I also recently added a sidebar which lists books I’m currently reading.

I went to Kuwait last weekend to see one of my children in a school sports tournament. One of the wonderful things that has developed in the region in the last 5 years or so are low cost regional airlines. Jazeera Airways, a Kuwaiti airline, is one such company. I got a roundtrip air ticket from Dubai for about 360 AED (100 USD).

The flights were great and one very interesting aspect of this particular airline is that before every takeoff there is an Islamic prayer for travel that is broadcast on the airplane television screens. You hear someone performing the prayer (it’s a recording) and see the Arabic text scrolling onscreen. It takes about 1 minute or so total. I took a little video of it and uploaded it to youtube only to find that someone had done a much better job!  The video above is from the guy who did it better than me

I’ve not experienced this prayer on any of the other flights out of Dubai. I’ve wondered if it’s on Jazeera since it’s out of Kuwait and Kuwait tends to be more religiously conservative than the UAE.

I tried to google “Islamic Travel Prayer” and came up with a number of hits. This one seemed to make the most sense but I still don’t know if it is the actual prayer that is being spoken on the video. If someone who knows Arabic could listen to the video and tell me if the prayer is the one I’ve got printed here I would appreciate it.

Allah is the Most Great. Allah is the Most Great. Allah is the Most Great. Glory is to Him Who has provided this for us though we could never have had it by our efforts. Surely, unto our Lord we are returning. O Allah, we ask You on this our journey for goodness and piety, and for works that are pleasing to You . O Allah , lighten this journey for us and make its distance easy for us . O Allah, You are our Companion on the road and the One in Whose care we leave our family . O Allah , I seek refuge in You from this journey’s hardships, and from the wicked sights in store and from finding our family and property in misfortune upon returning.

Also, what do you think about the idea of a ‘travel prayer’? Does it make sense? What about the others onboard who are not Muslims… Does this make sense for them?

Interesting policy implemented at the Mall of the Emirates last month. If you’re feeling amorous with your shopping partner (or someone you meet there you should take note of the second prohibition listed… “No Kissing or Overt Displays of Affection”. You might also get stuck at “Please Wear Respectful Clothing” too.

This raises a number of questions. Does this apply to all kissing? Like the “peck on the cheek” kind? Or just the ‘extended lip-lock’ kind? Who makes this decision? Is hand-holding an overt display of affection? Is an arm around the shoulder? Exactly where can a hand be put?

And what is respectful? Of course I assume they mean respectful to the host culture. But that is a tough thing to do when you (Dubai) are setting your goals on drawing hundreds of thousands of tourists to your country. Tourists by definition almost always see themselves as not a part of the culture they are visiting. It’s as if they think of themselves as viewing everything from behind a glass window.

When I first moved here I used to not wear shorts except to the beach and to the park. But I’ve loosened up about that over the last 5 years. I wonder if I ever offend anyone when I go to the store.

As a Christian I’m eager to keep the commandments of the Bible as an act of gratitude to God for what he’s done for me through Christ – the forgiveness of sins and the adoption into the his eternal family as a son of the King. The Bible would teach “let there not be a hint of immorality among you.” (Ephesians 5:3) But the real challenge is that immorality has some culturally defined boundaries. Or at least the “hints” are culturally defined often.

So, even when I take my family of all women (4 daughters, 1 wife) to the mall they don’t go in shorts or sleeveless shirts just out of respect for the host culture in which we live. But even then I wonder if people see my daughters, know we’re from the west, and then just assume they are immoral. What can I do about that? Nothing I think. Other than to live it down among the people who really know us.

When we go though, we’ll just have to make sure… no kissing!

What do you think?

I’d like to develop some seminar and training business at George Mason in the future. The second picture below is the women’s college. And yes, that’s a moat around the building. Though it’s not filled with water you might guess why they’d put a moat around the women’s college… (hint: the men’s college is close by

On that day I taught both men (pictured) and women. It was only the second time in their college careers that they’d done anything together. The area is very conservative. I asked about a picture with the female students but none would agree to a picture with my camera. They did take one for themselves with their camera though.

It was a great group of students and I really enjoyed working with them. I hope it works out to go back sometime. By the way, it’s about an hour drive from Dubai.

An unofficial translation of the new prayer reads: “Let us pray for the Jews. May the Lord Our God enlighten their hearts so that they may acknowledge Jesus Christ, the savior of all men.”

The reason this is in the news is that a conservative worldwide assembly of Jewish rabbis has condemned it and says, “the prayer would cast a harsh shadow over the spirit of mutual respect and collaboration that has marked these past four decades, making it more difficult for Jews to engage constructively in dialogue with Catholics.”

This is one of those situations that I just struggle to understand. The Jewish body is effectively saying that we can’t talk or have dialogue if you insist on saying that what historic Christianity and the Bible say about Jesus is true. But to deny the exclusive nature of claiming that salvation comes through faith in Jesus is to deny orthodox Christianity.

I suppose this flows from a mindset that says that disagreement about Truth is counter productive to good relationships with others and has historically led to violence. The reasoning usually goes that absolute truth claims necessarily lead to violence.

But this isn’t true for a religion who’s God commands them to “love your neighbor” and “pray for your enemies”; ala Christianity. The violence of some Christians through history is better explained by things like people who call themselves Christians but are not truly regenerate or by pointing out that God’s elect, the Church, continue to be sinful despite being redeemed by him. Both of these explanations fit the Biblical description of mankind.

I disagree with Roman Catholics about some theological issues. But on this one… I stand with them. It is Biblical and right to pray these kinds of prayers.

What do you think?

The CBS website won’t let me embed the part 2 video. So here’s a link to it:

CBS 60 Minutes – Dubai Inc. Part 2

The best moment was watching Ernie Els birdie the hardest hole on the course and then to have his caddie throw my daughter the golf ball!

Screenshots for your viewing pleasure