Tuesday 1 September 2009

A Muslim called Jesus

I've just become a dad (again) mash'Allah. The pocket Welshman came out the bloodied and roaring embodiment of pure nationalist fury; imagine William Wallace after Stirling. Well at 8:30am this morning he won his freedom. If he follows his sister the Unionists better watch out; she captured Aberafan beach last week in the name of Owain Glyndwr and she's only just turned eight. I think she mistook the lifeguards' flags in the distance for Baneri Glyndwr. I suppose it's an easy mistake for an 8 year old to make, given the colours. Considering Mrs Meccanopsis has been so involved in the All Wales Convention over the past year we are betting on his first words being 'Government of Wales Act 2006'.

We've chosen the name 'Iesu'. It's not unusual for Muslims to call their sons Jesus (Esa in Arabic) and of course the name is not uncommon amongst Spanish-speaking Christian communities worldwide, but it's not really caught on over here. The only other Welshman that seems to have called his son 'Iesu' was the eccentric Dr William Price, a leader of the Chartist rising 170 years ago. The old Archdruid was a heretic too so I guess I am following a tradition.

The issue of his name came up a couple of months back when we were at an event with an old vicar friend of ours, he missed his footing and instinctively reached out to the nearest person, catching my wife's arm in the process to steady himself. He was ever so apologetic. He needn't have been. He's an old fella and I doubt he would have knocked her off balance if he had run at her full pelt. She took it in good humour and to take the edge off his embarrassment I told him to be thankful there were no press around given her 'condition' (she was already nearly 7 months pregnant at the time). I could see a future headline, I told him:

'Reverend falls on Muslim woman and 10 weeks later she gives birth to Jesus'.

3 comments:

  1. Congratulations on the new baby - wonderful news. I can imagine the name will spark some interesting reactions but you may be a trend setter.

    I suppose we should be grateful that the former Tory MP Ian Grist didn't start that particular trend...

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  2. Congratulations Brother! Best wishes to the missus! Actually Jesus was originally Jeshuah which means God Saves!

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  3. Many thanks both. Yes Whitegate I agree, Tory 'Messiah' for Wales? A complete oxymoron.

    Mike, maybe he can improve the fortunes of the Wales Football team and play in goal :) No, actually forget minority sports if he's going to be good at something athletic I'd rather it was rugby.

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