Hi everybody
This is my first entry on this blog, and I believe I should start the right way, with a hypothetical handshake and a brief introduction.
My name is Marwa, in case you’re wondering, the word has different meanings.
Wikipedia explains:
Marwa- a small hill in Mecca, Saudi Arabia
Marwa- a famous Arabic pop music artist in the Middle East.
Or
Marwa- ”Oh, that’s where my father used to work when he was in Africa,” a teacher once told me.
Well, I’m neither the one nor the other. I live in Bahrain. Esra’a is my cousin, and I love her blog. I find it very courageous to invite both Arab and Israelis on board. Something we desperately need to promote a better Middle East.
Recently, I’ve been working on a glossary of key theological terminologies. Of words like Salvation, Yom Kippur, Zakat…etc. It happens too often that when engaged in inter-religious dialogue, I come up against a handful of jargons that would leave me at a complete loss, or that I would mistake for the wrong things. I always thought, for instance, that Yarmulke- pronounced ya-ma-ka- is a dish of starchy, short-grained rice, served with deliciously rich gravy, and topped with shreds of your choice of meat- either crabmeat or shrimp. Well, it turned out that what I knew, or I thought I knew, was a pure work- a trick rather- of the imagination, and that Yarmulke, in Judaism, is actually a skullcap worn during prayer by most men.
To avoid similar mis-understanding, I edited a dictionary of key religious terms concerning Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and hopefully, in the near future, Hinduism, Baha’ism, Buddhism…etc.
I tired my best to make sure that the contents of the dictionary are as clear as possible. If you are a Jew, Christian or Muslim, I hope you will find your views presented accurately and in accordance with the orthodox teachings of your tradition. If I have misunderstood or misstated any of these teachings, I welcome correction. Hope that this would be one way to facilitate deeper understanding and bring meaning to the things that matter.
Ramadan Kareem and a belated Rosh Hashanah-
By the way, the underlined words are available in the dictionary.
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The dictionary sounds fascinating- could you please link to it?
Ramadhan Kareem Marwa! I wish I can spend it with you all back home, I miss it terribly. Thanks for the humorous introduction. In the past I have confused certain religious words with types of cupcakes, so I know how it feels like.
Anton, I can e-mail you a copy of the documents, because the glossary is ready. We’re just waiting until the interfaith website is launched so that we can upload them all at once. Alternatively, I can post them on the forums so that anyone can comment on them and correct them before they’re uploaded.
it is very interesting to read for you in this wonderfull web site , i still remember you and the days which we spent in cairo during the seminar .
hope everything is fine with you …
Hi Anton, i’m glad that you find the idea interesting. Hope you’ll find the dictionary useful and accurate. If you have any comments, i’ll be more than happy to hear them.
Hey Kareem,
How’re you doing? it’s wonderful to hear from you too. I’m glad that you still remebers. We spent some fine days in Cairo. It’s just unforgetable.
Esra’a, wish you a happy Ramadan, and thanks for all the help.
Good idea. on the dictionary.
Have you searched the web to find out what others have done?
As you can tell this is one of my favorite blog sites. The problem is that I don’t have so many friends here, in Japan, who have enough confidence to participate. But at least they know about this blog.