Fetishizing Dialogue and Commodifying Peacemaking

Abstract

This paper assesses the ongoing dialogue and student exchange
between the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and one of
the most violent institutions in Iran, the Imam Khomeini Education
and Research Institute (IKERI). I will use this relationship
between theMCC and IKERI to examine the broader question of
interreligious transnational dialogue and peacemaking.
After a brief background of this somewhat “secretive” dialogue/
student exchange, I will evaluate its effects. Of particular interest
will be the following questions: How do we responsibly shape
Muslim–non-Muslim dialogue for peace and understanding in a
global context that is inevitably shaped by an imbalance of power
and representation? How are the acts of resistance undertaken by
the disenfranchised local/diasporic Iranian communities and the
sustained systematic violence against them impacted by a peaceful
faith community such as the Mennonites? How does the absolutization
of “dialogue” coupled with self-proclaimed theological
mandates effectively strip away the archives of violence from living
memories and histories?What can examining the decade-long
dialogue between the MCC and IKERI reveal about the mechanisms
of perpetuation and dissimulation of imperial domination
and control? How can transnational interreligious interventions be
the nexus for infusing sensitivity and expecting accountability?
I argue that a fetishization of dialogue and a commodification of
peacemaking took place between the MCC and IKERI, resulting
in the patronage of the sign systems of existing normative ideologies
of violence ...