GHS208-05 Fall 2019 China and the Islamic Middle East

I like many others have many favorite quotes from movies, books, television, and people in society that have impacted my life in some way shape or form. Some of my favorite quotes are about work ethic, passion, and determination. Some however are just for the witty fun of it as well. Probably one of my all-time favorite quotes is “Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn’t work hard”. – Tim Notke You might be asking yourself I’ve heard this quote and thought Kevin (Snake) Durant or Tim Tebow was the creator. But this is not true, Tim was a high school basketball coach and said this quote. KD made it famous and put it on mainstage media when he was drafted by the Seattle Supersonics in the 2007 NBA Draft. I love this quote because as an athlete and a competitor, it tells us that you need to put the time and effort in to be successful and you won’t be able to get by just off talent alone. For me this is personal because in golf it’s a very temperamental game meaning that the slightest degree of being off can result in a poor golf shot. Some of the people I know can take a couple weeks off and not lose a step in their swing and be just like they played and practiced the day before. This is not me; I enjoy playing golf and enjoy the mental toughness it teaches you because this game is a game that cannot be perfected, but all golfers try too. I live by this quote because it has gotten to where I currently am, and if I keep “Working hard” I know that it will pay off. My other favorite quote that is very similar to this one is, “Actions speak louder than words” – Abe Lincoln. I love these quotes because it’s how I try and live my life in sports, I won’t say anything about myself to try and make myself seem the best, golf is a game where the winner and best player is clear, because they are the one with the least amount of shots. So, I am a big philosopher in these two quotes because it preaches that method to just have your head down and work and allow your work to show your worth and skill to others.

 

Also, in class we talked about how to tell if a source is correct, because with talking about quotes many people have said similar things, and knowing who was the first can sometimes be tough to know who and what site is correct. In class we went to and talked about this fact checking websites that are proven to have the correct publishing on them. This is a different concept in our time, because everyone has the ability to post something online claim that it is right or just. This is not right though, only verified sources and proper websites have this much backing that show they are correct.

 

We see this concept in many religions, the Pope being infallible, and Muhammad being a servant of God. All of these religions have different concepts of where the truth can and can’t lie.

 

Until next time,

Patrick

Having class canceled yesterday really made my day! I was able to get some homework and studying done in the morning but going outside for the first time yesterday morning, the cold really hit me. I was definitely not expecting it to get so cold so fast. All this got me thinking, sometimes Christian church services are affected by the cold, does an Islamic service ever get affected by the cold too? Is there a correlation between the Muslim population in colder or warmer countries? I was able to find an interactive map that shows the Muslim population in different countries. This shows that there is a higher Muslim population in Northern Africa and Middle Eastern countries than most of the other countries. These countries are all normally warmer countries that do not experience the same level of winter as we do. The most likely would not get snow or have below freezing temperatures. I was also able to find some information about how widespread Islam is all throughout the world. I could not find anything concrete about if an Islamic service would get canceled, but I would assume that they would if there was severe weather or other circumstances that may impact the safety of those who attend. 

We talked about these in class awhile back and I have been hearing more and more about them recently, so I wanted to some more research!

Prior to looking it up just some of the things I knew were that these were pictures or videos that people can change and make pretty much anyone say whatever they want. The first thing that comes to mind is politics, someone could take someone’s face and make them say something that they didn’t say. Especially in today’s world with everything being online that could be a dangerous thing to happen and a lot of people would see it in no time. If there were to be a deepfake made of someone well known doing or saying something bad, that could possibly end someone’s career when they did nothing. There are a bunch of articles out on this topic but here is the one I used!

So the article was discussing what a deepfake is, basically what I said above, a video that is showing someone saying something that they didn’t really say! But when you think about it the technology behind this stuff is pretty cool, it’s just being used for bad things. A deep-learning system studies pictures and videos of someone and then from that it is able to create a fake video, that will mimic that persons behavior and speech. After the fake is made another program comes in called the GANs (generative adversarial network) and makes the whole thing seem much more believable. This process can happen multiple times to continue to make the video more and more believable.

The article went on talking about how to spot one of these fake videos! Since there is the technology out there to make these fake videos, there is also the technology out there to detect them!

The fact that there are programs that can make videos like this is kind of insane! As technology continues to advance I think we will be seeing more deepfakes!

