The Mosque

What an amazing experience! I am so happy I got to spend time at the Kalamazoo Islamic Center this past thursday. It was such an eye-opening experience. And I am so gracious that the Imam himself gave us our tour and answered any of our questions.

Taking a tour of the outside of the building was actually pretty cool, getting to see all the new rennovations and additions they are adding to the mosque. The architecture reminded me of the Taj Mahal, with all the pointy spires and dome-like points.

After that we went inside, and saw the main prayer room where the men pray, and also all the little classrooms they have for sunday schools. Also there was like two kitchens and two gathering halls. This place was wayyyy bigger than I thought.

About mid-way through we sat on the floor in what I think was the womens prayer room, and he explained to us how the Koran came to be and what it meant to his religion. You could totally see the passion he had held for his religion and what it meant to him. He broke through common misconceptions and stereotypes that most people have about Islam.

It was such an amazing learning experience and I suggest that everyone, no matter their religion, check out a Mosque.

You Just Cant Deny It

I loved the movie I was shown in class on Tuesday. It was called The Road To Love, and was a documentary on the homosexual lifestyle viewed from a Muslim perspective. At first I was shocked at the subject matter, but excited to learn how another culture accepts (or doesn't) homosexuality. 

I was surprised to learn that the documentary was the brain child of a heterosexual male. The opening scene depicts him standing on the very dangerous side of a balcony, with his girlfriend begging lovingly for him to come back to her. 

In the beginning he was very hesitant towards the men he interviewed, but that was understandable considering most wanted to hit on him. It started as a laughing matter, but then soon became a bigger issue when he was confronted by one of the interviewees about exactly why he chose such a subject. He had to have interest, more so than most 'heterosexual' men. 

Towards the end he did fall in love with another man, possible indirectly, causing his girlfriend to leave him...etc.

The film made me think about how, in my own culture, many things parallel, for instance hiding what your true sexuality is. While some are open about their sexuality, many are not, they fear themselves. Knowing that a majority of society wont accept you is brutal, hence why the main person in the film (forgot his name..) could have been in such a deep denial. But until he shed light upon he subject he might have unconsciously suppressed his sexuality. B

ut that's getting me started on the psychology of sexuality.

Anyway, another parallel was the fact about parents. I remember he asked directly if the parents of the person he was interviewing knew he was gay, to which the person said "Yes" He then asked if they accepted it, or something along those lines, and he said "No" with a laugh. That is like much of my friends back home. The parents know, but act like it isn't even happening. Denial, once again.

The film was extremely educational on a subject I think everyone should be more open too, in other cultures and my own. Acceptance is upon us, everyone just has to see what a commonality homosexuality is across cultures, but perhaps because so many people fear it, its one subject that will stay unaccepted for awhile longer. We have an African American president, a huge and positive leap for our country (breaking down walls of racism and prejudice), but hardly anyone can accept gay marriage? The happiness and love between two people, however, can still not be celebrated openly?  

Blood and Oil

Although I was not in the past class due to medical problems, I did see the e-mail, and watched the film ‘Blood and Oil’. I loved this film, the subject matter actually has always interested me. I have knows about the American’s addiction to oil, I see it everywhere. My mother works for the county back home, so she is always talking about oil prices with my father, but mainly just saying that she is lucky she doesn’t have to deal with them. I hear it from friends and family, and the media. With the ties to the Middle East, America has always just barged in and thought that what was there should rightfully be ours. This happened so much that eventually we wanted to use brute force to get said oil, which makes my own country seem like the big bully on the playground, get whatever we want at whatever cost, just step all over the little guys.

It shocked me to learn exactly how far though America went when it came to military force, like the whole establishment in Saudi Arabia. Also, how the Chinese and Russians were then brought into it, if we are so prepared to fight for our oil, imagine getting into it with the Chinese and Russians! All in all, this movie was very enlightening, and shows my country in a different light. I can also now understand a little more on why we are so involved in the Middle East. It all comes down to they have what we want, oil!

Who is that talking in the back?

So, this blog just hit me, like that time I ran into a chair. Just BAM! I was watching The movie my group decided to watch, Arranged, which I'm pretty sure I blogged about already...But anyway, I was watching it again, and about twenty minutes in, the main characters are in a classroom together, the Muslim one teaching the students, and the orthodox Jewish asissting a special needs child, when the class is interrupted by talking in the back. The the Muslim teacher asks them what is wrong, the kids just come out and say something to the extent of,

"We were told that you and Ms. Rachel can't be friends because you were from different religions, because you hate each other or something."

