So I've done the occasional post about a Qatari friend of mine who was getting married -- well the time has come! He is getting married this week. Naturally, I'm invited, as is almost every other man he knows.
Much like the previous wedding I went to you do not have a lot of build-up, I got the invitation two days ago. That's okay though because unlike the West there are no gifts, no place settings at the table, nor many of the other planning details that go into a Western wedding. In Qatari society it's perfectly acceptable to even just show up, congratulate him, and walk back out the door. No pressure on guests.
Unlike the previous Qatari wedding I went to that took place in a large tent this one is taking place at a prominent hotel. He is the oldest child and his father is a VIP in the government so apparently the celebration has to be a bit more upscale. Qatar society does place some level of expectation on people for how grand the wedding must be, it is something that the government is trying to dissuade people from doing because of the cost, but so far to no avail.
My friend has been very gracious in answering my numerous questions about wedding customs, and knows that I will be posting about it on my blog, but the actual cost of the wedding is something I haven't asked because I feel that's getting a little too nosy. I do know that for a typical wedding (remember there are separate men's and women's functions) you should expect to splash out at least $100,000, not including the gifts and jewelry that go to the bride. My friend's family is probably spending more than that.
Now if you recall technically he's already married; months ago a judge visited the couple and their families and accepted the contract of marriage, but under Qatari culture they are not considered married until they have had this celebration. There is both the men and ladies party where congratulations are excepted, food is eaten, and likely some dancing occurs -- moreso at the women's party I've heard. There is no exchanging vows, an imam overseeing a ceremony, or any other kind of formal ceremony as we know it from a Western wedding. I have asked my friend if there is any specific preparations or ceremonies that he does earlier in the day (the wedding party I'm attending starts after the evening prayer). He said no, there is no other private ceremony he does. After the men's party, which will end 10-ish, he will go to the women's party and leave with the bride. At that point they are considered married by all and sundry.
After that there will be a honeymoon. As of a few days ago my friend still wasn't sure where they were going to go!? Apparently his wife-to-be didn't have any particular preference. I'm guessing the concept of honeymoons is a pretty recent thing, possibly a Western influence. I base this on the fact that he seems somewhat laissez-faire about where their honeymoon will be.
You bet I'll post an update once the party has finished.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Saturday, November 27, 2010
malaysia and switzerland
Okay, I'm back from my tour of Switzerland and Malaysia. Switzerland was for work and had its ups and downs (as it is I got there I cracked a tooth so I had to find emergency dental treatment) but after the seminar I went down to Geneva for the weekend. I've never been to Geneva and I found it to be, I don't know, not as nice as I expected. I think when you spend time in Switzerland most of the cities look so good that cities like Geneva just seems so-so by comparison. I got to see the CERN particle accelerator facility though which was really cool, and they do have free boats that go across the lake near the Jet d’lau and the Lakeside of Geneva is scenic. Just that if you have been to some other places like Interlaken or Zürich then it doesn't hit you with as much "wow" factor as it normally might. Two days was about enough to see everything that I wanted to.
Switzerland is also really expensive so if you're planning to go you better be prepared shell out a lot of money for meals. Expect to pay at least $60 plus for even a straightforward meal at a restaurant. Fast food meal will be $12 plus per person.
I did enjoy taking the train from Basel to Geneva though, it was nice to see the countryside and there was a fantastic view from the train once it got to the mountains near the lake.
So I was back in Doha for about 24 hours before flying off to Malaysia to visit a Qatari friend of mine for the Eid holidays. I was pleasantly surprised by Kuala Lumpur, it was clean, safe, very modern, had a pretty good metro system. I could wander around the various neighborhoods and no one would bother me. The city had a few interesting sites such as the KL Tower, Petronas Tower and nearby park, and the Batu Caves (Hindu shrines and temples set in a cave in a mountainside, definitely worth seeing, but you're climbing at least 200 steps). My friend had one day off so we spent that going up to the Cameron Highlands to see the jungle and tour a tea plantation. I also spent time in Kuala Lumpur seeing a bird park, the national Mosque, a butterfly park, doing a bit of shopping, and going to a fish spa, where you put your feet in the tank and fish start eating all the dead skin on your feet. Tickles like all get out and I spent the first five minutes laughing my head off.
I also got to try durian, the infamously smelly fruit. At first I had a dessert with a durian sauce on it and it was pretty tasty, though it did smell a bit, but then my friend remembered that there was a durian stand somewhere near the fish spa so we went to seek it out. I knew we were getting close due to the smell -- either that or someone threw up in an alleyway -- and sure enough about 50m later there was a big stand of durians. The owner was willing to open the fruit right there and you could sit on some plastic chairs and eat it. The fruit is so smelly that many hotels, and the Metro, will not allow you to take the fruit in. The fruit actually tastes nothing like it smells, more like a sweet banana. Another group of four tourists also bought a durian and were sitting at a table near us trying it, at least one of them gagged and had to spit it out, they couldn't get past the smell.
It was also quite muggy and hot in Kuala Lumpur, typically sunny and hitting the mid-30s with high humidity. Going outside and walking around became a bit tiring and you were quickly just soaked with sweat. But every day around 2:30 to 3:30 there would be a massive downpour that would last about a half hour to 45 minutes, and then everything would be cooler and fresher. I only got caught in the downpour once but I had a very large umbrella with me so only my feet got wet (I was also using the umbrella as a sun umbrella for walking around, great investment and I recommend anyone visiting Kuala Lumpur to keep a big umbrella with them at all times).
Eating in Kuala Lumpur was great. There were tons of street stalls and restaurants selling Malay, Indonesian, Indian, Chinese, and related cuisines. You could typically get decent meals for five bucks provided you didn't want to go to fancy restaurants in malls and stuff. As I was with my Qatari friend we had to make sure we were eating in a halal restaurant, which were plentiful but not every restaurant was halal. Malaysia has strict laws about labeling so almost anything that is halal has to be labeled as such. I even bought some tea when we were at the Boh tea plantation and the boxes of tea had the symbol that it was halal (how in the world tea couldn't be halal is beyond me but there you go).
Back in Doha now, where I continue my Arabic classes and get out and about more because the weather has cooled, but more on that later.
Switzerland is also really expensive so if you're planning to go you better be prepared shell out a lot of money for meals. Expect to pay at least $60 plus for even a straightforward meal at a restaurant. Fast food meal will be $12 plus per person.
I did enjoy taking the train from Basel to Geneva though, it was nice to see the countryside and there was a fantastic view from the train once it got to the mountains near the lake.
So I was back in Doha for about 24 hours before flying off to Malaysia to visit a Qatari friend of mine for the Eid holidays. I was pleasantly surprised by Kuala Lumpur, it was clean, safe, very modern, had a pretty good metro system. I could wander around the various neighborhoods and no one would bother me. The city had a few interesting sites such as the KL Tower, Petronas Tower and nearby park, and the Batu Caves (Hindu shrines and temples set in a cave in a mountainside, definitely worth seeing, but you're climbing at least 200 steps). My friend had one day off so we spent that going up to the Cameron Highlands to see the jungle and tour a tea plantation. I also spent time in Kuala Lumpur seeing a bird park, the national Mosque, a butterfly park, doing a bit of shopping, and going to a fish spa, where you put your feet in the tank and fish start eating all the dead skin on your feet. Tickles like all get out and I spent the first five minutes laughing my head off.
I also got to try durian, the infamously smelly fruit. At first I had a dessert with a durian sauce on it and it was pretty tasty, though it did smell a bit, but then my friend remembered that there was a durian stand somewhere near the fish spa so we went to seek it out. I knew we were getting close due to the smell -- either that or someone threw up in an alleyway -- and sure enough about 50m later there was a big stand of durians. The owner was willing to open the fruit right there and you could sit on some plastic chairs and eat it. The fruit is so smelly that many hotels, and the Metro, will not allow you to take the fruit in. The fruit actually tastes nothing like it smells, more like a sweet banana. Another group of four tourists also bought a durian and were sitting at a table near us trying it, at least one of them gagged and had to spit it out, they couldn't get past the smell.
It was also quite muggy and hot in Kuala Lumpur, typically sunny and hitting the mid-30s with high humidity. Going outside and walking around became a bit tiring and you were quickly just soaked with sweat. But every day around 2:30 to 3:30 there would be a massive downpour that would last about a half hour to 45 minutes, and then everything would be cooler and fresher. I only got caught in the downpour once but I had a very large umbrella with me so only my feet got wet (I was also using the umbrella as a sun umbrella for walking around, great investment and I recommend anyone visiting Kuala Lumpur to keep a big umbrella with them at all times).
Eating in Kuala Lumpur was great. There were tons of street stalls and restaurants selling Malay, Indonesian, Indian, Chinese, and related cuisines. You could typically get decent meals for five bucks provided you didn't want to go to fancy restaurants in malls and stuff. As I was with my Qatari friend we had to make sure we were eating in a halal restaurant, which were plentiful but not every restaurant was halal. Malaysia has strict laws about labeling so almost anything that is halal has to be labeled as such. I even bought some tea when we were at the Boh tea plantation and the boxes of tea had the symbol that it was halal (how in the world tea couldn't be halal is beyond me but there you go).
Back in Doha now, where I continue my Arabic classes and get out and about more because the weather has cooled, but more on that later.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
travel
Sorry I haven't posted for a while everyone, I had to go away on a business trip and, as usual, had to work late and on the weekend to make sure I got everything caught up before I left. Weirdly enough I'm only back for today because it is now the Eid Holiday so I will be off this evening to Kuala Lumpur to meet up with a Qatari friend of mine who is studying Islamic finance there. Never been to KL so I can't wait.
I'm also taking Arabic lessons again at Qatar University. It's tough, Arabic is not an easy language to learn if you're used to Latin languages. I'll post more about that when I return.
I've also been considering taking lessons in Islamic theology. Seems like a natural progression to my work studying the local culture and religion and since I believe FANAR provides free courses in it, why not? I guess the only concern is of course they are interested in you converting to Islam but from my experience Muslims are nowhere near as pushy as Christian groups like Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons. Once I've had a look at what is available maybe I will be able to do this without getting too much of a hard sell. I remember visiting FANAR once and having a discussion with one of their staff members and I think they were a little surprised by how much I actually knew about Islam.
Anyway, off to KL, I'll be back in about a week.
I'm also taking Arabic lessons again at Qatar University. It's tough, Arabic is not an easy language to learn if you're used to Latin languages. I'll post more about that when I return.
I've also been considering taking lessons in Islamic theology. Seems like a natural progression to my work studying the local culture and religion and since I believe FANAR provides free courses in it, why not? I guess the only concern is of course they are interested in you converting to Islam but from my experience Muslims are nowhere near as pushy as Christian groups like Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons. Once I've had a look at what is available maybe I will be able to do this without getting too much of a hard sell. I remember visiting FANAR once and having a discussion with one of their staff members and I think they were a little surprised by how much I actually knew about Islam.
Anyway, off to KL, I'll be back in about a week.
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
Doha Tribeca Film Festival -- part two
Okay, back to the movies I saw last week at the film festival...
Africa United
Attendance: about 90%
A movie about some kids in Rwanda chasing a dream. One of the kids is apparently an excellent football player and gets spotted by a scout who is holding tryouts in the capital for kids to be part of a team that will perform at the opening ceremony for the World Cup in South Africa. The kid, his "manager" (a street savvy kid who makes soccer balls out of condoms and plastic bags), and the manager's sister take a bus to the tryouts, get on the wrong bus, and wind up in the Congo. Realizing he missed the tryout they all decide to journey to South Africa to catch up with the team. Various hijinks along the way and they also pick up a couple of other people while they travel through various countries in southern Africa.
Overall I liked it and thought it was a pretty entertaining film. The film touched on some pretty deep subjects (HIV, child soldiers, war atrocities, prostitution, poverty) but on many of the subjects it was only touched on in a roundabout way so adults watching the film would understand what they were referring to but a child watching the film probably would not (the film is rated G). Despite the touchy subjects the film is a lot more upbeat than you think.
Rating: 4/5. Worth taking the family to but be warned that there is a bit of PG language
Itto Titrit
Attendance: maybe 20%, but the show did start at 22:30. I felt bad because the director and the producer were there as well.
A film from Morocco and one of the first films to be made in a native Moroccan language – Tamazight. According to the director in the past, for whatever reason, you were not allowed to make films and TV shows in that language. He was very pleased to be able to make this film where the characters all speak Tamazight.
The film takes place in 1950s Morocco in a village up in the mountains. The villagers still live traditionally and deal with a number of dramas: forced marriage, protests against French occupation, education for girls, and dealing with the modern world as it encroaches on their village.
