GHS208-05 Fall 2019 China and the Islamic Middle East

I found Sura 2 to be very interesting as it lays out the base fundamentals of Islam. Sura 2 explains how a faithful person should live and what they should and shouldn’t do. I was shocked by how many similarities there were between this section of the Qur’an and the Bible. For example, the story of Adam and Eve is told in such a similar way as it is in Genesis. I also did not expect the teaching of the Qur’an to be so open to other religions. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are so similar and share many core beliefs but mainly differ in the approach to faith and the prophets. I found this quote interesting “Why do you dispute with us about God when He is equally your Lord and our Lord?” I think that this approach is something that a lot of people overlook in religious conflict and I would like to look more into what the exact differences between all 3 religions are.

On Monday, I was in a science classroom this time to help assist students. The topic was the solar system and the differences between planets. The planet for the day was Saturn as it compared to Earth. I personally enjoy anything space related because its something I really don’t know about as well as its just cool. Even though, this doesn’t compare to our topics in class but I mean it’s nice to know this is taught to them. I don’t remember having anything space related taught to me at my primary school. They even went over the atmosphere gases in Earth and in Saturn, only thing I remember being taught was the debate on whether or not Pluto was considered a planet.

Anyways, on Wednesday in english class: the topic of the day was on the Salem Witch Trials. Honestly, forgot about that but I mean its spooky season so not surprised its making a comeback. Anyways, if you don’t know about the Salem Witch Trials then heres a short recap of it: Men accused women of being witches if they were wearing all black, ill, or basically acting not normal to them. They hung and executed a bunch of women, whether they were guilty or not; as in if they assumed you were a witch and you said no they would still execute you. So, one pretty messed up thing in our history books. Although, at first I didn’t see a connection with witches for this unit but then I further thought about the assumption men put on women in Salem. We also put assumptions on Islam and civilians living there. As discussed in class we all are guilty of thinking any islamic person is Muslim and the media labels them as terrorists. But not everyone is Muslim there, even though we just think so but other religions are also there (Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity). In addition, making connections between the Qur’an and Bible in class, on how there are similarities between the two. From a young adult prayer group I attended, there was a speaker who talked to everyone on how their mission is going over to Islam and teaching Christianity. To my surprise he said that many people attended and also had bibles with them. I would of thought no one there practiced Christianity at all (not sure on Catholicism). I think this also connects to what we talked about in on Cairo House, how Gigi missed morning prayer often and we all assumed they had to make every prayer and their religion was strict. But it wasn’t like that at all… we tend to assume a lot but you can’t really prove anything unless given evidence or talk to someone who has experience in that subject.

During advisory class, was a lighter mood since its the week of Halloween. We walked around and voted on our favorite pumpkins that each grade presented. Always something fun/new every week I visit and different connections to topics discussed in class.

Today, at the end of class, we talked about the differences within a religion and how everyone in that religion do not all have the same beliefs or the same traditions. One example that was used was the differences between Catholics and Episcopalian as denominations of Christianity. We also then touched on the topic of the stereotypical nun. I have found both of these topics interesting as I went to an Episcopalian elementary school and then a Catholic high school, while also being Methodist. Even though these are all denominations of Christianity, they are still very different. I have had the unique opportunity to have a first-hand experience with these three of these denominations and have been able to find many similarities and differences between them. Keep in mind, I was only in Catholic mass about once a month and attended an Episcopal service once a week in elementary school (K-8), so I do not know everything about what was happening or some if it was changed due to age, mostly in elementary school.

Overall, the three denominations have a very similar structure to their services and their beliefs, as they are all Christian. Focusing more on the worship service aspect of each denomination, I think that Catholics and Episcopalians have more in common than either with Methodists. I think that both Catholics and Episcopalians recite very similar responses during the services, especially during the sacrament of communion. Both of these denominations, or at least in the schools where I was, the sacrament of communion was practiced during every service, whereas at my own church, communion is only practiced once a month. This difference could be only between the different Churches and not the denominations themselves, but I still thought it was interesting. In all three denominations the Our Father is recited every time we gather. The Our Father is a common thing among all Christians, as we also saw Middle Eastern Christians reciting it today. Catholics and Episcopals recite the Our Father the same way but in the Methodist Church, it is said differently. The Protestant Churches and the Catholic Church say the Our Father differently and this confused me as a young kid. (I would always mix them up but you can read about why they are different here). 

I know that I have made it seem like Catholics and Episcopalians are the same but they are not. One difference is that in the Episcopalian church female priests are allowed, and they may marry and have children. In this sense, the Episcopalian church is similar to the Methodist church. I will not go into further detail about this now, as I know this is a long blog post, but I did want to mention that I did have nuns as teachers in elementary school and they were all very nice and did not fit the stereotypical nun image. But they were Episcopalian nuns and not Catholic nuns so that may have played a part.

