An Alternate Witness

This interview and the associated book offer a view of Iraqi history and culture not often heard these days:

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/07/20/a_talk_with_orit_bashkin/?page=full

It's a controversial viewpoint, to be sure, one that I call the "Istrabadi version" of Iraqi history, because it's the one that I heard most often from my professors at Indiana University, Dr. Zainab Istrabadi and her brother Amb. Faisal Istrabadi. But there is some truth to this viewpoint. For a very long time, especially during the Abbasid Dynasty that built Baghdad, Iraq and especially Baghdad were the center of the known world. Scholars came to Baghdad, Basra and Kufa from as far away as al-Andalus in Spain or the Philippines to study with the some of the greatest scholars of their ages in Baghdad.

The Talmud, the greatest compendium of Jewish law, was written in Babylon (a suburb of present-day Baghdad), where the Jews had been banished by King Nebuchadnezzar II in 588 BC. Even after the Persian ruler Cyrus the Great allowed Jews to return to Palestine half a century later, many stayed on in Baghdad, and for 25 centuries there was a substantial Jewish population in Baghdad. In addition to Jewish contributions, The Thousand and One Nights as we in the West know it today was adapted from Hindi in Abassid Baghdad. The seat of the Nestorian Church, considered heretical and heavily persecuted by the Byzantine Holy Roman Empire, has always been in Baghdad, with Nestorians living peacefully alongside Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Armenian Catholics, Armenian Orthodox, Jews, Sabeans, Zoroastrians, Muslims (Sunnis, Shi'is and Sufis), Yazidis and others.

As Zainab and Amb. Istrabadi's father used to say, Iraq is a country of 38 nationalities (i.e. ethnic and religious groups). The Istrabadi family tree itself includes Sunni Arabs, Shi'i Arabs, Kurds, Armenians, Turkmens, and many others, and the Istrabadis are hardly unique in this respect.

I see two futures for Baghdad and the rest of Iraq. The tapestry of Iraqi identity may well survive and be repaired after the occupation ends, with all Iraqis finding a way to coexist. We may find, however, that America and the so-called Coalition of the Willing has shredded the Iraqi cultural tapestry so badly that Iraq will be shattered for generations.

"I had spent years discussing religious matters with smart American students in excellent schools before I was sent to the Middle East. I had found those conversations enjoyable, often challenging and usually sincere. But something was often missing, something I found hard to pin down. An Egyptian Muslim friend I met in Qatar helped me understand what that something was. Talking with Americans about faith and religion, he told me, is like having coffee with Forrest Gump: pleasant enough, but not of much substance. "They just don't have much to say because they just don't get it," he said....

"The majority of Georgetown students I know are fairly knowledgeable about religion. They can talk intelligently about Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism. The glitch is that they talk from the perspective of anthropologists and sociologists and historians. These are valuable perspectives. But they are not enough. Of course we need to raise young people who can be smart, savvy, sophisticated participants in international affairs. What we also need are young people who can be all of those things while at the same time knowing and understanding what it is to live one's life with a commitment rooted in faith."

---Father Ryan J. Maher, Asst. Dean, Georgetown University

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/18/AR2008071802558.html?referrer=myspace

I couldn't say anything more precise and eloquent than Father Maher says here. Suffice it to say, he's absolutely right when he says that most Americans in the international sphere don't understand what faith means in many other parts of the world. I count myself among them. And I wish there were a thousand more students like this one:

"Recently, I had a conversation with a young woman who is about to begin her sophomore year at Georgetown. She has a passion for art history and American democracy and is serious about her Jewish faith. She hopes to work in international affairs one day. We were discussing the courses she might take this fall.

"She reported that people had been telling her she really should take more economics. "What if instead of that," she said, "I took only four courses this semester and used the extra time to go with my Christian and Muslim friends to their churches and mosques? I just think that if I had a better sense of how they prayed and what they mean when they use the word 'God,' I'd be able to have much better conversations with them about the situation in the Middle East."

"What do you say to that, except "Amen"? And, "Have you thought of taking the foreign service exam after you graduate?" "