Unfortunately when you shoot a film in a language that is not widely spoken you do not have a wide berth of acting talent to choose from. The acting in this film was generally pretty bad. Also strange was that this film dealt with so many issues, all of which could have made a movie on their own, yet were usually resolved quickly and in many cases offscreen. For example one young woman falls in love with a French soldier, the family plans to make her marry some old guy so she runs off with the soldier. But we never see her leave, run away with the soldier, say goodbye to her family, nothing. We find out she fled when 2 people gossip in the village "can you believe she ran off with that French soldier?” We never see her again. This entire romance and drama took all of about 90 seconds of film split over three scenes. You see the soldier once. One could have made an entire movie on this.
Rating: 2/5. It got a bonus point because at least it showed life in rural Morocco in the 1950s, which I thought was kind of interesting. The acting, lack of on-screen drama, weak script, and what I consider a nonsensical ending kind of killed this movie for me.
My Perestroika
attendance: around 70%, the director and one of the editors was also there
A documentary that follows five people who were all in their teens when the USSR shifted away from communism to capitalism in the early 90s. All five were classmates in the same school and the film shows how they have led such different lives and coped with the changes. One is a successful businessman, a married couple are history teachers, one is a single mother (her fiancé got killed by the Mafia) who repairs billiard tables, and one is a musician who became a punk rock star in the early 90s. They discuss how things have changed, they discuss where they were and what they did during big events in Soviet history, and how by about grade 8 or 9 they could see that the propaganda did not reflect reality.
Rating: 4/5. It was insightful, all of the people followed were pretty intelligent and open in their discussions about their views during those times. The documentary also included a lot of home movie film footage of the people and the events.
Meek's Cutoff
Attendance: I think around 50%, not bad for a late night screening
A Hollywood film set in 1840 following three covered wagons with settlers in it crossing Utah heading towards Oregon, led by a hired guide named Steven Meeks. They get lost, start running low on water, and capture an Indian in the hopes that he can lead them to water. That is pretty much the entire two-hour film summarized right there. This film is slow and contemplative and has a lot of scenes of people crossing prairie and salt plains.
Rating: 1/5. I was waiting for something to happen -- and very little did. I found the ending annoying at first but then realized that at least the film ended. This is definitely a movie for people who like slow, contemplative films but be warned -- this film makes 2001: A Space Odyssey look like a Jet Li flick.
And so ends another Tribeca. I love film festivals, yeah a lot of the films I saw weren't that great but that's the chance you take, some will always be good and some will be bad, but given that many of the films are independent of foreign films there's little chance you'll get another opportunity to see them.
Africa United
Attendance: about 90%
A movie about some kids in Rwanda chasing a dream. One of the kids is apparently an excellent football player and gets spotted by a scout who is holding tryouts in the capital for kids to be part of a team that will perform at the opening ceremony for the World Cup in South Africa. The kid, his "manager" (a street savvy kid who makes soccer balls out of condoms and plastic bags), and the manager's sister take a bus to the tryouts, get on the wrong bus, and wind up in the Congo. Realizing he missed the tryout they all decide to journey to South Africa to catch up with the team. Various hijinks along the way and they also pick up a couple of other people while they travel through various countries in southern Africa.
Overall I liked it and thought it was a pretty entertaining film. The film touched on some pretty deep subjects (HIV, child soldiers, war atrocities, prostitution, poverty) but on many of the subjects it was only touched on in a roundabout way so adults watching the film would understand what they were referring to but a child watching the film probably would not (the film is rated G). Despite the touchy subjects the film is a lot more upbeat than you think.
Rating: 4/5. Worth taking the family to but be warned that there is a bit of PG language
Itto Titrit
Attendance: maybe 20%, but the show did start at 22:30. I felt bad because the director and the producer were there as well.
A film from Morocco and one of the first films to be made in a native Moroccan language – Tamazight. According to the director in the past, for whatever reason, you were not allowed to make films and TV shows in that language. He was very pleased to be able to make this film where the characters all speak Tamazight.
The film takes place in 1950s Morocco in a village up in the mountains. The villagers still live traditionally and deal with a number of dramas: forced marriage, protests against French occupation, education for girls, and dealing with the modern world as it encroaches on their village.
Unfortunately when you shoot a film in a language that is not widely spoken you do not have a wide berth of acting talent to choose from. The acting in this film was generally pretty bad. Also strange was that this film dealt with so many issues, all of which could have made a movie on their own, yet were usually resolved quickly and in many cases offscreen. For example one young woman falls in love with a French soldier, the family plans to make her marry some old guy so she runs off with the soldier. But we never see her leave, run away with the soldier, say goodbye to her family, nothing. We find out she fled when 2 people gossip in the village "can you believe she ran off with that French soldier?” We never see her again. This entire romance and drama took all of about 90 seconds of film split over three scenes. You see the soldier once. One could have made an entire movie on this.
Rating: 2/5. It got a bonus point because at least it showed life in rural Morocco in the 1950s, which I thought was kind of interesting. The acting, lack of on-screen drama, weak script, and what I consider a nonsensical ending kind of killed this movie for me.
My Perestroika
attendance: around 70%, the director and one of the editors was also there
A documentary that follows five people who were all in their teens when the USSR shifted away from communism to capitalism in the early 90s. All five were classmates in the same school and the film shows how they have led such different lives and coped with the changes. One is a successful businessman, a married couple are history teachers, one is a single mother (her fiancé got killed by the Mafia) who repairs billiard tables, and one is a musician who became a punk rock star in the early 90s. They discuss how things have changed, they discuss where they were and what they did during big events in Soviet history, and how by about grade 8 or 9 they could see that the propaganda did not reflect reality.
Rating: 4/5. It was insightful, all of the people followed were pretty intelligent and open in their discussions about their views during those times. The documentary also included a lot of home movie film footage of the people and the events.
Meek's Cutoff
Attendance: I think around 50%, not bad for a late night screening
A Hollywood film set in 1840 following three covered wagons with settlers in it crossing Utah heading towards Oregon, led by a hired guide named Steven Meeks. They get lost, start running low on water, and capture an Indian in the hopes that he can lead them to water. That is pretty much the entire two-hour film summarized right there. This film is slow and contemplative and has a lot of scenes of people crossing prairie and salt plains.
Rating: 1/5. I was waiting for something to happen -- and very little did. I found the ending annoying at first but then realized that at least the film ended. This is definitely a movie for people who like slow, contemplative films but be warned -- this film makes 2001: A Space Odyssey look like a Jet Li flick.
And so ends another Tribeca. I love film festivals, yeah a lot of the films I saw weren't that great but that's the chance you take, some will always be good and some will be bad, but given that many of the films are independent of foreign films there's little chance you'll get another opportunity to see them.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
A Qatari Wedding (Arab wedding)
Remember how I was mentioning that a wedding was coming up, and that Qataris don't advertise a wedding too far in advance? Well I received an invitation to a wedding -- and not the friend’s wedding that I had mentioned before, another Qatari was getting married.
I got the invitation two days before the wedding. Yes, two days before. It's okay though, you don't bring gifts to a Qatari men's wedding, all that is expected of you is to show up and congratulate the groom. [As I mentioned before men and women celebrate a wedding completely separate from one another, usually in completely separate venues sometimes kilometers away].
Here's a sample of what the wedding invite looked like. I didn't want to show the whole thing to keep the groom’s identity confidential (I haven't asked him if it's okay to blog about his wedding) but this will give you an idea:
So the evening of the wedding I dressed in a suit and tie and a bunch of us piled into a Land Cruiser and headed out to the wedding tent. Qataris invite almost everyone to a wedding, and for a men's wedding you don't even need to be invited -- one of the guys with us didn't know the groom at all, having recently moved to Qatar only six weeks ago. I'll get into why such a broad invitation is given a little bit later in the blog post. Apparently for the women's wedding it's different and it's usually invite only.
The family had set out a large tent in an empty field to host the men's wedding. Now this tent was easily the size of a large ballroom, necessary to be able to hold potentially hundreds of people, and you need a large space to set it up in for both the tent and the parking for all of the cars. As Qataris are now used to holding such large weddings there is a thriving business in setting up these large tents and the generators for providing electricity for the lights.
So we all entered the tent and the carpeting led us straight across the tent to the other side where the groom and his father were supposed to be receiving the guests. When we arrived it was prayer time so everyone was in the tent praying. We just waited around until they were finished. The groom and his father were easy to spot as they were the only ones wearing a bisht (a thin overrobe that they wear loosely over their white thobe, bishts are typically worn by aristocracy during official meetings and ceremonies but they are also worn by the groom and his father during a wedding). I was with a Qatari friend and I was already primed on what to do -- shake the father's hand and give your congratulations, shake the groom's hand and congratulate him, don't spend too much time chatting as that will hold up the line of other guests waiting to greet the groom and his father, and move on. If you want to chat with the groom there will likely be time later in the evening when things are a bit quieter. Surprisingly the groom paused proceedings for a bit and asked us to all line up next to him and his father for pictures. If I can get a copy of the pictures and get permission to post it I will.
About that time I noticed that there were also a couple of video cameras in the tent. Not handheld ones, real video cameras on tripods, recording the event. There was also a couple of TVs so that if you wanted people could see what was being recorded by the cameras.
Another Qatari that I knew came by for a chat and was holding something belonging to his cousin that he let me hold:
A ceremonial sword, used for the dancing that was to come later. This picture is also good to give you an idea of the size of the tent (you're seeing about a third of the main space). Note that the only chairs are along the walls, I mentioned previously in my blog that in Arab society it is considered impolite at events to sit with your back to someone so chairs/seating are only laid out along the walls. Given that a lot of people will be showing up you need a big tent so that you have space to put all the chairs along the walls.
If you look behind me you'll also see a space that doesn't have chairs, that leads to an entirely separate area where the food will be served. Yes, there is even more space in this tent, an entire dining area.
Then the drums and singers started while some of the guests took their swords and started dancing to the rhythm. I caught a reasonable picture of the festivities:
Now don't get me wrong, most of the guests did not have swords with them, in fact I'm guessing about 20 had swords. Most of the Qataris just hung out in the tent and chatted away or ate some of the snacks that were available. Some gathered around to watch the dancing.
Now the Qatari that loaned me the sword for the picture mentioned to me that in the old days the men's wedding was typically held outside. The banging of drums and singing would carry far across the desert and any man hearing it would realize that there was a wedding so would go towards the drums to find out who was getting married and give their congratulations, and possibly eat whatever food was being provided. This is why even today the men's wedding is very open in terms of who is invited, traditionally you didn't send out invitations as any man nearby could show up.
By this point I stopped taking photos. Looking around I noticed that no one seemed to be taking any photographs aside from the official photographer(s) so I wasn't sure if guests taking photos was a cool thing to do.
Dinner was announced so we all moved into the dining area where numerous trays of whole roast lamb on rice had been prepared (and I mean whole -- head and everything). Most of the platters were on the floor and guests immediately sat around the trays and started eating. There was no assigned seating. The family had set up three tables as well so that guests such as us Westerners would not have to eat sitting on the floor.
Now for this dinner, in a traditional Arabic style, there were no plates or cutlery. Guests reach into the food with their right hand, tearing apart bits of meat and grabbing small handfuls of rice, and eat it directly. Always with your right hand, never with your left. Yes it is messy, yes your hand gets all covered with rice and small bits of meat, and yes there are bits of rice all over the place when you're done but that's the way it is. I'd also been told in advance that's what would happen so simply rolled up my sleeve and dug in. There was also bowls with a Qatari dish called haris, meat blended into a type of wheat paste, which tasted somewhat like plain porridge. Since there was no cutlery you just put two fingers in and scooped some to put it in your mouth.
Off to the side was a large area with numerous sinks and soap for guests to clean their hands once they were done. I also noticed that once men had finished eating and left to clean their hands other men would sit down in their place and start eating. At our table this happened at least four times. Near to the end of the dinner I noticed that many of the men were South Asian and not dressed in suits or thobes, so may have been catering employees or just people who happened to be nearby who came by for a meal. By the time I finished cleaning my hands and wandered back into the main tent there were still a lot of people eating and it looked to me like there wasn't going to be any leftovers.
We whiled away the time chatting, watching some more of the singing and dancing, and had an Arabic desert called halwa that was available on the tables near the seats. After a while we went back over to the groom, congratulated him again, had another picture taken with him, and left. All told we were there maybe 2 1/2 hours. By about 10 o'clock or 11 o'clock the groom would be leaving anyway to go pick up his bride at the women's wedding, though I have been told that many will stick around and follow his car to the women's ceremony like a wedding procession.
All told it was a great experience. I should be going to another wedding soon, I'll keep you posted.
