The Star Dancers

or, Happy New Year, Spider and Jeanne

I rang in 2003 by re-reading an old and constant friend, The Star Dancers, by Spider and Jeanne Robinson.

There is an optimism here that is simply undeniable. Read Spider often and repeatedly.

The Qu'ran

I'm very interested in religious history in general, and, of course, all the...dare I say "brouhaha"?, yes, I do...here in the US about Islam has pricked me to pick up my copy of the Qu'ran (literally, The Recital) sooner than I might have otherwise.

It's not linear, just a collection of surahs, spoken by Allah (God) via the Angel Gabriel to the Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him). I started not at the beginning, but with the section "Women" (oh, c'mon, of course I did) and then read a few others. "Women" is not just on women, though, and when it is it concerns itself with, mostly, inheritance. Women inherit. Women own property. Women leave legacies. While often the share a woman inherits from a deceased relative is less than that a man in her position receives, it is nonetheless a pleasant change from Christianity's point of view, which places women roughly equivalent to, say, a cow.

Moo.

The rest of the surah discusses not so much women (I get the feeling some of the surah naming here is arbitrary at best -- I could be wrong) as believers and unbelievers. And there's a really good part to which I'd like to draw to your attention.

Allah said to his people, through the Prophet, basically, "leave unbelievers to Me". Much like Judaism, thus far Islam comes across as a this-is-our-religion-your's-is-different-too-bad-you-poor-slob kind of faith, as opposed to the convert-everybody-on-pain-of-death attitude I associate with Christianity.

This is an initial report. It's entirely possible my preception will change upon more study, and well it should.