Hotel Carbondale

When you live in Saluki-land, dogs rule. And sometimes dogs could be as important, or maybe more important than human-beings. I've written about the academic importance and high value of dogs in SIU culture in my Fall 2008 post. But the importance of dogs does not stop just at a symbolic level.

In Saluki-land, dogs are so revered and are entitled to the same freedoms as human beings (if not more). Maybe restraining the dogs would infringe on their inalienable rights. Interestingly, animal rights' advocates use the word humane while talking about their clients. And if there are city ordinances requiring the dogs to be restrained, probably those laws are inhumane and need not be taken seriously.

Seriously, I don't know why some people cannot understand the simple fact that dogs (however lovely and cute) are animals; they are not human being. Dogs, if not within the fenced perimeter of their owner's house, should be restrained at all times and barred from running loose in public roads. Failing to do so could result in accidents like what happened to my advisor here (who is a professional cyclist). Have a look at his blog to see what happened to him this March as a result of such negligence.

At the beginning of this semester, when I decided to do some exhaustion-therapy, I chose to bike toward Giant City State Park. However, my experiment was not so relaxing as I had dreamed. Having read my advisor's blog and having seen him after his accident, I was preoccupied all the way that some loose dog might jump at me. And it actually occurred to me twice as I've described in the middle of this post. But I was lucky and nothing serious happened to me. I just returned home more or less unhealed (from my exasperation).

Last week, when one of my friends had gone on some biking around the town to make some change to his monotonous life here, he was not so lucky. Somebody was walking with his pit-bulls in the night. And to respect their canine rights which were more important than human rights, he had leashed them on a very long leash, in violation of the ordinance control.

One of the pit-bulls attacked my friend and while he was trying to keep his balance on his bike and stay away from the attacker, the other one jumped from the other side and he fell into a ditch. Fortunately, the ditch was shallow and he just got a bruised ear and a twisted ankle (he's still limping nowadays). Interestingly, the owner of those loose pit-bulls didn't even bother to help my friend out of the ditch and simply carried on as if nothing important had happened. Well, he was actually so graciously kind and polite to say "sorry", before moving on.

While my friend was telling me the story, I told him sarcastically that he was lucky that nothing had happened to the pit-bulls, otherwise their owner would had not taken it so lightly and it would had been him who should have apologized while sprawling in the ditch.

And calling the police station was useless; the officer just thanked him for calling. Although even if he had had the specs of the pit-bull owner, I doubt that anything would have happened. I think he should had been bolder and should had not let the irresponsible pit-bull owner go by unperturbed. My first reaction would had been to take a photo with my cell-phone outright. Anyway.

A few weeks ago, we were talking in our grad room about the monotony and boredom of life in Carbondale. And usually, when I hate a place like this and when I find life boring to death like this, I sing the refrain in one of my favorite songs that relates to such situations: Hotel California. And in this case, my friends found it a perfect match to describe our miserable life. Then, somebody suggested making an adaptation for Hotel Carbondale. And this friend of mine volunteered to write the lyrics. And the rest agreed to perform the song when the lyrics get ready.

And not long after that grad room conversation, he had this pit-bull experience. This made his resolve stronger and he eventually sat down and wrote the lyrics for Hotel Carbondale. I have to admit that although English is not his native language (he's from Pakistan), he's done a very good job. And I have to mention that he's the brightest sociologist in our cohort. Whenever he gives a presentation in any class, the quality of his job makes the rest of us feel like freshman undergrads.

And that makes me even angrier about his pit-bull encounter. Anyway, enjoy the lyrics below and wait for our performance (if our grad life affords us time for that):

Hotel Carbondale

Lyrics: Muhammad Asadi

On a dark paved roadway, winter breeze on my rear,

Strong smell of gasoline, surrounded me every where

Up ahead in the distance, I saw two kids fight

My head grew weary as darkness enveloped the night

There he stood in the middle,

A pit bull from hell.

I questioned myself as in a riddle

What if he doesn’t like my smell?

He answered my question and attacked me on sight

A second one jumped and at my fall took delight

As I lay there in pain, the barking seemed to say….

Welcome to the Hotel Carbondale, (yeah)

Such a lovely place, such a lovely place

To be in such disgrace ...

Plenty of gloom at the Hotel Carbondale, (yeah)

Any time of year, any time of year,

You can find it here ...

Now my ankle’s all twisted, the pain transcends

There are some scary scary clouds, rainfall never ends

Like a book with blank pages, it’s boring you bet!

