Klarinet Archive - Posting 000504.txt from 2001/09

From: Virginia Anderson <assembly1@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] This horrible event
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 12:25:01 -0400

on 13/9/01 9:15 pm, "F. S. Sterns" <fssterns@-----.com> wrote:

> I have a
> neighbor across the street and two door down who is Muslim and the minute I
> punch "send" on this message I'm going down there and bring her kids some 1
> pound candy bars. Fred Sterns

Hi Fred,

Good on you, mate! I can imagine that the mom isn't going to be as happy,
having to keep her kids from eating those bars all at once, and I fear for
her dental bills!

As to the rest, I do believe that insularity and flag-waving is a mistake as
it's a case of the perpetrators v. the rest of the world. The exhortation
to share in specific Bible verses and raise flags creates a hierarchy of "us
and them" - it is much like the time during the Gulf war where I was
practically forced to stand for the pledge of allegiance at a school
assembly, despite the fact that I was only there to conduct a clarinet
ensemble. I think that we should get on by sharing our common experience,
not by fostering religious sectarianism and political jingoism.

My local situation is a good example. Leicester is 40% Asian (meaning
people from in and around the Indian subcontinent) and for the first six
years I lived here in one of the two main Asian business districts. There
are Sikhs, Hindus, Jains, Muslims, and others. The important holidays of
Diwali, Visakhi, and Ramadan are observed by the faithful, with Easter and
Christmas more of a secular family holiday. Many of these religious groups
are having major problems with each other back home, but in Leicester they
live in relative harmony, considerate of each other. My Sikh next door
neighbour is an observant member of a religion founded with a hatred of
Muslims, but he was friendly with our Muslim newsagent, who lived three
doors down. My Muslim newsagent probably knew that I would be denied
paradise, but he never quoted the Koran at me. For that matter, I didn't go
on at him about reeds and mouthpieces or anything else which wasn't within
friendly cordiality and common interest.

In all six years my husband and I never had a single approach to join any
religion other than Christian, despite the fact that we were only one of
three non-Asian households on a very long street, and despite the fact that
we had a major Sikh community centre, a mosque and a Hindu temple closer
than a C of E church. Instead, we did what neighbours do: swapped recipes
and lent power tools, congratulated each other on weddings and births,
watered each other's plants and watched for intruders during vacations, gave
suitable best wishes for relevant religious holidays. Their religious
beliefs are their own and mine are my own and we never offended each other
by pushing our own views as if they were the one true way.

It's very relevant here on this list to talk about the even and about the
social (and, indeed, musical) mechanisms of one's place of worship in this
trying time. I was particularly interested to hear of the
multi-denominational service in which one member blew the shofar. This was
a report of social action for the common good. I'm sure that
representatives of the different groups quoted religious texts and good for
them, as all those present were there to find religious co-operation,
religious comfort, religious action - our correspondent didn't give those
specifics but rather pointed to the event itself as healing. "Thought for
the Day", the BBC radio programme Ian mentions, is a religious programme, so
I'd be surprised if the Muslim cleric did not quote from the Koran (I'd be
really ticked off if he had done so on "Today", the current events programme
which surrounds it).

It is not that I object when people merely mention Bible verses as example
in conversation, either (like Greek myth - I think comparing Christian
liturgy to Grimm's Fairy Tales is a bit irreligious - it is part of our
literary heritage), but when they offer Bible verses as prescriptives for
the entire membership, ignoring those who don't believe or, perhaps, hoping
that they can convert them, I find it rude and insensitive. This list is
not a religious forum like the multi-denominational service or "Thought for
the Day", or perhaps if it is, I'd better skedaddle and you guys had better
re-name it the Khristian Klarinet List or something to prevent people like
me from signing up.

The attacks have affected all of us, so it's right to deal with them and
with our shock, both musical and non-musical. But bludgeoning us with flag
and religion is preaching exclusion at a time when we need inclusion.

Best,

Virginia
--
Virginia Anderson
Leicester, UK
<vanderson@-----.uk>
Experimental Music Catalogue: <http://www.experimentalmusic.co.uk>
...experimental music since 1969....

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