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ULULATING BELLY DANCERS TAKE OVER FOUNTAIN SQUARE DURING FIESTA INTERNATIONAL 2007
Michael Beck/Midwest Latino, Organizer

The dancers on this page are with
ANAYA GYPSY DANCE
Tribal Belly Dance Performance & Classes.
www. agdance.com

DANCING ON CINCINNATI FOUNTAIN SQUARE
- FIESTA INTERNATIONAL 2007
Sunday 07/29/2007.
Michael Beck/Midwest Latino, Organizer.
www.midwestlatino.com

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I have come to those who think upon me
I was found among those who seek after me

you hearers, hear me
You who wait for me, embrace me.

and do not chase me from your sight.
Do not be ignorant of me in any place or time;
watch, and wait.

Do not be ignorant of me.

For I am the first and the last
I am the honored one and I am the scorned.

I am the whore and the holy one.
I am the wife and the virgin.
I am she whose wedding is great,
and I have not taken a man.

I am the mother of my father
and the sister of my husband,
and he is my son.

I am the incomprehensible silence
and the idea often remembered.

I am the voice of many sounds.
and the word that appears in many forms.

I am the sounding of my name
For I am knowledge and ignorance.
I am shame and boldness
I am shameless, I am ashamed.
I am strength and I am fear.
I am war and peace.
[and war has come because of me.
And I am an alien and a citizen.]

Hear me.

I am she who has been hated everywhere
and she who has been loved everywhere.
I am she whom they call Life,
and you have called Death.
I am she whom they call Law,
and you have called Lawlessness.

Do not be ignorant of me.

Excerpt from The Thunder: Complete Mind, a
piece of Gnostic Text in the Nag Hammadi
Libary circa 150-350 C.E.
Translation: Elaine Pagels

Abraham was an Immigrant: A Theological Reflection

Abraham is widely accepted as a patriarch of the three great monotheistic faiths of the World. Abraham was an immigrant. His father,
Terah was from the land of Ur of the Chaldeans (somewhere in present day Iraq) and while the tribe was resting at Haran, Terah died.
Abraham, then known as Abram, heard God tell him to get out of his country and from his father's house to a land that God will reveal.
Abram, whose obedience is renowned, complied.Many know this immigration saga of Abram, but there is more. For all was not well in
the early Promised Land - there was a severe famine and Abram and his family were forced to move again, this time further south into
the land of Egypt. As refugees fleeing starvation, the tribe was at the mercy of the Egyptians. Abram devised a plan – he ordered his
wife, Sarai (later called Sarah) to tell the Egyptians that she was his sister, for otherwise said Abram, the Egyptians would kill him to take
her. When the Pharaoh inquired of this irresistibly beautiful Sarai, Abram promptly sent her into Pharaoh’s house. By this disingenuous
bargain, the tribe of Abram sojourned in Egypt and survived.

From the days of that unwitting, unnamed Pharaoh, we can take a giant leap in unspecified time to the days of the Roman Caesar Augustus. Joseph, the father of a
tiny household, decided to obey the voice of an angel - he fled from Bethlehem with his wife Mary and new-born to Egypt. This family obtained political asylum in Egypt
and lived safely with the Egyptians until the death of King Herod who had cruelly ordered the killing of all male infants under the age of two in and around Bethlehem
because Herod had heard that a future king had been born. The Scriptures are silent respecting Joseph's dealings in Egypt.

Last, we can take another six century leap towards the present. Another great prophet, after an assassination attempt, fled with a small group of friends from the great
commercial, then polytheistic city of Mecca to a remote village to the north then known as Yathrib (only later renamed Medina or City of the Prophet). The reason for
the Hijra of September 9, 622 was religious persecution against the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) by his own Quraysh tribe for his preaching of the one God and the Day
of Judgment. This rag-tag band of asylum seekers who trekked across the perilous desert in fear and hope, is called the muhajirun (Arabic for emigrants). Upon
arriving exhausted in Medina, the muhajirun prayed towards Bait-ul-Maqdis (and only later was the qibla changed to the Kaaba, a tradition that continues to the
present).

Immigration plays an important role in all three traditions, and it is true that the outcome of each version of emigration is different. Notwithstanding sublime religious
ramifications, what is the common human link in all three stories? If we were to set aside for the moment all the theological subtleties, religious differences, and political
conflicts that may derive from these instances of immigration, and focus on the humanity of Abraham, Joseph and Muhammad, what can we, as temporal traveling
companions who share for a limited time this small space on earth, discern?

Can we not see that each patriarch or prophet as is the case, was obliged, albeit for various reasons, to leave their ancestral home? Abram was faced with the choice
of emigrating or starving to death. Joseph fled to save his baby Jesus from execution by a paranoid satrap. Muhammad sought safety for himself and the community of
believers for his insistence on the one God. All suffered personal loss, fear of annihilation, and humiliation. Each placed the hope for survival and dream for a better
future in a new place. All approached from a position of weakness. Each began as a vulnerable human prone to suffering and deprivation. Perhaps, most poignant is
the willingness to deliver and entrust their lives into the hands of another better placed than they were. They all were immigrants. A Theological Reflection by
Charleston C. K. Wang 07/04/06. Cl ick here to send your comment.