I got the invitation two days before the wedding. Yes, two days before. It's okay though, you don't bring gifts to a Qatari men's wedding, all that is expected of you is to show up and congratulate the groom. [As I mentioned before men and women celebrate a wedding completely separate from one another, usually in completely separate venues sometimes kilometers away].
Here's a sample of what the wedding invite looked like. I didn't want to show the whole thing to keep the groom’s identity confidential (I haven't asked him if it's okay to blog about his wedding) but this will give you an idea:
So the evening of the wedding I dressed in a suit and tie and a bunch of us piled into a Land Cruiser and headed out to the wedding tent. Qataris invite almost everyone to a wedding, and for a men's wedding you don't even need to be invited -- one of the guys with us didn't know the groom at all, having recently moved to Qatar only six weeks ago. I'll get into why such a broad invitation is given a little bit later in the blog post. Apparently for the women's wedding it's different and it's usually invite only.
The family had set out a large tent in an empty field to host the men's wedding. Now this tent was easily the size of a large ballroom, necessary to be able to hold potentially hundreds of people, and you need a large space to set it up in for both the tent and the parking for all of the cars. As Qataris are now used to holding such large weddings there is a thriving business in setting up these large tents and the generators for providing electricity for the lights.
So we all entered the tent and the carpeting led us straight across the tent to the other side where the groom and his father were supposed to be receiving the guests. When we arrived it was prayer time so everyone was in the tent praying. We just waited around until they were finished. The groom and his father were easy to spot as they were the only ones wearing a bisht (a thin overrobe that they wear loosely over their white thobe, bishts are typically worn by aristocracy during official meetings and ceremonies but they are also worn by the groom and his father during a wedding). I was with a Qatari friend and I was already primed on what to do -- shake the father's hand and give your congratulations, shake the groom's hand and congratulate him, don't spend too much time chatting as that will hold up the line of other guests waiting to greet the groom and his father, and move on. If you want to chat with the groom there will likely be time later in the evening when things are a bit quieter. Surprisingly the groom paused proceedings for a bit and asked us to all line up next to him and his father for pictures. If I can get a copy of the pictures and get permission to post it I will.
About that time I noticed that there were also a couple of video cameras in the tent. Not handheld ones, real video cameras on tripods, recording the event. There was also a couple of TVs so that if you wanted people could see what was being recorded by the cameras.
Another Qatari that I knew came by for a chat and was holding something belonging to his cousin that he let me hold:
A ceremonial sword, used for the dancing that was to come later. This picture is also good to give you an idea of the size of the tent (you're seeing about a third of the main space). Note that the only chairs are along the walls, I mentioned previously in my blog that in Arab society it is considered impolite at events to sit with your back to someone so chairs/seating are only laid out along the walls. Given that a lot of people will be showing up you need a big tent so that you have space to put all the chairs along the walls.
If you look behind me you'll also see a space that doesn't have chairs, that leads to an entirely separate area where the food will be served. Yes, there is even more space in this tent, an entire dining area.
Then the drums and singers started while some of the guests took their swords and started dancing to the rhythm. I caught a reasonable picture of the festivities:
Now don't get me wrong, most of the guests did not have swords with them, in fact I'm guessing about 20 had swords. Most of the Qataris just hung out in the tent and chatted away or ate some of the snacks that were available. Some gathered around to watch the dancing.
Now the Qatari that loaned me the sword for the picture mentioned to me that in the old days the men's wedding was typically held outside. The banging of drums and singing would carry far across the desert and any man hearing it would realize that there was a wedding so would go towards the drums to find out who was getting married and give their congratulations, and possibly eat whatever food was being provided. This is why even today the men's wedding is very open in terms of who is invited, traditionally you didn't send out invitations as any man nearby could show up.
By this point I stopped taking photos. Looking around I noticed that no one seemed to be taking any photographs aside from the official photographer(s) so I wasn't sure if guests taking photos was a cool thing to do.
Dinner was announced so we all moved into the dining area where numerous trays of whole roast lamb on rice had been prepared (and I mean whole -- head and everything). Most of the platters were on the floor and guests immediately sat around the trays and started eating. There was no assigned seating. The family had set up three tables as well so that guests such as us Westerners would not have to eat sitting on the floor.
Now for this dinner, in a traditional Arabic style, there were no plates or cutlery. Guests reach into the food with their right hand, tearing apart bits of meat and grabbing small handfuls of rice, and eat it directly. Always with your right hand, never with your left. Yes it is messy, yes your hand gets all covered with rice and small bits of meat, and yes there are bits of rice all over the place when you're done but that's the way it is. I'd also been told in advance that's what would happen so simply rolled up my sleeve and dug in. There was also bowls with a Qatari dish called haris, meat blended into a type of wheat paste, which tasted somewhat like plain porridge. Since there was no cutlery you just put two fingers in and scooped some to put it in your mouth.
Off to the side was a large area with numerous sinks and soap for guests to clean their hands once they were done. I also noticed that once men had finished eating and left to clean their hands other men would sit down in their place and start eating. At our table this happened at least four times. Near to the end of the dinner I noticed that many of the men were South Asian and not dressed in suits or thobes, so may have been catering employees or just people who happened to be nearby who came by for a meal. By the time I finished cleaning my hands and wandered back into the main tent there were still a lot of people eating and it looked to me like there wasn't going to be any leftovers.
We whiled away the time chatting, watching some more of the singing and dancing, and had an Arabic desert called halwa that was available on the tables near the seats. After a while we went back over to the groom, congratulated him again, had another picture taken with him, and left. All told we were there maybe 2 1/2 hours. By about 10 o'clock or 11 o'clock the groom would be leaving anyway to go pick up his bride at the women's wedding, though I have been told that many will stick around and follow his car to the women's ceremony like a wedding procession.
All told it was a great experience. I should be going to another wedding soon, I'll keep you posted.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Doha Tribeca Film Festival
The second annual Doha Tribeca Film Festival has started so I have once again got tickets to a wide variety of films.
I've always liked film festivals because it allows you to see independent films that you might not ever see otherwise. Not that all of the films are independent, I usually see one or two Hollywood films as well, but it looks like this year more of the films are foreign-language, especially from the Middle East and North Africa. I just pick films based on what I think looks interesting, from there it's a real spin of the roulette wheel. Many of the films are not great but occasionally you find real "diamonds in the rough". I remember watching Born into Brothels at the film festival in Bermuda and briefly meeting the directors. Less than a year later they were collecting the Academy Award for best documentary -- beating out the more well-known Super Size Me.
So here's an overview of the first films I saw. At each film you're given a ballot so that you can vote on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being bad and 5 being awesome), I have also provided the ratings I gave the film:
Waiting for Superman
Attendance: 100% - full house.
A documentary about the state of the US public school system and how in many cities there are charter schools or magnet schools that are also public but do a much better job educating children. Unfortunately these schools only have so much space and always receive more applications than available seats, in some cases 20 times as many,
so each state’s regulations require that the children who are accepted are determined by lottery. The film follows five children and their families, each in different cities, as they try to get their children into the schools so that they will not be stuck in underperforming public schools (some of which are so bad one expert referred to them as "dropout factories"). The film also points out reasons why many public schools don't perform, and talks to various experts or individuals trying to reform the system. The film especially singles out the fact that in almost no state can you fire a teacher thanks to union contracts, allowing really bad teachers to continue educating (charter/magnet schools are allowed to have non-union teachers).
I've always had an interest in education but at times I felt that the film was a bit long on preaching narrative so it dragged in some places. It also didn't seem to give a fair shake to unions and supporters of the public school system to answer the criticisms in the film. That said you do get to know the children and their families, and at the end when the film follows the families to their various lotteries you find yourself wishing that the child's name gets called. The film made it clear, will this child go on to a public school where they will likely not learn much and eventually dropout, or go to a school where the chances of them graduating and going on to college are more than 80%? And it all comes down to their name being drawn out of a box, or that bingo ball matching their number tumbling out. Why does it have to be like this in America?
Rating: 4/5. Definitely worth seeing, though a bit long at times
Legend of the Fist: the Return of Chen Zen
Attendance: 25%, but it was in a huge venue and started at 1030 at night on a weekday.
A Hong Kong (or possibly Chinese) martial arts film that takes place in Shanghai in the 1920s.
First a bit about the venue. This movie was shown at the Four Seasons Hotel on their beach, so patrons sat on beach chairs, toes in the sand, and watched the film on a big screen. Because it was a hotel they served beer. I think it's the first time I'd ever seen a film in a theater that provided beer -- and it was in the Middle East! The weather was pleasant and there were no issues with the sound. Had it been a bit windy here I think the waves lapping up against the shore might have caused a bit of background noise but this night the waters were calm.
As for the film it was a bit all over the place and tried to incorporate too many elements. At times it was a war film, film noir, an action film, a romance, a spy film, a political film, it just didn't seem to know what it wanted to do. A lot of cliché elements to it and the fight scenes weren't that great.
Rating: 2/5. You'd be much better off watching Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, a Bruce Lee film, or Hero.
A Throw of Dice
Attendance: 60%, and it was in the biggest venue at the festival
A free showing of a 1929 silent film about two kings and the lovely Princess they both desire, set in India during the time of the Raj. What made this showing special was that a musical score had been composed for it which was played live by the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra while the film was being screened.
The venue was the Katara Open-Air Theater at the newly-opened Cultural City. I estimate it could probably seat about 800 people.
The movie was pretty good at it looked to me like it was really set in India and had Indian actors. Because it was the time of the Raj everyone was dressed in elaborate costumes, had huge palaces, tons of servants and so forth. The plot was pretty conventional, an Evil King, a Good King, a love story, and the evil King using rigged dice to get the good King's Kingdom (hence the title). The evil King is defeated, the good King gets his kingdom back and wins the hand of the beautiful princess, and vows never to gamble again. The orchestra did a great job and I don't think the movie would've been quite as good to watch without it.
Rating: 4/5. A unique experience watching a film with a live 75-piece orchestra.
Stone
Attendance: 100%
The newest film with Robert De Niro. Mr. DeNiro and the director were at the screening and said a few words before the movie started.
I won't go into too much detail since this is a new Hollywood film and surely will be available in theaters all over the world. DeNiro plays a prison psychologist who makes recommendations for parole, Ed Norton plays a savvy prisoner, and Mila Jojovich plays Norton's wife who's willing to do anything to get her husband out of jail. DeNiro is clearly unhappy with his life and the film has a lot of characters staring around in existential angst. Too long.
Rating: 3/5. Both a prisoner and an old man unhappy with their lives try to find meaning in it all. While I was watching it I appreciated that A Serious Man by the Coen Brothers did a way better job in covering this kind of theme.
For more movie reviews later but next blog post is about something else altogether...
I've always liked film festivals because it allows you to see independent films that you might not ever see otherwise. Not that all of the films are independent, I usually see one or two Hollywood films as well, but it looks like this year more of the films are foreign-language, especially from the Middle East and North Africa. I just pick films based on what I think looks interesting, from there it's a real spin of the roulette wheel. Many of the films are not great but occasionally you find real "diamonds in the rough". I remember watching Born into Brothels at the film festival in Bermuda and briefly meeting the directors. Less than a year later they were collecting the Academy Award for best documentary -- beating out the more well-known Super Size Me.
So here's an overview of the first films I saw. At each film you're given a ballot so that you can vote on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being bad and 5 being awesome), I have also provided the ratings I gave the film:
Waiting for Superman
Attendance: 100% - full house.
A documentary about the state of the US public school system and how in many cities there are charter schools or magnet schools that are also public but do a much better job educating children. Unfortunately these schools only have so much space and always receive more applications than available seats, in some cases 20 times as many,
so each state’s regulations require that the children who are accepted are determined by lottery. The film follows five children and their families, each in different cities, as they try to get their children into the schools so that they will not be stuck in underperforming public schools (some of which are so bad one expert referred to them as "dropout factories"). The film also points out reasons why many public schools don't perform, and talks to various experts or individuals trying to reform the system. The film especially singles out the fact that in almost no state can you fire a teacher thanks to union contracts, allowing really bad teachers to continue educating (charter/magnet schools are allowed to have non-union teachers).
I've always had an interest in education but at times I felt that the film was a bit long on preaching narrative so it dragged in some places. It also didn't seem to give a fair shake to unions and supporters of the public school system to answer the criticisms in the film. That said you do get to know the children and their families, and at the end when the film follows the families to their various lotteries you find yourself wishing that the child's name gets called. The film made it clear, will this child go on to a public school where they will likely not learn much and eventually dropout, or go to a school where the chances of them graduating and going on to college are more than 80%? And it all comes down to their name being drawn out of a box, or that bingo ball matching their number tumbling out. Why does it have to be like this in America?
Rating: 4/5. Definitely worth seeing, though a bit long at times
Legend of the Fist: the Return of Chen Zen
Attendance: 25%, but it was in a huge venue and started at 1030 at night on a weekday.
