Re-Education

Today Gaby and I walked around the town, mailed a package, climbed a lighthouse, found the world's best fried rice, checked out a few temples, and then got a lesson in Islam.

We went to this really nice mosque in town hoping to get a good look at the big, beautiful dome. What we got instead was a very aggressive lesson on how superior Islam is to everything else. I've been to lots of Mosques in the last year and met hundreds of Muslims. All of which have been lovely experiences. But today was really disappointing.

I should have seen it coming. Not once, in any country that I've visited, have I ever been hassled or approached by anyone other than the shoe minder (wanting his baksheesh) or the gate man reminding me to put on a head scarf. This time, however, we were informed we needed a guide. Whatever, right? Well, he came out of their information office where another mullah was sitting and talking with some westerner. I've seen this situation a MILLION times in Christian churches. It's proselytizing. I had a pretty good feeling we'd be led back there later for an obligatory "chat" on Islam.

The guide was nice though. He led us through the mosque and sang us the call to prayer, translating everything for us and then going through the different pillars of Islam, etc. etc. To be expected. And it was appreciated. His sincerity in his faith was refreshing and beautiful. However, we were a bit disappointed that they made us were robes when we went in even though we had our shoulders and our legs covered (a sign of a more conservative mosque). But then, they wouldn't let us walk to the middle to see the dome because we'd be walking on the carpets. I've never had this happen to me before. Most mosque care-takers really don't care.

But afterwards, as predicted, we were led back to the information center (in another world it'd be a pastor's office) to do a Q & A on Islam. Gaby didn't have many questions so I opened it up. First I asked about the differences between Sunni's, Shia's and Sufi's but didn't get much of an answer except that "Shia's follow man and not God" and "Sufi's pray to idols." In other words: "Sunni's are the only good Muslims." But the guide was stumbling over his words and obviously had a hard time answer (no prob, English isn't his first language) so the head mullah stepped in and took over the "discussion."

My second question: does Islam has a concept of hell like Judaism and Christianity (all three are closely related)? They said yet and that Jews and Christians will go to heaven as long as they pray to God and God alone. According to these guys, believing in the divinity of Jesus is a ticket to hell though.

My third question was about Sharia law--law of the Koran. Most of it is pretty tame stuff that similar to Judaism and Christianity about things like diets and managing money, but there are also extreme things like cutting of the hands of theives and stoning adulterers. I wanted to know, if they, like Christians and Jews (who have similar extreme stuff in the Old Testament/Torah) , felt that these laws are outdated for our modern times or if they should be strictly followed as written in the Koran. The answer: strictly followed. But the guy was so aggressive that we wouldn't let me ask any questions to clarify stuff and raised his voice almost to a yell as he "lectured us" on the evils of Christian (western) societies. He went so far to tell me that rape, murder and theft only occur in Christian societies and not at all in Muslim ones. What???!! Did you know that some conservatives use the law to stone RAPED women because they may have "seduced" their aggressor or "enjoyed" the act, thus making them adulturous? This happens more often than you think--check the news for Karachi, Pakistan in September 2008. I wanted to ask about this but couldn't get a word in with the mouthy one. Then a third man, a much more soft spoken one (obviously trying to compensate) said, "These things are true but we do many wonderful charity works that help prevent these things. Islam is good and we do good things." Right. Of course. Not all Muslims are terrible, stone-throwing, hand chopping, extremists. And they do do a lot of wonderful charitable works. But so do Bahais. So do Mormons. So do Hindus, Buddhists, Chistians, Jews, Catholics, and Athiests. I can't accept that any amount of good works is a reason enough to turn a blind eye to cruel and unusual punnishment. And none of those other faiths or creeds feel the need to take punnishment to such extreme measures.

Anyway, to say the least, it ended badly. The mouthy one said as I got up to leave, that I shouldn't judge them based on their laws. (But really, what should I judge them on if not by their own laws?) I responded by asking him to please not judge "The West" or "Christians" by the presence of crime. Crime is world wide and without border or religion. It doesn't exsist simply because we don't chop off hands. Crime, before it occurs in deed, first occurs in the heart. That got another bout of near-shouts so I opened the door, put on my shoes and said, "Salaam alequme" peace be with you in Arabic. (Forgive me for spelling it wrong.) He responded "Alequme salaam" and also with you and thus ended our re-education session.