Some learn to surrender, some come to regret

So I called on the sergeant

‘Please get these dogs off the street’

He said, “Thanks for calling but we’ve long made our retreat”

And still that barking is taunting from far away,

Wakes you up in the middle of the night

Just to hear it say...

Welcome to the Hotel Carbondale (yeah)

Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place)

To be in such disgrace…

They’re livin' it up at the Hotel Carbondale (yeah)

What a nice surprise (what a nice surprise)

A four floor “high rise” ...

Water’s dripping from the ceiling,

Seminar room’s cold as ice,

We are all just readers here with no printing device,

And in the TA’s chambers,

We gather for the chores

Thus we pass our daily lives,

For the weekend break at the stores

Last thing I remember, I was

Limping through the door

I had to find my direction to

The place that is the core

“Relax” said the greeter

You have arrived, take a cart

You can check all the sales you want

At the world’s biggest Wal-Mart…

One Faith at SIU

Tonight, I had a field observation after a long hiatus. When I was in Toledo, I used to go to so many churches for my research on contemporary worship that my Christian friends joked about me to be more Christian than them (judged by my church attendance). Sometimes, I went to 3 services on a Sunday. Quite workaholic. Although I enjoyed my time in most of those churches.

However, since I've landed in Carbondale, I've got so stuck with my home-campus-home routine that I think I've become a zombie (and that's when my brain gets free enough to think about anything). As one of my friends jokes about it, just going to Kroger for grocery shopping is our weekend breakaway. Quite a life.

Then, I saw this flyer advertising for a worship service on campus: One Faith. And ironically, it was in the same Student Center ball-room where Ron Jeremy and Pastor Gross had their porn debate a few weeks ago. And I felt curious to see the quality and attendance of such an event in such a party-land that is SIU on a party-night that is Friday night.

It was a joint worship service by all sort of ministries on-campus (and off-campus). The name, One Faith, was catchy. But what drew me to the event was my boredom with a life that is all about reading unreasonable loads of readings over a very short time without getting a deep understanding, writing summaries and so on, ad infinitum. I've switched to Sociology to enjoy my life doing field observations. I could've stayed in my job as an engineer and just read sociology books and articles. And a PhD program should be about quality of reading, not just quantity. Anyway.

When I was in Toledo, I had gone to a couple of worship services on campus. They were mostly Campus Crusade for Christ (CRU). And I have to say I was not impressed so much. To be honest, these CRU meetings helped me get a better idea about spirituality on campus, or may I say, collegiate spirituality. But I found these youthful collegiate worships to be laden with emotion, shallow in spirituality and malnourished in theology. And after a while, I preferred to spend my field observation time in a more efficient way, mostly in churches.

What I observed tonight, was more or less in line with my CRU observations in Toledo, with some differences in details. There were some loud rock songs in the beginning (by a highly diverse band, made up of whites, blacks and Asians), a truly black gospel choir (I have to say this was the only part that I really enjoyed), a conversion story by a born-again former sinner, some prayers, a speaker (who also happened to be a born-again former sinner), some more prayers, some more rock songs and then ending with mass high-fives.

As a former(?) engineer, I have a strong sense of professionalism about everything. In the same way that I don't approve of somebody lacking education in engineering, suddenly deciding to design the control system for a powerplant, I cannot stand something like religion, which is not less sophisticated than engineering, being treated less professionally. And I feel annoyed when people who don't have a good education or understanding in religion, decide to jump the bandwagon.

Be it secular intellectuals who know nothing about internal dynamics of religion (because they have not experienced or understood it or both) and just feel like giving their analysis on this complicated subject. Or evangelists whose understanding of their faith is mostly limited to sensations and emotions. And well, life-changing stories.

I don't know why these evangelists feel compelled to make up stories about an ultimate sinful life, turning abruptly to Jesus and then deciding to dedicate themselves to spreading the good news. Seriously, I'm eager to meet an evangelist who has not gone through the same old routine. I want somebody who has had a straight life, following in the footsteps of Jesus over his lifetime before deciding to dedicate himself to Jesus in words. But maybe, such a straight ordinary life is not inspiring enough for the purpose of evangelism.

And what annoys me even more is how some of these evangelists believe their highly animated stories could really be life-changing to somebody with a fair share of IQ. I can think of my post on Conversion from Islam to Christianity which was a reaction to one of those stories. The author of that 13-page testimony, purporting to be a former devout Muslim terrorist, turned Christian, was clueless about some basics of Islam. I guess he had got his understanding about Islam by reading some of those novels. I find such conversion stories more than anything an offense to the intellectual capacities of the reader.

