GlobalStudies06

18 responses so far ↓

• 1    globalspartan // Oct 23, 2006 at 2:07 pm

  1.) This article helped me understand Islam much better. It was in an organized format, which helped me figure out how the religion works. It was very informative and not to difficult to understand.
  2.) A.) the “question of succession” was a main issue that divided the community into the Sunni and the Shiites. The Sunni, which was the majority of the community, supported Abu Bakr. The Sunni are known for being “the people of tradition”. The Shiites who were seen as “ Partisans”, acclaimed Ali, who was Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law.
  3.) I am interested about the Muslim Family Law. And would not mind learning more about this. I do not fully understand how the divorce system works?.

  Shawna O.

• 2    globalspartan // Oct 23, 2006 at 6:19 pm

  1. This article helped me to better understand “Muslim family law”. For instance I never knew that Muslims believe that it is the male’s job to protect his family because he is stronger. They also believe that since the male can not get pregnant then he also does not need to care for the children. I also had no idea that a male could just leave his wife but for a woman to do this she would have to show good reason. I also learned that women can own property and this property can be protected from everyone even her husband; however her husband is supposed to provide and protect his wife. After reading this article I learned that women are not equals to men. Women leave their fathers and then go to their husbands to get protected. It is like a woman always needs to have a man to protect her and this is something that I never knew before.
  2a. One issue of conflict between the Shiites and Sunnis is who is going to be to successor of Muhammad. Like we discussed in class the Sunnis “people of tradition” supported Abu Bakr where the Shiites supported Ali Muhammad cousin as well as sin-law. The first issue the Shiites and Sunnis are arguing over who they believe should be the successor for Muhammad. The second issue is the conflict between quietist and activists. The people who upheld the quietist supported an authority stance. Majority of these supporters were Sunnis. Those who upheld the activist supported the more radical type of politics. These supporters were majority Shiites. These two different groups are disagreeing on what kind of politics they believe is the best radical or obedience to authority. These are two of the issues going on between the Sunnis as well as the Shiites.
  3. I understand the difference between the quietist and the activists however I am still unclear about some things and would like to know more about these two groups.
  I also do not understand what the Sunna is and what it is really used for, I thought that the Qur’an was the only book that the Muslims used.
  Erika I.

• 3    globalspartan // Oct 23, 2006 at 6:31 pm

  1. One thing that I learned about the Islam culture is their family laws. They believe that the man is the head of the family and that he should protect everyone in their family. The man is supposed to support the household while the women take care of it. If a man wants to get married they are required to give a woman half of a gift. If for some reason he decides he wants to get a divorce they have to give the women the other half of the gift. A man is given the privilege of one divorce per lifetime however women are not given the same privilege. If a woman wants to get divorce she has to give a good reason or she is not allowed to leave. One privilege women are given is the right to own property. If she owns property her husband has to support the property that she owns but is never allowed to have any of her property. A woman is also required to wear a veil which is personal modesty in terms of the families’ policy. These are the laws that I learned about the family laws.
  2. The major issue between the Sunni and Shiites are that they do not agree on who should take the place of Muhammad. The Sunni believes that Abu Bakr should be the successor. Bakr is the elderly associate of Muhammad. However the Shiites believe that Ali should be the successor. Ali is the is the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad. The Imams are the people that formed this group. The Shiites believe that the people have the right to rebel against the evil Muslim rulers. The Shiites can be known as the activist radical group.
  Jamie I.

• 4    globalspartan // Oct 23, 2006 at 6:33 pm

  3. Sorry I forgot number three I do not understand what male circumcision is. I would also like to learn more about why the women wear the vials.
  Jamie I.

• 5    globalspartan // Oct 23, 2006 at 6:56 pm

  1. The article helped give me a better overall understanding of Islam. I knew about the Five Pillars of Islam but was a little unclear of a few of them. The First Pillar is the shahada, which is the belief in god. The Second Pillar is salat, which is the daily worship. This is required five times a day, at dawn, midday, afternoon, evening, and night. The Third Pillar is zakat, which is the obligation to share what one possesses with the less fortunate. The Fourth Pillar is the fast during the month of Ramadan. The Fifth Pillar is the hajj, which is the pilgrimage to Mecca. All Muslims must take this trip to Mecca at least one time in their lives.
  2. There are many areas of conflict between the Sunni and Shiite Muslims. One issue that divided the two groups was the question of who was the succession of Muhammad. The civil strife in Muslim polity gave way to the Sunni and Shiite Muslims. The two groups contradicted each other and had different attitudes among Muslims.
  3. What role do the Islam children play? Also if children are at school do they stop to pray?
  Alli Berger

  Since i wasn’t in school on friday so I did friday’s homework as well.