It obviously wasn't a Q & A and wasn't a "discussion" either. It was a lecture--and not one of the pleasant kind. I didn't want to offend. Maybe I asked some hard questions but geeze, not even close to the ones I wanted to ask! I wanted to ask about the equality of women in Islam, the protection of women in and children in divorce (a man can divorce a woman in Islam by text message! It happened in Saudi Arabia.), I wanted to ask about the war in Gaza, about the Dome of the Rock and Israel's decision not to destroy it when the occupied the entire city (even though it lies on top of the temple--a site many want to rebuild). I wanted to ask about Hezabollah and Hamas and how does money trickle down into their hands if most Muslims see them as radicals. I wanted to ask about women praying in a seperate section. I wanted to ask about Jihad (religious war) and under what circumstances they felt it should be declared. I wanted to ask, "Do you really believe that if you die a martyr that you'll go to heaven and be granted hundreds of beautiful virgin wives?" I wanted to know if they really kept their beards long because that was how the prophet Mohammed wore his. I had so many questions. More than that.

This head mullah had a great opportunity to clarify and dispel many misconceptions about Islam as well as participate in a very interesting discussion on religion and contemporary world problems. Instead, he chose to raise his voice, show his intolerance--nay, his ignorance--of other faiths, present himself as an aggressive man, and turn away two curious girls. It could have been different.

If you're Muslim and reading this, please don't think I judge all Muslims based on this one encounter. I've met so many other wonderful Muslims who've engaged with me in really challenging and really interesting conversations. And my faith? It really doesn't matter. I could be anything; this guy would have reacted the same way to anyone else who asked the same questions. I still want to ask those questions and I'd still like to hear answers/ideas. It's true, many Muslims do amazing, wonderful things for the world. But I can't and the world can't ignore their strict adherence to the Koran and their unwillingness to adapt to modern societies--places where religion and state are seperate. I'm not saying it's wrong, but I want to know why. And I want to know if like me and millions of others, if they too question the words in books and the lessons of teachers, not because they don't believe, but because they want to and they want to know why.

Dirt

If you summed up Cairo in one word, it would be dirt. This city is pretty icky; only second to Delhi. We didn't do a whole lot in Cairo except wait around for our visas to clear. With the beginning of the Haj (a month long pilgrimage for all Muslims to Mecca), some Iranian holidays, crazy Muslim weekends (Thursday and Fridays), and Christmas, there were only a few days each week were we could acutally accomplish anything.

But we did see a few things. We spent a day walking around Coptic Cairo (Coptic is the Eastern Orthodox sect of Christianity in Egypt), a day shopping for that ever elusive alabaster chess set in the Muslim Quarter tourist markets (didn't find the right one), a day wandering around the pyramids (which I already posted on), and an evening at a free Sufi twirling performance--spectacular! The twirling performance is actually Sufi's entering a trance like state of worship to Allah through spinning. It's really quite beautiful and moving. It wasn't hard to see the sincerity in their faces or the passion of the singers and musicians; several performers were crying. But just watching them spin for over 30 minutes straight is enough to make even the most seasoned sailor motion sick! They should have handed out bags and motion sickness meds at the door! Jk. Unfortunately we didn't take a camera. :(

I think these were some of the old city gates in Islamic Cairo.

Cairo over the Nile. This place is only clean looking because it's next to the Hyatt. Everywhere else is gritty.

Some mosque in Coptic Cairo where the men at the front tried to rip us off by asking for baksheesh (sorta like tipping) for minding our shoes. We refused to pay.

A view over Islamic Cairo.

This interesting little street in Coptic Cairo sold lots of English books and some tourist treasures like gold Annubis statues. Bah.

This is Midan Talat Harb, near where we stayed.

One of the lovely old Coptic churches in Coptic Cairo. The stained glass was amazing and made the whole chapel sparkle like a kaleidoscope. There was also an interesting synagogue nearby that is supposedly where Moses was found in the reeds but like most synagogues in Egypt, no photos allowed. It was beautiful though.

Jeremy took this picture from the roof of our hotel. Lovely, eh?

Other than that and the constant battle to have my x-rays released (it took several visits and phone calls to the embassy and hospital along with numerous arguments with power-tripping receptionists and a letter from the Australian Department of Immigration) and Jeremy's back and forth with the Iranian embassy, we pretty much sat online or read books.

Food wise, the downtown area of Cairo where we stayed was seriously lacking. Aside from McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Koshary (a lentil, chickpea, rice, onion and marinara concoction), there was just the random market store with biscuits. We ate sooo bad and have gained a little weight because of it. Darn. Back to working it off!!

After two weeks in Cairo, breathing the smog, battling the flies and cats, and wearing soot in all of our clothes, we finally escaped to Dahab--the Red Sea backpackers paradise.

Yerevan? Where did it go?

