2007

S1.E1 ∙ Dromen van Al-Andalus

Thu, Sep 27, 2007

Jan Leyers starts his journey trough the Muslim world to Mekka in Andalusia, the southern Spanish lost paradise of Arabic poetry. Its once capital Cordoba had the status of caliphate in exile, but after fragmentation ('taifa') the Christian Reconquista became inevitable. Jas crosses to Tangiers, a former international free port in Morocco, where he travels on to a Sufi center and Casablanca.

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S1.E2 ∙ Jaloerse harten

Thu, Oct 04, 2007

Jan continues his journey from touristic Casablanca to Fez, Morocco's royal ('imperial') city and center of culture and (mainly religious) learning, confused by a slick guide, the last rabbi and the sharia students. He crosses the Algerian birder to Oran, once a 'truly French' semi-colonial metropolis, now terrified the fundamentalist horror may strike again.

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S1.E3 ∙ De kleur van de revolutie

Thu, Oct 11, 2007

In the Algerian capital, Jan concentrates further on the tension between the modernist 'post-colonial inheritance' and the fundamentalist austerity threat. In desolate Kabylia, the non-Arab Barbary identity is specific. Next he moves on to the Lybian port of Gadames, discussion the country's rich history from Roman Antiquity to the Kadhafi regime, a bizarre nationalistic mix of distorted socialist democracy (without elections) and secularized Islam.

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S1.E4 ∙ De juiste Allah

Thu, Oct 18, 2007

Still in Tripoli, Jan compares modern loudspeaker prayer call to the old city's simple mosque with imam and muezzin. He crosses the Egyptian border to Alexandria, the now rather sleepy pre-Arab metropolis. The modern 'equivalent' of the once world-champion Pharos library is understocked and poorly visited. Next he passes to capital Cairo, where he meet the Muslim Brotherhood's leader and discusses its precarious position under the Mubarraq regime and remains suspicious about its definition of freedom and tolerant sharia. He ignores consistent assurances even from women concerning their unequal status.

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S1.E5 ∙ Honger in de woestijn

Thu, Oct 25, 2007

Still in busy metropolis Cairo, Jan remarks the number of veiled women increases, especially with young ones. He moves to the Sinai, visiting orthodox tranquility heaven St.Catherine's, the world's oldest Christian monastery in use, self-sufficient with an international recruitment. Further east, he visits a Bedouin village, excelling in traditional hospitality but quickly losing their culture trough modernization. Dahab, a Red sea resort, is for tourists, contrasting strangely with the Egyptians' Ramadan abstention. Security is strict since a semi-mysterious terrorist attack, making the ferry to Jordanian port Aqaba a nightmare. Jan visits an elite school, highly Western-style, in Amman, capital of Jordan, which has over a third ethnic Palestinian inhabitants.

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S1.E6 ∙ Door God gescheiden

Thu, Nov 01, 2007

In Jerusalem, Jan starts examining the sad state of the 'Holy Land', where Judaism, Islam and Christianity are bitterly opposed in the varied names of the same One God. Extremists, especially the i-unconditionally army-protected and spoiled-regardless-of-cost orthodox Jews, mike life impossible for ordinary Palestinian natives. Tourists often have a one-sided, religious and/or manipulated view.

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S1.E7 ∙ Bidden op het puin

Thu, Nov 08, 2007

In Syria, Jan visits the grand capital Damascus. He's impressed by its monuments, religious tolerance -mainly among Sunni and Shia Moslims- and perhaps most liberal Arab society. Jan enters Lebanon to visit Baalbek, where he meets part of the Palestinian diaspora. Beirut, the capital, visualizes the country's long, complex history of bloody, destructive (civil) war as well as a vibrant society, which again combines lucrative business and ethnic-political faction strife, with Hezbollah on the rise, partly because of the insane Israeli bombing of innocent civilians. Meawnhile, ordinary Christians and Moslims of various creeds generally live together peacefully.

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S1.E8 ∙ Kinderen van Atatürk

Thu, Nov 15, 2007

Jan enters Turkey in Istanbul, the old imperial Byzantine and Ottoman capital, but concentrates on Mustafa Kemal 'Atatürk', the father of the modern, strictly secular republic. Here devout Muslims protest against a head-scarf ban, some women even prefer to go study in Christian Europe on account of it. Further inland, to the republican capital Ankara, he checks on various attitudes towards the Koranic pork and alcohol prohibition and visits schools where strict Islamic teaching gets precedence over scientific truth such as evolution. Finally the Alevites, a 20% minority of strange, inconsistent religious and cultural tradition.

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S1.E9 ∙ Allah's Republiek

Thu, Nov 22, 2007

Jan enters Iran, which differs greatly from Arab countries both on account of different pre-Islamic roots and of being almost entirely Shiite. Theological and cultural components of this major division in Islam are discussed with an ayatollah and laymen in modern(ist) capital Teheran, the holy city Qomm and grand old Isfahan. Khomeini's shadow is still omnipresent. Many openly support the Islamic Republic, others seem scared to vent grieves. Aspects of the proud, warlike Iranian heritage include its own martial arts tradition.

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S1.E10 ∙ Het land van de profeet

Thu, Nov 29, 2007

During a stop in Qatar, Jan compares the wealth of the oil state citizens, who turn shopping into an art form, partially compensating from strict Islamic prohibitions, with the plight of Asian guest laborers. Although an infidel, Jan ultimately enters Saudi-Arabia hoping to visit Mekka, but the Grand Mosque's imam -'s final ruling is negative. Even the Prophet's birth land proves riddles with contrast and contradictions concerning its transformation in a few generations thanks to independence, oil and Wahhabism and contradictory opinions within the strictest Muslim society.

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