NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS)—A television ad featuring religious leaders in the United States apologizing for the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by Americans began appearing on Arabic television June 15.
The ad, sponsored by FaithfulAmerica.org, an initiative of the National Council of Churches, is delivered in English with Arabic subtitles on Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya networks.
“The ad is intended to give a message to the people in the Arab world that religious leaders in the United States are just as disturbed and horrified as they are about what happened to the Iraqi prisoners in the care of our soldiers,” said retired United Methodist Bishop Melvin Talbert, a spokesperson for the initiative.
Talbert said the online Web group wanted the Arab world to know the actions of the American soldiers accused of abuse “do not speak the wishes and desires of the American people.”
The text of the ad says, “As Americans of faith, we express our deep sorrow at abuses committed in Iraqi prisons. We stand in solidarity with all those in Iraq and everywhere who demand justice and human dignity. We condemn the sinful and systemic abuses committed in our name, and pledge to work to right these wrongs.”
Representatives from Protestant, Roman Catholic, Muslim and Jewish traditions are speakers in the television ad.
Talbert, who said he is not speaking for the United Methodist Church, does not believe that President George Bush has apologized for the abuses reported at the Abu Ghraib prison in which American soldiers are seen humiliating, taunting and torturing naked Iraqi prisoners. President Bush is a member of the United Methodist Church.
“In thinking about what the President has done, he has apologized for a few rogue soldiers, but he has not apologized for the sinful and systemic disgrace that is being unveiled now,” he said. “Many saw the president’s statement not as an apology, but as a weak attempt to shift the blame for his own policies to the rank and file soldier.”
Talbert said he does not believe the soldiers that are being prosecuted now are really the ones that need to be dealt with. “I don’t believe it is just a hand full of soldiers that got out of control.”
The Web site, FaithfulAmerica.org, is “a group of people who identify themselves by their values not by their political labels,” he said.
“ We are people who stand squarely in the social justice position of faith leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi.”
Talbert said the group has only met online and he is involved because the group’s views are “clearly in keeping with what we stand for as a church,” he said. “I have not tried to speak for the church.”
*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer.
News media can contact Kathy L. Gilbert at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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