The University of Idaho Argonaut

David Oliver Relin is out to change the world’s approach to war.
Relin’s award-winning book, “Three Cups of Tea,” has soared to the top of the New York Times bestseller list and continues to gain momentum.

With the five-year anniversary of the Iraq war, Relin said finding peace is a discussion that should be happening.
Learning how to wage peace as aggressively as we wage war is what Relin said will heal the wounded relationship between Islam and the West.
The book is about the true story of Greg Mortenson, an American nurse and mountain climber who ended up building schools in Pakistan.

Through a series of uncanny events, the book illustrates his determination and commitment to building peaceful relationships, alleviating poverty and providing access to education.
Both Relin and Mortenson will be in Moscow on Thursday to talk about the book and the current situation in the Middle East.
Claudia Wohlfeil, site operations coordinator for the University of Idaho Bookstore, was on the book award committee for the Pacific

Northwest Booksellers Association (an association that gave the book one of its many awards) and played a large part in bringing the authors to campus.
“There are so many overwhelming problems in the world. It’s easy to say, what can one person possibly do to change anything?” Wohlfeil said. “Greg is just doing it.”
Wohlfeil said that she had to do everything and anything to bring his story to as many people as possible.

“I want people to understand that yes, they can make a difference in the world,” Wohlfeil said. “We can do it, I know we can.”
Relin and Mortenson will be at three venues this Thursday in Moscow, starting with a talk at Moscow High School, followed by an address at 3:30 p.m. to UI students in the Kenworthy Performing Arts Center.
They will end the day sharing their story on the University of Idaho campus at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday in Memorial Gym.

Thanks to the efforts of Mortenson and Relin, this year over $4.5 million in donations have been raised and today there are 63 schools built, giving 25,000 students an education across Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“The process of building schools is continuing and expanding from village to village,” Relin said.
The money not only helps build schools, Relin said, but it hires teachers, maintains the schools and builds up libraries.

“I think Greg’s work is a very important alternative to U.S. national policy,” Relin said.
With the five-year anniversary of the Iraq war, Relin said finding peace is a discussion that should be happening.
“It is not by military means alone,” Relin said. “You can have success with a humanitarian approach.”
Relin, an award-winning journalist, has been committed to increasing awareness about critical human rights issues. Relin has been giving three or four talks per week for the last several months about “Three Cups of Tea” and all it represents.
But Relin believes peace can be waged locally as well as internationally.

“I think you build bridges from person to person,” Relin said. “It’s as simple as inviting an Islamic exchange student over and overcoming stereotypes that link Muslims with terrorism.”
Relin also said that supporting organizations that are doing humanitarian work is also a way to help from where you are.
The upcoming presidential election is another way to approach peace.

“Anybody can work for peace by asking candidates about their plans, not just for the war in Iraq, but for the world,” Relin said.
Most of all, Relin said waging peace is about education yourself.
“The root causes of terrorism are poverty and ignorance,” Relin said.
Larry Martin, associate manager of the UI Bookstore, is organizing Relin’s visit to Moscow.

“(The book) is about education, which is what we’re about,” Martin said.
Martin said that it does not matter whether people are for or against the war. “Every person that reads (this book) will see one guy doing the right thing that will make a difference,” Martin said.
One of the purposes of the event is to raise money to help build or maintain schools.
It took $12,000 to build the first school.
“Can we raise that much money possibly? We’re going to try,” Martin said. “We can have something to look at and say ‘we did that.’”