A Hong Kong (or possibly Chinese) martial arts film that takes place in Shanghai in the 1920s.
First a bit about the venue. This movie was shown at the Four Seasons Hotel on their beach, so patrons sat on beach chairs, toes in the sand, and watched the film on a big screen. Because it was a hotel they served beer. I think it's the first time I'd ever seen a film in a theater that provided beer -- and it was in the Middle East! The weather was pleasant and there were no issues with the sound. Had it been a bit windy here I think the waves lapping up against the shore might have caused a bit of background noise but this night the waters were calm.
As for the film it was a bit all over the place and tried to incorporate too many elements. At times it was a war film, film noir, an action film, a romance, a spy film, a political film, it just didn't seem to know what it wanted to do. A lot of cliché elements to it and the fight scenes weren't that great.
Rating: 2/5. You'd be much better off watching Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, a Bruce Lee film, or Hero.
A Throw of Dice
Attendance: 60%, and it was in the biggest venue at the festival
A free showing of a 1929 silent film about two kings and the lovely Princess they both desire, set in India during the time of the Raj. What made this showing special was that a musical score had been composed for it which was played live by the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra while the film was being screened.
The venue was the Katara Open-Air Theater at the newly-opened Cultural City. I estimate it could probably seat about 800 people.
The movie was pretty good at it looked to me like it was really set in India and had Indian actors. Because it was the time of the Raj everyone was dressed in elaborate costumes, had huge palaces, tons of servants and so forth. The plot was pretty conventional, an Evil King, a Good King, a love story, and the evil King using rigged dice to get the good King's Kingdom (hence the title). The evil King is defeated, the good King gets his kingdom back and wins the hand of the beautiful princess, and vows never to gamble again. The orchestra did a great job and I don't think the movie would've been quite as good to watch without it.
Rating: 4/5. A unique experience watching a film with a live 75-piece orchestra.
Stone
Attendance: 100%
The newest film with Robert De Niro. Mr. DeNiro and the director were at the screening and said a few words before the movie started.
I won't go into too much detail since this is a new Hollywood film and surely will be available in theaters all over the world. DeNiro plays a prison psychologist who makes recommendations for parole, Ed Norton plays a savvy prisoner, and Mila Jojovich plays Norton's wife who's willing to do anything to get her husband out of jail. DeNiro is clearly unhappy with his life and the film has a lot of characters staring around in existential angst. Too long.
Rating: 3/5. Both a prisoner and an old man unhappy with their lives try to find meaning in it all. While I was watching it I appreciated that A Serious Man by the Coen Brothers did a way better job in covering this kind of theme.
For more movie reviews later but next blog post is about something else altogether...
Monday, October 25, 2010
Happy birthday Aiden!
It is my nephew Aiden's birthday today and I've been told that he and his sister had a party earlier this week. I'm going to guess he looked a lot like this afterward:
Hehehehe, that's one of my favorite pictures. It looks like he came back from a college fraternity chocolate-cake party.
Because that was a mean picture here is a much nicer one of him helping me pick apples at Grandma's house:
Happy birthday kiddo! Give Mom & Dad a kiss for me.
Hehehehe, that's one of my favorite pictures. It looks like he came back from a college fraternity chocolate-cake party.
Because that was a mean picture here is a much nicer one of him helping me pick apples at Grandma's house:
Happy birthday kiddo! Give Mom & Dad a kiss for me.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Museum lectures, part two
The second lecture at the Museum of Islamic Art, on great Arab thinkers, was on a Sufi aesthetic from the eighth century -- Rabia al-Adawiyya
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabia_al-Adawiyya
She was born in Basra (Iraq), so unlike the subject of the previous lecture she could definitely be considered an Arab and probably spoke Arabic.
Now Sufism is a type of Islam that tends to be along the more mystic/ascetic lines of spirituality (Whirling Dervishes, who spin around as a form of meditation, are Sufis). A Qatari friend of mine who had experiences with Sufis during his time abroad considered them odd and certainly different from the Wahhabist-Sunni Islam that he followed. I'm not entirely sure of the differences between the different groups, I'll consider researching that further sometime.
What was unusual about this lecture was that it seemed to be more of a hagiography, focusing on details of the lady’s miracles and manifestations of devoutness rather than solid historical facts about her (given that she was born in the eighth century perhaps maybe there wasn't much). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagiography
What I found interesting is that all of these tales and stories about Rabia struck me as being very similar to the tales of Christian saints propagated by Catholicism. Miracles, stories of her floating in the air, making lanterns blaze with light, seem to be most of the information about her, not unlike many Catholic saints. It makes me wonder whether the Christian tradition of hagiography had somehow permeated the early Islamic followers who looked for and emulated saints. In fact, until I attended this lecture I didn't realize there was any such thing as an Islamic saint, though it is apparently common in Sufiism.
The lecturer did touch on many of the stories that are indeed linked with Wikipedia article but there were a few differences. Her father did not relate that the Prophet had asked the Amir to give him 400 dinars, that was simply a reward that the Amir gave him for the vision. Apparently no one knew that the Amir observed Darooud so her father telling the Amir that he had missed it last Thursday (the lecturer said it was a Friday, which makes a little more sense since that is a holy day) was all the proof that he needed to know that her father was telling the truth about the vision.
Even more unusual was that she remained celibate throughout her life and rejected many marriage proposals. Unlike Christianity, Islam does not generally consider chastity as being more "pure" or innocent -- the Prophet Mohammed had many wives and since he is considered an exemplary human being in Islam (he is a Prophet of Allah, duh), marriage is considered acceptable for anyone. As far as I know no sect in Islam promotes celibacy for its imams/religious scholars (go on, Google any fundamentalist Muslim you can think of, chances are they were all married. Ayatollah Khameini was married and fathered seven children).
The lecturer then showed us numerous pictures or paintings of Rabia. One of her favorites was one made in India depicting a marriage proposal from a very wealthy and powerful suitor. I found the picture to be really weird -- I guess because she was an aesthetic and the painter was Indian, the painter depicted her amongst a lush forest with peacocks and various birds (certainly not what the Arabian Peninsula looks like) with her head shaved and wearing robes not unlike a Hare Krishna! Even weirder her robes were not covering her upper body so her breasts were visible!! Clearly that Indian painter took her to be an anesthetic in the Buddhist tradition -- and had never been to Arabia either. I'm sorry, I can't believe for a minute that any Muslim woman would be thrilled to be depicted topless with a shaved head! The lecturer said it was her favorite painting and that it sort of had a "21st century" look (??). I thought it looked really weird and out of place. For the life of me I can't see Ms. Rabia thinking it was a wonderful depiction and I'm pretty sure she never sat in the jungle with a shaved head, topless, with a sitar when someone came by with a marriage proposal – c’mon! I Googled to try to find the painting but unfortunately couldn't find it. Shame, it would have been interesting to post.
None of her writings survive but she is credited for promoting the Divine Love of Allah and her miracles and accomplishments are still known in the Islamic world today.
Anyway, it was an okay lecture. I liked the lecture on Buruni better because it seemed to be more grounded in fact and scientific achievement rather than a hagiography of a mystic. I guess her accomplishments were more on the religious side rather than achievements in a scientific field but it was difficult for me to ascertain how much of her teachings actually permeated throughout the Islamic world and influence current views on Islam. She was definitely well-known enough to have a couple of films made about her life, and there are numerous books that discuss her, so for all of us non-Muslim layman she's probably on the same level of fame as Joan of Arc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabia_al-Adawiyya
She was born in Basra (Iraq), so unlike the subject of the previous lecture she could definitely be considered an Arab and probably spoke Arabic.
Now Sufism is a type of Islam that tends to be along the more mystic/ascetic lines of spirituality (Whirling Dervishes, who spin around as a form of meditation, are Sufis). A Qatari friend of mine who had experiences with Sufis during his time abroad considered them odd and certainly different from the Wahhabist-Sunni Islam that he followed. I'm not entirely sure of the differences between the different groups, I'll consider researching that further sometime.
What was unusual about this lecture was that it seemed to be more of a hagiography, focusing on details of the lady’s miracles and manifestations of devoutness rather than solid historical facts about her (given that she was born in the eighth century perhaps maybe there wasn't much). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagiography
What I found interesting is that all of these tales and stories about Rabia struck me as being very similar to the tales of Christian saints propagated by Catholicism. Miracles, stories of her floating in the air, making lanterns blaze with light, seem to be most of the information about her, not unlike many Catholic saints. It makes me wonder whether the Christian tradition of hagiography had somehow permeated the early Islamic followers who looked for and emulated saints. In fact, until I attended this lecture I didn't realize there was any such thing as an Islamic saint, though it is apparently common in Sufiism.
The lecturer did touch on many of the stories that are indeed linked with Wikipedia article but there were a few differences. Her father did not relate that the Prophet had asked the Amir to give him 400 dinars, that was simply a reward that the Amir gave him for the vision. Apparently no one knew that the Amir observed Darooud so her father telling the Amir that he had missed it last Thursday (the lecturer said it was a Friday, which makes a little more sense since that is a holy day) was all the proof that he needed to know that her father was telling the truth about the vision.
Even more unusual was that she remained celibate throughout her life and rejected many marriage proposals. Unlike Christianity, Islam does not generally consider chastity as being more "pure" or innocent -- the Prophet Mohammed had many wives and since he is considered an exemplary human being in Islam (he is a Prophet of Allah, duh), marriage is considered acceptable for anyone. As far as I know no sect in Islam promotes celibacy for its imams/religious scholars (go on, Google any fundamentalist Muslim you can think of, chances are they were all married. Ayatollah Khameini was married and fathered seven children).
The lecturer then showed us numerous pictures or paintings of Rabia. One of her favorites was one made in India depicting a marriage proposal from a very wealthy and powerful suitor. I found the picture to be really weird -- I guess because she was an aesthetic and the painter was Indian, the painter depicted her amongst a lush forest with peacocks and various birds (certainly not what the Arabian Peninsula looks like) with her head shaved and wearing robes not unlike a Hare Krishna! Even weirder her robes were not covering her upper body so her breasts were visible!! Clearly that Indian painter took her to be an anesthetic in the Buddhist tradition -- and had never been to Arabia either. I'm sorry, I can't believe for a minute that any Muslim woman would be thrilled to be depicted topless with a shaved head! The lecturer said it was her favorite painting and that it sort of had a "21st century" look (??). I thought it looked really weird and out of place. For the life of me I can't see Ms. Rabia thinking it was a wonderful depiction and I'm pretty sure she never sat in the jungle with a shaved head, topless, with a sitar when someone came by with a marriage proposal – c’mon! I Googled to try to find the painting but unfortunately couldn't find it. Shame, it would have been interesting to post.
None of her writings survive but she is credited for promoting the Divine Love of Allah and her miracles and accomplishments are still known in the Islamic world today.
Anyway, it was an okay lecture. I liked the lecture on Buruni better because it seemed to be more grounded in fact and scientific achievement rather than a hagiography of a mystic. I guess her accomplishments were more on the religious side rather than achievements in a scientific field but it was difficult for me to ascertain how much of her teachings actually permeated throughout the Islamic world and influence current views on Islam. She was definitely well-known enough to have a couple of films made about her life, and there are numerous books that discuss her, so for all of us non-Muslim layman she's probably on the same level of fame as Joan of Arc.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
A quick trip to England
I was away in England for four days visiting a friend and picking up a few things. Weather was pleasant, did a bit of shopping, did a nice londonwalk tour of the Strand, hit a bunch of pubs, and even went to Stamford Bridge (no, there wasn't a game going on at the time).
My friend came up with an excellent idea, spend a day visiting Oxford. I've never really been outside of London so it sounded like a great idea.
Unfortunately as we were leaving an emergency came up and my friend had to leave but I decided to continue on, if only to get out of his hair for a day so he could deal with things in peace. There is an excellent bus service called OxfordTube that runs buses 24 hours a day between various places in London and Oxford. Cost about 16 pounds round-trip which isn't bad given that it's about an hour-and-a half to two-hour trip each way.
Oxford was really nice, a lot of old historic buildings surrounded by a town with lots of shops and services. First order of business, get the breakfast my friend was planning to introduce me to:
An Irish fry, from an Irish bar and restaurant in the city.
Yes, this breakfast is just -- wrong. Fried food and lots of it, and potato bread. And yes, that's a beer (it was actually a little after 12 so it wasn't technically breakfast). My mother's cringing right now as she looks at the photo :-)
When I was younger my family and I would have a similar breakfast on Sunday, which we referred to as an Ulster Fry, and was much like what I got at the restaurant. The thing that really made it remind me of those breakfasts at home was the potato bread (in the photo hidden under the eggs), I can't recall eating potato bread at any other time back home except with a Fry.
