Tag: EKSMiddleEast

Today I read the step-by-step guide by Aljazeera on how to participate in what is known as the Hajj (the Muslim pilgrimage). In my previous GHS class Modern Middle East and North Africa (a great GHS class to take by the way if you need one more GHS to satisfy the GHS curriculum), we talked briefly about what the Hajj is in a broad sense, but not exactly getting down to the nuts-and-bolts about the important little things of it. Not that it means anything, but we were supposed to go over it in class in the middle of the semester, but thanks to some unfortunate winter storms, we never were able to hear the professor delve deeper in the topic.

This guide was a quick read about the what seemed like a long and somewhat tiresome process of paying homage to the Prophet Muhammad. It was a good baseline i’d say for the documentary i watched over it. It showed devout practitioners of Islamic faith and those looking to complete the ‘journey of a lifetime’, people who were willing to be in such close proximity to other because of their faith. I found the most interesting part of the Hajj was the stoning of the devil, symbolic for Allah casting away the devil. I saw some people chuck the rock, while others just tossed it. I took it as people trying to truly emulate their God would try to throw it harder (maybe i’m just overthinking it?). I found the gesture strange, but the fact that everyone was doing it made it seem normal.

Overall, the documentary was the best way for me to bolster my understanding of this incredible pilgrimage. It gave me the impression that many followers of Islam have an unwavering faith in their religion, and the Hajj is the perfect example of such devotion.

I saw some news online late this evening about something terrible. People who do not have any form of identification papers available for healthcare workers are not eligible to receive tests for the corona virus in Lebanon. Timour Azhari of Aljazeera came out with the topic in question yesterday, stating that the state-run healthcare system has implementations in place such that only those undocumented workers/people who are in need of ’emergency care’ were the only people in this situation who had the possibility to obtain professional care. Denying healthcare to those who would potentially need the care due to COVID-19 is downright deplorable, regardless of the circumstances.

It doesn’t help either that COVID-19 is only getting worse; the doubletime for the illness seems to be just under a week. In America (a far more advanced culture/society compared to Lebanon and many other MENA nationstates) we have the most cases of this terrible illness by a longshot; we have over 140k compromised patients compared to Lebanon’s roughly 440 compromised patients. At this point, it’s hard to say that we have a better healthcare system than they do, given our poor response time and late lack of mobility from our leaders in D.C. I can’t believe I just said that, but i’m starting to think it’s true. You know what makes it worse? Lebanon ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which guarantees “the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health”, including the “prevention, treatment and control of epidemic, endemic, occupational and other diseases” (in Azhari’s words, 2019). We still have to pay for simple coverage! That gets a big yikes from me…

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/undocumented-struggle-access-coronavirus-tests-lebanon-200328114859620.html

I try my best to keep in contact to some extent as many of my friends in high school as i can. I talked to one recently about how he was affected by the Coronavirus. I’m gonna call him Jason, because he asked me not to use his real name on this post, so i’ll honor his request. Jason is an incredibly humble guy, devout in religious practices and in his studies at Vanderbilt University (he graduated at near the top of my class in high school; one of the smartest people my age I’ve ever known). He was well known for being religious and sporting a wide variety of turbans of different colors both in high school and now. I recently texted him and interviewed him for this post.

I asked him what his thoughts were on the Coronavirus, and he had mixed feelings towards it. He was happy to be at home again, but he was nervous about getting sick. He also mentioned that his parents have decided to not go to worship with others in our local Islamic community out of fear of being exposed to the Coronavirus. I wasn’t really surprised for them being cautious, but Jason had reservations about his parents mandate. He exclaimed to me that it would pass in due time, and that he would be protected by his faith. Jason’s confidence was incredible; i’m not nearly as hopeful about not getting the virus as he is. He did also mention that his community started encouraging him as well as others to convert unused spaces in their homes into an area to worship during times when they would usually go out and be together at their mosque. I asked Jason how he felt about that; ‘i hate it, its just not the same’. I’ve never heard him use the word hate before ever, so this stuck out to me. It just highlighted how devout in his religious beliefs he is i suppose. The rest of the ‘interview’ was catching up on his studies and his life in general.

I don’t believe in any religion like Jason does, but after talking to him i felt strangely emboldened about fighting the global pandemic we face. He uses Islam as his sword and shield as well as lots of hand sanitizer, where as i’m just here at home washing my hands twice as frequently as normal. My conversation with him helped remind me that everyone in the world is in this living hell together, regardless of backgrounds/beliefs.

I hate to admit it, but i’m pretty behind when it comes to posting on this site, but I’m going to make the most of the unfortunate situation that we all find ourselves in with the global pandemic. We have almost all the time in the world right now, so nothing to it but to do it.

I revisited chapter 1 of No God but God recently in attempts to start to catch up with where the class majority likely is by now. It discussed Mecca, where it was described to be a hustling and bustling city full of pilgrims that traveled to pay homage to various religious deities and the Ka’ba. It was startling to read about how other god’s like Aphrodite, Jesus and various others here were worshiped here, too. Maybe this is a ignorant thing to say, but i never associated the Greek mythology and Christianity as having an especially strong presence in the MENA region, but Aslan was quick to prove me wrong in only a handful of pages. Hundreds of Gods were worshiped in Mecca, even gods in the ‘pre-Islamic Arabia’ had a modicum amount of presence.

The most interesting tidbit that i garnered however from rereading this chapter was revisiting God’s first command to Mohammad on pg 36; ‘neither to read nor recite, but to arise and warn!” The young prophet was reliant on his hallucinations and visions to spread the word about Allah and the heavens in which he ruled from. Although whatever he said could be argued to sound recited, I feel like that what Mohammad had spoken sounded like poetry to me (i couldn’t tell you why; it just feels like it to me, and i don’t really question it).

Its strange really to revisit this right now. If these gods really do exist, i’d like to ask them why allow the Coronavirus to exist and plague the world. If they really love their creations, why punish them? Maybe its beyond the scope of this class to ask such things, but I couldn’t help myself.