Author: nmsimpso

Link to news article: https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/MAGAZINE-muslim-women-find-leadership-roles-in-a-male-dominated-world-1.10450500 I recently read this news article concerning a Muslim women in a position of leadership and power and the backlash it has caused. The woman, Kholoud al-Faqeeh, was appointed as a judge in an Islamic religious court. Al-Faqeeh noticed a women saw she was the judge and walked out of… Continue reading Islamic News: Muslim Women in Leadership

For one of my honors classes sophomores, we had to watch “Kingdom of Heaven”. I remembered this movie involved Islam and themes relating to this class so I decided to rewatch it, now knowing more information about Islam than I did before. This movie is during the time period of the Crusades. The crusades lasted… Continue reading Islamic Movie

Over Thanksgiving Break I watched the Chinese film “Hero” with my family. I thought the movie was beautifully filmed and the fight scene choreography was so cool. One specific aspect of this film I saw that directly related to something we’ve recently talked about in class is chinese calligraphy. Broken Sword and Snow have taken… Continue reading Hero Movie

When I was doing research for the final project, I came across some interesting facts that didn’t make it on our website but that I wanted to address. For China, we found that “In 1983 alone, a year with about 21 million births in China, 14.4 million abortions, 20.7 million (predominantly female) sterilizations, and 17.8… Continue reading Reproductive health in Islamic countries and China

Sufism in general means the inner mystical dimension of Islam. Since it is so widespread it’s practices are extremely diverse, depending on what region it is in. Before orthodox Islam was established, mystics were the original Muslims and friends of Muhammad. Sufis believe that “the universe, with all of its seemingly complex entities, forms a… Continue reading Sufism

The Hajj is the great Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. Only a Muslim can enter and attend it. This journey is very personal, taken along many people. There is an agreement of peace among everyone partaking, to not harm plants nor animals nor eachother. First the pilgrims recite verses showing their readiness to serve God. People… Continue reading The Hajj with Michael Wolfe Documentary

In this reading, Medina was the new name for the previously called Yathrib. During the Hijra (aka the migration from Mecca to Yathrib), Muhammad came and so the people renamed it “The City of the Prophet” aka Medina. This may be of myth, but the Muslim community was born there, and inspired various Islamic movements in… Continue reading Medina from Aslan reading

In this Sura it talks about God being all knowing, all powerful and holding dominion over the Heavens and Earth. It sites God creating all things in 6 days, as is the same in the Bible. They describe Him as being merciful and kind. It mentions disbelievers of God being companions of Hell-Fire and believers… Continue reading Sura/ Bible Comparison

Previous to this reading, I knew little about how Muhammad came to be the religious prophet. I now know that it was around 610 when he first began to get revelations from God via the archangel Gabriel. I had previously thought of these messages as merely dreams, but in the reading it said they were… Continue reading Muhammad Religious Origin

Both the readings for class were about unfair policing and judgement. In the first story, a police officer spilled soup on a man and his brides feet and then arrested the man for becoming upset about the encounter. They kept him unfairly in jail for two days. When the man’s lawyer came to get him,… Continue reading Ha Jin Readings 10/5