Extra blog: My religion

For the additional blog this week, I decided to write about my religion and some issues that it’s facing today. I am a Muslim and I am a typical girl, just like the others. Often, people associate Muslims/Islam with terrorism and violence. However, being a Muslim, I find that completely wrong and what the media displays is completely false.  Islam, the word itself comes from the root of “Salaam” which is an Arabic word for peace. Thus, the meaning of Islam is peaceful submission to God’s will. Living in a Muslim family, I’ve witnessed how peaceful Islam actually is and the way that we are thought to lead life is all about attaining peace. For example, when we great each other, we say the equivalent of “peace and blessings be upon you” instead of simply saying “hi”. The Qur’an is about humanity and guides the Muslims on how to lead righteous lives. Recently, I’ve been reading the Qur’an and have discovered how it teaches us to respect other religions and teaches us to coexist. In fact, I’ve read some books about the founder of Islam, Prophet Muhammad and have learned that he assisted his Christian neighbors in building a church. Such examples are just a few, out of the many. In short, I’ve learned humanity from Islam and I respect all the humans, no matter which religion, race, or country they are from.

Being a Muslim, I am no different than other girls my age. I go out with my friends, enjoy watching movies, keep up with fashion, and play sports, just to name a few of my activities. Islam hasn’t taken away any of my rights or oppressed me, as the media shows. Although I do not wear the hijab, or the Islamic scarf, I am a moderate Muslim and believe in modesty. I pray 5 times a day, read the Qur’an at least once a week, and fast during the month of Ramadan from dawn to dusk. Islam also emphasizes other values such as helping the poor, respecting your parents/ elders, and leading humble lives.

I believe that no matter what religion or God you pray to, it's important to have a clean heart and good intentions. The more you pray the more peace you obtain. Thus, religion is a bridge between the individual and the Creator of the universe. Religion is simply a way of attaining peace and becoming closer to the God, and no religion should be judged based on the actions of its minority followers or what the media displays. I feel that Islam is a great religion, just as the other religions such as Christianity, Judaism or Hinduism; it is just not being represented properly. One day, I hope to finally see a world where all religions coexist peaceful, without discriminating or conflicting with each other, as it did once in earlier times. 

Week 11: Religion & Government

With all my respect and admiration for the world religions, I think that religion and government shouldn’t be mingled.  Each religion that we have in the world today is unique in its own way and each one of them has their own beautiful sides. Ultimately, all the religions teach the same idea. Religion assists us in understanding God and leads us into the right path; the path of humanity, peace, and good ethics. With the globalization and diversification of the world, we encounter more religions and interact with people who have different religious view than we do. Since not all of us believe in the same idea and not all of us have the same view of religion, it would be problematic if the government imposes one certain belief on its people. Thus, religion shouldn’t be a part of government because the government influences us. Since the government makes laws and regulations which we must obey, religion shouldn’t be a part of the government because in that case, the government’s decisions would be inclined toward the particular religion it’s following. America, being a free country, especially shouldn’t implement such systems because it’s a diverse country with people from different backgrounds, believes, and values. Contrary, religion plays an important role in government in most of the Middle Eastern countries. For example, in Saudi Arabia, the government follows the Sharia, which is the Islamic law, in all cases and turns to Islam for guidance in every issue. The reason why such system works in there is because most of the residents are Muslims with a very little population being followers of different religions.  But because in America, people follow different religions or not religions at all, it would be difficult to make a role for the religion within the government. Furthermore, religious freedom is a founding principle of America and therefore, religion shouldn’t be interconnected with the government. 

Race and Enthinicy

A Tale of Two Families

After exploring “A Tale of Two Families”, I came to conclude that racial identity once played an important role in the opportunities we come across. Although today, racial discrimination and segregation level are very low in the US; race still contributes to how some people interact with us and the way we/they are perceived as. In the story that I read on the site, I learned that race played a major role how the two boys were brought up. From the type of education they received to how much money each possessed, race made a big difference. If Byron, the African American boy, would have been white, he’s life would have probably been very different from the way it actually was.