I believe that my Mom, who works in the health profession, eventually stopped the Ulster Fry at home just due to how unhealthy it was but it was nice to have one for old times sake.
After that huge meal I wandered around to take a look at a lot of the old buildings and then lucked out and happened by a tourist office just as they were having a walking tour. I got one of the last places and off we went to see a couple of the major buildings, including some of the original university areas and the exam hall, followed by a tour of one of the colleges.
Now Oxford has a method of teaching its students that is very different from how universities are run in North America. Oxford is divided into a number of colleges, I believe about 38, and you apply to enter one of the colleges. At the college you will be given residence with the other students (at least during the first year, possibly longer), eat in the college dining hall, participate on the college teams and so forth. But don't think of this college in terms of a North American one -- each college tends to have a few hundred students. You will also be assigned a tutor (or maybe tutors?) whom you will meet with weekly to discuss subjects in your field of study and provide him with essays that you will read out to him. This forms the vast majority of your homework. They do have lectures at the University and you will usually attend certain ones based on the recommendation of your tutor, but most of the work you do is through your discussions and essays for the tutor. My friend also told me (as he went to Oxford) that you become very specialized in your field of study -- there are few if any electives, your time is spent studying your field. At the end of each year you write exams.
Now these colleges are not split up by field of study, colleges have a wide variety of tutors available for most subjects so your colleagues in your college will be from a wide range of fields. You might be studying English but the person who stays next to you might be studying music, history, science, or whatever.
Each college has a lot of autonomy so has different traditions, rules, and so forth. Some colleges allow tourists to visit it at certain times for a fee, other colleges never allow tourists (such as the college Bill Clinton attended). Our tour group got to visit Queen’s College, which only allows in tourists from this particular tour, and only 19 at a time. We got to see the grounds, the dining hall, the garden of the Dean, and its chapel, all of which were centuries-old, while the tour guide told us about the specific traditions and things that go on in this college. We were also shown the outside of some other colleges, such as Oriel (sp?) College, where Cecil Rhodes (of the Rhodes scholarships) studied. It was a great tour. I also liked how the guide pointed out that, for the benefit of Harry Potter fans since some parts of the films were shot in Oxford, that Harry Potter was fictional and doesn't really exist! Twice though he did point out where certain scenes in whatever Potter film were shot. Not surprisingly Harry Potter fans love Oxford and I think you can get specific Harry Potter-based tours.
Both J.R.R. Tolkien (Lord of the Rings) and C.S. Lewis (Narnia) were at Oxford and our tour showed us a door that the tour guide claimed inspired the doorway in The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe. I tried a brief Google search it but didn't really come up with much so I'm still not sure about the claim, the door seemed pretty new and looked designed to inspire mythical figures.
I also learned that Rhodes scholarships, which per Mr. Rhodes Trust are given to citizens of the Commonwealth plus the United States and Germany (though Germany fell off the list twice around the war years). I always wondered about that as I thought it was always just for Commonwealth citizens so how did Bill Clinton get one?
I also learnt that former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke holds a beer drinking record at Oxford.
I kind of wish I could've gone to Oxford as the system they have their sounds interesting but intensive. Let's face it if you are having discussions with a tutor every week he will quickly figure out if you're slacking off.
My friend came up with an excellent idea, spend a day visiting Oxford. I've never really been outside of London so it sounded like a great idea.
Unfortunately as we were leaving an emergency came up and my friend had to leave but I decided to continue on, if only to get out of his hair for a day so he could deal with things in peace. There is an excellent bus service called OxfordTube that runs buses 24 hours a day between various places in London and Oxford. Cost about 16 pounds round-trip which isn't bad given that it's about an hour-and-a half to two-hour trip each way.
Oxford was really nice, a lot of old historic buildings surrounded by a town with lots of shops and services. First order of business, get the breakfast my friend was planning to introduce me to:
An Irish fry, from an Irish bar and restaurant in the city.
Yes, this breakfast is just -- wrong. Fried food and lots of it, and potato bread. And yes, that's a beer (it was actually a little after 12 so it wasn't technically breakfast). My mother's cringing right now as she looks at the photo :-)
When I was younger my family and I would have a similar breakfast on Sunday, which we referred to as an Ulster Fry, and was much like what I got at the restaurant. The thing that really made it remind me of those breakfasts at home was the potato bread (in the photo hidden under the eggs), I can't recall eating potato bread at any other time back home except with a Fry.
I believe that my Mom, who works in the health profession, eventually stopped the Ulster Fry at home just due to how unhealthy it was but it was nice to have one for old times sake.
After that huge meal I wandered around to take a look at a lot of the old buildings and then lucked out and happened by a tourist office just as they were having a walking tour. I got one of the last places and off we went to see a couple of the major buildings, including some of the original university areas and the exam hall, followed by a tour of one of the colleges.
Now Oxford has a method of teaching its students that is very different from how universities are run in North America. Oxford is divided into a number of colleges, I believe about 38, and you apply to enter one of the colleges. At the college you will be given residence with the other students (at least during the first year, possibly longer), eat in the college dining hall, participate on the college teams and so forth. But don't think of this college in terms of a North American one -- each college tends to have a few hundred students. You will also be assigned a tutor (or maybe tutors?) whom you will meet with weekly to discuss subjects in your field of study and provide him with essays that you will read out to him. This forms the vast majority of your homework. They do have lectures at the University and you will usually attend certain ones based on the recommendation of your tutor, but most of the work you do is through your discussions and essays for the tutor. My friend also told me (as he went to Oxford) that you become very specialized in your field of study -- there are few if any electives, your time is spent studying your field. At the end of each year you write exams.
Now these colleges are not split up by field of study, colleges have a wide variety of tutors available for most subjects so your colleagues in your college will be from a wide range of fields. You might be studying English but the person who stays next to you might be studying music, history, science, or whatever.
Each college has a lot of autonomy so has different traditions, rules, and so forth. Some colleges allow tourists to visit it at certain times for a fee, other colleges never allow tourists (such as the college Bill Clinton attended). Our tour group got to visit Queen’s College, which only allows in tourists from this particular tour, and only 19 at a time. We got to see the grounds, the dining hall, the garden of the Dean, and its chapel, all of which were centuries-old, while the tour guide told us about the specific traditions and things that go on in this college. We were also shown the outside of some other colleges, such as Oriel (sp?) College, where Cecil Rhodes (of the Rhodes scholarships) studied. It was a great tour. I also liked how the guide pointed out that, for the benefit of Harry Potter fans since some parts of the films were shot in Oxford, that Harry Potter was fictional and doesn't really exist! Twice though he did point out where certain scenes in whatever Potter film were shot. Not surprisingly Harry Potter fans love Oxford and I think you can get specific Harry Potter-based tours.
Both J.R.R. Tolkien (Lord of the Rings) and C.S. Lewis (Narnia) were at Oxford and our tour showed us a door that the tour guide claimed inspired the doorway in The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe. I tried a brief Google search it but didn't really come up with much so I'm still not sure about the claim, the door seemed pretty new and looked designed to inspire mythical figures.
I also learned that Rhodes scholarships, which per Mr. Rhodes Trust are given to citizens of the Commonwealth plus the United States and Germany (though Germany fell off the list twice around the war years). I always wondered about that as I thought it was always just for Commonwealth citizens so how did Bill Clinton get one?
I also learnt that former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke holds a beer drinking record at Oxford.
I kind of wish I could've gone to Oxford as the system they have their sounds interesting but intensive. Let's face it if you are having discussions with a tutor every week he will quickly figure out if you're slacking off.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Museum lectures
So I forgot to mention that the Museum of Islamic Art has started their lecture series again. This time they're having a series of five lectures each focusing on a different "Great Arab Thinker". The first one was two weeks ago and was about a scholar from the 11th century named Abu Rayhan Biruni. Wiki entry here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Rayhan_Biruni
He was born in Uzbekistan but the lecturer noted he was likely of Persian descent. He wrote a ton of books on a wide variety of subjects including astronomy, geology, sociology, and so forth. Although not many of his works survive they were widely read by scholars in the Islamic world at the time and he was very influential in the works of later scholars.
One of his best-known works was a book about India where he listened and learned about why Hindus did not get along with outsiders and attempted to describe their culture and beliefs in an objective way, which was groundbreaking in its time. The professor giving the lecture focused a lot on this work and its picture of Indian society at the time. It is considered one of the first anthropological studies of another culture.
When it came time for the question-and-answer I asked whether his works had been widely distributed in the West during the Middle Ages. I asked because I had not heard of him before whereas many Islamic scholars of the time such as Avicenna, Geber, and Maimonides had numerous of their works translated into Latin and widely distributed throughout Europe. The professor replied that he was not well-known at the time although many later works by Islamic scholars are clearly influenced by him though work directly written by him did not generally reach Europe. The professor then noted that, surprisingly, it was not until around the 18th century that Europeans became interested in Biruni and his writings, more specifically British colonialists. Apparently the British were starting to have significant influence in India and did not know much about Indian culture. Attempts to find writings about Indian culture, in a language that the British scholars could translate, turned up Biruni’s extensive writings on India -- from there his book became widely read in Britain in the 19th century as a definitive work on India. This despite the fact that the book had been written over 800 years earlier.
Biruni is still widely regarded throughout Central Asia and other parts of the Islamic world. Statues, conferences dedicated to his work, and other tributes are found in many countries such as Iran and Pakistan.
One of the contentious issues that came up during the lecture was that the Museum of Islamic art was doing a series on "Great Arab Thinkers" but as one person in the audience pointed out Biruni was an Uzbek of Persian origin and thus was not an Arab (Persians are not, and have never been, Arabs. I suspect many Persians get a little miffed at being called Arabs by unknowing Westerners). The lecturer pointed out that, yes, Biruni was not born in Arabia, and was not of Arab ancestry, but the series considered him a great Arab thinker because all of his works were written in Arabic which was a scientific language of the day. The lecturer noted that Biruni would never have had Arabic as his main language, he would have spoken Uzbek at home and probably Persian when dealing with people from other regions, yet he wrote all of his scholarly works in Arabic. There was a bit of chat about whether this was an attempt for the Arab world to claim a Persian scholar but given that the lecturer was American I don't think it was his intent to downplay Biruni’s real heritage and somehow try to make him an Arab.
Anyway I enjoyed the lecture because while I have heard of many scholars and studied a couple of them, such as Jabir ibn Hayyan (Geber), I learned about a very prolific scholar from the Islamic Golden Age that I had never heard of before.
The next lecture is Wednesday night, I will be there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Rayhan_Biruni
He was born in Uzbekistan but the lecturer noted he was likely of Persian descent. He wrote a ton of books on a wide variety of subjects including astronomy, geology, sociology, and so forth. Although not many of his works survive they were widely read by scholars in the Islamic world at the time and he was very influential in the works of later scholars.
One of his best-known works was a book about India where he listened and learned about why Hindus did not get along with outsiders and attempted to describe their culture and beliefs in an objective way, which was groundbreaking in its time. The professor giving the lecture focused a lot on this work and its picture of Indian society at the time. It is considered one of the first anthropological studies of another culture.
When it came time for the question-and-answer I asked whether his works had been widely distributed in the West during the Middle Ages. I asked because I had not heard of him before whereas many Islamic scholars of the time such as Avicenna, Geber, and Maimonides had numerous of their works translated into Latin and widely distributed throughout Europe. The professor replied that he was not well-known at the time although many later works by Islamic scholars are clearly influenced by him though work directly written by him did not generally reach Europe. The professor then noted that, surprisingly, it was not until around the 18th century that Europeans became interested in Biruni and his writings, more specifically British colonialists. Apparently the British were starting to have significant influence in India and did not know much about Indian culture. Attempts to find writings about Indian culture, in a language that the British scholars could translate, turned up Biruni’s extensive writings on India -- from there his book became widely read in Britain in the 19th century as a definitive work on India. This despite the fact that the book had been written over 800 years earlier.
Biruni is still widely regarded throughout Central Asia and other parts of the Islamic world. Statues, conferences dedicated to his work, and other tributes are found in many countries such as Iran and Pakistan.
One of the contentious issues that came up during the lecture was that the Museum of Islamic art was doing a series on "Great Arab Thinkers" but as one person in the audience pointed out Biruni was an Uzbek of Persian origin and thus was not an Arab (Persians are not, and have never been, Arabs. I suspect many Persians get a little miffed at being called Arabs by unknowing Westerners). The lecturer pointed out that, yes, Biruni was not born in Arabia, and was not of Arab ancestry, but the series considered him a great Arab thinker because all of his works were written in Arabic which was a scientific language of the day. The lecturer noted that Biruni would never have had Arabic as his main language, he would have spoken Uzbek at home and probably Persian when dealing with people from other regions, yet he wrote all of his scholarly works in Arabic. There was a bit of chat about whether this was an attempt for the Arab world to claim a Persian scholar but given that the lecturer was American I don't think it was his intent to downplay Biruni’s real heritage and somehow try to make him an Arab.