• 6    globalspartan // Oct 23, 2006 at 8:07 pm

  1. Reading this article helped me understand a lot better about what happened with Muhammad and his successer. I knew that Muhammad’s parents died but didn’t know that his grandfather also died when Muhammad was in his care.
  2. One of the Sunni and Shiite Muslim conflict was the attitue of resignation. The Sunni believe in predestination and the Shiite developed a rational theology and ethical doctirne resembling those of the Mu ‘tazilites. Another area of conflict is in determining the sucessor of Muhammon. The Shiite believe it should be in the bloodline and the Sunni believe it should be based on Merit.
  3. I don’t understand what role women play in the Sunni and Shiites?, because they are usually not Imam’s. What is the age when people can become Imam’s?

  Jamie W

• 7    globalspartan // Oct 23, 2006 at 9:11 pm

  1. One thing that I learned in that the Muslim thinker had developed theological arguments, including a doctrine of God and human responsibility a I felt even though all ppl may be from different religions but we still have values to follow to full fill the duty to a higher power as if there looking on.
  2. I also agree with everyone so far that the major conflict is between the Sunni and Shiite Muslim and that there is conflict of who should take the power The Sunni believes that Abu Bakr should be the successor and the Shiites believe that Ali should be the successor. Ali is the is the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad and I believe should be the successor because they are blood. The both are too different groups and either way ppl will disagree.
  3. I would really like to know why it was not looked down upon to marry his sister??
  -Monica C

• 8    globalspartan // Oct 23, 2006 at 10:48 pm

  1. This article helped me to understand how the laws set up by the Qur’an play into family law. I did not realize that women had any protection against men when it came to family matters. While they may not live as freely as women in the West, this lightens my view of how they are treated.
  2. Two areas for conflict between Sunni and Shiites are:
  A- The need for clerical intervention when it comes to prayer. Shiites believe that there is a need for a human to intervene and help guide the prayer, the Imams. THey are the ones who communicate with Allah. Where as Sunnis believe every man can communicate with Allah personally.
  B- Legal laws. The Shiites have formed their own legal school, formerly led by Ja’far ibn Muhammad. The Sunnis have formed several legal schools which stretch in their influence across the Middle East. If a legal dispute between a Shiite and Sunni were to arise, they would have trouble settling on which laws to judge the case by.
  3.I am not clear as to what the author means by “legal school.” At first I thought he meant like a college, but now I’m thinking these are schools where a certain way of thinking is taught. I am also not clear on who the Mu’tazilites were and what they wanted to prove.

  ~Kara B.

• 9    globalspartan // Oct 24, 2006 at 6:48 am

  1. This article helped me understand the five pillars of Islam better. The pillars are interesting and good religious values. Believing in God, praying five times a day, giving to the needy, fast during Ramadan, and going on a pilgrimage to Mecca are the five pillars. One of the largest differences between Christianity and Judaism and Islam-all monotheistic, is that Christianity and Judaism both have many different sections of their religion ranging from very religious to not so religious. Islam has not done that yet.
  2. A) The Sunni and Shiite Muslim conflict is a constant issue going on in the Islam religion. The conflict deals with difference of opinion of who is Muhammad’s successor. The Sunni’s supported Abu Bakr who was not from the blood line but who they believed would be the best candidate. The Shiite’s acclaimed Ali as the “imam” who was Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law. Sunni’s are known as the more quiet and authoritarian stance while the Shiites tend to be more activist and radical.
  3. My first question would be why don’t the Islams themselves make a stance against the radicalists? My second question is, do both groups, Shiite’s and Sunni’s, believe martyrdom is good?

  ~Carly S.~

• 10    globalspartan // Oct 24, 2006 at 9:40 am

  1. Islam was born from the gap between rich and poor people and the phophet Muhammad’s followers were poor people who had no power.

  2. a) There is no distinction between religious law and civil law in Islamic beliefs. Laws are based on the Islamic legal system, the Shariah. Our Western societies would not accept this kind of legal system where there is a separation between church and governments to allow to lerance of different religions.
  b) The muslim tradition of the second-class status of women and sometimes brutal and inhumance treatment of women is in direct conflict with the Western philosophy on how we treat women.
  3. a) How did it come about that the Sunnis don’t have priests or religious leaders and the Shiites do with their imams?
  b) Did Muslim peoples acceptance of Gods will and leadership in all things keep them from making scientific discoveries?

  -Torri C

• 11    globalspartan // Oct 24, 2006 at 9:56 am

  1. After reading this article I understand more because of how well the article is wrote. For example the article goes indepth about the five pillars and learn one or two things new about the five pillars of the Islamic faith.

  2. Two conflicts between Sunni and Shiite could be that the Sunni’s believe that they are right in that Abu was next person to follow and the shiite believe that is was Ali. Another problem could be that since there is a lot more Sunni Muslims than Shiite Muslims a war could breakout between this two factions.

  3. I really did not understand the on Muslims Family Law of why don’t woman has as much freedoms as men?

• 12    globalspartan // Oct 24, 2006 at 9:56 am

  last post was Nick D.

