Blog Post #2

Posted by: rooster30 on: January 31, 2012

In: Uncategorized
Comment!

I don’t think I enjoyed the movie “My Name is Khan” as much as most of the rest of the class. I understand the attempt of the movie to highlight racism by showing stereotypes in the extreme – for example, once the extreme caricature of blacks in America is exposed the viewer will also think about the stereotypes of Muslim Americans. However, I don’t know that this approach is really that effective. Few people view themselves as being racist and will see these extreme stereotypes as confirmation that they don’t have that opinion rather than questioning their own views. In reality, the prevalence of racism is usually subtle – so subtle that the individual doesn’t even recognize in his or her self.

One interesting aspect of the book Hadith that I have enjoyed is where it mentions that the hadith is like a game of telephone – that a particular quote changes over time. The author referred to this as the narration of the hadith. I appreciate this acknowledgment as it cautions against the simple literal interpretation of a quote. I find it extremely irritating whenever a particular religious leader or faction (happens in all religions) claims to be the person/group that has the “true” meaning based up a literal interpretation of a religious text.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/01/singling-out-islam-newt-gingrichs-pandering-attacks/252300/ This article that I read earlier today reminded me of two things. First, I am still shocked that the main argument against the mosque being built near “ground-zero” came from those who generally think the government should stay out of religion (i.e. religions should be able to worship were they choose). Second, the article shows that what is usually at play is really only the pandering of people by playing into their fears of Muslims. Either they are pandering or their argument is completely illogical.

Ilovegoodreads, I agree with some of your statements about Muslim women who wear the hijab, but I wouldn’t say that the women always wear it completely by choice. All of us are raised in an environment that shapes who we are – after all that is why most of us have the religion that we have. The choice to not wear a hijab in some Islamic countries may result in violence against them. However, even in the U.S., for Muslim women to chose not to wear a hijab may not result in violence, but it may result in being shunned by family and/or friends. It is difficult to go against tradition.