Obviously this caught my attention. Continuing, the teacher asks him why he would think that. He says,

"...I heard all the Muslims wanna kill all the Jews. Aren't you Muslim?"

And this perks an ongoing conversation that the Muslims are a massive group of people, and the teacher does not want to kill/hate Ms. Rachel. The thing that interested me the most though about this was that, the kids in this class look to be in about third or fourth grade, which was quite young to me. Even so, I don't think even now I would wonder something like that. It makes me think about what kind of negative press the Middle East is getting, so much so that the kids, perhaps, are picking it up on their evening news, surely they don't get this on their own, or their parents don't talk to them about it, I would guess. This movie is very interesting, not only does it have the influence of the Muslim and the Jewish, but the children too. I'm excited to finish the movie, and I'll try to get the clips up!

I know its there somewhere...

While I had no trouble finding books and movies that fill me in on information about how Western culture is influencing the Middle East, and also vice-versa, finding concrete information is proving to be a feat. I am finding small little tid-bits.
I guess the biggest thing that I could blog about is the movie i have started watching. The movie is called 'Arranged', was made in 2007, and tells the story of two women, one an Orthodox Jew, the other a Muslim. I read a little blurb about the movie, and it shows how the two women meet and their experience with arranged marriages.
So far, The two women have not met. I have seen how they are uncomfortable in social interactons dealing with the subject of 'marriage;' in the opening of the film the women are sitting in a lunchroom of sorts, awkwardly listening to three other american looking women talking about being proposed to and their own marriage.
Perhaps the arranged marriage is a bigger difference between cultures than I realized. I definitely have a fuzzy view of arranged marriages, to me they do not seem fair to either party. I hope the movie will change this.

The Square Moon

I just finished the first two short stories in the book I am reading, The Square Moon. The book is actually a collection of lebanese short fiction stories, taking place, so far in Paris. The stories have a fantasy/maabre twist, which actually makes them more interesting to me.
The stories, collectively, have a sort of Edgar Allen-Poe feel, and I feel that the stories would work well alongside Poe in a high school setting.
The first story was centered between two people, a matchmaker interacting with the main character, and a woman who the main character is infatuated with. The clash comes from the fact that tradition, family, and the matchmaker want him to marry a traditional Lebanese girl, one who is shy, mannered, and uneducated. However the character is in love with a lebanese woman, yes, but one who breaks all stereotypes. She is athletic, educated, and witty, and wants to be a mans equal.
That story actually broadened my thoughts on relationships in the Middle East. Even though the story takes place in (roughly) the 1980's, it was still apparent to my classmates and I that the culture in the Middle East is changing. Women are going to school, and then furthering their education and wanting jobs that they wouldn't have before. The Middle East wants to be more modernized, maybe wants to catch up with our culture in the West.

"Reel Bad Arabs"

After watching and discussing the film "Reel Bad Arabs" I was actually surprised by how many movies I had recently seen had villains that looked like Arab people. It very nearly disgusted me how I had fallen victim to such awful propaganda in 'The Land of the Free". Clearly, 8 years after 9/11, Americans are falling into the trap that, if it looks like an Arab, if it talks like an Arab, fear it. Surely I could rationalize with myself that all Arabs are not awful, horrible terrorists trying to destroy my life, no, this would be falling prey to one of the easiest fallacies ever created (slippery slope).

But, after I started to think about it, that’s exactly how I was when 9/11 happened. I was in fifth grade, sitting in my classroom with the same 30 people I had in my grade every year (small private school) when our teacher was called out of the room. She returned, and told us to go to recess (I remember thinking it was too early, but hey, I was a kid). When we returned from outside, she was sitting at the front of the room. I remember her exact words, "I hope that you are mature enough to handle the news I am about to give you...I have been told and saw on T.V. that two planes crashed into some very important buildings in New York City, and they collapsed. It has been realized that this is a very serious and devastating..," she paused searching for simple terms to put it in, "terrorist attack." After that our parents were called, and I was picked up etc. etc...

Any who, I remember that after seeing the pictures on the news and in magazines for much after that, I was terrified of people that looked to be Arab. I would get uneasy, and look down at my feet for years to come after. Only recently have I been able to not have any problems with people of other nationalities, skin color, looks, etc, simply because I grew up. I realized not everyone is out to get me.

To put it simply, media in general, not just fictitious movies with super-villains who look like Arabs has a massive impact on how the American people view their enemies. In my case, especially being so young, I was lucky to have grown out of it. I know many people, my age and much older, have prejudices that may never subside. But my certain hope is that they do.