The Uber driver told me he spoke Punjabi, Urdu and some Arabic. Later, when he asked what I was doing at the University I answered I teach music and it seemed to abruptly end our conversation. After the long pause I asked if he played music, he said no. Earlier he told me about his four children, now I asked if any play music, even more quickly he asserted no. I remembered there are religions that do not allow listening to music. He must be from there. I asked and he said yes. A few minutes later he played me a man on Tik Tok singing a prayer. Guess he thought this was a proper use of music but still would not use the M word. I said but you are listening to music, he said defiantly I am not. I said don’t you think the man who is singing studied how to sing? He said in my religion we do not listen to music, he is not singing. I said ok the man singing is not singing. In my religion it is taking you away from God, he said. I thought how close to God it is listening to Django Reinhardt or Jeff Beck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"