Last year I trekked into the Moroccan Sahara desert on a very trusty camel named Aszu. In the evening, my guide, Jusef, a sixth grade educated Berber nomad, surprisingly fluent in six languages, fixed me a tantalizing chicken tangine. All that it lacked was a glass of wine, unfortunately verboten for Muslims just days before Ramadan. At night we slept under the incredible desert night skies. Never before had I seen so many stars, stretching from one horizon to the other – the stars so bright and numerous, it was difficult to make out the constellations. That was Morocco, a kaleidoscope of sights, sounds, smells, and experiences. From Morocco I traveled on through much of Europe, Russia, Mongolia, China, and finally concluding my trip in Japan. This year's trip will take me to Romania, Ukraine, Georgia, Central Asia, India, Nepal, Southwest China, and Indochina. At times I hope to report back on my experiences and observations, perhaps posting a few pictures and videos that may be of interest. I've posted below a few pictures and videos from some past trips. For my blog on my travels through East Europe check out my blog at http://tallinntovarna.blogspot.com.

I’ve been asking myself lately, is there a theme to all this? Maybe not, but one thing I can say that piques my interest, is the dangerous nexus between religion and politics that engulfs the world today. In Morocco, where the King is both the head of Mosque and State, a Muslim, during Ramadan, can end up in jail for doing nothing more than drinking a glass of water under the scorching daytime heat – his crime, the thirsty Muslim broke the fast. Imams in Morocco claim that such an abhorrent act defies the teachings of God, infringes on the religious liberties of practicing Muslims, and is deserving of serious sanction. Of course, such a violation of an individual’s personal freedom could never happen in America. Or could it? As I write this, the U.S. Catholic Bishops are ferociously attacking President Obama’s Affordable Care Act for requiring institutions to provide birth control under their insurance policies. Like the Imams, the Bishops consider it not just an affront, but an existential threat, to their religious liberties. A poor woman, without the means to support a family, let alone a brutally raped woman, should not expect any sympathy from these Catholic institutions, as they, like their Muslim brothers, are scripturally bound to impose their beliefs on others. Does it matter that no one is telling Muslims that they cannot fast or Catholics that they cannot abstain from sex?

Now that I think of it, I’d like to dedicate this blog to Americans United, a terrific nonpartisan educational organization dedicated to preserving the principle of church-state separation as the only way to ensure religious freedom. Before I move on though, I’d like to share with you this political satire piece I wrote a few months ago when Senator Rick Santorum had a chance of being the Republican nominee. It pretty much sums up my take on what a large segment of the American population would like to see should their wildest dreams come true. Finally, I begin this blog with three postings from last year’s trip just to give you an idea of who I am and what you may or may not come to expect as I embark on this year's trip. If you have something nice to say, I'd love to hear from you.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Almaty, Kazakhstan

Ascension Cathedral
Although 80% of the population in Kazakhstan is Muslim and although it’s Ramadan, there’s little evidence of the Muslim faith in the architecture or customs of the people. As we toured the sights, Cholpon mused. “We think of ourselves as ‘Momun’ Muslims, You might think of it as Muslim ‘light.’ We believe in Allah and practice a form of Sunni Islam, but we also believe in a form of Shamanism, that the sky, mountains, and those who have passed away inhabit the spirit world. People pray to the sky spirit in much the same way they pray to Allah, with their hands open and ending their prayer by pressing them to their faces. When someone dies, we prepare special bread called ‘borsok.’ When the dead smell the bread they know that we are remembering them. If I have a dream about my grandmother, who died, and make ‘borsok’ the next morning and read the Koran, her spirit will be thankful and grant my prayer. We have evil spirits too. When I come home, my mother doesn’t greet me with a hug or kiss. Instead, she hands me a cup of water into which I spit three times. She then throws the water on the side of our house to get rid of the evil spirits that I may have picked up in my travels. Not many women wear the headscarf here. Some women wear the headscarf out of respect for their spouse's parents, but as soon as they leave their home they take it off. Most people lost their religion during the Soviet period. The beautiful Ascension Cathedral, the second tallest wood structure in the world, was used for storage and then later as a museum. Now it’s been restored back to a Russian Orthodox Church. The government has made it clear that Church and State should be separate. Muslims wanted to use a public square for prayer, but the government wouldn’t allow it. They also wanted to set up a prayer room for Muslims in the parliament, but the president, who’s a Muslim, said, ‘no,’ because then they would have to do the same for all religions. There was a parliamentarian who had a very conservative Muslim agenda, but he was resoundingly defeated.
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