I volunteered 8 hours at the International Festival in Indianapolis. Other students and I assisted the IACA (Indianapolis Association of Chinese Americans) with the parade and presentation. The International Festival was from 9am to 9pm November 8,9, and 10. I volunteered on Friday, November 9th from 3-7pm, and then I volunteered on Saturday, November 10th from 9am to 1pm. On Friday, Kwan had us just walk around and enjoy the festival. We went to different booths and interacted with volunteering individuals. I enjoyed the food booths. They had Asian, middle east, and Mexican food. I got a mixed drink (alcohol free) from the Caribbean booth. They had a bunch of booths you could buy pottery, jewelry, and clothes from. There were performances as well going on during the festival that the students and I watched. Many performances were dances that related to the specific culture they were from: Japanese, Dutch, Russian, etc. Some performances though were demonstrations: martial arts. On Saturday, I watched a martial arts performance. On Saturday as well, the IACA was part of the indoor parade. I was the tail of the lion. As we walked around the auditorium, other students with me waved IACA flags. It was sweet to see the children pointing at the lion. Overall, I liked being at the International Festival because it introduced me to many more cultures than just Chinese.

At the banquet that I went to this weekend that was sponsored by the mosque that I volunteer at, and for the Muslim community of Indianapolis. I kind of went into the event thinking that I would be one of the only white people there. That sounds bad, but it was something that I was just thinking and was a bit nervous that I would stand out greatly in the crowd. The Indianapolis community of Islam is predominately black, and when we volunteer at the mosque, we are the only white people. But, when people started to arrive at the event, I noticed that there were quite a large number of white people. I was quite confused because the people coming in did not have their heads covered, but they knew everybody there. And it’s not that I thought that a white person could not be of the Islamic faith, it’s just not what I am used to. So, I wanted to know who these people were and if they were a part of Nur-Allah. During the banquet- I got my answer. Out of the white people there, one couple gave out awards, and one couple received awards. When both of the couples were talking, they said that they were a part of the Catholic community, but they have been friends with many members Nur-Allah for many years. I thought that it was so cool seeing people that are not of the same faith, at the banquet receiving awards at this banquet. It was honestly heartwarming to see how nice and welcoming the community of Nur-Allah is and I am so happy that I have the opportunity to volunteer there.

For this week’s service at Nur-Allah, we attended a banquet called the parent’s banquet. This banquet is an annual banquet that is hosted to honor and appreciate all of the parents that are a part of the Nur-Allah mosque and the Indianapolis area Muslim community. Nur-Allah, the mosque that we volunteer at, hosted the event. Anna, Lauren, and I arrived early so that we could help set up and start helping with the event. Anna and I helped escort guests that arrived at their table, while Lauren helped with selling tickets for the event. The actual event included dinner, awards, and two speakers. One of the speakers was an honorary Iman, and the other speaker is the president of Martin University- which is a University in Indianapolis that is a historically black university. After getting everyone their seats, dinner was served and the event started. The event started with an opening prayer, nd the pledge of allegiance. After these happened, the awards hahappenedThe first award was the parent(s) of the year, where three sets of parents were honored. The first couple were members of Nur-Allah who have three children, with two of the children being under the age of two. The couple spoke about the hardships, but also the happiness of parenting. The next rerecipientas a single father with three daughters. The last two recepiants were actually memebers of the Catholic church, but are friends with Nur-Allah. The next award was given to two trailblazers in the church. After awards, the speakers began and both of the spekaers gave enlgihting speeches about parenting and how it intertwinces with faith. The entire event was a special, adn heartwarming evening. There were a lot of poeple there, but everybody knew eachother- which made the room feel like a community, and they welcomed us three with open arms.

Usually for our ICR Lauren, Shelby and I go to Nur Allah and help with their weekend school. However, this past week things looked a bit different. On Sunday was the 27th annual Parents Appreciation Banquet, which is sponsored by Nur Allah. Instead of helping with the weekend school we went to this event and helped with set up, and then sat and listened to the many speeches from the award-winners. Going into this event I had expected to be one of the only white people in the room. While the thought of this was unfamiliar to me, I was trying to go into the event with an open mind, understanding that this unfamiliar experience would be a good learning experience for me. However, my assumptions were wrong. Not only was I not the only white person in the room, I was far from it. It had been my understanding that this event was only from Nur Allah and other mosques in the city, but what I failed to understand was that this event was open to all members of the community, not just those of the Islamic faith. I was also very nervous about the event as I was just unsure about what to expect. However, everyone was super nice and caring, and made sure that we were comfortable, though we were supposed to be helping them. This experience was truly eye-opening for some assumption that I make, and showed me that I need to work on not making assumptions so quickly.

