The Cow

I was reading the first sura in the Qur’an and I got to the part that told the story of Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit. I found it interesting that it said “Satan made THEM slip”. I don’t know if I remember correctly, but in the Bible it seems to focus more on the fact that Eve ate the fruit and then convinced Adam to do the same, making Eve look like the guilty one, but here the Qur’an doesn’t put the blame on either one more than the other. Maybe that’s just because it’s a super condensed summary of the story?? Or maybe it supports the Islamic idea that nobody is superior to anybody?  I just found that interesting..

Warning Baby Tossing…WTF?

so, i was stumbling around the interweb and found this video, WARNING not for the faint of heart, nothing crazy, but a little sweat inducing:

http://current.com/items/88929480_baby_tossing

supposedly in the village of Solapur in India, Muslim and Hindu parents throw their new born babies off of a 50 foot tower…to bring good health to their babies…well, of course they land on a sheet of cloth, but the method seems very…how should i say…imperfect. the children are usually between 9 and 11 months old and sometimes even younger. well, at least it “makes their children stronger” because im sure i’d need all the strength i could get after being hurled from a 50 foot tower. amazingly, this tradition has been going on for 500 years and locals say that there have been NO reports of physical disabilities.

Another Response to “Sept 11 / Muslims”

Lets, for example, take evangelicals here in America. How does everyone think other people in other parts of the world and of different religious backgrounds take this ‘religion’? I could almost promise that most of the people will find them a bit out of whack. Is this the way anyone would want outsiders seeing the American christian community? I’m not a religious person, but I can’t imagine this being flattering. 

Generalizing things about Muslims and the terrorists of 9/11 is like saying the participants in Jesus Camp are a great portrait for what religious Americans stand for. If you haven’t seen this documentary, it is about a group of kids that go to a religious camp where they worship a George W. Bush cardboard cutout and speak in tongues every day. 

Muslim influence has been on the rise in the US since the events of September 11th, it’s just too bad that this was the first big vision that we had of this particular culture and religion.

Second response to “September 11th from an open mind”

First, are you saying that is your perspective? That we should hate all Muslims because of September 11th? Either way, I think that is a completely idiotic statement. Just because a few people that claim to follow Islam (I don’t even think they should be considered Muslim, they certainly don’t follow the basic principles of Islam that we have talked about) doesn’t mean we should generalize our anger or hatred. What if Christians or Jews committed the attacks? Should we hate every Christian or Jew? No. And, I agree with brezne, you can’t compare a country with a religion. I can see where you made the comparison, though. We generally associate Arabs with Islam because of the media. But, as we learned the first day of class, there are many nationalities associated with Islam. We cannot judge a person’s religion or ideals off of their looks. This is another generalization we use. We generalize our hate from the individuals who committed the attacks to their “religion” to the others who look like them. People need to stop being so ignorant. Haven’t we always been told not to judge a book by its cover?

Response to September 11th from an open mind

There are three things wrong with that comparison.  The first thing is North Korea is a country, whereas Islam is a religion.  There are millions of Muslims all over the world.  North Korea is only a small country.  You are stereotyping Muslims as being only Arabian, whereas a matter of fact there are just as many Muslims in Indonesia, Africa, and Europe.  The second thing wrong with your comparison is you’re saying that all Muslims are terrorists, where September 11th was the doing of a few men who dislike the United States.  No where in the Koran does it say to go out and kill thousands of people because you disagree with what they are doing.  Islam is not what you should hate, rather you should hate that small group of people who call themselves Muslims but are really not.  The third thing wrong with this comparison is that people from that part of the world all look the same anyways (not trying to offend anybody).  How could you tell the difference from a person from North Korea and South Korea? Or a person from Vietnam?  It is nearly impossible to tell where they are from unless they tell you themselves.  Therefore, you couldn’t possibly hate them or else you would be hating a lot more people than you expected.

September 11th from an open mind

From a realist perspective, we should hate Islam right now because Muslims were perportraytors of September 11th and they should be looked upon with a suspicious eye. 

Close your eyes for a moment…… and imagine that North Koreans were the perpotraytors of September 11th… in order to protest the monopoly of chemical and biological weapons of the west…in other words…they wanted to protest the fact that they are being scrutanized for obtaining such weapons whereas others are not for doing the same thing.

…….If you think about this for a moment…….. how do you feel about the North Koreans? (I am doing this along with you because I am trying to put myself in their shoes)….

……imagine that all the facts are the same and think about it with the knowledge we have of the event today (with the exception of N. Koreans being substituted)..

Do you think that the treatment of the N. Koreans would be the same as it is of Muslims today? Why or Why not?

Response to Muhammad in other countries?

I actually just found out that Lupe wasn’t Muslim, I thought for the longest time he was. As far as Muhammad I’m not sure if it’s common for a non-Muslim to be named that but I do know that my friends dad’s name is Muhammad and he is not Muslim, he is Christian and from Turkey. Also I just found out that a football player by the name of Aqib Talib is not Muslim, I thought he was but his mom just thought the name was pretty. I read it means the last to come.

Response to “Getting to the violence”

I disagree with the framing of this point, that we’re getting to the violent aspects of Islam.  Read the first five books of the Bible and you’ll see such violence that it will shock you completely.  And, then get into the epistles in the New Testament, and you’ll see things that you can’t believe.  I still think that the “violent” aspects of Islam don’t compare at all to the violent aspects of Judaism and Christianity.  It was neat for me that the fighting in Muhammad’s life all seemed to make complete sense.  I don’t think that was expected.  I was expecting Muhammad to plow through Mecca at the end and kill and mutilate anybody, but when he declared that amnesty thing, it hit me that it made sense.  It was consistent with everything we covered until then.  

I still don’t think it’s fair to compare Muhammad with Jesus.  Jesus taught to turn the other cheek just like Muhammad did, but Jesus was killed in the process.  If Muhammad was only three years into his mission and was killed, then the two guys are identical.  Muhammad was actually more peaceful in those years because Jesus went after the money changers.  I don’t think there was anything like that in the first years of Muhammad’s mission.  Still, I don’t think it’s fair to compare the two.  I’m just throwing this out there as some thoughts.

I looked for a long time for a religion or ideology that had no violence.  No religion I came across is without violence, regardless of what it’s followers would say.  And, no secular ideology is without violence.  I even though wicca was without violence, but they’re dead silent on the wars and exploitations taking place.  Some secular ideologies are nice and peaceful, yet have no problems living in societies that are ultra violent.  That doesn’t make any sense.   So, a Christian can honestly practice “turn the other cheek” but if they’re living in American right now, which is obliterating people all over and is sucking away everyone’s resources, then that’s not being honest.  For whatever it’s worth this is the first time I’ve come across something where everything made sense.