Of Dubya and coffee

Let me take you (and me) back in time...

Waking up and smelling the coffee on Saturday 10 September, Radio 4 listeners would have been treated to a Prayer for the Day from our silky old friend, Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra of the Muslim Council of Britain. (His prayers continued on Radio 4 for several days after).

He talked about 9/11 and, unusually for such an uncontroversial programme, used the opportunity to criticise George Dubya Bush for using the phrase 'war on terror'. It was, he said,  "controversial...especially for many Muslims, which has also had great cost to diverse individuals and communities." He then prayed to his God.

Well, it comes to something when even Prayer for the Day is used for political purposes by an Islamist!

What next? Tweet of the Day on the nightingale by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei?:

The nightingale's melodious song has infiltrated the heart of poets and Islamic scholars for many centuries. Its song, contrary to what is said in the decadent West, is not to do with courtship or territorial marking. The nightingale is simply singing what every true believer knows in his heart: "Death to America! Death to Israel!"

A few hours later came The Muhammadan Bean: The Secret History of Islam and Coffee, presented by journalist Abdul-Rehman Malik. 

Being a tea-drinker, I wasn't inclined to listen to it.

Abdul-Rehman's Twitter feed is interesting but much as you'd expect - left-leaning party-politically, strongly pro-Sadiq Khan in the London mayoral election, anti-Prevent,  backing criticism of Maajid Nawaz for trying to engage with Tommy Robinson, supportive of an anti-Israel activist, etc.

His personal page says that his:

“Pause for Thought” radio column airs regularly on BBC Radio 2’s weekday morning programme. 

Well fancy that!

I supposed I ought to listen to his coffee programme, as it would be wrong to just derisively imply that someone's a typical BBC choice without listening to their programme first. After all, it could be completely free of proselytising.... 

Could I be bothered though? Wouldn't I much prefer to have a cup of tea and do something else instead? 

Oh, the dilemmas of a blogger!

Well, I listened, and what happened?

He begins by telling us that he's of Pakistani heritage and is now describing how he's long been "hooked" on the "intoxicating...wine of Islam". (I much prefer the intoxicating wine of Asda). Coffee-drinking spread from Ethiopia to Yemen. Mystical Sufi Muslims then spread it further. Coffee houses eventually became stylish meeting places (like Starbucks?), and coffee as "a culture, an art and a cultural force" peaked in the Ottoman Empire, arriving in Constantinople in 1544 via Syrian merchants from Greater Syria. They achieved a global monopoly on coffee. Exports of coffee seeds and plants from Yemen was punishable by death. The likes of the Dutch East India Company eventually got round that. Pope Clement VIII in 1600 is said to have liked the Satanic Mohammedan brew so much that he said he wanted to baptise it. It came to London in 1652 (Cromwell's time) when Pasqua Rosée, the Greek servant of a British Levant merchant, established the first coffee house there. By 1659 two more opened up. By 1663 (post-Restoration) there were 82 coffee houses within the old walls of the city. By the turn of the century there were 3,000. Etc. 

As they say on BBC Two: QI. Well done Abdul-Rehman! 

Prayer for the Day

That forensic review of BBC Radio 4's output on Tuesday 26 August, which I envisioned in the previous post, would have to have begun somewhere and, as the yearning Christian atheist in me would want me to begin the day with a prayer, I would surely have had to have started it with Prayer for the Day - Radio 4's daily religious offering at 5.43am.

Thinking about it, Prayer for the Day is an intriguing BBC Radio 4 institution - as is Thought for the Day on the Today programme, the Daily Service (longwave only), Sunday Worship, and the ever-delightful Bells on Sunday. 

As it's overwhelming Christian in its guest selection (like Thought for the Day), I'm guessing that the Polly Toynbee-like secularists of this world would be deeply agitated by it. 

Yet still it persists in the Radio 4 schedule, and I'm glad about that. 

The prayer came from Rev Mike Starkey, and the Rev Mike began with an interesting fact:

Twenty years ago today some pioneering surgery was carried out in the UK. The world’s first ever battery operated heart was fitted at Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire. Arthur Cornhill had only been given a few months to live. In a four-hour operation surgeons at Papworth fitted him with a ‘bionic’ heart pump made of titanium and plastic.

Channeling my inner Richard Dawkins, I thought, "That's interesting. Science and reason to the rescue!" (Actually, I didn't think any such thing. I've only just thought of that now. But I'm trying to think artfully, like a Thought for the Day speaker). 

Rev Mike, however, is no Prof Robert Winston and his factoid didn't lead to further scientific insights. Instead, it served as a hop to allow him to skip and jump into matters literary and metaphorical - my better angel said, "Just like George Herbert", while that pesky devil on my other shoulder whispered, "In true 'Rowan Atkinson-style Anglican vicar' fashion":

Down the centuries the heart has become one of our most powerful metaphors. It represents our hopes and dreams, our likes and loves, our values and priorities. I say ‘hand on heart’ when I want to convince you I’m telling the truth. If I’m helping somebody make decisions I’ll ask them what their heart’s telling them. A broken heart means an end to something that seemed to promise love and fulfillment. When Tony Bennett left his heart in San Francisco we know what that meant: something deep about emotions and identity. 

And, then also in 'Rowan' fashion (whether Atkinson or Williams), came the inevitable abrupt leap towards God:

Our love affair with the heart actually goes back thousands of years. In the Bible the heart represents our intellect, our feelings and our values, our innermost selves. The Bible writers encourage us to set our hearts on things that aren’t trivial or transient.

God is close to the brokenhearted. We’re told God wants to remove our hearts of stone and give us new hearts. And in 4th century north Africa, St Augustine wrote of our hearts being forever restless till they find their rest in God.

And finally came the prayer of the day itself: 

Heavenly Father, at the beginning of this new day, examine my heart. If it’s been broken, I pray for healing. If it’s become hard I pray for softening. If it’s restless I pray I will find my rest in you. Amen.

That's a prayer I can add a wishful 'Amen' to too. I'd skip all the 'ifs' though, and concentrate on the 'I pray's.