From about as far west as I can go for the moment

Rather like the giant Antaeus of classical Greek mythology, I feel the need to touch my native soil, California, fairly frequently. It’s good to be back home. It will always feel like home to me.

Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,

Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne’er within him burn’d,
As home his footsteps he hath turn’d,
From wandering on a foreign strand!
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no Minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonour’d, and unsung. 

(Sir Walter Scott)

***

But I’ve spent large and very formative periods of my life elsewhere, including the Middle East and traveling in the Islamic world, and my thoughts turn to places and those people and to the Muslims and Middle Easterners that I’ve known.

In that context, you might enjoy this still relatively recent piece:

“What Muslims and Latter-day Saints in the Pacific taught Sister Eubank and Sister Craven about ministering”

***

I believe that it was Matthew Wheeler who called my attention to the following three items from his general neck of the woods.  Certainly he brought the second and third ones to my notice:

Singapore:  “This Singaporean Mosque Is Opening Their Doors For The Homeless To Sleep Overnight: A nationwide study recently found that about 1,000 people were sleeping on the streets.”

New South Wales, Australia:  “Muslim group donates $10,000 to NSW firefighters as bushfires continue to rage: Australians of different faiths are pitching in to help those affected by the bushfires.”

Sydney, Australia:  “Australia attack on pregnant woman highlights rising anti-Muslim hate: Victim Rana Haidar was attacked without provocation by a man in a Sydney cafe. The attacker was then apprehended by others nearby and arrested by police.”

Compare this very different account of the same incident, and the file photograph (of a generic pregnant woman, not of the specific victim) used to illustrate it:

“Heavily pregnant woman punched, stomped on by stranger at Parramatta cafe”

***

Matthew Wheeler may well have called this one to my attention, as well:

“A rabbi, a pastor and an imam walk into a . . . dialogue about shared values”

And maybe this one:

“U.S. Christians, Jews and Muslims pioneer multifaith project”

***

This one, though — finally! — I’m confident that I found on my own:

“Russia, the Kurds, Trump and some Syrian Jews: When in doubt stress the political angle”

Posted from Newport Beach, California