• 13    globalspartan // Oct 24, 2006 at 10:15 am

  1- Islam is an anomaly to most people, myself included. This author seemed to aggressively present Islam as a moral and justr religion. I agree with him. Sufism, the cultish branch group of Islam is a very intresting subject to me. The organization of islam seems to have many parrellels to the Catholic church. The catholic church is a grand institution that became divided (Protestant and Catholic, Shite and Sunni). These groups took their own direction but stayed fundamentally the same. Sufism can be compared to hermeticism and saint worship in the European middle ages.
  2- Islamic beliefs and western societies…. Since the conquest of Asia minor, and Moorish Spain, Islamic influence has had a stranglehold on European society. Europeans feel threatened by the large numbers of muslim immigrants that pour into their countries each year. The fear of culture-loss is enormous in the old-world societies of Austria, Holland, France and England (among many others). Besides the racial component of this fear, Europeans feel that Islam, which in itself is a culture and a religion, will smother the traditions of Europe. Head-scarves have taken the brunt of this cultural paranoia in England and France. France tried installing legislation that would prevent muslim girls from wearing their scarves in school- this failed miserably, in effect, it helped spur the youth riots that took hold of Parisian suburbs two years ago. England on the other hand has become vocal in expressing it’s (white, Christian, majority) dislike for headscarves. This cultural insensitivity is justifiable but selfish and prejudiced. It’s only a matter of time before such minor differences will become such.
  3- A-SO if I asked a muslim man, “Do you and me worship the same God?” what would he say?
  B- How do cultural maladies (drugs, crime, etc) compare between Islamic states and Western Societies as a whole?
  -Ro-ro

• 14    globalspartan // Oct 24, 2006 at 10:17 am

  1) This article helped me understand Islam better in mostly all aspects of the Religion. I never knew that Muhammad had such a rough childhood for being a prophet. Also it made me understand how unfair it is for women to bare all responsibility on raising the child.

  2) Between Sunni and Shiite Muslims they have a difference in law which could provide them with conflict because the Shiites developed their own legal school, whose legal authority was Imam. While the Sunni Muslims follow Hanifah or shafi’i. The other thing that separates the two and could start conflict is the fact that Shiite Muslims think that humans are free agents of God who are responsible for their own action. While Sunnis believe otherwise.

  3) A. I would like to know more information about how the Islamic divorces are handled because it is unclear who gets more of the assets from the marriage.
  B. Also I would like to know what the Sunnis side is on the issue “are humans free agents of God?”

  (Jay Long)

• 15    globalspartan // Oct 24, 2006 at 1:41 pm

  1 the article helped me because it was legenthy i was able to read it mainly in class right after you gave it to me. the way the information was orginized helped me see the information in my head. while most of the information you give us in class this seems like it is ment to be learned without knowlage inorder to teach one about islam.

  2 the problem with islamic beliefs and western secioty is that in western secioty there is and must be a distinction between religion and state. in islamic belifs there can not be any distinction between the two they should be one main group not seperate.

  3 i would like to know more about the devorce system because that just did not make any sence to me at all.
  and i want to know more about the books because a few are mentioned and i thought there was only one?
  joseph affel i was soo sick all weekend that i was in bed most of the time. so i am publishing these comment thingys now rather when they were due.

• 16    globalspartan // Oct 24, 2006 at 10:30 pm

  1. I thought this article was really good. A lot of the articles we read tend to bash on a certain situation and only give a one sided point. This article gave you a situation that most people lean towards but the article defends that and teaches the reader about the specific Islam religion. I thought the way to author broke down the specific groups in the religion and explained both of their sides made it really interesting and easy to interprate why the religion is the way it is.

  2. One major conflict between the Sunni and the Shiites is the diagreements between who is going to replace muhammad The Sunni believe that a man who is elected and who is educated and knows the religion well should be elected, but the Shiites believe the the next generation from muhammah who is his cousin should take on the responsibility because it comes with the family name and the powers are brought down from generation to generation

  3. What are the specifics about the family situations referring to the land ownership. Does the wife have full ownership of the land and does she live on it by herself or is that where the family lives?
  I also was curious about the restrictions on schools. Are women alloud to attend school just like the men? Are they privledged to the same education?

  ALEX S.

• 17    globalspartan // Oct 31, 2006 at 5:32 pm

  1. This article helped me to understand the religion of Islam much better, seeing as how i knew close to nothing before hand. Hows it is broken down into different sub-categores; i.e. The Five Pillars of Islam, Muslim Family Law, etc.; helps most of all because otherwise it would be all jumbled up.

  2. Two potential area of conflict between Islamic beleifs and Western society are how sex is viewed and moralities.

  3. a)Why does Islamic beleifs force you to fast during the month of Ramadan?
  b) How many people followed the Islamic faith in the beginnings of the religion?

  -Dylan L.

• 18    Fashion Magazine Online // Oct 5, 2007 at 9:20 am

  Fashion Magazine Online…

  I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting…

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