Caught Professor Juan Cole’s lecture on democracy in Iraq. Outstanding stuff, despite the strange influx of freaky LaRouche followers who decided the best way to get publicity was to pack the line for the Q&A session after the lecture. And that’s enough about them.
Just in case any of you were there, I was the goofy looking long-haired guy with the video camera. Well, one of them at least. There was at least one other goofy looking long-haired guy with a video camera that I spotted in the audience. And a whole bunch of other goofy looking long-haired guys who were hanging about.
Honestly, I get a lot of people who think they’ve seen me before, and it’s just some other guy with long hair. I claim it’s my super power. “I am Ubiquitous Man! I am everywhere!”
Anyway, the lecture was really quite cool, but there’s been a question nagging at me ever since. Prof. Cole talked about Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, and how the public respect for him was underestimated by the initial provisional government. He brought up how in Iraqi society it it was quite common for people to consult religious leaders with concerns or doubts about how aspects of their lives fit in with their practice of Islam.
The hypothetical example he used was cologne… There’s all sorts of possible conflicts between wearing cologne and being a good Muslim. Is cologne ritually impure? Is it a sign of vanity? Is it a problem that it contains alcohol? All of these are things that you could ask a religious official about, and they’d have the background and training to give an answer.
And what’s been bugging me is that, after bringing up the cologne question, Prof. Cole didn’t say what the answer was! I mean… Sure it’s not a big issue, not in the whole “democratic vs theocratic Iraq” scheme of things, but I was sorely tempted to get in line for the Q&A and ask about it…