Local concerts lack attention due to poor promotion

by Vondee Langehennig, staff editor

                                                                

By the time you read this, the Islamic holiday of Ramadan will have been going on for a number of days.

This may not mean a whole lot for many of the people in this region, but to about 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide, Ramadan has a great religious significance. Although I am not a Muslim, I will be observing and practicing Ramadan this year, out of respect for a very popular world-wide religion and to attempt to gain some greater spiritual and philosophical understanding.

Islam is a religion that is practiced on every continent (yes, even in the artic regions). Where there is civilization, Islam or its influence is bound to be close at hand. But oh ye faithful, don’t get discouraged. Christianity is just as abundant. I’m not going to present too many demographics here, but a wealth of information is available on religious populations of the world if that’s something you’re interested in. The basic idea I’m trying to present here is that religion is essentially everywhere there’s a human population.

Before I go too much further, let me present a brief history of Ramadan. To begin with, Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, when, historically, the prophet Muhammad revealed the holy teachings of the Quran -or Koran, if you prefer. According to varying sources, the month lasts between 29 and 31 days and occurs at different times each year, depending on the particular cycle of the calendar. This year, Ramadan began September 12 and will end October 11. Other sources cite differences, but the dates vary only by a day or two in each month. The particular calendar that I’m following cites the month of Ramadan to be from September 12 to October 11.

One of the five pillars of Islam, fasting, -that is, abstaining or eating sparingly from food- is manifested through the lunar month of Ramadan. Muslims are expected to refrain from eating, smoking, sexual intercourse, and otherwise impure and material thoughts and actions.

Muslims are expected to put more effort into the teachings of Islam, as well as to abstain from many common sins, such as anger, envy, greed, and lust. Sarcasm and gossip are also to be avoided. Some of these expectations are actually Islamic law, but I’m not familiar enough with Islamic law to take that into account. According to our favorite online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, the religious fast “is intended to be an exacting act of deep personal worship in which Muslims seek a raised level of closeness to God.”

“The act of fasting,” the article continues, “is said to redirect the heart away from worldly activities, its purpose being to cleanse the inner soul and free it from harm.” Muslims are also expected to read the entire Quran over the course of the month, practice self-discipline and “attend to the less fortunate”, in ways such as donating to charity or volunteering.

This is essentially saying that all of this is meant to help a Muslim become a better Muslim, which is, I think, a goal of every major religion.  An important lesson Ramadan teaches is sacrifice, and it’s easy to see why. Personal sacrifice and humility are also common goals of many religions.

I’ve already said that I’m not a Muslim, but that might need some further reinforcement. Not only am I not a Muslim, I’m not a Christian either. Aside from practicing Ramadan, I also practiced Lent this last spring. This calls for a quick comparison, I think.

Lent, like Ramadan, is meant to be a period of fasting, abstinence, and the practice of “other acts of penance.” The 40-day period of Lent is supposed to be symbolic of the time Jesus endured the temptations of the devil. Like Ramadan, general fasting during the day is observed, although the differences in what can or cannot be eaten differs from denomination to denomination.

According to some Catholics, meat and poultry are not eaten on Fridays during the period of Lent. The basic principles of the two periods are essentially the same: practice abstinence from ‘material’ things, praying and contemplating one’s religion, observing specific rites and concentrating on becoming a better Muslim or Christian. Both Lent and Ramadan seem to strongly encourage the virtue of sacrifice. I’m sure most people are familiar with the clichéd habit of giving up chocolate, red meat, or alcohol during Lent.

Aside from being from two different faiths, both Ramadan and Lent have some startling similarities –and that’s not a bad thing, by any means. I think these things are attempting to get people to practice good habits and become better people in general. Everyone could use some improvement, including devout Muslims and Christians.

This isn’t about either religion. This isn’t about any god. This is about one of the main pillars of religion.

Let me just come right out and say that I have a great deal of difficulty believing there’s any sort of God. In this region, that can be a very dangerous thing to admit to. I’m not trying to preach Islam, and I’m certainly not trying to reinforce Christianity. But I’m celebrating Ramadan. So what gives, right?

Christians can often be heard quoting, “Love thy neighbor,” but how many of them actually do it? I’m not suggesting that every Christian should literally love their neighbors as family, or as lovers, but what about stretching that word love a little more.

