GHS208-05 Fall 2019 China and the Islamic Middle East

Is Islam more like Christianity or more like Daoism in the sense of important people? We thought Islam was more like Christianity because Muhammad is an important person who started Islam. He is seen as God’s messenger. Islam still holds Allah, Muhammad, Jesus, Abraham as important figures in their religion. Muhammad was an orphan and saw the religion-economic system. He becomes respected and is a leader in the community. I think that allowed his thoughts and message to be more accepted of his time. He is not an equivalent to Jesus though. In the view of Islam, the message that Muhammad wrote down is more important. Muslims are descended from Abraham and Hagar through their son Ishmael. The characters in Islam are the same as Christianity and Judaism, but the stories are different.

I am very excited to begin this unit. I believe that the Middle East is one of the least understood areas of our world. There are so many stereotypes that lie over the Middle East and the cultures that thrive there that we are unable to really see a lot of the cultural beauty that exists there. I was excited to being reading The Cairo House as this is a book I have been wanting to read fully and in more depth. It was a book that I read in high school, but we only focused on short sections and ideas. Right away, it was very interesting to read about the description of chameleons Serageldin gives us, showing the different faces all individuals put on when they are faced with different countries, cultures, and norms. It was also interesting seeing a glimpse of the tradition of The Feast of the Sacrifice and how the more westernized character Gigi attempts to see the slaughter of the sheep on her own. This leads to a comical mishap on her end. I am excited to continue to read this novel, as well as No god but God, and am excited to expand my knowledge on this region of the world.

Along with our GHS course, I am also in another GHS which studies the Middle East and North Africa, which I saw another classmate has also taken. For my other course, I attended a performance tonight by Omar Offendum. Omar is a Syrian/American rapper, poet, and lyricist who sings and talks about current and past events that affected him and his family as they emigrated to the United States. He speaks fluent Arabic and sang a few songs in the language and it was very interesting to listen to and then hear him talk about a variety of events that connect with our studies of the Islamic Middle East. His mother was from the city of Damascus which he made a song about and in another he talked about some of the hardships the Syrian nation has been undergoing the past 20 years. He was a fascinating individual and was extremely moving with his work. I will post a link to one of his music videos here where you can see a glimpse of some of the events (specifically in Syria) so you guys can check it out!

I am excited to learn about Islam and the Middle East because in all honesty, it is a religion and region of the world that I don’t know very much about. So far, the readings have been interesting, and I already know more than I ever have based on the little we’ve done with the unit thus far. To begin, in the prologue of No god but God, the author explained how the prejudices, misconceptions, and hostility between the West and the Middle East wasn’t necessarily rooted in cultural differences as many may believe, but rather in religion differences. He phrased this as a “clash of monotheisms” (Aslan xxi). But, as comparisons between Christianity and Islam can reveal, the two religions have similar beliefs from similar histories and mythologies. So, it seems surprising that so much violence and fear can be formed against a people that are seemingly so closely related through religion. But the book also brought up the important idea that monotheisms breed absolutism when a passion is present, which is why history is repeating itself today. The Cairo House also had an interesting prologue about how humans can act as chameleons. She explained how the change can occur at an airport whether it be an international or domestic flight. The change can even occur from person to person in one’s life depending on what the relationship between them consists of. I think this is something than all humans participate in regardless of culture or background and I know that I do this all the time.

I am really excited to read The Cairo House in this class, because one of my friends read it a while back, and recommended it to me. Of course, since it was a recent recommendation, it was at the bottom of my seemingly never-ending list of books I would like to read. It is a good thing we have to read it for class, because that bumped it to the top of the list. So far, I really like it.

I really relate to the part when Gigi sneaks out to watch the lamb sacrifice and ends up getting freaked out, slipping in blood, and being knocked unconscious. It totally sounds like something I would do out of curiosity and then end up seriously screwing up and getting caught. I hope that I can continue to relate to Gigi throughout the rest of the book, because I love it when I am reading and can relate to a character, particularly the main character.

Overall, I am also just excited for this unit in general. As I might have mentioned before, I am in the Religion and Incarceration seminar, and tonight we actually had our meeting and discussion that relates to the topic of Islam in prisons and serves as a preview to the speakers that we will hear from next Tuesday. I like it when two of my classes happen to relate to one another, because then I can apply what I learned in one to the other, and things become so much more clear when there are a few topics that I basically learn twice.

In some of the readings it is touched on how it can be hard to define the exact borders of the “Middle East”. In my last GHS course which covered North Africa and the Middle East we discussed the idea of “nation states” and how they came to be. I learned that the current borders of countries typically considered in the Middle East were drawn up by European nations mainly France and Great Britain. With that being established it’s hard to even legitimize what is considered the Middle East because it goes deeper than borders it’s more culturally based.

