S3E9 Call to Prayers

People often appreciate different music, dance, and food, but not different ideologies.

I did not leave Iran to come to Iran.

As civilized people, we solve our differences by trying to understand each other, not bombs, like Pete Hegseth.

To solve our differences, we need to think logically and calmly, not let emotions control take over.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Life Workshop where we discuss the forgotten basics. As you may know, recently in Regina, the city of Regina has given a temporary license to the Islamic mosque so that they can do their call for prayer in the loudest speaker in downtown Regina. And of course, this is to the best of my knowledge, is a very temporary and just a trial basis and very limited. But again, it has caused a lot of controversial argument. And there are some people that are extremely against it. So to this uh extent, you know, what I did, I contacted the Islamic Association to see uh if they would you know be willing to come and do a podcast with myself and to clear the air basic to see why they are doing what they are doing. And personally, at this point, I'm kind of against the idea, but I'm entering this convert into this conversation uh to be honest with the open mind. I'm trying to do it that way to be proven wrong and to see why they are doing what they are doing. However, they have not got back to me, which to some extent is understandable, potentially they have received a lot of calls and emails, so they may not be able to get back to me as soon as possible. However, I decided to do this podcast to propose some of the questions and concerns that I have so that if they decide to contact me, they are prepared and they can answer to these questions. The very first question that I have for them, why? Why do you want to put your loudest speaker to call for the prayer? I do understand I'm originally from Iran, and I do understand in Islamic countries that is practice. But we should not forget this is not an Islamic country. And if your loudest speaker goes off, you know, basically most of the people they hear it, they are non-Muslims, or actually Allah. Some Muslims are not practicing it. So I'm not sure it would become more of a noise problem or becomes really calling to action. Needless to say, nowadays we have phones. If you want to, you can send mass text messages, or people they can put their own reminders on their phone. You know, I'm not sure why we should do this. This said, some of the people that they are pro the idea, they have brought up some of the arguments. For example, this is a tradition, it's an Islamic tradition, which I understand that, but this is not the Islamic country. And normally I say, say, traditions, if this is about the dance and music and food, is very good. I think most people are you know open to it, but when it comes to ideology, that is where the problem happens. And remember, I normally say I did not leave Iran to come to Iran, and believe me, I come from a city that the weather was amazing in Shiraz, Iran. If you want to go check it, it was like California, beautiful weather, and then I ended up in Regina for God's sake, even the summer is winter, and winter minus 40. Are you kidding me? Needless to say, I love the Iranian food and the music, not the dance as much, but those two, and to be honest, I don't like the Canadian food as much, but again, yes, I have chosen to come here, and not for a moment I regret my decision. And the reason is primarily because a different ideology in here than what we had back in Iran, and I don't want to bring that back here. Uh, all this said, again, I'm not saying everything about Iran was bad and everything about Canada is good. No, not by far. But the point is, you know, you do try to make the changes that they make the country better, not to take it backwards. So that is my view. I understand that there are some people that they may disagree with me. But another thing is that, for example, uh, a friend, you know, again, that in pro the one that you are pro this idea, they said, but the church bell is there. And then what about that one? I said, look, Canada traditionally, no, historically, has been more of a Christian country, and that is what they have had from the past, and uh that is one they have grandfathered into this to some extent, to be realistic. As well, if you wanted to look at it in a more practical way, even we can argue that as the time goes on, the number of Christians in relativeness is dropping for two reasons. One, because there are lots of non-Christians that are immigrating to this country, and the second thing, Allah people are becoming non-religious like any other religion. And then if somebody really wanted to be more realistic and even argue the fact that the church bell, you know, they are doing church, but then they have to have louder speaker. I would say it would be more reasonable to say that maybe the church bell should not be ringing as well. I think that would be a more appropriate argument than saying that, oh, one mistake is happening, so we want to match it with another mistake. Well, I think we should correct the mistakes, not to match them with another mistake. But then now the uh fourthing that I have heard is again they say that of course law allows it, which that is why they are doing what they are doing. No one might say, first of all, law is not correct all the time. That is why we change them, and I believe we should change the law. That is one. Two, if we all want to practice and take advantage of other legal rights to the extreme, it would be like living in a court uh courtroom, not in a society. Trust me, we don't want that in a society and the community for it to function, we have to compromise. Sometimes I violate your right, sometimes you violate my right, and it's just fine. We have to have a give and take, otherwise, it will not be a community. So I'm hoping we are not using this as a reason because I can, I do it as a general rule. Normally, this