Is this offensive

Greetings Students,

Interesting discussion on comedy and religion.  What do you think about this clip.  Which stereotypes/jokes do you note?  Are any (or all) inappropriate?

Bomb at the Marriott; Politics, not religion

One thing I’ve always had trouble with in regards to people’s views of terrorism is that now more than ever people seem almost instinctively prone to correlate such acts with religion.  However, more often than not, such acts are indicative of being aimed at influencing certain political situations.  Islam, a religion with more than one billion followers, surely, does not espouse terrorism. Think about it.

Today, in Islamabad, Pakistan, a truck filled with explosives set off a large blast outside the Marriott Hotel.  The explosion created a 10 meter deep crater and caused buildings up to a few kilometers away to have their windows shatter and their walls shake.  Such an act though, was not a matter of religious dissent, but rather, a message for the Pakistan government.  In the previous weeks, the US had secretly made several incursions into Pakistan airspace, bombing regions along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and the Waziristan area in which several civilians were killed.  This bombing at the Marriott, was a response to the actions of the Pakistan government, warning them to end its alliance with the US, a country that has ignored the sovereignty of Pakistan.

Although a given number of media sources may cite the group behind this act and even similar ones as Islamic extremists, it is blatantly clear that Islam does not condone such acts of ignorance and the killing of civilians. It is common knowledge amongst Muslims that the harming of women, children, or any other civilian is against the teachings of Islam. Therefore, though these groups may be Muslim by name, their  actions in such related manners are indisputably un-Islamic.

I wish I had a time machine. . .

Random, I know. But all of this talk about the life of Muhummad and everything we are reading about in this course is so fascinating to me that I wish I was there to see and experience it! I’ve often felt that I wish I could go back in time and learn about life in ancient civilizations; and to see what the world was like (specifically in the middle east) around 570 c.e. would be incredible. The oppression of the era was incredibly unjust, and I feel sorry for Muslims that were punished for their beliefs and forbidden to follow Muhummad’s teachings. Although many Muslims endured harsh treatment because of their beliefs, I would love to have witnessed their perseverance as they continued to worship Allah and follow Muhummad. Faith that great must have been a miracle to see.

Corrections

Since we have begun our study on the Prophet I have learned quite a bit that has forced me to unlearn some of what I knew. I don’t know why, but I had some previous knowledge from somewhere that allowed me to create this sort of mythical prophet. I have enjoyed the study thusfar, and am pleased to be able to understand the Prophet that Muslims have such reverence for, while at the same time shedding my previous ideas about what he was like. I really think that this new understanding of the Prophet will help me to better talk to and witness to those in the Islamic faith tradition.

War on Terrorism/Iraqi War

This past week in my Middle East Politics class, we were talking about the true reasons for going to war in Iraq and determining what exactly the war on terrorism was. We concluded that there might not have been an undisputed reason for going to war with Iraq. The United States went to war with the belief that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. When analyzing past wars, however, the US had never done anything of the sort. Furthermore, why would the US send its troops into a place where it was certain that if there were WMDs, they would die? It is illogical. We had to have known that Iraq did not possess WMDs; otherwise, it would have been a suicide mission. I had not considered this idea before and the class asked why it had not been made public while the war was a debate. The professor stated that scholars exclaimed this factor to the government but no one listened. I find it disturbing that almost all of America was under the assumption that we want to war to fight terrorism, to remove wmds, or for the oil.

We also talked about how the war in Iraq could not have been related to the war on terrorism because Saddam was suspicious and distrusting of al-Qaeda and vice-versa. Furthermore, Saddam had wanted to help catch them but they were out of his boundaries. It is disheartening to realize how the American public was lied to for a war that makes no sense whatsoever.

So, does it all then go back to the “clash of civilizations’” and that the West is destined to fight the Islamic world? Are there any justified reasons?