By Jim Coggins

AN ACADEMIC conference expected to attract only a small group of scholars unexpectedly aroused considerable controversy.

'Shi'ah Muslim-Mennonite Christian Dialogue III' was scheduled May 27 - 30 at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ontario, co-sponsored by the College and the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). Seven Iranian academics and seven North American Mennonite scholars were scheduled to deliver papers on 'Spirituality.'

But the event started a day late, due to delays in the granting of visas to the Iranians; and the first session, despite a heavy police presence, was shut down by protestors.

This was the third conference in a dialogue which has been going on for 10 years. Previous conferences - held in Toronto and Iran - received little attention. But this time, according to Maclean's, "Canada's Iranian expatriate community has suddenly awws suddenly awwakened to just whom the Mennonites have been talking to . . . and are pulling out all the stops to shut the dialogue down."

Canadian-Iranian academics and activists had asked the Canadian government to deny visas to the Iranians, because they are affiliated with Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute - which they maintain has links to human rights abuses in Iran. According to Maclean's, they contended the institute "is a training ground for the Islamic regime's most repressive elements."

McGill University professor Payam Akhavan told Maclean's that having discussions with these particular Iranian scholars was "like inviting the KKK because you want to have dialogue with the American people."

Opposition to the conference had coalesced around a letter to conference organizers by a group of Toronto academics. Aware of the protests, representatives of MCC and Conrad Grebel invited the protestors to a meeting May 23 to express their concerns.

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"They felt that if we knew about the human rights abuses in Iran then we would automatically cancel the conference," said MCC Ontario executive director Arli Klassen. "They were shocked to discover that we do know about the abuses, and we were intending to carry on with having the dialogue."

The protestors returned for the opening session - a panel discussion - May 28. Klassen said they were assured they would be given ample time to present their views during a question and answer session. She observed that one of the great ironies of a conference set up to seek peace is that there was a heavy police presence.

The protestors remained quiet for the first 15 minutes, but when the first Iranian panelist got up to speak, the protestors drowned him out with shouting - so the meeting had to be cancelled.

The Iranians were whisked away under police protection. Klassen said they wondered why they had been silenced, since Canada is supposed to be a place of free speech.

Klassen said the Mennonites then "worked hard at engaging the protestors in conversation" and "that some good engagement happened." She said the organizers were glad that they had met the protestors the previous week, because "we could shake their hands and call them by name. It made conversation possible." All the while, the police looked on nervously - but did not intervene.

The rest of the academic conference went ahead, but the only other planned public session was cancelled.

Klassen said she was disappointed that "people who came to Canada for freedom didn't allow it here," but added she didn't want to be judgmental. She noted the protestors all had "stories of having suffered in Iran, powerful stories which shouldn't be silenced."

She said the protestors were "speaking out of an experience of deep trauma" and it was "maybe unrealistic to expect that they could listen quietly."

Attempts by BCCN to reach any of the protestors for comment were unsuccessful.

July 2007