[HANASHIR:11280] Re: Peace songs.

[Sholom Simon <sholom...>]

>    I am interested to know what Islam has to say about peace in its music.
>If you feel that anything Muslims write about peace is tainted (and perhaps
>subverted) by the public positions and actions of many Muslim leaders and
>extremists, then I have no reason to discourage you from believing that.

I have no idea if it's tainted.  My point really has been that we need to
keep our eyes open.  A song of peace might mean something different than
what we think it does.  (Just as: "we are against terrorism" apparently
means something different than the plain meaning).

>Nothing written about peace, as far as I'm concerned, is completely free
>from political posturing.

Sim Shalom?  Oseh Shalom?  Shalom Rav?  Birkas Kohanim?  Political posturing?

>From my point of
>view, it could only do good, especially as a way to build useful bridges of
>understanding rather than walls of ignorance and hatred.

Certainly.  But bridges can be built on ignorance, too.  

>Might it be better for us to try--with vigilance--to do something positive
>in our own communities, rather than reproduce the violence and distrust
>marring the Middle East?

Of course.  But even your last sentence betrays a bias which might be
unhealthy.  Some say, quite plausibly, that _too much trust_ is the cause
of some of the problems.  (One example: Israel did, after all, supply arms
for 10,000 Palestinian militia in pursuant to Oslo).

My larger point is this: we all desparately want peace.  We'd do almost
anything for it.  We might (as I have, in the past) overlook real profound
differences as to what "peace" means in the minds of those very people with
whom we are trying to make bridges.

An interfaith concert, singing songs of peace, with a group who will then,
the next day, blame Jews for various things, or, even worse, think that
_our_ version of peace is actually theirs when it isn't, is not productive.
 Indeed, if the leader of such a group can not condemn suicide bombings of
civilians, then it is _likely_ that while both groups are singing songs of
peace, they are intending different things.  This isn't a meeting of the
minds, rather, it's ostrichism as to our differences.

Certainly this is not always the case.  But it is some of the time.  And
because it is true some of the time, we need to be aware and to keep our
eyes, and minds, open.  There are some people who think very differently
than us, and it's not always apparent who they are.

-- Sholom


+-------------------------------------------------------+
|   Sholom Simon     | sholom (at) aishdas(dot)org               |
+-------------------------------------------------------+
| proud daddy to Joshua Ari  4/18/93 - 27 Nissan 5753   |
|        and Eliana Rebekah  3/12/95 - 11 Adar-2 5755   |
+-------------------------------------------------------+

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