.MU student reaches out to Kurds in Iraq
LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa - Lancaster resident Benjamin King sees similarities between the Iraqi Kurds and the Amish.
The Amish are a Plain sect living apart in a fancy world. The Kurds, of Indo-European origin, live apart in an Arab world.
"They both internalize things and are very religious," said King. "They also both practice shunning."
King, 24, will graduate magna cum laude from Millersville University with a degree in biology on Saturday. Last month, he received the Dr. Charles R. Winter Award in Pre-Med.
The son of Jonas and Rachel King of Christiana, he is a 2001 graduate of Faith Mennonite High School in Kinzers.
King recently returned from Duhok, the third-largest city in the self-governed Kurdish region of northern Iraq, where he spent a week with an eight-member Christian mission team led by Dr. Robert Doe.
While there, King talked about the Amish and the Nickel Mines shootings with some Kurds.
"We tied (the shootings) to how the Kurdish people have been treated," he said. "We tried to bring across forgiveness, but that received mixed reviews. There's not a lot of forgiveness there yet."
According to a recent Washington Post article, "after the Kurds supported Iran in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, Saddam Hussein retaliated, razing villages and attacking peasants with chemical weapons.
The Kurds rebelled again after the 1991 Persian Gulf War, only to be crushed again by Iraqi troops.
About 2 million fled to Iran; 5 million currently live in Iraq. While Saddam was still in power, the United States tried to create a safe haven for the Kurds within Iraq by imposing a "no-fly" zone north of the 36th parallel."
In Duhok, King ate dinner in one of Saddam's former castles, overlooking a valley where 100,000 Kurds were murdered.
After graduation, King plans to take a year off before enrolling in medical school to return to northern Iraq for about two weeks and to raise funds and recruit volunteers here for the Duhok mission.
It has two goals: to establish small family clinics in neighborhoods and villages and to build 400 homes for people displaced by the Gulf War.
Doe, a physician at Lancaster County Prison and a member of In the Light Ministries, is in charge of the medical mission.
Doe's friend, Jack Harris, of Middle East Outreach, a ministry of Praise Chapel in Portland, Ore., leads the construction project.
Volunteers pay their own transportation, about $2,200 each, but once in Duhok are guests of the government.
King, who attends Lancaster's NewSong Fellowship Church, hopes to remain connected to the mission and return to the area occasionally while studying to be a physician.
"Growing up in the United States, we are handed things on a platter," he said. "I have a responsibility to give to others."
Discussing forgiveness is one of the things he hopes to pursue with the Iraqi Kurds, whom he found welcoming and accepting of Christians.
The largely Sunni Muslim people were long dormant and suppressed under Saddam.
Previously, King served with youth missions in Germany, Thailand, Venezuela and Vietnam and studied abroad at the University of Southern Denmark.
He was surprised to find northern Iraq "absolutely the most beautiful place I've ever seen."
He said the Kurds are eager to establish tourism in the "Switzerland of Iraq."
A government official told King if he came away from his trip with only one thing, let it be to tell people, "We love Americans. We love the West. We want people to come."
The peacefulness of the region also surprised King. He said leaders proudly boast that no American has been killed there.
"We saw lots of checkpoints but we didn't see any fighting," he said. "The closest we got to the war zone was when we were 15 miles from Mosul."
He said the Kurds he met are "definitely not pro-war but none of them wants us to pull out because they are afraid they will be overrun."
"These are real people's lives," he said of the war. "While here in the U.S., it's a political process."
Lancaster Online
The Amish are a Plain sect living apart in a fancy world. The Kurds, of Indo-European origin, live apart in an Arab world.
"They both internalize things and are very religious," said King. "They also both practice shunning."
King, 24, will graduate magna cum laude from Millersville University with a degree in biology on Saturday. Last month, he received the Dr. Charles R. Winter Award in Pre-Med.
The son of Jonas and Rachel King of Christiana, he is a 2001 graduate of Faith Mennonite High School in Kinzers.
King recently returned from Duhok, the third-largest city in the self-governed Kurdish region of northern Iraq, where he spent a week with an eight-member Christian mission team led by Dr. Robert Doe.
While there, King talked about the Amish and the Nickel Mines shootings with some Kurds.
"We tied (the shootings) to how the Kurdish people have been treated," he said. "We tried to bring across forgiveness, but that received mixed reviews. There's not a lot of forgiveness there yet."
According to a recent Washington Post article, "after the Kurds supported Iran in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, Saddam Hussein retaliated, razing villages and attacking peasants with chemical weapons.
The Kurds rebelled again after the 1991 Persian Gulf War, only to be crushed again by Iraqi troops.
About 2 million fled to Iran; 5 million currently live in Iraq. While Saddam was still in power, the United States tried to create a safe haven for the Kurds within Iraq by imposing a "no-fly" zone north of the 36th parallel."
In Duhok, King ate dinner in one of Saddam's former castles, overlooking a valley where 100,000 Kurds were murdered.
After graduation, King plans to take a year off before enrolling in medical school to return to northern Iraq for about two weeks and to raise funds and recruit volunteers here for the Duhok mission.
It has two goals: to establish small family clinics in neighborhoods and villages and to build 400 homes for people displaced by the Gulf War.
Doe, a physician at Lancaster County Prison and a member of In the Light Ministries, is in charge of the medical mission.
Doe's friend, Jack Harris, of Middle East Outreach, a ministry of Praise Chapel in Portland, Ore., leads the construction project.
Volunteers pay their own transportation, about $2,200 each, but once in Duhok are guests of the government.
King, who attends Lancaster's NewSong Fellowship Church, hopes to remain connected to the mission and return to the area occasionally while studying to be a physician.
"Growing up in the United States, we are handed things on a platter," he said. "I have a responsibility to give to others."
Discussing forgiveness is one of the things he hopes to pursue with the Iraqi Kurds, whom he found welcoming and accepting of Christians.
The largely Sunni Muslim people were long dormant and suppressed under Saddam.
Previously, King served with youth missions in Germany, Thailand, Venezuela and Vietnam and studied abroad at the University of Southern Denmark.
He was surprised to find northern Iraq "absolutely the most beautiful place I've ever seen."
He said the Kurds are eager to establish tourism in the "Switzerland of Iraq."
A government official told King if he came away from his trip with only one thing, let it be to tell people, "We love Americans. We love the West. We want people to come."
The peacefulness of the region also surprised King. He said leaders proudly boast that no American has been killed there.
"We saw lots of checkpoints but we didn't see any fighting," he said. "The closest we got to the war zone was when we were 15 miles from Mosul."
He said the Kurds he met are "definitely not pro-war but none of them wants us to pull out because they are afraid they will be overrun."
"These are real people's lives," he said of the war. "While here in the U.S., it's a political process."
Lancaster Online
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