The Social Construction of Gender

Differences between men and women exist worldwide, unsurprisingly, and the differences sometimes lead to inequality which gives men more power and dominance and therefore, places an inequality on the women.

Biological differences are inborn, clearly, because men and women are different physically.  Hormones contribute to the difference; androgens which are found in males make them taller, heavier, and more muscular. Meanwhile, the female hormones, estrogens, do not make females as tall and muscular. Such hormonal differences explain why males tend to be more active, aggressive, and overriding than females. However, these differences cannot be used as a justification to deny women any rights. I believe that cultural conceptions play bigger role in the gender inequality than biological. Since the dawn of civilization, men have been the strong, the aggressive, and the powerful. The women, however, always had the opposite characters, they were the ones responsible for completing the tasks that didn’t require as much strength, care for the family members, etc. Thus, the social organization has somewhat also contributed to the gender inequality as the men always had more power the women.  

Although today, women have more rights and opportunities than the earlier times, they still are somewhat discriminated. Currently, the women are holding important positions but when compared to the men, they still do not make as income much as men do.  And the women are not treated as favorably as the men are. Furthermore, in many parts of the world, the women are absolutely dominated by the men and aren’t even treated impartially. In many countries, the women face extreme patriarchy by the men which suppresses their basic rights. Moreover, the women also face sexual harassment which indicates their weakness in the society.

Not admitted by many, but men are favored in almost all societies. Although in the US and some other developed countries, the gap between the men and women are not as wide, women in the rest of the world still struggles to for equality. 

Global Inequality

Today, global inequality is extremely high worldwide and is impacting everyone, either directly or indirectly. The causes of inequality are extensive but are mainly tied to economic conditions of a nation and sometimes, depend on the decisions that the government of that country has made. The countries that are mostly impacted by poverty are the Northern African, Middle Eastern, some of the Southeastern Asian, and some South American countries. Clearly, there are enormous differences in the lives of the rich and the poor country’s residents. Foremost, in rich countries, the residents are much healthier and live longer lives in comparison to the residents of the poor countries. Whereas in rich countries, people enjoy the benefits of adequate health facilities and hospitals, very few poor countries have reliable hospitals. Moreover, residents of poor countries lack proper sanitations, drink polluted water, and risk contracting infectious diseases, which contributes to the low health quality. In rich countries, the people live a much more comfortable life with high technology whereas in poor countries, majority of the people struggle on a daily basis to survive. Hunger, malnutrition, and famine are major issues which the poor countries face. According to the textbook, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that 854 million people go hungry every day and that every five seconds a child dies due to hunger. Although hunger is an issue in developed countries as well, it is extreme in poor countries. One other problem in poor countries is the low education and literacy rates. In my opinion, education is an essential necessity in every country and those countries that lack education are at immense disadvantages. The countries that have low education and literacy rates have fewer chances of prospering and succeeding economically. Therefore, one could say that unless education is given importance and attention, the poor countries will become poor while the rich countries will become even richer. As the textbook states, education is important because it contributes to economic growth because people with advanced schooling provide the skilled workers necessary for high wage industries, education offers the only hope for escaping the cycle of harsh working conditions and poverty because poorly educated people are condemned to low waged, unskilled jobs, and finally, educated people have fewer children which, therefore, helps to slowing the global population for explosion that contributes to global poverty.

There are also several important reasons for which we should care about global inequality. Because countries today are much intertwined, what happens in one country leaves an impact on the others. For example, if due to any disruption, the production of an item in China is stopped, there will be a notable impact on the price of that item in the US. Moreover, global inequality is something that should be ended as soon as possible because if the wealth is distributed in an unequal manner, there will be a vast imbalance or perhaps, it would be better to say, there is an imbalance already. Predominantly, there will be an very rich class that will live luxurious lives while there will be very poor people such as those in Africa, who die due to starvation on a daily basis For such reasons, it’s crucial that the inequality is decreased and everyone has the chance of living peaceful and survivable lives without any harsh struggles.