Dear Friends and Family,
As I shared recently in a different setting, we don't get several of the American holidays off in Qatar, such as Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. However, we are currently in the midst of a five day holiday. It is the holiday of EID or more officially, since there are two EID holidays during the year, EID al-Adha. It is known as the "Feast or Festival of the Sacrifice," and commemorates the Father of the Arabs (and Muslims), Abraham's willingness to offer his promised son, Ishmael, as an act of submission to God's command before God then intervened to provide Abraham with a lamb to sacrifice instead.
The word EID is pronounced with a long "E". For the Muslims it is a festival in which they simultaneously remember the poor and celebrate with family. Friday is a holy day, the day of Islam worship. It is followed by four days of commemoration, Saturday through Tuesday. We have those days off at work. We have Friday and Saturday anyway. Most people then take off Wednesday and Thursday to make it a 10 day celebration and holiday. Many travel to other Middle East countries to visit with family. Edna and I will work on Wednesday and Thursday and are using the time to relax and do shopping and touring. Next Friday we travel to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates for a day. I hope to share more insights on our trip in our next blog.
The EID holiday is celebrated with cards and greetings. EID Mubarak (our title) means "Blessed EID" or blessed holiday. Muslims began Thursday evening after sundown with a fast in which they only eat dates until midnight. Friday they fast all day until sundown when they begin a celebration. Families slaughter a sheep or lamb. They give one third of it to the poor. Since most in Qatar consider that there is no one poor in this country (others would beg to differ), frequently they have a relative in another country buy a sheep, slaughter it, prepare it and give the third to the poor in that country. They give a second third to family. The final third is kept for the host family. Three different size sheep have been advertised on taxis and billboards, to satisfy the needs of different size families. The streets have been fairly quiet today, almost like Christmas back home. Yesterday, our worship was considerably smaller as many Westerners use the time off to escape to other places to visit. Several have suggested that since this holiday comes so close on the heels of summer break, they would not travel this year. My director and his wife and two small children joined a group from the church we attend to travel to Jordan, across the Jordan River from Palestine and Israel (the East Bank if you will), to take food and other objects from the church to displaced Christians who recently have been displaced from Iraq (perhaps you've heard of the terror by ISIS to Christians in Mosul) and other countries.
I will give a bit of history and theology in the next two paragraphs for those who don't wish to read this part. (I can't imagine how anyone could find this boring. Edna does not share my sentiment!
The astute Bible student recognizes that this is a shifting of the story of Abraham offering his promised son Isaac as a sacrifice on Mt. Moriah before God intervened, congratulating Abraham on his faith, and instead offering a ram to be slaughtered.
It is admirable that the Muslims mark this holiday by thinking of the poor. We might be prone to think as Christians that we do not do enough to consider Abraham's submission to God by offering his son Isaac as a sacrifice. But it is unlikely that God asked Abraham to offer a son twice. Besides this, scripture never calls Ishmael Abraham's promised son. That title is reserved for Isaac alone. Ishmael, is the son of Hagar, the Egyptian slave girl of Sarah, Abraham's wife whom she gave to Abraham because she considered herself too old to bear children. God promised that Abraham would be the father of two great nations, Ishmael of the Arabs and Isaac of the Israelites. But there is good theological basis for retaining the promise of God to Abraham through Isaac. God promised Abraham that his descendants would be vast, and would acquire land and a great nation, but most of all, that all the nations of the world would be blessed through his seed. The nation of Israel, the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (also called Israel) were called the Son of God collectively. But they were unable to be faithful to God's promise, because as Paul shares in Romans 5-8, they were strongly influenced by the sinful nature of Adam, God's first "Son" to fail. But Jesus has taken the mantle and with his sinless and holy life, faithfully and obediently offered himself on the cross, whereby God's original intent to Adam and promise to Abraham are now being ushered in. Through his resurrection, Christ has and is conquering death, evil and sin in our world and fulfills the promise that Abraham will be the father of all the faithful and that God will restore the world. The Apostle Paul purposefully uses the language of God to Abraham when he was willing to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice, to transfer its meaning to Christ, when he says, "For He (God) did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?" (Romans 8: 34). Romans 8 has to be one of, if not the finest chapters in all of the Bible. It is then followed up with Romans 9, where Paul mourns and grieves the failure of the Jews as a nation and as a whole to follow Jesus, God's promise to Abraham. In rehearsing the many blessings of the Jews, which is nearly a copy of Romans 2, Paul names that the Israelites have the blessing of "adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen." (Romans 9:4, 5). That they were considered God's son and that all the prophets and promises belong to them and the Patriarchs would suggest Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This would disqualify Ismael (and Mohamed) from the first, but not the second, that the Messiah can be their Messiah, Lord and Savior as well.
