Source: Preemptive Love Coalition, March 30, 2018
These barbers in Baghdad decided their scissors and clippers were perfect peacemaking tools. Most of the barbers are Muslim, but they live close to a refugee camp for Iraqi Christians. The families who live in this camp were displaced by ISIS and many of them suffered tremendously under the extremist group, which brutally targeted religious minorities.
They are low on resources, so spending money on haircuts just isn’t possible for many of them.
Seeing an opportunity to build a bridge between often estranged communities, these barbers decided to take a step toward their Christian neighbors and help them out. Once a month, they show up at the camp and give free haircuts to whoever needs one. They chat, laugh, build relationships, and through that process, they help these families heal.
Each snip of their scissors and buzz from their clippers tells these Christian families that they are welcome and wanted in Iraq. That their Muslim neighbors are for them and want them to thrive.
If these barbers in Baghdad can figure out how to make peace with their clippers and scissors, surely the rest of us can figure out how to make peace with what we’ve got.
» Read full story and other articles in the Peacemaking Fridays series.
» Here’s an interesting video/story about reaching out to refugees in America: From War to Montana (Starbucks).