Thursday, November 14, 2013
Pictures of Islam
We've started to investigate Muhammad, the origins of Islam, and the Rise of the the Muslim World. In all honesty so we can have an authentic dialogue about it, what has been your understanding and what have been your views of Islam and Muslims in your life up until now before studying this history?
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I never really thought a lot about Islam as a faith. I mean I heard about it on the news and heard people talk about it but it didn't really make that much of an impact on me. My dad sometimes made jokes about it but he apologized after he did once he realized they weren't politically correct. Recently I've heard more about it because of all the conflict in the Middle East with the Taliban and the different views on how the Karan can be translated and interpreted. I don't think I ever thought that all Muslims were terrorists but I've heard a lot about how Islamic law is sexist. I don't think I ever understood or tried to understand that Islamic law isn't always as constrictive towards women. I know the Taliban is really powerful in parts of the Middle East and are a very radical group of Muslims so that doesn't really count but a couple weeks ago my mom and I were talking about how a group of women from Saudi Arabia had learned how to drive and traveled out of the country to get drivers licenses because while women can drive In Saudi Arabia they can't get a license there and this is a place that is ruled mostly by Islamic law.
ReplyDeleteI didn't really know anything about the Islamic culture until now. I have enjoyed learning more about it in general. The main thing that I knew was that some of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda where Muslims. Yet, I knew that very few Muslims where like that, and never thought all Muslims where terrorists. I knew that those groups were extremists and morphed the religion to fit their own biases. I also knew there were some oppressive countries that were Muslim states, but I also never thought they were a good representation of the Islamic faith and culture either. I otherwise didn't know much else. I've always just wondered about what it was like.
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I really had no understanding of Muslims up until this point. I knew many racist people had pre-disposed beliefs about Arabs and Islam about terrorism. My main link to my knowledge of Islam was that Malcolm X was a Muslim and he tried to spread Islamic tradition to African Americans. I really got my understanding from watching the movie Malcolm X. I saw how Islam changed him into a completely different person. He went from a criminal to a religious leader. I had no real understanding of Islamic tradition.
ReplyDeleteI had already studied the Islamic empire and Islam a little bit in sixth grade, so what we have been doing has reminded me of what I had learned. I knew the basics of the 5 pillars, and that it was a major religion that only worshipped one god. But despite this little knowledge, I thought of the Muslims mainly out of terrorism. I knew that not all Muslims were terrorists and hated the west, but I believed that because they accused us of violating their religion and that they justified their acts with their religion led me to believe that the Qur’an didn’t mention anything about being nice to others (religion, race, gender, etc.). This led me to believe that the radicals were the orthodox ones and the non-radicals to be unorthodox. Now I understand that the radicals don’t define the height of Islamic worship, but the non-radical Muslims actually follow the Qur’an. It is funny to see the levels of religious tolerance in the Muslim community. In fact in many ways, the Muslim community now is less accepting than they were back 1,400 years ago.
ReplyDeleteI didn't remember anything about Islam before this. I vaguely remember hearing about it in Junior High, but that's it. I mean, I knew it was a religion, and I knew it wasn't mostly practiced in America, but I couldn't tell you any details about it. I didn't realize that Muslims were people of the Islamic faith. I'd heard "Muslim" and "Islam" said before, but I didn't really hear anything else about them. It is an interesting topic that I am enjoying learning about, though. It seems like they have very progressive values.
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I didn't know very much about Islam until now. I had heard all the stereotypes about Muslim terrorists, but I didn't believe them. There are extremists in every religion, not just Islam. The only parts of Islam that I hear about are the negative ones, like Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Islam is often portrayed as a harsh, radical religion, but not all Muslims are like this. Both documentaries and the textbook said that Muslims were tolerant of other people and religions, specifically Jews and Christians. I was also completely unaware of their technological advances, like a system of running water.