And the speaker for tonight who has been living in Spain for over 20 years, had one of those inspiring stories. Basically, he preaches the word of God by way of standing on top of boxes (accompanied by his buddies) and shouting and singing to people in one of the busiest squares of Madrid, where prostitutes and homosexuals do their business on one side and government offices and mayors (sic) work on the other side of the square.

He once happened to catch the attention of an Arab diplomat who just happened to pass by one of his box-top sermons in that busy square. And that Arab diplomat was so fascinated by his words that he gave him his business card and persistently invited him to the embassy. And just after 2 hours of incessant private tutoring (and I can imagine the nature of that 2 hour session), that Arab diplomat got to know Jesus and why this nice evangelist guy was a Christian instead of being a Muslim. Quite a story.

At one point in his speech, he was trying to use the robe of righteousness as a metaphor for salvation that you get when you come to Jesus. To make his point more visual and hence more understandable to anybody, he used his younger daughter (who was in her late teens I guess) as a learning tool. He had her dress herself in a white robe with some gold embroidery and brought her on stage. Then, he realized it was not a good idea and ordered her to sit down, because everybody was looking at her instead of him (sic). And by the end of his passionate sermon, when he came back to his metaphor and summoned his daughter back to stage, he had her face the wall instead of the audience.

Seriously, I'm not sure how deep and thoughtful is the faith you get through such meetings. Fortunately, I already have Jesus in my heart without being in need of such visual metaphors or relying on emotions and sensations. Jesus is the light of God and His very Spirit and Word sent to the world. He certainly doesn’t need inefficient advertisement of this sort. And even if one chooses to be a Christian, I guess going to a church and listening to a pastor with sound education in theology and divinity would be a better choice.

I've had most of my pre-college schooling (grades 3 through 12) in Alavi School, an elite evangelical Islamic one. And on top of their excellent education in math, physics, computer and stuff, they trained us in evangelizing people. And I do mean it, training. It's long since I've given up debating religion with people to prove the superiority of my beliefs (that's the main goal of all evangelists, Christian or Muslim or whatever). While I still hold firmly to my religious convictions as a Muslim, I find such debates a waste of time and more than seeking truth, asserting one's ego or vanity (my belief, my faith, my truth, my whatever).

But when I compare the quality evangelization training I received in Alavi school (which was deeply based on theology and philosophy) with some of the stories I read or hear from evangelicals here or the methods they use to drive their point home, I mostly feel pity for these guys. So long for professionalism in religion.

Another thing that drew me to this event was my curiosity to have a look at the makeup, number and diversity of SIU students who might have some interest in faith. Especially, after my disappointing comparison of Justice or Porn. Looking at the number, it appears that faith fares no better than justice among SIU students. Even the big incentive of a free dinner at the end of this once-a-semester big event didn't succeed to bring as many students as Ron Jeremy did for his porn debate.

Although as the saying goes, there's no such thing as a free lunch (or dinner); you had to first feed your soul through listening to all sort of life-changing stories, before tending to your stomach. And near the end of this 2 hour worship (quite lengthy for a collegiate worship event), many students left the ballroom for the lounge to enjoy all sort of sandwiches, cookies and stuff.

And I learned another thing about dynamics of evangelism when you're in a small town in the middle of nowhere. Having attended the international coffee hour in our ISS lounge, I had noticed evangelists engaging international students in conversations over coffee and yummies. And talking to one of their converts, I got a better understanding of how these guys do their business here.

When you're stuck in a depressing hellhole like Carbondale, cast away from your country, family, culture and everything you had back there and when you have absolutely nothing to amuse yourself with here, you gradually feel desperate for some socializing. I've reflected on this issue in a previous post on a sense of community. And when you don't find a community nearby matching your culture, you begin to feel a sense of identity confusion (even if you're not a teen).

And that's where evangelists drop by to fill the gap for you. They offer you a new identity, a substitute identity which makes you feel compatible and hence comfortable with your surrounding. And then, you blend in and become part of the new community. And in the process, you adopt a new faith and learn about a new love that you didn't know before.

Whenever I go to a place for my research where evangelists are busy marketing their commodity, I feel uncomfortable and I usually have to keep my distance. Generally, I have a low opinion about marketers of any commodity, especially pushy ones. Even when I go to a store with the explicit intent of buying something, I try to stay away from sales assistants who insist on helping me.

