Since there has been a lot of bickering about a Muslim group trying to build a mosque in central Manhattan in the shadow of where the Sept. 11th tragedy took place, I thought I would voice my support for the greater Muslim community in the United States.
Though I haven't talked much about this, I was a Muslim as a child. My late father Mehmet Gokbudak was from Turkey, and this was simply the way I was raised.
After his death on my 13th birthday from a heart attack, I began to openly question and sincerely doubt God's existence. My views have more or less remained the same since that awful personal event in 1983 as I now see myself as a human secularist.
And, while I equally disdain all forms of radical or fervent fundamentalism, whether they originate in a church, synagogue or mosque, I have respect for those Muslims who merely wish to practice their faith and try to make the world a better place for themselves and those around them.
Thus, I wish the Muslim community a Happy Ramadan season. The holiday lasts for 10 days, and it is approaching its final stages this week.
The image I have chosen is that of the beloved Turkish shadow pupetts Karagoz (the one with the beard) and Hacivat. Though the characters are secular in nature, they symbolically represent the cultural divide in Turkey between the intellectual urban-dwellers (Hacivat) and the rural common man who generally tends to be more religious than secular (Karagoz).
The divide has remained in tact since the characters were developed centuries ago during the Ottoman Empire. Greece has a similar shadow puppet named Karagoisi, which has actually recently caused a mild cultural/political rift between the two countries who almost went to war over an uninhabited goat island in The Aegean Sea in the 1990s.
My friend Ugur Celikkol of Bursa, Turkey, and his family run a semi-annual Karagoz festival in Bursa which has attracted tourists from other parts of Turkey and around the world. It is generally held around November.
Closer to home, The Divan Cultural Center in Cary, NC (Raleigh), is sponsoring many Iftar meals which are given when the sun goes down during the Ramadan season. We imagine there will be plenty of good lamb and rice at the table for those in attendance!
UPDATE- According to "The Hill," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) is opposing President Barack Obama's support of the mosque project in New York. Many political insiders suspect that this is for political reasons as Reid faces an election this November. His opponent Sharon Angle has been dubbed a right-wing quack even from non-partisan observers.
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