Is it bad to say that Dr. McGrath’s email almost brought me to tears, tears of joy? Not that I didn’t want to go to class, but the snow outside right now is beautiful. As I have just returned from a nice sledding adventure on the Bowl, I thought my day could not get better, but then I checked my email and was overwhelmed with happiness. In the spirit of the Winter Wonderland, I thought it would be interesting to look into snow or Winter seasonal traditions in Islamic culture. In my research I came across many articles discussing how there is no mention of snow in the Quran. There was excessive debate of snow versus hail, as hail specifically is mentioned but snow is not. Some argue that the Hadiths do mention snow; however, this too is debated. Regardless of the significance of the mention of snow or not, I found this controversy to be interesting as snow is mentioned in the Bible and the Torah (from what I read online). In terms of snow and Islam in other connections, there seems to also be some debate about the creation of snowmen in the Islamic community, because Islam prohibits making images of animate beings. Some argue that it is permissible to make snowmen because there are no creatures that look like snowmen, and some still say this is prohibited in the text. Despite how you may personally feel, it is an interesting topic of conversation in the Islamic community and in modern times.

Today, we learned all about the Lion Dance from Kwan that we are going to perform with the IACA at the International Festival next week at the fairgrounds. Taylor, Maddie, and I learned all about the proper stances, setup positions, and movements to perform this dance in a simple way possible. Kwan was very helpful is teaching us this dance of the Lion. Growing up however, I have seen these big parades in movies and school documentaries that have had these dances in them, and I always had thought it was a dragon and not a lion. So, this was slightly embarrassing, but I was happy to learn more about the dance and the meaning from Kwan. It only takes 2 people to operate the Lion, and it was very simple, the head has to have enough strength to lift the head above shoulders, and the back has to just be flat and follow the front. It was fun to learn a new dance with fellow classmates and see all of us be out of our comfort zones. It was fun to learn, and I hope we can possibly learn more about the dance culture of China.

 

Here is a photo of what the Lion outfit is.

 

Until next time,

Patrick

This week at Newcomer started out a little rough and was even more eye-opening to the issues surrounding the Indianapolis community. Each week that I have been here has been a very positive experience and has really opened my eyes to how open these children are to learning. Today, the classes were a little older and many of the students were rebellious. It was very hard for the teacher to control his class while he was teaching. Students were yawning very loudly every time he spoke and were calling him names in different languages. These students were all at around the late middle school/early high school age so their rebellion wasn’t that surprising. The most surprising part of the day was when the teacher pulled me aside and told me to keep an eye out for two boys who almost got in a fight last week. As he was explaining the situation to me, I noticed the boys already making vulgar hand signs at each other. I’m assuming these signs were learned in the environment that they live in outside of the school and this made me reflect on a few things that I learned in the BCR that I attended 2 weeks ago on Muslim Work with Ex-Offenders. I think that this situation is very similar to the environment that Mr. Blackwell described many of the people at the IMAN institute experience. I realized that these boys probably don’t have much of an example of a different environment and their actions are literally a reflection of the areas surrounding them. They are so young and are so easily influenced by the people around them. I worked with one of the boys to keep him occupied and to remove him from the situation for the rest of the class and all of a sudden his attitude changed and he became invested and interested in the schoolwork that we were doing. This showed me how important it is to invest time and understanding into a person especially a young student like this boy. This attitude is also what the IMAN institute highlighted as its mission.

I think that this situation brings to life the issues that were touched on by the keynote speakers at the BCR. The biggest point that resonated with this situation is that sometimes children growing up in these environments aren’t even given a first chance at figuring out the life that they would like to lead. I think that the students at Newcomer are very vulnerable… they have just arrived to the United States, they don’t speak much English, and they are searching for a community that they belong in. I think that Newcomer is a great program and first step to showing these kids more opportunities and also showing them that there are teachers and volunteers who invest in them and care about their success and that this is their community. The positive empowerment that a program like Newcomer provides can truly impact a developing child and it has taught me a lot about how to see the potential in someone and how to help them realize their potential through positive reinforcement and support.