And as I've become somehow familiar (and fed up) with opening lines of these marketers of faith, I usually have a hard time keeping cool answering their ice-breaking questions. Such questions may sound innocuous to an innocent untrained ear but my experience has taught me that these questions would lead to a theology debate where the intent of the initiator is not improving his understanding; rather, pushing his absolute truth in a cocky way. And this aversion about pushy marketers sometimes makes me behave arrogantly.

When the worship service finished and we went to the lounge for dinner and fellowship, I was busy doing my job, looking around to get a sense of the demography of attendees. And as these marketers of faith assume anybody is by default a lost sheep or in danger of being lost, their ice-breaking soon embarks on the main objective, trying to save the sheep. And what really turns me off, is the patronizing language and voice they use as if they're talking to a little lost kid (even when they're not actually older than me).

From time to time, people would approach this looking-around bearded supposedly shy guy, trying to invite me to their church to find the answers to my questions (that I had not even asked). And the common denominator of all ice-breaking dialogs: Where are you from? How do you feel in Carbondale? Don't you feel lonely here?

And in order to prevent the conversation from rolling into a theology debate (as had happened before, when I was inexperienced with these marketers), I had to make it clear outright that I was there as a sociologist doing some sort of field research.

And in one instance, a pastor was more explicit in mentioning that they have students from thirty countries in their church and invited me on board to have a sense of community with other international students. And I had to emphasize that I would love continuing my research as I did in Toledo, but my busy schedule in grad school has made me a home-campus-home zombie. And apparently, repeating the word research in an arrogant way didn't seem to impress him much to accept the fact that I was not a lost sheep. He sufficed to give me his Email and church address.

But not all marketers give up so easily. I remember another evangelist pastor (whom I'd met in the Student Center at the beginning of semester) who kept emailing me to invite me to their church. And apparently all the excuses that I made did not impress him until I mentioned that I couldn't come to their church over Ramadhan and hopefully I would visit them sometime after the month of fasting was over.

Now that I think about it, maybe the quantity-oriented approach of my PhD program and their overbearing load of readings should not be blamed for my keeping away from field research here. Maybe, in the back of my unconscious mind, I've been actually trying to avoid such marketing efforts in a small town in the middle of nowhere.

Obama, hope and change

It appears that my concerns about this President of hope and change are coming true, one by one. Unfortunately. His choice for chief of staff does not sound like a good start. Appointing a radical partisan has angered Republicans. I don't think that such a choice would help much with bipartisan spirit and stuff. And bringing back other top brass from Clinton administration, doesn't sound much like change. But that's when we focus just on how this presidency would work inside the US.

This President of hope and change has inherited a lot of problems outside the US from previous administrations (including the current one). And again, when you appoint somebody as your chief of staff whose father has been a member of a terrorist organization with a gruesome record and who names his son after a fallen hero from another notorious terrorist organization, that would hardly send a good message to the people in the Middle East.

It's understandable (though not acceptable) when you distance yourself from Muslims just to save some votes in the election. But alienating yourself further from the Muslim world after you get elected wouldn't help much with rebuilding American image abroad (which has already been tarnished by wrongdoings in the past). The President of the United States, more than anything, should be a representative of power, resolve and principles.

I'm still unhappy about how Obama handled his Muslim faith allegations, or his relationship with his pastor (among other things). And that led me write my angry rant, Obama in God we Trust. By that, I had no intention to defend him; rather, I was angry with the racism and bigotry that led to such rumors. And Obama didn't stand in the face of the problem; he simply caved in. And he continues to do so. I think this open letter which was written before his election, speaks clearly about hope, change and reality.

On a general note, one of my friends had written a political sociology analysis long before the election, predicting with certainty that Obama would win the election. While I don't agree with his main argument of conspiracy theory, I find many interesting observation in his post: The Barack Conspiracy, How to Salvage a Collapsing System.

Election Night

Tonight, America made history. In a country where a few decades ago, blacks were lynched and where racism is still rampant, a black has become the President of the United States of America. Regardless of what I think about Obama and his positions as a celebrity politician, I believe he has achieved something people couldn't imagine even in their dreams. Let's see how he uses this historical opportunity to bring about real change in action, beyond nice words. Especially now that he has won not only the White House but also both chambers of the Congress.

And I find it interesting how I've followed this election over past 2 years as if I were an American citizen. Tonight, although I was extremely busy with my schoolwork, I found myself following minute-by-minute results of election in different states. And although as a non-citizen, I've stayed more or less objective over this campaign, at times, I didn't feel like analyzing things as an outsider.

