Daily Check In 3/11/15

1. I have completed 9 out of the 9 objectives.
2. Today I revised my answer to Paper 2.
3. I put in a 5 for effort today since I already had most of the paper done. Today I completely finished all of the objectives.

1.3-Paper 2

To what extent do rules on dress reflect or inform communal identity?

                In Islam, there are many rules on dress that most Muslims believe are important to enter Jannah on Judgment Day. These dress rules embrace being dignified, but also being fully modest. The modesty of this dress includes being completely covered, having loose clothing, and having clothes that are not see-through. Although every Muslim has different beliefs when it comes to dress, the majority choose to follow these specific rules as they believe it is following what Allah wants.

                The guiding principle for the conduct of a Muslim is “Al ‘Amal Assalih”. This is what the Qur’an refers to as righteous actions. This term covers all actions, including more than just the noticeable acts of worship. These rules on dress tend to reflect what Muslims believe and also reflect their moral values to a respectively high extent. Although a lot of Muslims choose to follow these rules, those who choose not to are not any less faithful to Allah, as some may assume, and it is every person’s own decision on how to dress and whether or not they choose to wear the hijab. A hijab is a head covering that some Muslims wear to ensure modesty over their entire body.

                While some Muslims dress modestly and follow the rules conveyed by Allah, others see it as only a way to identify those who study Islam, therefore using dress to inform. One’s dress can also reflect authority. Those who show authority and dress more modestly may reflect how serious they are about Islam and can also reflect how much control they have. When one is dressed according to Allah’s rules, others tend to obey them and see them as a religious, powerful figure if they too study Islam. With this it is very important to realize that this is not always the case, and can sometimes be a common stereotype of Muslims.

                Another way that dress can inform and reflect communal identity is the judging by others if Muslim women are not dressed modestly. A woman, whether dressed modestly or not, is to be treated with the privileges that Allah has given her. This includes having rights and being treated as an individual. A woman also has the right to be educated and to work outside the home. Muslim women can also be an imam, or leader of communal prayer, for a group of women. Although some see dressing modestly very important for women, it does not hold them back from their rights and they are ultimately not judged by Allah.

                Rules on dress definitely reflect and inform communal identity, but not being modest does not reflect how one views religion or their religious value completely. Although this is not reflected entirely, it still tends to be a large factor when others consider one to be a valued Muslim.

1.8 Sharia Law

1.       Hadd Crimes-----Punishments

Unlawful Sexual Intercourse-----flogging

False Accusation of unlawful sexual intercourse-----stoning

Wine drinking-----amputation

Theft-----exile

Highway robbery-----execution

2.       Criminal laws are the most controversial because there is a significant debate over what the Quran sanctions and what practices were pulled from local customs.

3.       Vigilante justice still takes place with the honor killings and murders committed for bringing dishonor to one’s family and are a big problem because there is official reluctance to use the hadd punishments on these crimes.

4.       Most countries believed that democracy is the best form of government, but there is a heated debate on whether or not democracy and Islam can coexist. Some argue that a democracy has a basis in the Quran since “mutual consolation”, but others say that the best way to observe sharia is through a secular government.

5.       Sharia has been incorporated into political systems through the dual legal system, government under god, and completely secular. The Duel Legal System is a dual system government in which Muslims choose to bring familial and financial disputes to sharia courts. Government under God is for Muslims that believe sharia should be declared a source of the laws and Completely Secular is where the government is declared to be secular in the constitution.

6.       Democracy and sharia cannot coexist because sharia law is to impose religious rules upon an entire society by unelected clerics.

7.       Islamic banking is a worldwide industry that practices the rules of sharia. The industry’s assets stood at more than a trillion dollars by 2013. For those ethically minded, businesses are required to avoid transactions with “forbidden” things.

1.9-Study Guide

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1O2sokYZQbk8wdEBrM-jF01qm5GRBhT-snp2ASaBpdI8/edit?usp=sharing

Daily Check In 3/9/15

1. I completed 6 of the 9
2. Study Guide Objective 1.9
3. Effort: 7
Malin and I started the Study Guide today.

Objectives 1.4-1.7 (Outline)

Part 1: Origins

        I.            Overview

a.       1.3 million Muslims are Shia

b.      Shia are minority

c.       Concentrated in Iran and southern Iraq

      II.            Oil in Iraq and Iran

a.       Shiites predominate

    III.            Sunni vs. Shia

a.       The split occurred after the death of the Prophet Muhammad in the year 632

b.      Shia believed that leadership should stay within the family of the prophet

c.       Sunnis believed that leadership should fall to the person who was deemed by the elite of the community

d.      Shia call their leaders imam with Ali being the first and Hussein the third

e.      Sunnis believe that some of the Shia are attributing divine qualities to the imams, and this is a great sin because it is associating human beings with the divinity

f.        Shiites are looking for the coming of the Messiah.

Part 2: Mideast Turmoil/Rise of Shiites

        I.            Shiites History

a.       Shiites of Iraq and Lebanon were ruled by Sunni Ottoman sultans.

b.      The Shiites of Arabia were under the authority of Sunni tribal leaders.

c.       Pahlavi changed the name of the state to Iran and set about creating a secular government, much to the dismay of some of the Shiite clergy.