It is a geological fact that the Middle East lays in the continent of Asia. Typically, the Middle East is regarded as the east of Istanbul in Turkey, all the way to the southern parts of Yemen and Oman and stretching out all the way to Pakistan. But this is where it can get complicated because there are countries that you could say are culturally in the Middle East but not part of Asia. A good example of this would be the country of Egypt, it’s located in North Africa but is a predominantly Muslim nation and is much more in line with middle eastern values. I would say that in general the North African region fits more into the culture of the Middle East than that of Africa.

Overall, this region can be hard to define because of the culture overdoing the borders, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a prominent region the Middle East has been making headlines good or bad for quite some time.

In the readings and the class discussion we touched upon the difficulty of identifying the or  distinguishing what is considered the Islamic Middle East. There are many factors that seem to make this difficult, historical context, cultural context, and political context.

When looking at the historical view of what the Islamic Middle East is I think this is the most easily defined as the boundaries would consist of land east of the Red Sea and the Bosporus Strait, anything west of the Hindu Kush Mountains and anything south of the Caucasus Mountains I think when we look at the historical concept of the Middle East it is more geographically defined.

When I look at the cultural context of the Islamic Middle East though the area gets much larger, this is in part due to the conquests of the Arabian Empire, the influence of the Moors in North Africa and the expansion of the Persian Empire throughout the region. The area of land influenced culturally by the early Arab or Islamic empires stretches a vast area encompassing a far larger population than the more sparsely populated regions of the Geographic Middle East. I think culturally this is what the rest of the world would consider the Islamic or Arab region due to language, cultural and religious similarities.

However, what the world seems to understand or focus on as the Islamic Middle East in modern times is purely based upon modern politics (Post WWII to present). The borders of the region were drawn after WWII and many nations gained independence in the years to follow. Many of the regions conflicts can be attributed to the unnatural borders that were drawn by the French and British. Religious sects split between nations (Sunni, Shia Christian, Jewish), Ethnic groups left with no borders (Kurds, Palestinians, Assyrians) and a western military presence in the region that may have influenced the worlds geographical understanding of where the Middle East begins and ends.

Some would argue that Iran and anything west is Persia not the Middle East but the political and military involvement in the area has weakened the cultural and language divide of the region and focused on the similarity in religious beliefs.

It is not an easy topic to understand and and the debate on where the regions land actually belongs on a map is kind of telling of the constant conflict we have seen in the region for a long time.

I like the first fact on the list: Islam in Arabic means “peace,” “security,” and “surrender.” I liked reading through these facts because I felt like I learned more about a religion and culture.

Read more: https://www.seriousfacts.com/islam-facts/#ixzz635pTFRbu

On the topic of breakfast, I was thinking what would a typical breakfast meal look like in China? This led me on another search to find more breakfast foods! If you read my last post, you already know what a normal breakfast for me! But think of your normal breakfast and compare it to the foods I found here! One thing that is really cool about this website is that they give you recipes to try and make these specific dishes! Although most of the foods that are int his article would be more of a lunch or dinner food for us here, I have recently been on a homemade kick! I really enjoy making something from scratch and sharing it with others! I am a huge fan of noodles, and I could definitely see myself trying noodles for breakfast!!

After this class every morning I go back to my apartment and make breakfast, which got me thinking about what a typical breakfast would be like if we were in the middle east. Thinking about a typical on the go breakfast for me would be an apple and a cheese stick, maybe if I have more time I can have bacon and eggs! To me that seems like a pretty basic breakfast for the U.S.! After doing some research I discovered that breakfast is very different in Islam and the middle east!

Some common breakfast foods in the middle east are fool, falafel, hummus, pita bread, kaek, and tea! I had no clue what most of these were, but once I kept reading I was pretty surprised! Fool is similar to hummus, they are in the same food family! Fool is the Arabic word for fava beans. Falafel is a dish made from spiced mashed chickpeas that are formed into balls and then deep fried, they are usually eaten with pita bread! Hummus and pita bread are something that we are pretty familiar with here in the west, but I have never thought of that combo as a breakfast food! Kaek is a sesame topped bread, they are bought and sold in carts on the street, the bread is often made into sandwiches with cheese, falafel, or oven baked eggs! Lastly tea, they will usually have tea with fresh mint or dried sage with their breakfast!
looking at the differences between our more western breakfast and the breakfast foods from the middle east there are a lot of differences! The culture in places in the middle east tends to be a large breakfast that is very savory, whereas here in the U.S. some people don’t even eat breakfast! But here we have many more sweet options for breakfast dished such as pancakes and waffles!

here is the website where I got my info from!! There are some pretty good pictures on the website!