In class last week we learned a little more about Islamic culture and the beginnings of the Ottoman Empire. I already knew some of basic information about the religion, but I was interested to read and learn about women in the culture and more similarities to Christianity. In one of the books, Esposito's I believe, they mention that Mary, mother of Jesus, is mentioned more times in the Quran than she is in the New Testament, and then in class we learned about Muhammad’s first wife who was a strong woman who ran her own business and proposed to Muhammad. This contrasts with the typical portrayal of the sexist nature of Islam, as we had learned about the choice involved in wearing a veil and its meaning in modern society. In previous classes I have tended to be more interested in gender issues, and will probably bring this up in the future, just to warn you all.
This is the first history class I have taken that really discusses the history of the Turks, and the rather large scale battle of Manziked between the Seljik Turks and the Byzantines was interesting. The outcome of the battle was particularly important as they moved into Anatolia and the area went from a Greek speaking Christian area to a Turkish speaking Muslim one (Cleveland 33). Later the Mongols come and are characteristically disruptive, and affect Turkish culture.
The film we watched in the first class was still on my mind earlier this week, and when I was looking through ‘Middle East’ section on http://news.bbc.co.uk/ I noticed the different portrayal of civilian causalities. There was a story about a little girl who was recovering from severe wounds from a fire started by Israeli soldiers who used white phosphorus, which causes terrible burns. I can’t find that particular story now, but here is another one about a family that was affected by the fires: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7848768.stm. Out of curiosity I looked at the international part of CNN’s site, which I have never liked, and could not find a similar story or one that was concerned over the use of white phosphorus against civilians. I did find another on the BBC site which further discussed the use of white phosphorus and concerns by human rights groups (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7850085.stm). This seems to follow the idea of the film we watched, that the U.S. media does not give a fair portrayal of the situation even when civilians are targeted with dangerous weapons.
I think its amazing to find that some stations will show you one news story and another station wont even mention the same story. Especially looking at the differences in media from country to country American censorship ruins the news broadcast
ReplyDeleteI am also very interested in gender issues and look forward to learning more about them in the context of the modern Middle East. Although I was intrigued by what Esposito had to say about women and Islam, it is important to remember that that is just one point of view.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of prejudice in the Western world that assumes Islam to be sexist, and it is of course wrong to blindly agree with these assertions. It is equally wrong, however, to blindly agree with the backlash to these statements without fully understanding things for yourself.
I think that gender issues will be a relevant and interesting theme to explore throughout the duration of this course.
I liked your comment. I made a similar comment about the similarities between Islam and Christianity based on information we discussed in class and also from reading Esposito's book. I enjoyed your comment because it was an expansion of my own thoughts by incorporating gender issues and talking a little about the Turks and also the video.
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