Anyway I enjoyed the lecture because while I have heard of many scholars and studied a couple of them, such as Jabir ibn Hayyan (Geber), I learned about a very prolific scholar from the Islamic Golden Age that I had never heard of before.
The next lecture is Wednesday night, I will be there.
Saturday, October 02, 2010
An arabic gift
When I got back to Canada a Qatari friend of mine had a gift for me. Here it is:
A set of a prayer beads known as a misbaha (pronounced mis-ba-(h)a, you barely say the h), though in some Arabic speaking countries it might be known as a ‘subha’.
Misbaha are prayer beads used for a ritual called ‘dhikr’ where the various names of God are spoken as part of a prayer. Traditionally you say the names 99 times so the misbaha assists in counting, you can slide your finger across the bead while you say the names. This means that a misbaha will have a number of beads to make counting to 99 easier, my misbaha has 33 beads, with two tiny beads at the end of each 11th bead. Many misbaha are longer and can contain 66 or even 99 beads.
It is common for misbaha to be carried by Arab men in the Gulf, and most will have one in their pocket or hanging from their hand. It is not solely for use in prayer but appears to be somewhat of an accessory, many times you will see an Arab man nonchalantly rubbing his fingers along it while thinking, chatting with friends, or even while talking on the phone.
There is no set rules for what a misbaha has to be made of. The beads can be made of plastic, stone, wood, or any other material. Amber appears to be a preferred material but I do not know if that is historical or a recent fashion. Stores that sell them tend to have a wide variety including turquoise and other minerals. I have seen misbaha of all sorts of colors.
I thought it was really nice of my friend to buy me one of these. I've been keeping it in my pocket and occasionally rubbing the beads. Maybe it will help me stop biting my nails.
A set of a prayer beads known as a misbaha (pronounced mis-ba-(h)a, you barely say the h), though in some Arabic speaking countries it might be known as a ‘subha’.
Misbaha are prayer beads used for a ritual called ‘dhikr’ where the various names of God are spoken as part of a prayer. Traditionally you say the names 99 times so the misbaha assists in counting, you can slide your finger across the bead while you say the names. This means that a misbaha will have a number of beads to make counting to 99 easier, my misbaha has 33 beads, with two tiny beads at the end of each 11th bead. Many misbaha are longer and can contain 66 or even 99 beads.
It is common for misbaha to be carried by Arab men in the Gulf, and most will have one in their pocket or hanging from their hand. It is not solely for use in prayer but appears to be somewhat of an accessory, many times you will see an Arab man nonchalantly rubbing his fingers along it while thinking, chatting with friends, or even while talking on the phone.
There is no set rules for what a misbaha has to be made of. The beads can be made of plastic, stone, wood, or any other material. Amber appears to be a preferred material but I do not know if that is historical or a recent fashion. Stores that sell them tend to have a wide variety including turquoise and other minerals. I have seen misbaha of all sorts of colors.
I thought it was really nice of my friend to buy me one of these. I've been keeping it in my pocket and occasionally rubbing the beads. Maybe it will help me stop biting my nails.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Qatar updates
Okay, it has been a busy week.
First, I would just like to mention this local news article on a recent Science Camp for children.
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=387635&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16
I sometimes get concerned that with Western media focus on places like Iraq and Afghanistan, or showing pictures of whatever fundamentalists are burning a flag this week, that people don't realize that much of the Islamic world is not like that and are generally supportive of science and scientific advancement. Qatar has spent a lot of money on universities, education, and even has a Qatar Scientific Club, who hosted the camp.
Don't get me wrong, Qatar has a long way to go. Per the 2006 PISA test Qatar was 56th out of 57 countries in science and math. Hopefully they will improve on the 2009 test. At a recent skeptics meet-up I was talking to a teacher and he told me that he did find the educational standards worrisome. Apparently some Qataris are graduating from high school not even being able to multiply single digits. Again, I hope there'll be some improvement on the 2009 PISA test results though I do not expect a dramatic improvement -- reforms in an educational system take many years to manifest in improvements in Students.
Speaking of PISA, did anyone watch President Obama’s recent discussions on education in America?
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/39378576/site/todayshow/ns/today-parenting
here's a key excerpt:
“My administration is announcing that we are going to specifically focus on training 10,000 new math and science teachers," he said. "We have to boost performance in that area. We used to rank at the top; we are now 21st in science, 25th in math. That is a sign of long-term decline that has to be reversed.”
So where did the 21st and 25th came from? I thought it came from the PISA 2006 test results but that would mean Obama is only counting the OECD countries -- the US results are even worse when you throw in non-OECD countries in the mix:
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/15/13/39725224.pdf
Secondly, lectures have started up again at the Museum of Islamic Art, the next one is this Wednesday at 6:30 PM. Anyone who is interested should contact the Museum for details. I enjoyed the lectures they put on last year.
Thirdly, the Qatar Natural History Group is back for another season of lectures and field trips. The first lecture is on Wednesday, October 6, see their website for more details http://www.qnhg.org/
Lastly, I received a great gift from a Qatari friend this week, but I'll talk more about that next post.
First, I would just like to mention this local news article on a recent Science Camp for children.
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=387635&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16
I sometimes get concerned that with Western media focus on places like Iraq and Afghanistan, or showing pictures of whatever fundamentalists are burning a flag this week, that people don't realize that much of the Islamic world is not like that and are generally supportive of science and scientific advancement. Qatar has spent a lot of money on universities, education, and even has a Qatar Scientific Club, who hosted the camp.
Don't get me wrong, Qatar has a long way to go. Per the 2006 PISA test Qatar was 56th out of 57 countries in science and math. Hopefully they will improve on the 2009 test. At a recent skeptics meet-up I was talking to a teacher and he told me that he did find the educational standards worrisome. Apparently some Qataris are graduating from high school not even being able to multiply single digits. Again, I hope there'll be some improvement on the 2009 PISA test results though I do not expect a dramatic improvement -- reforms in an educational system take many years to manifest in improvements in Students.
Speaking of PISA, did anyone watch President Obama’s recent discussions on education in America?
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/39378576/site/todayshow/ns/today-parenting
here's a key excerpt:
“My administration is announcing that we are going to specifically focus on training 10,000 new math and science teachers," he said. "We have to boost performance in that area. We used to rank at the top; we are now 21st in science, 25th in math. That is a sign of long-term decline that has to be reversed.”
So where did the 21st and 25th came from? I thought it came from the PISA 2006 test results but that would mean Obama is only counting the OECD countries -- the US results are even worse when you throw in non-OECD countries in the mix:
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/15/13/39725224.pdf
Secondly, lectures have started up again at the Museum of Islamic Art, the next one is this Wednesday at 6:30 PM. Anyone who is interested should contact the Museum for details. I enjoyed the lectures they put on last year.
Thirdly, the Qatar Natural History Group is back for another season of lectures and field trips. The first lecture is on Wednesday, October 6, see their website for more details http://www.qnhg.org/
Lastly, I received a great gift from a Qatari friend this week, but I'll talk more about that next post.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
I'm back!
I'm back from my vacation in Canada. Had a great time of course, I was there for my sister's wedding and everything went great, neither of them ran away or anything ;-) . I won't go into the details as I'm not sure if my sister wants details of her wedding splashed across the Internet.
I decided instead of going to Canada via Europe I would go through the United States, Houston in this case. This meant flying direct from Doha to Houston – a 15-hour flight. Having gone there and back I will stick to flying through Europe from now on. A 15 hour flight is just too much. Not that there is anything wrong with the flight itself, it was just too long. That, and going through US immigration is a pain.
I also learned that North American airlines cannot hold a candle to Qatar Airways. I flew 4 1/2 hours from Houston to Vancouver on Continental Airlines and only got a thing of peanuts, no pillow, and no blanket. To access all of the entertainment channels cost six dollars. On Qatar Airways you get meals, free alcohol, great entertainment system (on the newer planes at least), pillows, and blankets. No paying extra for anything. Food is decent too.
Spent some time in Vancouver before heading to the Okanagan Valley for the wedding. I had not been to the Valley for probably eight years and while there had been some changes a lot of the old hangouts and buildings were still there. The Valley has really gone towards winemaking in a big way and there were a lot of vineyards and wineries now. It was cooler than I remembered as well and we only really had one day that we could go to the beach. Most of my friends from high school and college now live in Vancouver so I spent time in Vancouver meeting up with them, I'm not sure if I have any old friends who live in the valley anymore. Growing up we always looked forward to moving to the big city and I guess we all did. I of course later moved on to see the wide world.
I do miss Vancouver but the housing prices there are frightening. A studio apartment in the city is at least $300,000, a one bedroom $400,000. I'm not sure who can afford prices like that, wages are not all that high in Canada. I guess this is why my sister and her husband are still renting. Another buddy of mine is married with two kids and he rents as well, no one can afford the down payment or a mortgage on a reasonably sized place anymore.
Other than the wedding spent my days hanging out with family and friends and eating lots of tasty food, including perogies, and a wide variety of desserts. Definitely gained some weight, I'm now back to the gym to try to work it off. With my friends I was playing a lot of boardgames like Battlestar Galactica and Railroad Tycoon. I'm not sure why boardgames like that haven't caught on here in Qatar. Given that Qataris don't generally go to bars but like to sit around with friends drinking coffee I would have thought boardgames would be a popular pastime.
I also saw a BC Lions game, thanks to my sister's neighbor who had some tickets. Went with her boyfriend and a couple of other guys. The stadium they normally play at, BC Place Stadium, is getting a new roof so they were playing at Empire Stadium, an open-air stadium. Despite the fact that it's open air you are not allowed to smoke there, which I thought was a little weird (not that I smoke anyway). I guess BC is really cracking down on smoking when you are not allowed to smoke outdoors in some places. The Lions won by the way, which was a pleasant surprise given that they were something like 2-7 going into the game.
I've also decided to get an e-book reader. Have my heart set on the new Sony but if I get a chance to see the new Kindle I’ll give it a looksee before deciding. Hope to have it in the next couple of weeks.
Later.
I decided instead of going to Canada via Europe I would go through the United States, Houston in this case. This meant flying direct from Doha to Houston – a 15-hour flight. Having gone there and back I will stick to flying through Europe from now on. A 15 hour flight is just too much. Not that there is anything wrong with the flight itself, it was just too long. That, and going through US immigration is a pain.
I also learned that North American airlines cannot hold a candle to Qatar Airways. I flew 4 1/2 hours from Houston to Vancouver on Continental Airlines and only got a thing of peanuts, no pillow, and no blanket. To access all of the entertainment channels cost six dollars. On Qatar Airways you get meals, free alcohol, great entertainment system (on the newer planes at least), pillows, and blankets. No paying extra for anything. Food is decent too.
Spent some time in Vancouver before heading to the Okanagan Valley for the wedding. I had not been to the Valley for probably eight years and while there had been some changes a lot of the old hangouts and buildings were still there. The Valley has really gone towards winemaking in a big way and there were a lot of vineyards and wineries now. It was cooler than I remembered as well and we only really had one day that we could go to the beach. Most of my friends from high school and college now live in Vancouver so I spent time in Vancouver meeting up with them, I'm not sure if I have any old friends who live in the valley anymore. Growing up we always looked forward to moving to the big city and I guess we all did. I of course later moved on to see the wide world.
I do miss Vancouver but the housing prices there are frightening. A studio apartment in the city is at least $300,000, a one bedroom $400,000. I'm not sure who can afford prices like that, wages are not all that high in Canada. I guess this is why my sister and her husband are still renting. Another buddy of mine is married with two kids and he rents as well, no one can afford the down payment or a mortgage on a reasonably sized place anymore.
Other than the wedding spent my days hanging out with family and friends and eating lots of tasty food, including perogies, and a wide variety of desserts. Definitely gained some weight, I'm now back to the gym to try to work it off. With my friends I was playing a lot of boardgames like Battlestar Galactica and Railroad Tycoon. I'm not sure why boardgames like that haven't caught on here in Qatar. Given that Qataris don't generally go to bars but like to sit around with friends drinking coffee I would have thought boardgames would be a popular pastime.
I also saw a BC Lions game, thanks to my sister's neighbor who had some tickets. Went with her boyfriend and a couple of other guys. The stadium they normally play at, BC Place Stadium, is getting a new roof so they were playing at Empire Stadium, an open-air stadium. Despite the fact that it's open air you are not allowed to smoke there, which I thought was a little weird (not that I smoke anyway). I guess BC is really cracking down on smoking when you are not allowed to smoke outdoors in some places. The Lions won by the way, which was a pleasant surprise given that they were something like 2-7 going into the game.