But maybe I'm not a total outsider, practically speaking. If you limit citizenship in terms of the passport you possess or the flag you fly, I'm a proud Iranian citizen. But if being American is defined by the values that shape American identity, I believe my rich cultural heritage as an Iranian and the values and maxims I've lived by as a Muslim since my childhood, would make me much more American than some people whose Americanness is limited just to a lapel-pin, lacking American spirit altogether.

Tonight, while I was following developments online and trying to make predictions for critical states, sometimes I had a feeling as if I was doing it in my own country, the same way I did in Iran for my own presidential elections. At times, I felt as if this was my election and I had personal stakes in it. Odd feeling.

And without trying to make any analogy between Obama and my former President Khatami (his personality, character and integrity stood way above Obama), I find this election and its atmosphere, very similar to his election and his presidency back then with similar dynamics working in both countries. I've touched on this briefly while writing about negative campaigning in Hillary's rally in Toledo. Well, maybe not exactly similar.

Actually, it would had been impossible for Obama to win this election without the media covering him like their favorite celebrity poster-child. Back in 1997 when Khatami ran for president, almost the entire official media and resources were mobilized against him. To get an idea of Khatami's uphill battle back then, have a look at this stupid anti-Obama clip. And unlike Obama, Khatami did not have the luxury of liberal media support to offset the propaganda against him. Yet, he managed to win both his terms in a landslide (and that's what makes him and his victories so great).

And despite my strong criticism of Obama, his politics and his flip-flopping positions, probably the similarity between overwhelming stupidity in Obama-bashing and Khatami-bashing was the reason I wrote my angry rant, Obama In God we Trust, not in his defense, rather in opposition to the stupidity manifested in anti-Obama hoaxes. And now that Obama has surpassed all that stupidity, I enjoy watching that anti-Obama clip again, as it's a strong evidence that all that stupidity didn't work. Well, at least in the sort run.

But still, some similarities exist and that's the dynamics behind anti-reform camps in both countries who wouldn't accept defeat easily. People booing Obama over McCain's respectful concession speech is just the tip of the iceberg. And that makes me worry that things could happen to this President of change and hope on this other side of the planet. And Obama may undergo similar challenges that Khatami faced over his presidency. And if that happens here (and odds are high for that), and if he fails to act on this historical opportunity (for whatever reason) or if he lets the radicals in his camp rig the change, that would be the difference between hope and disillusionment.

Happy Halloween?

On Eid Fetr (which was a month ago), I received a toe-tag in my department mailbox, presumably intended to invite me to a Halloween party. Although I immediately realized what it was about, I found the joke absurd. The guy who'd put it in my mailbox, is one of the strongest proponents of multiculturalism. Pondering about how to react, I wrote a note on the back of the toe-tag and put it in his mailbox, saying that it was not the best way to greet a Muslim on one of his most important religious holidays.

As could be understood from my Trick or Treat post last year, I don't have a very high opinion about pagan traditions, especially in a country that boasts having been founded on religion. And what I don't like the most is double standards about being politically correct.

People feel compelled to take out Jesus from Christmas and replace Merry Christmas with a spiritless greeting like Happy Holidays, under the pretext of not offending people who don't believe in Jesus. Yet, they don't feel the same about a pagan holiday; they have to mention the name of the holiday all the time while greeting others and they feel everybody must respect or at least be interested in Halloween. That was how that toe-tag ended up in my mailbox. The sender had good friendly intentions of course. But I wonder how he assumed that I, a conservative Muslim, might find a toe-tag invitation to a pagan holiday interesting.

And yesterday morning, while I was rushing from one of my discussion sections for Introduction to Sociology to the next section, one of my colleagues saw me and greeted me with Happy Halloween. I muttered something like "thank you", failing to muster a better reaction and hurried on. Interestingly, some of my students wrote Happy Halloween at the top of their quiz. Although all of them knew me to be a Muslim from Iran, they probably thought it was a good way to welcome their TA in their culture.

I can appreciate such good intentions, but why shouldn't anybody bother to complement a religious person based on his religious beliefs? I think multiculturalism is about accepting and respecting people (including their beliefs) as they are. If you presume somebody would feel the same about your cultural values as you do, that's not multiculturalism; rather, it's melting pot and cultural assimilation. Undergraduate student may not analyze things to such levels. But what about graduate students or professors?

