Cultural evening: A lecture on Rumi

This evening I attended a lecture by Lady Mohini Kent Noon at Asia House (of which I am now a paid-up member) about the figure Rumi, who was a Sufist theologian and poet in around 1200 AD. It was to promote a new play called “Rumi : Unveil the Sun”.

Let me say clearly first of all that the people who organised this event were all highly gracious, and I had the pleasure of chatting with the Chief Executive of Asia House, who is a charming combination of so many admirable qualities they are too plentiful to list. Asia House themselves are to be commended, since they open up a dialogue between east and west, however I had some reservations regarding the subject at hand this evening. I’m sure Asia House would not deny me the freedom to express them.

It is always interesting to learn about other cultures, but this was really a celebration of the irrational, as we often see in the western world these days. Rumi was a Sufist Muslim who believed that poetry and dance was a “pathway to god”. Excuse me? Are we in the year 2007 or are we still in the year 1200, when people might have been excused for believing such nonsense?

As a rational humanist I am tired of hearing about god in this day and age and saddened to see such an unthinking celebration of a charlatan, or at best a delusional individual.

Following the speech there was a performance of some Indian music, and the musicians had travelled from Delhi only today. We need to be clear about this: they are probably nice people and it is admirable they had travelled from Delhi, however the music was somewhat primitive, lacking in melody, and involved a great deal of drum banging and wailing. Even worse, I fear I know what the wailing was about: it was more than likely about how miserable we are as mere humans and how great god is, which I (and many other humanists such as Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins) find sickening. We should face it: the music itself was not sophisticated and neither was the message.

What are we to make of all this? Well, it is typical of a trend in western society these days to idealise and romanticise times gone by and fantasise about “hidden meaning” etc. instead of being happy with what we have. This man Rumi was living at a time when people had no idea even what the sun was. We do not have sufficient grounds to accept his metaphysical claims, nor those of Mohammed or any other unproven mystics.

We must learn to separate morality from religion and frankly we should call a spade a spade. It is not admirable for people to quiver in self-deprecating submission to an imaginary deity while banging a drum - this is ridiculous and pales in comparison with the musical genius of Mozart, Beethoven or the likes of U2 or Sigur Ros, who craft multi-layered masterpieces of sophisticated emotional impact.

People: learn about other cultures - great - that’s what I do. But do not worship the primitive and absurd. Instead be thankful for how far we have come and how much more we understand now than they did then.

Addition: The gallery inside Asia House which I visited prior to the event was actually far superior to the event itself. It featured insightful photography of China in 1979. See my photos for this…