I've also decided to get an e-book reader. Have my heart set on the new Sony but if I get a chance to see the new Kindle I’ll give it a looksee before deciding. Hope to have it in the next couple of weeks.
Later.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Ramadan . . . the finale.
So I am leaving for Canada. While Ramadan is 29-30 days for me it’s ending after 16. Fasting was challenging, but not as hard as I thought it would be. You really do get used to it, just like my Muslim friends said. And it was nice to set my time more like the rest of Qatar, enjoy the late-night festivities, and to have iftar with my friends. Here’s some pictures to recap:
a typical Sohour meal (if you look closely you can read the type of dates from the package.
Iftar at the Cigale hotel
An iranian restaurant in the Souq
The lecture of Dr. Zakir Naik
Iftar at an Iraqi restaurant
The "Jetsons" mosque where I witnessed the evening prayer
Chillin out with a shisha at the W Hotel
And iftar at a Syrian restaurant.
It was a cool expereince.
I'll try to post from Canada while I'm there. See you soon.
a typical Sohour meal (if you look closely you can read the type of dates from the package.
Iftar at the Cigale hotel
An iranian restaurant in the Souq
The lecture of Dr. Zakir Naik
Iftar at an Iraqi restaurant
The "Jetsons" mosque where I witnessed the evening prayer
Chillin out with a shisha at the W Hotel
And iftar at a Syrian restaurant.
It was a cool expereince.
I'll try to post from Canada while I'm there. See you soon.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Ramadan continued...
So a few days ago I met some friends at a Syrian restaurant for Iftar. We chose this restaurant specifically because it was close to a particular mosque. This one. I always liked the design of this mosque and refer to it as “The Jetson mosque” because its architecture reminds me somewhat of that old cartoon.
The mosque has an English-speaking imam by the name of Bilal Philips and is one of two mosques where lectures are given in English (the other one being the Islamic cultural Center, where I went for Friday prayers a few months back). We weren't sure when talks are normally given so we guessed that there would be one after the Isha prayer [I may have the name of this prayer wrong] around 8pm. So after dinner an Egyptian friend and I went to the mosque. We got there a little bit early so we sat down on the carpet and read the Qur’an until it was time for the prayer. The mosque had a number of Qur’ans available in various languages so I was able to grab an English copy and continue reading where I left off at home.
As an aside, Bilal Philips is a Canadian who converted to Islam sometime in the 70s, and much like Dr. Zakir Naik, is also banned from the UK and probably a couple of other countries as well. Again, I haven't had time to look up exactly what's going on there, but a couple years back I did attend one of his talks on the Hajj pilgrimage (search my blog for “Hajj” and you'll find it) and I recall that he was critical of Muslims who have musical ring tones on their cell phones. I guess he comes from a school of Islam that considers music something best avoided. The feeling is not that uncommon, one of my Qatari friends is likewise the same about music and does not listen to it (but most do).
My friend asked one of the people working at the mosque if there was going to be a speech and unfortunately we found out that the speech was at 6pm, around Iftar, so we had missed it. We hung around for a while longer though so that my friend could do the Isha prayer. After about 15 minutes prayer time was called so I grabbed the Qur’an I was reading and went to the back so as not to disturb anyone. The prayer started and more people kept coming into the mosque -- when one saw I was reading the Qur’an on the floor he grabbed a lectern and gave it to me so that I could put the book on it. Oops, sorry about that. Guess you shouldn't read the Qur’an on the floor if there are lecterns nearby.
Anyway the prayer was finished and my friend and I left. Unfortunately I don't have any more time this Ramadan to attend one of the talks, maybe next year.
As for the fasting it is still going fine. I will confess to one slip, one morning I got up for work and was absolutely parched, which did not bode well since the day had just begun. I didn't want to spend the day with a headache from dehydration or something so I had a glass of water before going to the office. Only happened once though.
The mosque has an English-speaking imam by the name of Bilal Philips and is one of two mosques where lectures are given in English (the other one being the Islamic cultural Center, where I went for Friday prayers a few months back). We weren't sure when talks are normally given so we guessed that there would be one after the Isha prayer [I may have the name of this prayer wrong] around 8pm. So after dinner an Egyptian friend and I went to the mosque. We got there a little bit early so we sat down on the carpet and read the Qur’an until it was time for the prayer. The mosque had a number of Qur’ans available in various languages so I was able to grab an English copy and continue reading where I left off at home.
As an aside, Bilal Philips is a Canadian who converted to Islam sometime in the 70s, and much like Dr. Zakir Naik, is also banned from the UK and probably a couple of other countries as well. Again, I haven't had time to look up exactly what's going on there, but a couple years back I did attend one of his talks on the Hajj pilgrimage (search my blog for “Hajj” and you'll find it) and I recall that he was critical of Muslims who have musical ring tones on their cell phones. I guess he comes from a school of Islam that considers music something best avoided. The feeling is not that uncommon, one of my Qatari friends is likewise the same about music and does not listen to it (but most do).
My friend asked one of the people working at the mosque if there was going to be a speech and unfortunately we found out that the speech was at 6pm, around Iftar, so we had missed it. We hung around for a while longer though so that my friend could do the Isha prayer. After about 15 minutes prayer time was called so I grabbed the Qur’an I was reading and went to the back so as not to disturb anyone. The prayer started and more people kept coming into the mosque -- when one saw I was reading the Qur’an on the floor he grabbed a lectern and gave it to me so that I could put the book on it. Oops, sorry about that. Guess you shouldn't read the Qur’an on the floor if there are lecterns nearby.
Anyway the prayer was finished and my friend and I left. Unfortunately I don't have any more time this Ramadan to attend one of the talks, maybe next year.
As for the fasting it is still going fine. I will confess to one slip, one morning I got up for work and was absolutely parched, which did not bode well since the day had just begun. I didn't want to spend the day with a headache from dehydration or something so I had a glass of water before going to the office. Only happened once though.
Happy Birthday Karis!
As I've been out at these iftars and so forth I did not have time to wish my niece a Happy Birthday on my blog, something I’ve always done. I'm really sorry about that, and I realize I'm a few days late. The good news is I'm going to Canada in a few days so I will be able to see her. She’ll get an extra hug when I'm there.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Ramadan updates
I wound up having to change my Sohour meal. Here's what I was having before:
I was eating dates, dried fruit and some sweetened cereal. The dried fruit seems to be coated in sugar so the meal just wound up being way too sweet. Everything was sweet or had sugar on it. Not what I wanted to eat at 3am.
So I switched it up a bit:
This has been working out better, something solid to go with the dates. Nuts, cheese, and a bit of bread (not shown). Settles a bit better in the stomach.
I was eating dates, dried fruit and some sweetened cereal. The dried fruit seems to be coated in sugar so the meal just wound up being way too sweet. Everything was sweet or had sugar on it. Not what I wanted to eat at 3am.
So I switched it up a bit:
This has been working out better, something solid to go with the dates. Nuts, cheese, and a bit of bread (not shown). Settles a bit better in the stomach.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Dr. Zakir Naik
I forgot to mention that Dr. Zakir Naik has gotten himself into a bit of trouble lately and has been refused entry into the UK. I don't recall the entire story but it has to do with some things that he said at the meeting that implies supporting extremists etc. etc.
Dr Zakir has numerous videos on YouTube (including the recent speech that he gave in Doha) including ones refuting the UK allegations. Just do a search for “Zakir Naik”. The UK ban was only a few weeks ago so a Google search for his name should turn up some UK newspaper articles. I can see why he has talks about Western media.
Supporter of extremism or someone quoted out of context? You be the judge.
Dr Zakir has numerous videos on YouTube (including the recent speech that he gave in Doha) including ones refuting the UK allegations. Just do a search for “Zakir Naik”. The UK ban was only a few weeks ago so a Google search for his name should turn up some UK newspaper articles. I can see why he has talks about Western media.
Supporter of extremism or someone quoted out of context? You be the judge.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Ramadan, Day 9
Sorry for the breakdown in posting btw, I had a computer malfunction that took a few days to sort out.
I can now see why despite the fasting a lot of people actually gain weight during Ramadan. Traditionally you should break the fast with friends or family so of course I have been doing so for most days. That means big meals in restaurants and buffets at hotels. Almost every night I'm going out to eat somewhere with people, and next week I have three different hotel buffets I'm attending as part of invitations from the office and firms that I work with. Today it was a buffet at a Japanese restaurant with great sushi. Earlier today some of my Muslim friends found that a little odd, "You shouldn't have sushi for Iftar!”. Why not? I realize that perhaps sushi isn't exactly “traditional” but I had Indian food on two other nights, and the three Muslims that I attended dinner with, a Kuwaiti, two Lebanese, and a Turk, didn't seem to mind either. (Sounds like there's a joke in there somewhere: a Kuwaiti, a Lebanese, a Turk and a Canadian walk into a sushi bar... ). The restaurant appeared to be full of Muslims, including a Qatari couple. I did break the fast initially with dates and laban though, supplied by the restaurant. Looks like all restaurants have dates at the ready for the commencement of Iftar.
I also learned from one of my Qatari friends that when breaking the fast you should eat an odd number of dates. Many Hadiths appear to mention that the Prophet Mohammed ate at least three dates and always an odd number. I will check my Al-Bukhari Hadiths to see if there is anything in it about how many dates to eat. (No luck finding Sawiq by the way, it appears no one breaks their fast with that.)
Another Ramadan tradition is that you should read (or have read to you) the entire Qur’an during the holy month. Many mosques have a special reading every night where the Qur’an is divided up into 29 sections and a section recited each evening -- by attending the readings each night you will have heard the entire Qur’an recited. While most read it on their own one has to remember that, not so long ago, illiteracy was high so you would have to listen to a recitation. One of my Qatari friends mentioned that his Grandmother was illiterate so listened to audio CDs of the Qur’an.
I'm getting used to the fasting now so in addition to the fasting I’ve decided to spend 30 to 45 minutes reading the Qur’an everyday. That is not enough time to get through the entire book but it gives me an opportunity to have a bit of a refresher from when I last read it about three years ago. I recently found a passage that I don't recall from before that I think explains why the Prophet Mohammed had more than four wives. Surah 33:50 indicates that he alone was exempt from some marriage rules. I always wondered about that -- by my recollection he had nine wives but Muslims are limited to four wives (and from most of the Muslim men I've spoken to one wife is plenty. “Big headache! Don’t do it!” was the advice from one Bahraini taxi driver. )
I also have plans to visit one of the mosques that conduct prayers in English to witness the evening prayers and maybe listen to a lecture if one is held. Stay tuned.
I can now see why despite the fasting a lot of people actually gain weight during Ramadan. Traditionally you should break the fast with friends or family so of course I have been doing so for most days. That means big meals in restaurants and buffets at hotels. Almost every night I'm going out to eat somewhere with people, and next week I have three different hotel buffets I'm attending as part of invitations from the office and firms that I work with. Today it was a buffet at a Japanese restaurant with great sushi. Earlier today some of my Muslim friends found that a little odd, "You shouldn't have sushi for Iftar!”. Why not? I realize that perhaps sushi isn't exactly “traditional” but I had Indian food on two other nights, and the three Muslims that I attended dinner with, a Kuwaiti, two Lebanese, and a Turk, didn't seem to mind either. (Sounds like there's a joke in there somewhere: a Kuwaiti, a Lebanese, a Turk and a Canadian walk into a sushi bar... ). The restaurant appeared to be full of Muslims, including a Qatari couple. I did break the fast initially with dates and laban though, supplied by the restaurant. Looks like all restaurants have dates at the ready for the commencement of Iftar.
I also learned from one of my Qatari friends that when breaking the fast you should eat an odd number of dates. Many Hadiths appear to mention that the Prophet Mohammed ate at least three dates and always an odd number. I will check my Al-Bukhari Hadiths to see if there is anything in it about how many dates to eat. (No luck finding Sawiq by the way, it appears no one breaks their fast with that.)
Another Ramadan tradition is that you should read (or have read to you) the entire Qur’an during the holy month. Many mosques have a special reading every night where the Qur’an is divided up into 29 sections and a section recited each evening -- by attending the readings each night you will have heard the entire Qur’an recited. While most read it on their own one has to remember that, not so long ago, illiteracy was high so you would have to listen to a recitation. One of my Qatari friends mentioned that his Grandmother was illiterate so listened to audio CDs of the Qur’an.
