposes. Copies of this article may be available from the source on-line or via mail. This website has no authority to grant permission to reprint this article. At times we copy an article, with attribution, rather than link directly to the source as media links are often unstable, e.g. the article moves from the source's linked page to an archive, thereby creating a bad link on this site.

POSTED: 12:39 p.m. CST November 30, 2002

CHICAGO -- In an unprecedented show of unity, Chicago's top Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders have drafted a joint letter to President Bush, urging him to avoid war with Iraq. The joint letter is the first public statement on a national issue released by the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago since the group was founded in 1984.

The letter will be released publicly on Sunday at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. James.

An advance copy obtained by the Chicago Tribune read, in part: "In the present situation, conditions justifying war have not been met. We still lack compelling evidence that Iraq is planning to launch an attack ... We believe that there is ample time and latitude for pursuing alternatives that could avoid warfare, saving untold thousands of lives." Among the letter's signers are Cardinal Francis George of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, Bishop William Persell of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, Rabbi Ira Youdovin of the Chicago Board of Rabbis, Metropolitan Iakovos of the Greek Orthodox Diocese of Chicago and Bishop C. Joseph Sprague of the United Methodist Church.

Kareem Irfan, chairman of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, also signed the letter, although he said many Muslims would have perferred stronger wording.

Irfan nonetheless called the letter "the strongest statement that we could come up with that would satisfy the diversity of views."

"What we agreed on does convey the moral and religious authority Amnerica carries and the role it has to play in keeping with its position as the superpower of the world," Irfan said.

Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Page created November 25, 2002 by Charlie Jenks.