Somebody posted a piece of Propaganda off Ahmadinejad's website about a meeting he held with a fringe group of Rabbis who want to see Israel peacefully disappear until the coming of the Messiah. The point of the propaganda was, well, the point of all propaganda. But Ahmadinejad did have a real meeting with Christian Clerics that was respectful and interesting. There were no Jews- they wouldn't come and no Baha'is- he wouldn't meet with them. This is what working for peace looks like.
From the NYT:
Ahmadinejad Meets Clerics, and Decibels Drop a Notch
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: September 27, 2007
After two days of prickly confrontations with critics at Columbia University and the United Nations, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran held a friendly, even warm, exchange yesterday with Christian leaders from the United States and Canada convinced that dialogue is the only way to prevent war.
The session, held under tight security at a chapel across the street from the United Nations, was a reminder that Mr. Ahmadinejad is a religious president of a religious nation who relishes speaking on a religious plane. He spent his 20 allotted minutes at the start of the two-hour meeting recounting the chain of prophets central to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and the commonality of their messages.
He took questions from a panel that included a Quaker, a Catholic, an Anglican, a Baptist and a representative of the interfaith World Council of Churches, some of whom separately said they had been criticized by other religious leaders for sitting down with the Iranian president. Given the furor over Mr. Ahmadinejad’s earlier appearances, there was no advance publicity.
The gathering, which included an audience of about 140 other religious leaders, was organized by the Mennonites and Quakers, churches known for their commitment to pacifism.
The organizers said that they had pressed hard to find a Jewish leader to join the panel of questioners, but that those invited declined because they could not win support from Jewish organizations.
“My heart was broken that there was so little support from other religions to be here,” said Mary Ellen McNish, general secretary of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group that helped sponsor the event. “If we don’t walk down this path of dialogue, we’re going to end up in conflagration.”
Mr. Ahmadinejad’s smile at times turned to a grimace as the panelists prodded him, politely, about his record on the Holocaust, human rights abuses, Israel and nuclear weapons development. Also politely, he conceded nothing, and often deflected the inquiries by turning the spotlight on the policies of the United States and Israel.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/27/world/middleeast/27clerics.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin
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