ReplyDeleteI have never studied Islam extensively. We reviewed in seventh grade for a world religions class that we were taking (although that wasn’t really serious) and one group of kids did a presentation on Islam. I know about groups like the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, but have never thought that just because people in those groups practice Islam, that all Muslims are terrorists. I really love learning about religion because I don’t know a lot about most religions, and I feel like learning about a religion is like hearing a different side to a story – the way society depicts that religion (and the stereotypes) are one side, and the background and history are another. At least, this has been the case for me. I know that I have always been afraid to visit Muslim countries. Part of this is because I’m Jewish and also because I’m a girl. All the times I remember talking about Muslim countries with my mom I remember being scared and feeling safer here in the U.S. Therefore, it was really interesting for me to learn that as Islam progressed as a religion, their views on and “roles” for women changed – the religion is more oppressive now than it used to be, and much less tolerating. I would never have known. I also never really knew much about the religion itself – what its beliefs were, etc. What little I have learned over the years I have mainly forgotten.
ReplyDeleteIn seventh grade, we did study Islam extensively, so I remember the basic aspects of Islam as well as a scarcely detailed version of the story of Muhammad and his role in the Bedouin communities and with the Arab people. I knew that Islam is a monotheistic religion. I knew that Medina and Mecca are two extremely important cities in the Muslim faith. I already knew the difference between the Sunni and Shia muslims. I knew that certain nations in the Middle East like Iran and Iraq practice Sharia law, a theocratic system of laws based from the Qu'ran. I also knew the main components of Muslim culture. However, like Nathan, I thought of all the Muslims as a big lot of terrorists, despite my extensive knowledge of their culture and innately knowing that they werent all like that at all. I remember my father making jokes about the muslim population, calling them "Sand Monkeys", and bashing the whole darn Arab race for 9/11 (we lived in NYC when 9/11 happened. My dad lost his job right after.). But I knew inside that weren't like that AT ALL. My father and mother are from a southern Indian city called Hyderabad, and It has one of the greatest concentration of Muslims in India. I lived there for two years, and I met a whole bunch of Muslims there, and I found out that the Muslim are a very peaceful people, and they do everyday things like us simply to get by in their own little world. I think the media nowadays leads us to believe that all Muslims are a bunch of radical Arabs who want to continue their "Jihad" against the world. They show us clips of a bunch of Middle Eastern people shouting in angry Arabic at the camera, leading us to think that they are an angry race of people trying to kill the American people. That aside, I really enjoy studying other cultures, so I know it will be fun digging deeper into the roots of Islam this portion of the term.
ReplyDeleteBefore we have watched these videos and read the chapter on Islam all I knew about it was the things that I heard on the news. Or in other words the things that are horrible enough that they get put on the news. All that I was ever really hearing was about a people that was hateful, sexist and terroristic. Though up until this point I never really knew anything about the history of the religion or the values that are important to these people. I never heard the amazing values that are sacred to them, that are very much like my own personal values. Reading the book and learning about their culture has allowed me to see just how wrong some of societies views are, and how important it is to truly understand a culture before you label it.
ReplyDeleteI studied world religions the year before last, and up to that point I thought that Islam was a large religion, but I did not understand just how many people practiced it. I am not saying that I really spent any measurable amount of my life thinking about Muslims, but I was conscious of them to the point that I was able to form some basic oppinions about them. During my time taking World Religions I realized that many of my generalizations about it could not apply to such a relatively large percent of the world’s population. My main misconception was that it was a religion who’s followers were unable and unwilling to adjust to the modern world. I have realized for some time now that this is not the case because many people who practice the Muslim faith live lives in the United States that are (in most important respects) perfectly normal. I never thought that Islamic people were really bad at any point in my life because I just didn’t really care what it was that they were doing wherever it was that they happened to be doing it. This does not mean that I care less about Muslims than others. I just don’t care all that much about news, and that’s all they are to me. They are news because I don’t think that I have ever actually spoken to a Muslim. I realize that I probably should care about news, but I don’t really see why. I can’t really do anything about anything at this point in my life and a probably wont be able to do anything much about anything at any point in my life. I’m not honestly all that sad about that. I don’t really feel any need to meet or not meet a Muslim. They can do whatever they want as long as they aren’t killing anyone. They can live in America like us or basically anywhere else for all I care. None of this was intended to be insensitive. Basically I am just saying that I have never cared that much about anything that goes on that doesn’t affect me or my family. 99.9 percent of anything that has ever happened falls into this category. I think that the world would be a better place if everyone tried to mind their own business as a country, religion, community, or family. Every war ever has been caused by people not minding their own business. That was a bit off topic. Sorry. In short I don’t like or dislike Muslims any more or less than anyone else.
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