Sparks of Peace International Peacemaker Biographies:
Ghassan Manasra and Eliyahu McLean, photo by Wren Siegel
Ghassan Manasra
Ghassan Manasra is the director of Anwar il-Salaam, a Muslim peace center in Nazareth, promoting tolerance and interfaith dialogue. Ghassan is ordained as a sheikh and he is the son of Sheikh Abdel Salaam Manasra, the head of the Qadiri Sufi order in Israel-Palestine proper.
Projects that the Anwar il Salaam (Lights of Peace) center are currently leading:
- Training Jewish, Christian and Muslim high school teachers and principals with tools for teaching tolerance.
- Publishing a newspaper in Arabic to spread the message of a moderate, tolerant Islam amongst Muslims in the Holy Land.
- Translation of the Quran into Hebrew, with modern and classical Islamic commentary.
- Teaching Islam and Arabic to Jews in the Galilee, and organizing courses in Judaism for Muslims
Ghassan lives in both Nazareth and Jerusalem with his wife and four children and has a BA in Islamic Studies from the Hebrew University.
Eliyahu McLean
"Eliyahu McLean is the director of the Jerusalem Peacemakers, a network of religious leaders and grassroots peacebuilders in Jerusalem and Israel/Palestine.
Eliyahu is also a primary leader in such bridge building projects as: • The Abrahamic Reunion, a group of Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Druze religious leaders working together to re-claim religion as a source for peace.
- The annual 'On the Way to Sulha' event -- www.sulha.com
- The most recent gathering on August 14-16, 2007 brought together over 3000 people.
- Monthly inter-religious Israeli-Palestinian peace gatherings in East & West Jerusalem.
Eliyahu was initiated as a 'Rodef Shalom', 'Peace Pursuer' by Reb Zalman Schachter Shalomi.
Eliyahu's work with Palestinian Sufis is written about in the book "At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden: A Jew's Search for God with the Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land" by Yossi Klein Halevi.
Eliyahu is a memeber of the International Planet Coexist Council