In class today we were looking at the videos on youtube of the singers, and I believe the first one we looked at had around 30 million views! One of the next ones we looked had around 2 million views, but Dr. McGrath pointed out that the video was labeled incorrectly! The title made the person looking at it think that it was a video with the Lord’s Prayer, but if you watch the video it doesn’t have the Lord’s Prayer! But when you actually go to another video that is about the Lord’s Prayer the video has significantly less views.

This connects with a lot of aspects with our lives today! From news articles, TV shows, and youtube videos, there is clickbait everywhere! Content creators are constantly trying to catch peoples attention so that they can get more views, or more clicks. The idea of making things seem more flashy and interesting is like walking a tightrope. You need to make your article or video sound interesting, but not too crazy so people will actually want to read it. The biggest issue I could see are news paper articles. I’m sure you guys have all seen a youtube video or news article with a crazy title, something that seemed so crazy but you just had to click on it to see.

One group that is suffering from clickbait in the media are Islamic people, and anyone or anything from the Middle East. The media will take things out of context to make specific groups of people look or seem worse than they are, which helps them to get more clicks. Rather than embellishing the story to try and gain popularity, the news outlets should focus on just telling the people what they want to hear, the truth.

In the process of doing this reading I was really struck bu Sura 4, about women. My own perception of women in Islam before reading this was very limited, just coming from media stories and the like. I thought that women were very restricted in their roles, and that this role came from Islam. But in reading Sura 4, I realized that Islam actually teaches that women should be more equal to men than I thought that it would. It says, “Men have a share in what the parents and relatives leave behind at death; and women have share in what the parents and relatives leave behind” (74). This is only one example from this chapter, but I think that it shows the kinds of equality that this Sura talks about. While, granted, there are some aspects that are harder to swallow than others, I think that it really shows that one should not build one’s perception of the treatment of a specific population of people in a particular culture just based on hearsay or media coverage. I found this to be very educational and helpful to me in my own perception of Islam.

Last night I attended the religion seminar “The Most Merciful: Muslim Work with Ex-Offenders” and it was one of the most interesting seminars I have been to. The four presenting panelists were able to share stories, opinions, and a lot of wisdom on topics that I have never been exposed to or even considered. At first, Dr. Harriet Lewis from the IMAN institute explained the difference that language can make. At the IMAN institute, the term ex-offender is typically replaced with “formerly incarcerated returning citizens” and even that change in language creates a different environment and view for those formerly incarcerated citizens.  Dr. Lewis set the scene describing the drastic differences among communities in Chicago. There is a 20-year gap in life expectancy between citizens of the north side of Chicago and citizens of the south side of Chicago simply due to the lack of access to resources that provide a healthy environment. A quote that stood out to me the most was “people say that we provide a second chance – we don’t – we provide the first chance that people were never given”. I think that as a society we tend to forget that there are people who haven’t even gotten a “first chance” and we tend to blame a person for their wrongdoing but we fail to approach and solve the issue of the environment that ultimately leads to this. Mr. Blackwell was the second speaker and he was the most enlightening and intriguing person to listen to simply because of his story.  Mr. Blackwell mostly opened my eyes to the fact that his faith was what changed his life and allowed him to reform during his time in prison. He mentioned that practicing Islam in prison is extremely difficult due to the prejudice against Muslims. It is outrageous that the bias of people can keep someone from growing in their faith especially while being incarcerated. So many opportunities for reflection, peace of mind, and growth are taken away. Overall, I think that this BCR was very eye-opening and has really sparked my interest for the rest of the semester!

The Pen, was one of the Suras assigned that stood out to me more so than others. Number  7 states :”Verily your Lord knows those who have gone astray from His path, and He knows those who are guided on the way.” In my opinion this made me think of some words that Christians and Catholics say when it comes to faith. For example, whenever someone is in a struggle or having a hard time in life, many people will give the advice along the lines of “he has a plan for you.” As well as, many people will say “don’t lose faith,” meaning to not give up, think things through, and even ask for some guidance to overcome the barrier going on in your life. I remember when I was a child, I lost a toy somewhere and I was devastated (like any other child who would be), however, my mom said pray and ask for help. Not only did it calm me down but made me clear my mind and I was able to remember where I last had it. Even though, that sounds so simple I think even the simple things can be barriers throughout life, but theres a plan for everyone. No one can predict their life or plan it themselves. For example, at age 16 someone can’t say they will be getting married in the year 2024. Yes, they can say it but they don’t know that, they could get married well after or even before then. Moreover, those who do not give up their faith, keep patience, accept guidance, and uphold their faith, won’t astray from his path he has for you. This article  relates to what I have felt while reading the Qur’an. Also it goes more into what was discussed in class on how the Bible and Qur’an are different but can both give faith.

