Dinner Conversation

Open dinner conversations are great in reality, but end up being a bitch to blog, especially the morning after. Last night was another Arabic Class Dinner, this time hosted by the teacher. But unlike the one a few weeks ago in Mayfair, last night was a much more sombre affair.

Don't get me wrong, we still had fun and games, but the evening was dominated by the 2-3 hour conversation we had regarding religion - specifically the thorny subject of Islamic Reform. Like I've already implied, the what was discussed is way too broad to do justice here, but we touched on things like the Arabisation of the religion, the possible lack of spirit in the sub-continent teachings of the religion (for example how some can read but not understand the Quran), the unwillingness or inability of Islam to adapt and change, and whether it needed to do this in the first place.

The good thing was that although half the group were new to each other (the classmates were joined by friends and family of our teacher) we were perfectly able to converse on a difficult subject without crossing any lines or offending each other. Frankly if the clock hadn't struck 2 or so, we might have carried on indefinitely!