Love is a big word, and it encompasses many things, such as compassion, caring, compromise, just to alliterate a few. But isn’t love also about tolerance? What about, “Tolerate thy neighbor?” Doesn’t that seem like it could be said just as well as, “Love thy neighbor?” It certainly sounds easier to put into practice.

I’m not a firm believer that everyone in the world can be loved universally by everyone. A great many people in this country certainly have no love for Muslims, isn’t that right? Of course, most of the people in this region who hate Muslims simply for being Muslims are ignorant rednecks, close-minded zealots or super-nationalists and your run-of-the-mill idiots. But even these unpleasant people ought to be loved, according to that particular mandate of Christianity, right? Love thy close-minded, redneck neighbor.

That sounds a little difficult, particularly if one’s temperament is like mine. I have no love for a person who hates another person based on something such as their religious faith, the color of their skin, or their culture. Nevermind the people who hate others based on their sexuality, their political alignment, or their gender. I have no love for people who cannot see past these things, but that’s not to say that I can’t tolerate them and that’s the point I’m trying to make: tolerance.

I didn’t practice Lent because I’m Catholic, or because I wanted to symbolically express the temptation of Christ every Friday for 40 days. I celebrated Lent because I think it teaches a good lesson, which is a separation from the material, a separation from things a person can do without. In order to gain a sense of the sacred, a person should separate from the profane.

I’m not celebrating Ramadan because I’m Muslim or because I think it’s fun to dabble in religions that I don’t practice. I’m not going to pray to Mecca five times a day, and I’m certainly not going to convert. I’m not practicing these aspects of these particular religions because there’s some understandable pleasure to be gained from it.

I’m not getting anything out of this that can be measured. I hope to gain a better understanding of the religion of Islam and the followers of Mohammad, just as I hope to gain a better understanding of the followers of Jesus, Moses, Abraham or any of those other guys. The religion isn’t the point. The people are the point.

Christians are all about love and forgiveness, but I don’t always see the faith being put into proper practice. Sometimes I see it practiced in extremes, good, faithful Christians forgiving murders for butchering whole families. I certainly couldn’t be capable of that level of forgiveness and I’m not sure too many people genuinely could, either.

It’s a hard thing to do, but nothing about what religion tries to teach is easy. Faith isn’t easy, is it? If adhering to faith and spirituality were easy things to accomplish, then they would lose their value.

To some, tolerance means only tolerating people of a similar faith, but then aren’t we “all God’s children?” We might not all be God’s faithful –I’m certainly not- but we’re all God’s children, right? And we’re supposed to love each other and put up with each other, even if we don’t understand it, right? And we’re all supposed to oppose the dark and embrace the light, right?

I don’t know about all of that. I don’t really care about it; right and wrong are just words for opposing points of view. God is just a word for something I can’t touch. My world is this one, and it’s an ugly world to be in sometimes. There are a lot of reasons this world is abysmal: greed, violence, government, Algebra. The list goes on and on. I don’t understand a lot of things that are happening to people, and I don’t understand why people do such stupid things to one another in the names of their gods and why the faithful seem to be confusing all of these details with the purpose.

I’m probably a heretic in every sense of the word, but I try, and I’m trying very hard, to be a good heretic. Some religious hard-liners see a person without religion and condemn that person to damnation and hellfire.

To some, a person without the proper faith isn’t a proper person. So to those people, I’m a goner. But I think those people are misguided by details. They certainly haven’t learned to Love Thy Heretical Neighbor.

Not everyone allows religion to blind them to the goodness of a person despite the fact that his or her beliefs don’t exactly sync up with someone else’s. I think the faithful Christian who can look at a faithful Muslim and see a person with value in the world instead of a bitter enemy is one of the true faithful.

In elementary school, we used to be told to lead by example. A lot of people set bad examples, don’t they? Hitler certainly set a great one. President George W. Bush is certainly setting another great example. Americans aren’t generally seen as good leaders, but I think that can change. I’m certainly trying to change that, but I might be overly ambitious. Tolerance might not be a lesson anyone’s willing to listen to.

I admit I’m not always the most tolerant person, but I try. And I think it’s the trying that matters the most. I’ve tried by observing Lent. I’m trying by celebrating Ramadan.

My arguments for tolerance have holes in them, as all things do. But don’t get caught up in the details, my pretty babies. The details aren’t what matter.