City of Legends

I have been called to task by friends both within and without the faith of Islam for my recent work "more than five pillars".  I should like to address that criticism.

The poem is not an attack on Islam or those who hold to that Abrahamic faith.  It is a statement that there are those who use it as a facade for their own political and social agendae, just as there are people of the Jewish, Christian and other religious spheres who abuse their theological labels and hypocritically draw to points and purposes outside of or contrary to the faith they claim to adhere to.

It just so happens that, in light of the cruel and self-serving violence fomented by the rulers in Iran, in the name of Allah and the prophet, they have blasphemed mightily, turning their back of the principles of their faith in the name of political expediency to hold onto power.

Don’t worry, they aren’t the only ones who are getting taken to the woodshed out behind the Sapphire Palace.  A similar work involving the Ten Commandments is on the boards, as is a series of works built on almost every other major world religion.

Let’s be clear on this:  I am not anti-religion, an agnotic or an atheist.  I am Quaker, and as such feel a certain disdain for the onion layers of social courtesies and etiquettes that have often over-written the faiths people think they are following.  Christians are not supposed to take up arms to kill, for instance, even in the name of king and country. 

The point is that so many people are alienated from honest questing for truth because of all the hypocrisy they see, everyday, in people who trumpet their religions.  I have my failings, not half as bad as some people believe, but I am far from sainthood.  I do not pass lies as truth, I do not arm people and tell them to kill in the name of God and I do not think you can place a price of a person’s life, integrity or virtue.

In the next few days, and perhaps for the rest of my life and beyond, there will be people criticizing me for what I have written and will write.  I can live with that, as the alternatives are to accept the status quo or to give up, neither of which seems particularly tasty.

Besides, I am in no hurry to die.  I know at least 4 different women who have sworn they will be waiting for me on the other side, to be with me throughout eternity.  I don’t want to be in the room when those four cross paths.  And who says we’re following the same paths?  But that’s a different poetic zone, to be considered later.