I'm getting used to the fasting now so in addition to the fasting I’ve decided to spend 30 to 45 minutes reading the Qur’an everyday. That is not enough time to get through the entire book but it gives me an opportunity to have a bit of a refresher from when I last read it about three years ago. I recently found a passage that I don't recall from before that I think explains why the Prophet Mohammed had more than four wives. Surah 33:50 indicates that he alone was exempt from some marriage rules. I always wondered about that -- by my recollection he had nine wives but Muslims are limited to four wives (and from most of the Muslim men I've spoken to one wife is plenty. “Big headache! Don’t do it!” was the advice from one Bahraini taxi driver. )
I also have plans to visit one of the mosques that conduct prayers in English to witness the evening prayers and maybe listen to a lecture if one is held. Stay tuned.
Dr. Zakir Naik - a lecture, a question, and my shoes
Finally Dr. Naik took the stage and gave a 90 minute lecture on the media and Islam. Some highlights (I'm not quoting verbatim here and, no, I have not doublechecked to see if some of the facts he mentions are true):
• The Western media focuses on the “black sheep” in Islam and treats them as if they were conventional Muslims, implying that all Muslims must be like them. [I can't argue with that one, I have said so myself in this blog]
• The media are quick to point out when a person or group is Muslim, but if the group are not Muslims then their religion is never a focus -- you have never heard the general media refer to the IRA as a "Christian terrorist group" or “Catholic terrorist group”, or imply that their actions are somehow representative of Catholicism. [I think he has a point there - but there aren’t a lot of religious-based terrorist groups out there right now that are not Muslim. I suppose the Lord's Resistance Army comes to my mind and if I recall correctly the media does not refer to them as a Christian terrorist group either.]
• A Muslim killing a few people is big news in the West, Maoist rebels killing dozens of people is not. [Fair comment I suppose]
• One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. The British would've considered George Washington to be a terrorist. [No idea about this one but the terrorist/freedom fighter argument is an old one]
• Islam really is a religion of peace and Muslims should use violence only as a last resort. Some Muslims are misguided and forget this. Regardless, the Western media loves to take quotes from the Qur’an out of context to support this violent interpretation. There are plenty of violent quotations one could get from the Bible, Hindu Scripture or any other Scripture. [Yes, but I will point out that out-of-context quoting by the West it is not just limited to Islam, quoting biologists out of context is a popular pastime for creationists, and the media love to quote politicians out of context. It is a problem though I agree.]
• The word “jihad” has been mistranslated to mean “holy war” but in truth the word means “strike” -- to strike against unfairness, poverty, wrongdoing and oppression. References to the word in the context to war can be found back in the Crusades but it was referring to the Christian attackers, not the Muslims. Unfortunately even many Muslims do not realize the word’s actual meaning. [My Qur’an says Jihad is “holy fighting in Allah’s cause”. I’ll have to take his word for it on this one]
• The West likes to paint Islam as inherently violent and state that it was spread “by the sword”. What army invaded Malaysia, China, or Indonesia? Why did the Mughul emperors not kill every non-Muslim in India? Why is there still a large population of Coptic Christians in Egypt to this day? How did significant Jewish populations live in the Middle East for centuries? How easy was it for non-Christians to live in the Christian world during the Middle Ages? What was the purpose of the Crusades? [But the spread of Islam wasn't entirely peaceful either, especially in the earlier days when it spreads throughout North Africa. That said, I'd say that from about 800 A.D. to 1600 A.D. the Islamic world was probably a lot more tolerant than the Christian West]
• Watching most news media is worse than watching pornography. Pornography is simply haram (forbidden), media actively attacks you by using misinformation to turn you from your beliefs, or manipulate you into certain actions. [He did re-emphasize that pornography is still bad and you shouldn't watch it]
• Islam does not hold a candle to Christianity in terms of its organization and ability to spread its message. India has almost 100,000,000 Muslims yet the circulation of one of the best Islamic magazines in the country is maybe 50,000 copies. Compare that to the Christian magazine Watchtower, which has a circulation of tens of millions in dozens of languages -- and the Christian group that publishes Watchtower is not even considered a mainstream group of Christianity. In the United States churches can raise millions of dollars quickly to form TV stations, publishing houses, missionary work or whatever else they need to spread their message. Dr. Naik has never heard of an Islamic group who is able to do that to the extent that many US church groups can. [I'll take his word for it]
• Muslims have to be careful about the media quoting them out of context, this has happened to Dr. Naik in many instances to try to make his words sound worse than they really were, including on TV. [Out-of-context quoting is not limited to attacking Islam]
• Muslims are not utilizing media to its fullest extent and so are at a disadvantage to the negative views portrayed in the West. [okay]
Not a whole lot I can say is flat out wrong and many of his points I have raised myself in one way or another on this blog.
Despite the heat and humidity in the tent it was still pretty much full by the time the speech ended. Some people left but they were quickly replaced by people from outside.
Then it was time for questions. A microphone was set up in the front and another one set up in the back for the ladies for people to ask questions. About 20 to 30 men immediately headed up to the microphone. However Dr. Naik had other ideas and said that he invited non-Muslims to attend this lecture and as non-Muslims are his guests he will give priority to any non-Muslim who has a question about Islam. They can immediately jump the queue and ask their questions first.
So I stood up, walked down the aisle to the microphone, and the first question of the evening came from yours truly! There were at least two TV cameras there, likely broadcasting the show on the Islamic channel "Peace TV”, which Dr. Naik does a lot of programs for. Who knew one day I'd wind up briefly on Islamic television?
My question:
In your opinion, what are the top two misconceptions the West has about Islam that it should be aware of? What are the things about Islam that the West needs to understand?
He gave a detailed answer and provided three items (I'm paraphrasing here):
1) that ultimately Islam is a religion of peace
2) that extremists should not be viewed as being representative of Islam or Muslims in general
3) that the Qur’an needs to be viewed in context and that the West should not focus on a few specific passages
He then went on to answer questions for another hour and a half, primarily from non-Muslims but then later from the Muslims in the audience.
When he left about 50+ people came forward to get pictures and (I presume since I saw a number of books) get his autograph on books he had authored.
Afterward a Pakistani colleague of mine managed to find me, he had been outside for most of it and told me about the thousands of people outside and the huge crush trying to get in. He sure was surprised to suddenly see me appear on the screens outside to ask Dr. Naik a question. He confirmed that Dr. Naik is quite well known in South Asia and is a popular scholar, appearing on many TV shows there. We chatted for a while waiting for the crowd to disperse.
So we left and sure enough my shoes were not where I had put them. My colleague helped me search for them and after a minute we managed to find one way off to the left of the door, and about five minutes of searching we found another one off to the right and around the corner of the tent (?! I don't even want to know how it wound up there, maybe George Bush walked by ;-) ). Anyway, I found my shoes! They weren't even damaged, just a few scuffs.
I got home at 1 am and figured there was no point in setting my alarm for 3 am just to have my Sohour -- I ate something right then and there and went to bed. Long day.
• The Western media focuses on the “black sheep” in Islam and treats them as if they were conventional Muslims, implying that all Muslims must be like them. [I can't argue with that one, I have said so myself in this blog]
• The media are quick to point out when a person or group is Muslim, but if the group are not Muslims then their religion is never a focus -- you have never heard the general media refer to the IRA as a "Christian terrorist group" or “Catholic terrorist group”, or imply that their actions are somehow representative of Catholicism. [I think he has a point there - but there aren’t a lot of religious-based terrorist groups out there right now that are not Muslim. I suppose the Lord's Resistance Army comes to my mind and if I recall correctly the media does not refer to them as a Christian terrorist group either.]
• A Muslim killing a few people is big news in the West, Maoist rebels killing dozens of people is not. [Fair comment I suppose]
• One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. The British would've considered George Washington to be a terrorist. [No idea about this one but the terrorist/freedom fighter argument is an old one]
• Islam really is a religion of peace and Muslims should use violence only as a last resort. Some Muslims are misguided and forget this. Regardless, the Western media loves to take quotes from the Qur’an out of context to support this violent interpretation. There are plenty of violent quotations one could get from the Bible, Hindu Scripture or any other Scripture. [Yes, but I will point out that out-of-context quoting by the West it is not just limited to Islam, quoting biologists out of context is a popular pastime for creationists, and the media love to quote politicians out of context. It is a problem though I agree.]
• The word “jihad” has been mistranslated to mean “holy war” but in truth the word means “strike” -- to strike against unfairness, poverty, wrongdoing and oppression. References to the word in the context to war can be found back in the Crusades but it was referring to the Christian attackers, not the Muslims. Unfortunately even many Muslims do not realize the word’s actual meaning. [My Qur’an says Jihad is “holy fighting in Allah’s cause”. I’ll have to take his word for it on this one]
• The West likes to paint Islam as inherently violent and state that it was spread “by the sword”. What army invaded Malaysia, China, or Indonesia? Why did the Mughul emperors not kill every non-Muslim in India? Why is there still a large population of Coptic Christians in Egypt to this day? How did significant Jewish populations live in the Middle East for centuries? How easy was it for non-Christians to live in the Christian world during the Middle Ages? What was the purpose of the Crusades? [But the spread of Islam wasn't entirely peaceful either, especially in the earlier days when it spreads throughout North Africa. That said, I'd say that from about 800 A.D. to 1600 A.D. the Islamic world was probably a lot more tolerant than the Christian West]
• Watching most news media is worse than watching pornography. Pornography is simply haram (forbidden), media actively attacks you by using misinformation to turn you from your beliefs, or manipulate you into certain actions. [He did re-emphasize that pornography is still bad and you shouldn't watch it]
• Islam does not hold a candle to Christianity in terms of its organization and ability to spread its message. India has almost 100,000,000 Muslims yet the circulation of one of the best Islamic magazines in the country is maybe 50,000 copies. Compare that to the Christian magazine Watchtower, which has a circulation of tens of millions in dozens of languages -- and the Christian group that publishes Watchtower is not even considered a mainstream group of Christianity. In the United States churches can raise millions of dollars quickly to form TV stations, publishing houses, missionary work or whatever else they need to spread their message. Dr. Naik has never heard of an Islamic group who is able to do that to the extent that many US church groups can. [I'll take his word for it]
• Muslims have to be careful about the media quoting them out of context, this has happened to Dr. Naik in many instances to try to make his words sound worse than they really were, including on TV. [Out-of-context quoting is not limited to attacking Islam]
• Muslims are not utilizing media to its fullest extent and so are at a disadvantage to the negative views portrayed in the West. [okay]
Not a whole lot I can say is flat out wrong and many of his points I have raised myself in one way or another on this blog.
Despite the heat and humidity in the tent it was still pretty much full by the time the speech ended. Some people left but they were quickly replaced by people from outside.
Then it was time for questions. A microphone was set up in the front and another one set up in the back for the ladies for people to ask questions. About 20 to 30 men immediately headed up to the microphone. However Dr. Naik had other ideas and said that he invited non-Muslims to attend this lecture and as non-Muslims are his guests he will give priority to any non-Muslim who has a question about Islam. They can immediately jump the queue and ask their questions first.
So I stood up, walked down the aisle to the microphone, and the first question of the evening came from yours truly! There were at least two TV cameras there, likely broadcasting the show on the Islamic channel "Peace TV”, which Dr. Naik does a lot of programs for. Who knew one day I'd wind up briefly on Islamic television?
My question:
In your opinion, what are the top two misconceptions the West has about Islam that it should be aware of? What are the things about Islam that the West needs to understand?
He gave a detailed answer and provided three items (I'm paraphrasing here):
1) that ultimately Islam is a religion of peace
2) that extremists should not be viewed as being representative of Islam or Muslims in general
3) that the Qur’an needs to be viewed in context and that the West should not focus on a few specific passages
He then went on to answer questions for another hour and a half, primarily from non-Muslims but then later from the Muslims in the audience.
When he left about 50+ people came forward to get pictures and (I presume since I saw a number of books) get his autograph on books he had authored.
Afterward a Pakistani colleague of mine managed to find me, he had been outside for most of it and told me about the thousands of people outside and the huge crush trying to get in. He sure was surprised to suddenly see me appear on the screens outside to ask Dr. Naik a question. He confirmed that Dr. Naik is quite well known in South Asia and is a popular scholar, appearing on many TV shows there. We chatted for a while waiting for the crowd to disperse.
So we left and sure enough my shoes were not where I had put them. My colleague helped me search for them and after a minute we managed to find one way off to the left of the door, and about five minutes of searching we found another one off to the right and around the corner of the tent (?! I don't even want to know how it wound up there, maybe George Bush walked by ;-) ). Anyway, I found my shoes! They weren't even damaged, just a few scuffs.
I got home at 1 am and figured there was no point in setting my alarm for 3 am just to have my Sohour -- I ate something right then and there and went to bed. Long day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)