Post 1

Posted by: thethingstheycarried728 on: January 23, 2012

In: Uncategorized
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When we watched “My Name is Khan” in class, I found the Asperger’s Syndrome subplot to be extremely intriguing. I think that making sense of 9/11 was confusing enough for people who understand social cues and norms, so it was interesting to watch Khan try to process what happened and the implications of it, including Sam’s death. I am curious how the movie will end, and if the ending will be realistic. From what I’ve read on this blog, however, it sounds like it will be more ridiculous than anything.

I enjoyed reading “One God, Many Names.” When I studied Judaica, I remember spending hours going over semantics and linguistics with my tutor, so I found it interesting that this article applied some of the same analysis. I never thought of using those techniques cross culturally, as this article did with Arabic, Hebrew, English, and even the languages of Native Americans.

Today, when I went to the New York Times’ Opinion section on their web page, the first article I saw was, “How to Integrate Europe’s Muscles.” The article described some of the laws and policies that European countries have regarding Islam and Muslims. I found some of them surprising, including that Dutch Parliament contemplated outlawing Islamic animal slaughter. As someone who follows certain religious dietary rules, I can’t imagine what I would do if the food that I eat was outlawed.

In response to snowmakesmehappy, I thought that the comments made about “All -American Muslim” were insightful. It seems like even in attempts to show “diverse” and “different” groups, American television must still narrow what it shows. At the same time, it seems as though the controversy surrounding the show is less about the fact that people want it shut down, but more about the reasons advertisers pulled out. I briefly skimmed a few articles online, and from what I gathered, most advertisers pulled out of the show because they thought it was bad TV, but were then accused of “Islamophobia,” causing even more controversy.