As I've mentioned at the end of my Eid Fetr post, apart from my Muslim friends, the only person who spontaneously greeted me for the Eid was one of our liberal professors who (through her frequent visits to Bangladesh) has good awareness about Muslim concerns. And well, after I put cookies in our grad lounge, one of my class-mates showed up to thank me for the cookies and in the meantime, asked me how should she greet me for the occasion. While I'm continuously showered with homosexuality awareness info, multiculturalists don't seem to be as much obsessed with awareness about religious values.

In this country, respecting one's culture is promoted as far as it has nothing to do with religion. If you go to people's door and call them to Jesus or God, you're pushing your beliefs on them and you could even end up in court for unwarranted soliciting (well, of course I don't enjoy evangelists knocking on my door either). Yet, presuming people would respect something they actually don't, (like trick or treating at their home or greeting them in a way they don't like) is about culture and tradition and it's perfectly OK. But maybe the importance of this holy night is not limited just to ordinary people. It appears that even among the religious folks, it's very important to observe Halloween and trick or treat.

On Thursday night, I had been invited to speak on an interfaith panel in a church in Harrisburg (a small town to our east). I was hesitant about going, as it overlapped one of my classes. Right before the class, I couldn't resist the temptation and talked to the professor and got his permission to go. And I'm glad I did. If I had not gone there, there would had been no representative for Islam in that interfaith dialog panel. Not surprisingly, our audience in that church were quite a few; the rest had something more important to do: trick or treat. And I could feel the disappointment in the words and face of our host (the pastor of that church).

The panel was about religion and culture. We, as international students, were expected to explain about our religion, the impact of the culture of our country on our religion and the influence of religion on daily life. As my participation in the panel was a last-minute decision, I had nothing prepared and I had to quickly jot down some notes on the way to Harrisburg. To explain the importance of Islam as agency of change, I preferred to begin my talk with a description of daily life in its birthplace, instead of my own country.

Arabia was one of the most wicked places of earth before Islam. People's hobbies were about getting drunk, gang-raping, fighting each other, sucking blood from the veins of live animals, and engraving their baby daughters alive. Over the course of centuries, they had turned Kaaba (a house of worship built by Abraham to pray to God) into a temple to venerate the idols they had carved out of stone and wood and to offer those idols tributes. And stratification was rampant in Arabia. And women were not even second gender; they were merely objects to satisfy sexual desires of men. Islam came to abolish all these abominations.

And when early Muslims fled the brutal persecution by infidels in Mecca and established their society in Medina, one of the first things they did, was writing a constitution and bill of rights that above all ensured equality. In Quran, it's clearly stated that people, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender and wealth, are worthy only for their belief and obedience to God. Basically, the word Islam means submission to the rules of God, instead of following our own whims. Other frequent themes in Quran are the importance of faith and good deeds at the same time, the value of knowledge and thinking about the creation to realize the magnificence of God's job and of course practicing faith in a communal way to reinforce it.

When Islam spread its wings into my country however, it faced a different environment than Arabia. People in Persia already worshiped one God and the culture of the country already revolved around their religion, Zoroastrianism. When Islam entered Persia 14 centuries ago, people of my country simply took progressive elements of Islam and internalized it in their rich culture. Back then, religion and culture were inseparable in Persian life and the same is true nowadays. In Iranian culture, almost all holidays have religious roots one way or another, either in Islam or in ancient Zoroastrianism.

Then, I proceeded to explain about my early childhood exposure to religious diversity in my beloved neighborhood that I used to refer to as little Jerusalem, as described at the beginning of this earlier post on Prayer in America. And as an example of amalgamation of religion and culture in present day Iran, I explained about Ashura and its importance in Iranian culture. And I elaborated on what I've written at the end of my Nowruz 1386 post.

The audience were surprised to hear that even non-Muslim Iranians like Zoroastrians, Armenians and Jews participate and sometimes contribute to it by way of providing nazri meals for Muslim mourners. And I could see the puzzled looks when I said that Jews in Isfahan have their own Hussainia, commemorating and mourning the martyrdom of Imam Hussein. I guess these facts were much in contradiction to the usual nonsense they hear about Iran and Islam in the US media.

All in all, it was an interesting panel, providing an opportunity for all of us to hear about different religions first hand. Dialogs of this kind would be the most efficient way to fight bigotry and prejudice. And well, as a side benefit, I could get out of Carbondale for a few hours (normally, going to Kroger for my grocery shopping, is the farthest I can get away from school for a break). Coming back to Carbondale, I realized that it's been exactly 3 months since I landed in this depressing small town in the middle of nowhere.