I'm sorry to say this but we hardly spent anytime in Armenia at all. We had about 6 days total and realized that 6 days just wasn't enough to see much more than Yerevan, so we stayed there the whole time as the only guests in a REALLY nice hostel. However we did have a lot of fun.

One day we went took a trip out of the city to visit Echmadzine, the Vatican of Armenian Orthodoxy. It was really nice, if a little small, and had a wonderful museum housing numerous pieces of the church's treasury. Some of the things that caught our attention: a piece of Noah's Ark from the top of Mt Ararat, the spear the Roman centurion pierce the side of Jesus with, and a piece of wood from the cross. Now, I'm not sure how anyone can believe these things are legit but there is certainly something about them that makes you smile. The tradition in believing is beautiful.

Another day Jeremy took me on a date and we went to see Giselle (a ballet). It was my first ballet and though a little slow at times, it was really nice. I hope I have many more chances to attend ballets in the future. :)

We also visited the Mt Ararat Bandy Company and took a really cool tour through their factory. Interestingly, every head of state to visit their factory is given a barrel of their own brandy which they can remove at anytime. Then we went and tasted their brandys aged 5, 10 and 20 years. This was also a first for me and I guess it tasted good but wow! It was strong! I hardly sipped much of any of the three! But we did find that chocolate was a great thing to eat along side the Brandy (a nice reprieve since we made a vow not to eat anymore candy after leaving Azerbaijan).

One of the last things we did was visit the Armenian Genocide Memorial and Museum--a very humbling tourist attraction. I honestly knew pretty much nothing about it except that Chirac had made it illegal in France to deny the genocide (which upset Turkey). It was really sad to see the photos and read the letters of prisoners, escapees, orphanes, missionaries, foreign dignitaries, and eye witnesses of the holocaust-like events. The above photo is of the eternal flame which stands amidt 12 pillars representing the 12 states lost to Turkey in the conflict.

And around the side, carnations and roses were laid.

Hopefully I will have a chance to return someday to this lovely city and country. The people were great, the food nice, the scenery unsurpassable, the churches inspiring.

Georgia in Photos: Monastaries and Churches

Well, blogger is being a little pesty today and my photos didn't upload to their usual size but if you click on them you can see them in several other sizes.

The above two photos were taken from the mini-bus window as we scaled the mountains on our way to Kazbegi.

Mt. Kazbeg in the distance from the church.

This is the beautiful Kazbegi church where in times of war, the country would take all of it's relics and valuables there for safe keeping--nearly 1000m above the city and safe from invaders.

Gelati monastary outside of Kutaisi. It is absolutely lovely. Lucky for us Jeremy had recoved just when the grey skies cleared and we had a very nice time exploring the grounds. A priest even gave us some grapes which we happily munched on while sitting on the cathedral steps.

Under the Cappadocian Sun

So, we're here at our third stop in Turkey and about to leave sometime today for Georgia! But before we return to the land of impossibly slow internet, let me give you another small taste of Turkey.

When we arrived early in the morning after a hellish night slow-cooking on a night bus with a teething baby, we were pleasantly welcomed to Goreme and the amazing hot air balloons rising above the city.

They lift off every morning around 7 AM and even from the comfort of our hotel restaurant we could hear their massive blow torches filling their balloons from above.

It truly is a magical thing to see about 20 hot air balloons take off in the morning sun.

And while Cappadocia is certainly a hot air ballooning destination, it's most famous for the beautiful cave cities.

Jeremy and I had a very interesting couple of afternoons exploring different valleys FOR FREE and popping in and out of different cave churches and abandoned homes.

The amazing Turkish sun illuminated the entire valley and all the caves so that everything shined like polished gold.

It was by far one of the coolest things I've done and I got to do it with coolest person I know.

These interesting rock formations that look like towers are charmingly referred to in these parts as the Fairy Chimneys. I'm not sure why they're called that but it's cute none the less.

We did however give in to temptation and shelled out $15 to visit the Goreme Open Air Museum which is basically the same thing we saw in the valleys FOR FREE except with easier access and a few better preserved frescoes. Above is a photo of the most amazing frescoes in the last church at the Museum. If this church hadn't been included on the ticket (as some churches you had to pay extra for--museum pirates...), I would have said the $15 was wasted.

Oh yeah, while out in the valleys, we saw real ruined frescoes untouched for hundreds of years, dating back to the 1100's. I felt like I was Indiana Jone's side kick--his much more cautious side kick, might I add. Several times I had to plead with Jeremy to "not walk down that steep rock" or "please don't jump off that." I must have seemed like the ball and chain that annoying nags. lol. But good times all around.