(RNS) — At cross-cultural gatherings in Bethlehem, West Bank, groups of children and adults turn to a 67-year-old, colorful comic book with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s image on its cover, his tie and shirt collar visible beneath his clerical robe.
As they read from “Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story,” the group leader is prepared to discuss questions about achieving peace through nonviolent behavior.
“What are the teachings we have from Martin Luther King?” asks Zoughbi Zoughbi, a Palestinian Christian who is the international president of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and founder of Wi’am: The Palestinian Conflict Transformation Center. “How can we benefit from it, and how do we deal with issues like that in the Palestinian area under the Israeli occupation? How to send a message of love, agape with assertiveness, not aggressive?”
Zoughbi told RNS in a phone interview that the comic book, published in 1958, remains a staple in his work, which includes both English and Arabic versions. (It is available in six languages.) Over the decades, it was used in Arabic in the anti-government Arab Spring uprisings, in English in anti-apartheid activism in South Africa and in Spanish in Latin American ecclesial base communities, or small Catholic groups that meet for social justice activities and Bible study.
It c …