Moji

Moji Agha (Mojtaba Aghamohammadi) is a respected Iranian-American community leader; a peace, human rights, cultural awareness, indigenous democracy, and environmental activist and scholar. He is a dedicated advocate of genuine interfaith and intercultural dialogue, and his diverse activities in the past 2-3 decades, namely teaching and research (cultural psychology and culture-analysis), art and literature (bilingual poet, essayist, translator, and writer), and peace-building and justice advocacy (cross-cultural dialogue, conflict resolution, and spiritual Earth activism) are among the accomplishments noted in the first edition of "Who is Who of Iranians in America," published by the Persian Cultural Foundation.

Moji's citizen diplomacy and mediation project to help heal the U.S.-Iran conflict has been praised by many peace and social justice groups in the U.S. The latest program he has founded and heads is the Project on Culture and Conflict (and its adjunct projects, the Muslims and Global Warming Initiative and the "Iran Peace Project") at the College of Humanities, University of Arizona in Tucson. Please see: http://w3.coh.arizona.edu/aas/News/Project%20on%20Culture%20and%20Conflic2.pdf

Presently (Spring-Summer, 2007) Moji will be in Iran for nearly 3 months, in part to head two “citizen diplomacy� delegations of peace-seeking Americans (organized by Global Exchange), touring Iran for deeper cross-cultural and interfaith understanding and dialogue. Also, he is an active member of the "NO WAR [and sanctions] ON IRAN Working Group� of the American NGO coalition, United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ).

In addition to doing research and teaching for years in American universities (Saybrook Graduate School, California State University, Hayward, U. of Phoenix, and the U. of Arizona), Moji has founded numerous non-profit organizations and projects (Please see his bio at www.interfaithful.org), as well as the ones mentioned above.

His book in Persian, as to how to quit smoking naturally, using regulated breathing and a kind of self-hypnosis (based in Sufi spirituality), was published in his city of birth, Tehran, Iran, in 2005.

Moji has two Masters degrees and nearly a Ph.D. in cross-cultural psychology. As a doctoral candidate, he is in the latest stages of writing his dissertation about the complexities of citizen diplomacy and peace-building processes in the U.S.-Iran conflict, also suggesting culture-analytic foundations for an indigenous psychology for the Iranian and related Middle Eastern cultures.

He has assisted numerous organizations (including the Red Cross) with organizational development, conflict resolution, culture-analysis, "troubleshooting," and crisis consultation.

Moji is most acutely concerned about the fragile state of our Earth's environment and the very survival of life. Please see: http://www.petitiononline.com/NOBELife/petition.html

He is fully bilingual/bicultural and has been translating back and forth between English and Persian, texts as complicated as Sufi poetry. He has been writing poetry, short stories, and essays both in English and Persian for years.

Moji is a feature writer at the popular on-line magazine, the Iranian.com (www.iranian.com/MojiAgha/index) and has been published on various other Internet magazines, including www.counterpunch.org, www.payvand.com, www.persianmirror.com, and the website for Poets Against the War, among many others.

In 2001 he wrote, directed, staged, and played in a full-length comedy play called "Joojeh Haji Firooz in the Year 2222" (about the 5000-year-old traditions of Nowruz, the Iranian New Year--celebration of spring) at the University of Arizona, with the assistance of the acclaimed Arizona Theater company.

Moji's op-ed essays, peace, civil society, and cross-cultural leadership activities over the years have been covered widely by the electronic and print media in the U.S. and elsewhere; For example, CNN, CBC, NPR, Democracy Now! and numerous local TV and radio stations, as well as many major newspapers in the U.S. and canada.

Topics covered

• U.S.-Iran Conflict
• Peace-building and Conflict Resolution
• Political and Spiritual Islam
• Climate Change, Religion, and Culture