Back to our Adventure in Doha (welcome back those of you who skipped the historical and theological section! Well done those of you who plowed through that part! I'm proud of you!).
Things are very good here in Qatar. The days are still very hot, but not quite as unbearable as they were a few weeks ago, particularly in the evening and early morning. You will notice that one of our pictures is a poster advocating charity to the poor, oppressed and especially children in Syria. The same is said to have been done for Palestinians who were bombed out of their homes in the conflict in Gaza and surrounding area. Qatar seems to us to be compassionate. The Islam faith encourages giving of 2% of their income to the poor.
A further warning! (Shhhsh!) The next two paragraphs will deal with Middle East politics. For those of you who find this boring (what!!!), meet me in two paragraphs!
I should answer an issue that I've seen addressed and heard before, namely, that Qatar supports ISIS militants (terrorists) and others. Even an Ambassador charged in an opinion piece in the NY Times that Qatar supported Hamas in the recent war in Gaza. Recently, I saw that columnist George Will suggested that America has to get Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE to stop supporting ISIS. In a recent letter supporting America not go back into war, Sojourners' editor and Christian Jim Wallis made the same point (in this piece he did not elaborate how America would defeat ISIS without war. One would need to read old articles to discover his proposal). You can imagine how those of us who live in Qatar are asked about these things and our own safety. But one thing to consider is that recently it was revealed that over 100 Americans have gone over to fight for ISIS. It is not beyond the imagination that if 100 have gone to fight, others have no doubt sent money to ISIS from America to support their cause. I have not heard that George Will, Jim Wallis or anyone else has said that we need to get America to stop supporting this ruthless cause. That's because Americans would distinguish what the country and government do from what those who live in the country do. This is similar to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Qatar has denied that the government sends any money for these causes. But every time anyone sends money from these countries, the media of the West suggests that the nation supports these causes. Qatar is the nation that played the leading role in securing the release of Peter Theo Curtis, an American journalist hostage from extremists. They played a major role in helping USA trade American soldier Sgt Bowe Bergdahl from Taliban captivity in exchange for five Guantanamo Bay prisoners in Cuba, who are being housed in a major hotel here in Doha for a year. While many would question the wisdom of this latter trade, it was nevertheless this country that did the USA a favor.I confess that no one really knows what goes on behind closed doors and we would all be foolish to say that our government or any other is pure and pristine. But Qatar has been compared to the Switzerland of the Middle East and from our vantage point attempts to walk a fine tight rope among their Arab, Muslim neighbors and Israel, USA and the western nations. Others will have to wait to speak of the success or failure of their efforts.
Welcome back those who skipped the political talk!
I had three comical snippets I wanted to share with our friends. My college dorm mate, U.S. Naval Captain and Chaplain Dennis Young sent a picture of a frog asking, "Have you ever just looked at someone and knew the wheel was turning but the hamster was dead?"
My cousin, Harold Ray, son of my cousin Terry, had a statement that I believe originates from Will Farrow. In light of October being the month of Halloween, he states that, "Jehovah's Witnesses don't celebrate Halloween. I guess they don't appreciate random people coming up to their door!"
And third, I got a chuckle from Edna as we watched American TV, and the soft, concerned voice began, "Do you suffer from Manic Depression?" to which I answered, "Sometimes I do and Sometimes I don't!"
Love,
Bob & Edna
Thank you for doing this! I'm learning quite a lot, you make a great teacher!
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