      II.            Revolution

a.       Khomeini's revolution had a powerful influence in Lebanon

b.      The powerful influence came after Israel mounted an invasion in 1982 to eliminate Lebanon as a base for guerilla attacks of the Palestine Liberation Organization

c.       Most Sunni rejected the Iranian revolution as a model for their own societies

Part 3: Sunni Reaction

        I.            Shi’ism Islam

a.       The minority branch of Islam known as Shi'ism first became widely known in the U.S. and established the modern world's first Islamic State.

b.      The revolutionaries believed they could export their Islamic revolution throughout the Middle East and beyond.

c.       They encountered resistance from the Arab states led by Sunnis

      II.            Sunnis

a.       Islam's majority branch

b.      Resistance between Sunni and Shi’ism would be both subtle and violent

c.       Their objective was to overthrow of secular governments and establishments of Islamic states,

d.      Wanted anti-Shi'ism.

    III.            United States’ Role in Revolution

a.       President Ronald Reagan sent U.S. troops to Lebanon as part of a peacekeeping force

b.      President Reagan soon reversed himself and pulled U.S. troops out of Lebanon, leaving the divided nation to another six years of war

c.       The invasion of Iraq in 2003 unleashed forces of Muslim sectarianism unseen in the Middle East

Part 4: Iraq War Deepens the Divide

        I.            US Invasion

a.       The United States invasion of Iraq began on March 20th, 2003.

b.      Thought the war would be over quickly, and that Iraq would return to peace

c.       The U.S. claimed that Iran was responsible for much of the violence in Iraq

      II.            Shiite Clerics

a.       Shiite clerics led movements, advocating parliamentary rule and just governance in the Middle East

b.      Clerics took the lead because there's hardly any form of secular civil society in the country today that can act as the nucleus of an Iraqi political system

c.       Shiite clerics in Iraq worked hard to pursue their own model of government

    III.            Shia

a.       Shia never governed a modern Arab state.

b.      They were in control in Persian Iran, but the Sunnis led most Arab states in the Middle East

Part 5: US Policies and the Shia-Sunni Conflict

        I.            Conflict

a.       The sectarian conflict between Shia and Sunni deepened

b.      U.S. aims changed as conflict deepened

c.       U.S. view of some Shiite forces in the Middle East is overtly hostile

 Sufism: The Heart of Islam

        I.            Living Sufism

a.       Started as a refuge for people to learn about Islam

b.      Fate connected to action

c.       Only go with good action when you die

d.      Men go out to work

e.      Women work at home

f.        Sufi is a good Muslim who looks for meaning and traveler on a path of his heart

      II.            Eternal Life

a.       Life doesn’t end at death

b.      Live in the present

    III.            Losing Self

a.       No necessary connection between Sufism and Islam

b.      Be yourself

c.       Get on with life, live life fully

d.      Trying to discover God within us

e.      Sufism: journey of slave to king

f.        Some people die never knowing they took this path in life

 PBS Frontline- Salafism

        I.            Salafism Background

a.       Salafism is an ideology that posits that Islam has strayed from its origins

b.      Salafists originally are supposedly not violent

      II.            Salafism Jihadists

a.       Constitute less than 1 percent of the world's 1.2 billion Muslims

b.      See life as being divided between the world of Islam and the land of conflict or war

c.       The origins of Salafi jihadism can be traced to the Muslim Brotherhood

    III.            Takfir wal-Hijra

a.       Takfir wal-Hijra emerged from the Muslim Brotherhood

b.      Inspired some of the tactics and methods used by Al Qaeda

 Salafism and the Arab Spring

        I.            Assassination

a.       The assassination of opposition leader Chokri Belaid plunged the country into its biggest crisis since the 2011 Jasmine Revolution

b.      The assassination was also the destabilizing threat of violent Islamist extremists has emerged as a pressing and dangerous issue

      II.            Salafists

a.       The Salafists are spread between three broad groups

b.      New small political movements that have formed in recent months

c.       Non-violent Salafists

d.      Violent Salafists and jihadists who, though small in number, have had a major impact in terms of violent attacks

e.      The main Salafist political parties have far more of a stake in democratic transition than in Tunisia and Libya.

 Essay Question:  By examining the similarities and differences between the two main sects of Islam, Sunni and Shi’a, how does one sect affect the other?

Daily Task Check-In 3/6/15

1. I have completed 2 of the 9 learning goals.
2. I will work on Paper 2 today.
3. I put in about a 5 for effort today. I completed most of the Paper 2 questions.

Objectives 1.1- 1.2

Learning Objective 1.1:
Read about Muslim Dress

Learning Objective 1.2:
What is the focus of the article?

The focus of the article is to inform others about the personal experiences people have had with the hijab. The article is a series of questions and answers with 3 women who used to wear the hijab, but no longer do. The answers to the questions vary, but it is interesting to hear all of their opinions and personal experiences. The article is very focused on specifically how their families reacted to the uncovering of their hair and the overall feelings they had towards it as well. All 3 women experienced different personal problems with the hijab and after they took it off.

 What are the women’s general thoughts and feelings on the hijab?

The women’s general thoughts of the hijab are that “it is not one of the pillars of Islam and that the resurgence of veiling has been systematically driven forward as a matter more of politics than piety” and “wearing the hijab is a step too far”. They all understand how their families reacted to their uncovering, but also believe that it is everyone’s own personal decision on whether or not the hijab is necessary in the religion of Islam.

Daily Task Check-In 3/4/15

1. I have completed 2 out of the 9 Learning Objectives so far.
2. I will complete goal 1 today.
3. I put in about a 9 of effort today. I read about Islam clothing and the effect of removing the hijab.