See also:
"Iraq: Crisis of Conscience," an article by the Muslim Peace Fellowship’s Rabia Harris from Fellowship Magazine’s March 1996 issue.

Postcards of protest:
The National Campaign is making available, at cost, picture postcards of Iraqi children who are suffering as a result of the sanctions. Two images are included. The cards are pre-addressed to President Clinton and the UN Security Council. For the sake of impact, participants are asked to write their own messages urging the removal of the sanctions. Suggested texts, along with fact sheets, are supplied. Mailing them is an ideal undertaking for peace groups, committed families, mosques, churches, synagogues, and communities of faith. Every voice, and every conscience, counts.

Cards are available at 10 for $1.50, 100 for $8.00, and 1000 for $50 (shipping and handling are included). Special arrangements are available for larger mailings or in case of financial difficulty. Checks are payable to Muslim Peace Fellowship, noted for the Iraq Campaign.

In the five years since the Persian Gulf War, "as many as 576,000 children have died as a result of sanctions imposed against Iraq by the United Nations Security Council, according to a report by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)." (New York Times, 12/1/95). If the blockade continues, UNICEF tells us, 1.5 million more children will eventually suffer malnutrition or a variety of unchecked illnesses because the sanctions make antibiotics and other standard medicines impossible to get. Yet the UN Security Council and the US government continue to defend an action whose highest casualty rate is among those under five years old.

We hold that this tactic is both politically unsuccessful and morally indefensible. We can no longer be party to it by our passive consent. We are not supporters of the regime of Saddam Hussein. We would happily see him out of power. But we believe that the effects of the sanctions do not touch him at all. By debilitating his people, they actually strengthen his control. Starving people cannot overthrow dictators.

The National Campaign to End Iraqi Sanctions is a program of the Muslim Peace Fellowship, acting in an interfaith coalition with Voices in the Wilderness, Pax Christi-Illinois, and others committed to the advocacy of the Iraqi children.

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