Field Trip!

The first thing about the trip to the Mosque that surprised me what its sheer size.  It was huge!  You look at that front entrance, and you think you're going to walk into a tiny bakery shop and then BAM!  Huge Mosque!

Anyways...  This was not my first time in a Mosque or Islamic Center.  I've actually been to prayers a few times at the one back in my town.  And I think its great that the Islamic community has a place to go to in which they can indulge in their culture and be around others who wish to do so as well. 

One of the things brought up on our visit was the incorrect belief that Islam preachers violence to all of this followers. 

When I was a senior in high school, I was taking Humanities, and a large focus in the class (for the literature section) was "the Bible as literature", (It was a public school so it would not have been allowed to be taught if it was to be considered anything other than just literature, and so that was the public schools stand point...it doesn't have to be yours).  We read through sections of the bible and dissected it and discussed it.  

During this same section, the Humanities history teacher did a lecture in which he took passages out of the Quran, typed them onto paper, and discussed how they invoked fear into populations due to their violent nature.   This lecture was beyond biased, and very academically unprofessional, since the teacher had never read the Quran and didn't seem to know much about Islam in general.  The one thing that I did take away from that lecture  was how simple it is to misconstrue texts.  

Now if we read, discuss and grossly misconstrue the meaning behind  "Of Mice and Men" in a class, most likely we have only caused John Steinbeck to gently turn in his grave (though more than likely he wouldn't have cared).  On the other hand, when in my senior humanities class, my professor chose to present to a class of 200 seniors (of which maybe 30 were of Arab descent), that the Quran preached violence, he managed to offend those 30 students (though once again...maybe they didn't care) and criticize a religious text that had influenced and shaped almost of fifth of the worlds population.  This is not to say that religious texts can not be criticized, because I believe discussions on them are one of the best ways to further understand and promote not only tolerance, but encourage support, but when doing so, having all of the facts will help you to appear as a well informed and curious spectator, rather than a self righteous jack ass.  Another point he forgot to mention, is that the Bible has plenty of violence to go around as well.  The history of christianity in itself if very well known for its violence.

To connect this into our visit to the Mosque I would now like to discuss the idea of "Radical Islam."  I understand the point in class that Professor Webb was making, in that Islam, though the media believes is the sole cause of terrorist actions, is not in fact the sole reason for these groups actions and I think that is a fabulous point.  The problem arrises in the fact that in SOME cases these groups use Islamic religious texts to justify their actions, and I am NOT saying that the text in themselves are the thing to blame.  I do NOT believe that Islam is any more violent than any other religion.  But once again we have a case of misconstrued texts.  The point of this is that people interpret and see what they want to see out of situations.  

There is a problem in the fact that the news reports to you that violence is preached by Islam and this is known because of the radical Islamic groups who want to kill all of you god fearing christians.  Yes it is a problem that we hear this day in and day out.  And how should we solve this....

THINK!  Yes thats it!  Think for yourself!