is what I say. I say I don't kiss ass because I need to, I don't kick ass because I can, I do it because it's right. And I'm hoping that more people, you know, follow this principle versus you know talking about their rights and what they can do and legally and they have a good lawyer. You know, we don't want to have that, is not a society. I said that is a courtroom, and we don't want to resort to law and legal rights, you know, all the time. That would be a terrible, you know, society or environment to live in. We want to compromise and you know solve the problem among ourselves. Uh, I should mention in here, I have this friend of mine that she's very much concerned. Let's call her Karen, uh, that you know uh the Muslims they come in this country and they can do this, but we cannot go in their country and do what they are doing here. I said, but that is not the real argument that we can have. First of all, Canada is a democratic country. We don't care, to be honest, what they do in other countries. We are not going to be matching that one. And the second thing, actually, no, in even in Iran, although personally I'm against the government of Iran for the most part. Um, even in Iran, there are lots of churches and synagogues, and they practice it and they ring the bell. So it is not true. However, I can understand Karen's point of view in some countries, correct, they can't. But again, we are Canada. We do the way things that we do it in here. This is democratic. We don't care what others do. And then, so the other uh uh argument that I have heard that is a matter of tolerance. That you know, for example, if the Muslims they they come and do that, we should be tolerating it. The way I argue that is tolerance is for when you practice whatever you believe, and it's not just about the Muslims, I should say that it's about anybody and everybody, different culture, different things that are happening. If you want to practice it, we will be tolerant with the meaning that okay, you know, you can do whatever you want to do. But if you want to come and yell into my ear, then I'm not sure if that's tolerance. And again, at the end, I should say this is the big picture that I can see. We can, these things we can people that they have different or ideologies, different groups that they are existing, different things that every day something new is coming up. We can handle them in one of these two ways, or we can be loud about it and go make a lot of noise, or we can do it quietly. And uh saying this one, I don't know which one is a better option. But I know that when I was younger, the loud part actually I liked it. If I would hear the church and then the I don't know, the synagogue and the Islamic thing, I would enjoy that. I would find that as a sign of um livelihood. But as I'm getting older, or maybe I'm gonna take that back, as I'm becoming more mature, personally, I prefer more quiet. So this is probably should be you know left on a memorandum to see what people they have to say in general. But as a general, again, as I said, we can have this practice, this multiculturalism that we have. We can practice it in a loud way or a quiet way. So, and at the end, I want to just add this one. I'm a physical therapist by profession, and um, years ago I started my practice out of the basement of my house, which obviously it was in a residential area. And then I applied to the city that I wanted to have a signage to read Alpha Center. I didn't know how the process is, and then I realized that you know they sent a letter to the neighborhood to see if somebody has any, you know, kind of uh any problems with that one. And I ended up going to the city and I listened to some of the concerns that they were there. After hearing to one or two concerns, I realized, you know what, they make sense. To be honest, if it was me, I wouldn't like to see my neighbor to have a sign on her uh yard too or their yard. And the reason is make it look more commercial, not residential. So as soon as I realized that, I withdrew my request. That was it. I did not even wait to hear. I said, no, that makes sense. So the reason I'm bringing this up that if the Islamic society, you know, they have made this request and they have been granted, obviously. If they realize there is a backlash and really they didn't know, you know, if they can withdraw it, you know, on their own voluntary, I would say that would be uh good. But at the same time, if really they believe that they are doing the right thing, in that case they should follow what they are doing. But in that case, I would recommend that let's clear the air. If you can explain yourself, at the end, I normally say that we don't have to tolerate each other if we understand each other. So let us be understood, you know, explain why you're doing what you're doing, and I again I'm saying it's not only about the Islamic society, it's about anybody and everybody that you know when they have different groups and things they want to do, something explain yourself, let others understand you. And of course, I understand not everybody will agree, but it will help, it will help quite a bit. And then at the end, I look forward to logical, not emotional comments. Just I wanted to mention that one. Please let me know what your thoughts are. I would love to hear about it, and I would like to continue this conversation, if possible, as I said, to make the society a bit better. At the end, these challenges are gonna happen all the time. This is one of them. And the challenges and the problems are not the main problem. The problem is how we address them, how we solve it, and we can solve this in a way that we get united more, or it can divide us. It's a choice that we make. And I'm hoping by what I'm saying in here, what this platform that I'm trying to create, you know, we can rather be civilized. At the end, as a civilized society, we resolve all the differences with understanding, not bombs. At the end, one message for Karen don't worry, be happy.