Should We Make Another Bomb?

I don’t know you have seen this White House photo by Susan Sterner or not. Here Laura Bush accepts books of poetry by "Turkish poet" Rumi presented by Emine Erdogan, wife of the Prime Minister of Turkey, during a coffee at the White House. You can find this picture on whitehouse.gov website. This is not the first time that I see Rumi, the 13th century Persian poet and mystic philosopher has been introduced as a Turkish poet.

Rumi was born in Balkh (in present-day Afghanistan), and died in Konya, (in present-day Turkey), but none of his poems and works are in Turkish language. Rumi's birthplace, his native language and the themes of his poetry indicate a Persian heritage. His poetry is all in Persian and has been translated into Turkish and many other languages. But why should Rumi be introduced as a Turkish poet?

UNESCO has designated 2007 (the 800th anniversary of Rumi’s birth) as the International Year of Molana Jalaleddin Rumi. After that Turkey’s cultural officials have announced plans to hold special ceremonies for commemorating this famous personality. During last year they had hundreds of ceremonies for attracting tourists to the shrine of Rumi in Konya and for introducing him as a national luminary.

Shortly their activities extended beyond the borders. Buffalo Turkish Center organized "RUMI 800" or "Rumi Reading Club" in US to enjoy Rumi's poetry for one night each month. Unlike Iranian students, the Turkish ones hosted some film screening events at their Universities to celebrate this poet. They invited Canadian filmmaker Tina Petrova to show her movie, "Rumi-Turning Ecstatic", and to share her extraordinary encounter with his poems. After a short time Rumi and Turkish culture were so interwoven that Library of Congress on March 14 celebrated Rumi with an evening of Turkish poetry and music.

But what did Iranians do? Well, Ahmadinejad hosted the holocaust meeting in Tehran. Abdolkarim Soroush delivered some lectures about Rumi at Harvard University but no one heard of it because this man is a critic of Islamic Government. It is a pity that Iranian politicians are busy with some affairs that are none of their business and neglect important issues like this. Maybe we should do something by ourselves againg, may be we should make another Google Bomb?