By Andrew L. Jaffee

I’ve been in high gear once again after the Mohammed cartoon debacle and the savage destruction of Iraq?s golden dome of the al-Askari shrine in Samarra — pretty uptight, even succmbing to the us vs. them thing. But as I sit here tonight listening to a CD I made for a dear friend, a compilation of great American rootsy, cross-cultural jive, for lack of a better term; I took pause. The CD’s atists include The Jackson Jive, Elton John, Bill Haley, The Andrews Sisters, Elvis, The Rolling Stones, Cab Calloway, Mahalia Jackson, David Bowie, The Ohio Players, and a few others. What a beautiful syhchroncity has evolved from initial cultural clashes, then cross-polination of art, and then assimilation. These artists have borrowed from and shared with each other’s African, Appalachian, British, Mo-Town, Be-bop, and jazz genres, to make music that soothes the soul, and makes my hips gyrate. It gives me hope and the energy to search out any similar mojo creeping into the moderate Muslim world. Low and behold, I found a glimmer of hope, from Andrew Sullivan:

It’s hard not to be impressed by this astonishing public display in Bahrain of the real face of moderate Islam - appalled by the blasphemy of the Samarra mosque bombing. Here’s a slogan worth cheering: "No Shia, no Sunni. All of us denounce the exclusivists (terrorists)." Gateway Pundit has the goods. Invaluable commentary here.

Hope still remains. I wish the neighboring Iraqis will take note before they do something really stupid, like engaging in an all-out civil war.

As Bill Haley wailed, its time to “Shake, rattle, and roll” — peacefully and democratically, that is.

Hat-tip to Donnel.

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Related: Arab/Muslim World, Islam, Europe, Iraq

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