In class, we had a discussion about the Qur’an and how it is similar to or different from the Bible. I think it can be argued either way, because there are definitely some similarities and differences. Of course, the Qur’an uses mostly Arabic names in some cases, such as Allah for God, Yusef for Joseph, and so on. In other cases, such as Noah, the name is the same in both. This may also have to do with how “Americanized” the Qur’an we are reading is compared to other versions or copies, but overall the concepts seem to be the same. Like the Bible, the Qur’an has many stories. I know that obviously we did not read the entire thing, but from previous experience I do know that there are a number of stories and portions of the Qur’an in general that are very similar, if not the same, as the stories found in the Bible.

Another thing that we talked about in the class was the concept of God. I know that a common misconception about Islam is that Muslims do not believe in the same God as Jews or Christians do. While I have never taken a class that is specifically on Islam, I have learned in numerous classes that Allah is simply just the Arabic name for God, and that even Arabic speaking Christians and Jews use the word Allah. It is the same as how God in German is Gott, or how it might be different in other languages (I would have to look this up though to find specific words used, as German is the only language that I speak, aside from English). Sometimes I wish this was more known, because I have noticed that the whole concept of no god but God (shoutout to Aslan) is a reason why the Abrahamic religions seem to clash, simply because some of these people do not do their research before making their arguments. I know there are a lot of other factors that play into religious controversy and disagreement, but I think making this more known could potentially help some of the disagreement. I hope.

On October 29, state run Newspaper China Daily reported that eating, drinking, standing on seats, playing music on speakers, lying down, and other “uncivilized behaviors” will be banned nationwide starting in April 2020. This represents the first time that legislation has been passed which affects the entire country’s subway system, previously legislation was passed in each city/region as to what the laws were of that portion of subway.

Similar laws have already been in place in regions like Beijing, where since 2015 it was illegal to eat or drink on the subway. With a fine of about $70 as consequence. China’s Ministry of Transport approved the nationwide legislation, stating “Providing safe and convenient travel services for passengers is always the fundamental starting point and the foothold of urban subway transit.” Although strict, the legislation does have food and drink exceptions for babies, small children, and people with medical conditions.

From my own personal experience taking the NYC subway to work everyday, sometimes I wish that laws like this were in place. In general subways are unsanitary, which makes me question why you would want to eat food on a train in the first place. However, I do believe that people should have the right to eat or drink on the subway if they’re not harming anyone else (spilling a full meal on the floor, consuming alcohol). Public locations such as a subway system should be as welcoming and problem free for everyone, albeit banning the consumption of liquids and snacks is too far. I believe that if people were brought up and learned how to act responsibly that laws like this would never be passed in the first place, taking some of the little freedom that Chinese citizens enjoy away from them. Nobody should be allowed to stand on seats or act in an “uncivilized manor”, but banning people from drinking a water bottle or eating a granola bar infringes upon the individual freedom that we all should have.

 

Source: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/china-subway-eating-ban-intl-hk/index.html

After class today, I began thinking of the similarities and differences between Christianity and Islam. We talked in class about some of the similarities and differences between the Qur’an and the Bible but we did not discuss the religions in general. Both the Qur’an and the Bible have similar people in them such as Abraham, Noah, Jesus, Mary, Moses, Adam and Eve. I also noticed that the format of both of the books were similar. Each Surah is similar to the different chapters of the books of the Bible and the Surahs had different numbers within them, similar to the different verses in the Bible. In class, we discussed how this format is similar to how poetry is read. I had never thought of the format of the Bible as being similar to poetry and with the line numbers, but now that it was mentioned, it makes sense to me. There were also some differences between the two books mentioned in class. One of the main differences that were mentioned that I also noticed, was that the Qur’an seemed to be “random” when reading it. While reading the assigned Surahs I had attributed it to the fact that we were not reading the Surahs in order, but I did then read the second Surah and noticed that it did not necessarily follow the first. To some, reading the Bible, I know that it may seem out of order or random, but Genesis 1:1 begins with the creation story, which is basically the beginning of everything that follows for both Christianity and Judaism. This website also talks about some of the main differences between Islam and Christianity. I found this website interesting as it shows the differences in a chart. I appreciate this as I feel I am more of a visual learner and it is a fairly simple list, but covers many different topics.