Dear Rashid Shaz,

I don't have an article or review to send, only a pertinent question: In spite of the Bush administration's clinging to its act of war as persuasion and its continuing pattern of threat-to-scare people, why has no one taken the lead in sharing the art, music, and literature of the other country and vice-versa? A method that worked very well in our (U.S.) relations with the former Sovet Union, brought about peaceful co-existence and ultimately significant exchanges between us. We in Alabama have shared the music of an Indian violinist, tabla player, voacalist and other musicians (Ravi Shankar coming next week), and I have played my violin with an Indian violinist of the first water last year. Islamic art of Iran and what's left of art in Iraq are neglected sources of the possibility for exchanges we could well support. Effluent from the bombs in Iraq floats around the world now, four years of it. Baghdad is in the same parallel with Birmingham, Alabama. We suffer intense drought now, because of violent changes in weather, not all caused by auto, truck and factory exhaust. So what of Islamic art, music and literature is to
be exchanged? We read a new novel every month from and Indian author. Why
can't we read the Middle Eastern Islamic writers as well?
Sincerely
yours,
Theodore Haddin,
118 Devon Drive,
Birmingham, AL 35209.