Islam students at LUC

Last weeks discussion was very interesting. After reflecting on some of the points I had questions about some aspects. One area was the difference between prayers of the heart and prayers of the tongue – the example of praying to not be late for work was used. One issue I have with this distinction is [...]

I came across an interesting article about the anti-adoption traditions in the Muslim world. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/31/anti-adoption-traditions-in-the-muslim-world-benefit-al-qaeda-recruiters.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thedailybeast%2Farticles+%28The+Daily+Beast+-+Latest+Articles%29. It appears that this position has lead to orphans becoming a major source of recruitment for terrorist groups like Al Qaeda. Apparently they are successfully recruiting these orphans to be suicide bombers. The reasons behind the traditional ban on adoption [...]

I discovered this (http://inthesetimes.com/article/12862/the_never_ending_crusade) article that discusses the persistence of Islamophobia despite the fact that no Americans were killed on U.S. Soil by Islamic extremists in 2011 and there has been a steady decline in domestic terror plots connected to Muslims. I would suspect that much of this is due to the fact that the [...]

Yesterday I came across an interesting article in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/26/world/asia/pakistani-hindus-say-womans-conversion-to-islam-was-coerced.html?scp=3&sq=islam&st=cse There appears to be rising tensions in Pakistan between Hindus and Muslims. It is all centered around a case of a Hindu women who recently and quickly converted to Islam. The woman’s family claim that she was abducted and forced to convert [...]

Last class we watched most The Interrupters. It amazes me how there persists a culture of retaliation in segments of society. Violence is perpetuated because there is the belief that it is necessary in order to retain honor. The result is a cycle of violence without anyone really remembering how the fighting began. I remember [...]

There was no class last week. I would like to say that I enjoyed the break from classes, but spring break wasn’t much of a break for me. Mainly it was just a week of work and an attempt to get ahead of some of my school work. Overall I liked the reading “Living Islam [...]

In the first part of last class we finished the movie Mooz-lum. There were things I didn’t care for in the movie such as the over-the-top acting and a screenplay that was lame at times. While I was glad to see that the father was eventually able to recognize how his strictness hurt his son, [...]

I have to admit that I am pretty surprised that so few of our classmates believed in evolution and the big bang theory. Likewise, I am surprised that so many believed that Adam was the actual first human on Earth. That being said, it was an interesting discussion and I could debate topics like those [...]

Last class we continued with the biography of Muhammad. Mostly this entailed the various wars and conflicts with the Quraysh. From there we continued with debates regarding “what is your price” and “would you resist?” In general, my answer to both of those questions is “it depends.” That might be do to my nature of [...]

In the first half of class we continued discussing the life and journey of Muhammad. In particular we focused on his growing power and the ongoing conflict with the Quraysh. This marginalization changed completely after Muhammad and his followers decided to move to Yathrib – before moving he was regarded as a cult leader, but [...]