Middle East

Anwar al Salaam (Lights of Peace) Society

Anwar al Salaam was established in 2001, in the centre of Nazareth. It was set up as a Peace Centre, at a time when the tensions in Nazareth and throughout Israel/Palestine were high and it has many years experience in bringing diverse communities together for dialogue and shared activities.

The centre is run by Sufi spiritual leaders, who are reaching out to the whole community. There are two main tracks to their work:

1. Dialogue within Islam

2. Dialogue with other faith and community groups

Their work has included projects at different levels of society including with Educators, Religious Leaders, families and civil society leaders.

The director of the centre is Sheikh Ghassan Manasra (pictured above), who has experience of dialogue with all levels of society, nationally and internationally. The centre has partnerships with Temple University (Philadelphia) Dialogue Institute and Spirit of Peace.

Sheikh Ghassan Manasra

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Eliyahu McLean

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Jerusalem Peacemakers

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Hanna writes: “I see myself as a bridge builder. No, I’m not an engineer! My background is in music, storytelling and the arts. The bridges are between people in Israel/Palestine who normally wouldn’t meet one another and also in the UK.

The first multicultural project I did was to work on recording the lullabies of many of the diverse cultures here in Israel/Palestine, and a few years ago, I released a CD called ‘Lullabies from Jerusalem’. It is an anthology of traditional folksongs in Arabic, Armenian, Hebrew, Yiddish, Amharric, Russian, among others. Working with singers and musicians from such varied cultures was an amazingly vibrant journey and the CD won an award from the Martha Stewart Living Magazine, and was also used by the Abraham Fund.

My website is http://www.lullabies-of-loss.org

A whole lot of conflict and strife in the world can be alleviated by creating a space, a sacred space for understanding one another. Once you’ve heard someone else’s story, it’s so much harder to be afraid of them, to demonize them. Storytelling is my vehicle for this effort, enabling people to awaken to their shared humanity and universal themes.”

Hanna’s CDs are available in the UK through Spirit of Peace. Please email info@spiritofpeace.co.uk