Islam part ثلاثة

The current events in Egypt have, for me at least, drawn attention to the muslim world. However, for a revolt in the middle east, religion is playing a surprisingly small role. The majority of the focus seems to be on pure social change - after three decades of oppression and rigged elections, the Egyptian people finally had enough, and ejected Mubarak.

Not just egyptians, but Muslims all over the world were overjoyed by Mubarak's ejection from Egypt - namely, Muslims from Paterson, New Jersey. Our class visited a mosque, by pure chance on the day that Mubarak resigned. The half-hour sermon condemned Mubarak, saying that god put him in the position of power as a test, and he failed. This introduced a new facet of Islam, for me - I was already aware of Allah's omnipotence, but the idea that he sees humans as a project or an experiment was certainly new to me.

Islam Continued

As of yet, I'm still shaky on the concept of Islam, but it's becoming clearer. The main thing I'm seeing in Islam writing is its similarity to Christian texts - many passages, when translated, not only are similar to passages in the bible but are (almost word for word) in fact the same as biblical passages. For me, this transition is a littler easier to understand, given that Islam arose not long after christianity, and derived the basis of Islam from christianity, much like christianity derived their basics from judaism. They believe that, instead of being the son of God, that Jesus was simply a prophet. A very important prophet, given, but a prophet nonetheless. Here is where Islam is a little confusing and apparently counter-productive; they believe Jesus was never crucified, because they don't believe God would let that happen. However, they must acknowledge all the strife that has happened and is still happening in the modern world - their words seem misinformed in this sense.

But I'd like to talk a little more about the Qu'ran. In the 2006 film, V For Vendetta, the characters live in a world where Islam is all but banned. Any and all Qu'rans (Koran) have been burned, and owners will be arrested. A supporting character shows the main character his copy, and when she asks him why he has it, given that he isn't muslim, he simply states, "I don't have to be a Muslim to find its imagery and poetry beautiful." I have yet to fully read the Koran, but personally, I've enjoyed some of the passages I've read so far, as an appreciation for a body of literature as opposed to religious text. In the same way, I think it's a good idea for the sophomore english classes to read the bible - many religious texts have more to offer than merely preaching.

UNnderstanding Islam

As we move into our second semester and onto Islam, I find myself in an odd position. Although Islam is one of the most popular religions in the world, and especially prominent considering the current situation in Egypt, I'm not entirely sure what I know of Islam. Most of what I know is garnered from class time or passing facts from my mother - which is that Islam is an extension of Christianity like Christianity is an extension of Judaism, and passages from the Qu'ran are almost indifferentiable from passages from the Bible.

I suppose the best way I can reflect on my knowledge of Islam relates to the September 11th attacks. Growing up in England, I moved to America in August of 2001, almost exactly a month before the Trade Center attacks. I remember there being a lot of fuss and confusion around the time, not being sure exactly what was going on. I heard words on news channels condemning muslims and spouting "facts" about Islam and how it teaches Muslims to hate America, and whatever other ridiculous things you could imagine. I didn't know much about Islam, but almost instinctively I knew that the whole country needed to sit down and have a collective lesson about Islam, so everyone would better understand the group of people being targeted as a supposed enemy.

As far as better understanding Islam, hopefully a few more classes and a couple more pages of Novak will do the trick

Chinese Religions

There are two main chinese religions we've been studying, Daoism and Confucianism. There was an interesting saying I heard this chapter, that Chinese people would be Confucianists in public life, Daoists in private life, and Buddhists in death.

Daoism is controversial to me - the main concepts involve "going with the flow", and that you should act through inaction, essentially "just don't worry about doing anything, and everything will fall into place". Daoism has flexibility because of this though, and I took away from it that each individual can make of it what they will.

Confucianism seems to be more of a standard way of living than a personalized religion. In fact, Confucianism seems to not be really a religion at all, but more of a philosophical system. It has more domain in earth than in the heavens - the main concepts like ren and li are about respect to family.

Considering these, I can better understand the saying - confucianism is a standard for people, which people are expected to uphold in public, whereas in private life, people make of religion what they will, and choose their path, ending in death, which is basically the realm of buddhism.

Shintoism today

While Shintoism may have had a permeating role in the past in Japan, in recent times it has slipped into the background. In earlier times, Shinto was very animistic - Shintoists worshipped nature through the sun, trees, water, mountains, etc. There was no particular line between man and nature, they viewed everything as one (much like the concept of brahman).

In addition, Japanese philosophy is that a person never had to adhere to one specific religion. According to japan-101.com, "Premodern Japanese were usually both Buddhists and Shintoists at the same time and often Confucians as well."

While it has faded into the background, Shintoism is still alive and well at festivals and on certain holidays by shrines who have specific importance. Also, the traditional Japanese love of nature has not faded, and derives strongly from Shintoist concepts. While very few Japanese today are traditional Shinto practitioners, the soul of the religion still lives on in Japan, seemingly immovably intertwined with Japanese culture.

Source used: http://www.japan-101.com/culture/culture_religion_shintoism_today.htm

Buddhism

I find myself unable to fully relate to Buddhism - it is a religion that was born separated from western influences. Much like the Japanese and Chinese languages are indescribably different than English, both in form and characters, Buddhism and Christianity have few, if any, common links. Being raised to worship the Holy Trinity and hope to get into heaven based on a virtuous life is much different than being raised to believe that one's soul carries on in a cycle of life, death, and rebirth until one's mind becomes fully cleared and enlightened, followed by eternal nothingness, bliss - nirvana.

Beyond that, the lives of Buddhists follow very different paths than what I was raised with. I suppose meditation can relate to prayer, as mantras could relate to hymns or spoken prayer. However, shaving the head and wearing identical orange robes - I am both amazed and impressed by Buddhists' willingness to surrender their individuality for the sake of their religion, even if it is not required.

The stories of the religions' "messiahs" could be similar, although only in life - both Jesus and Buddha lived virtuous lives, not power-hungry, simply preaching what they believed in to those who believed in them. Neither believed in a "toll" to achieve the final happiness (be it heaven or nirvana) and for me, those qualities are ideal for a true leader.

The Eightfold Path

Buddhists have an interesting aspect of their religion called the eightfold path. It's made up by a number of disciplines (eight... big surprise) that collectively can lead to enlightenment. they include Right understanding, Right thought, Right speech, Right action, Right livelihood, Right effort (eliminate unwholesome thoughts, cultivate wholesome), Right mindfulness, and Right concentration (meditation, focus, still the mind). They are made up of three main groups: wisdom, ethics, and mental disciplines. It's interesting to see how each religion connects to other religions through their code of ethics, and living a life of righteousness. I would be interested to see how Buddhists would think of Christian ethics.

There are also four universal, "noble truths" that make up Buddhism. The first is that life is suffering and suffering is unavoidable. The second is that suffering is brought on by craving and want. Next, the suffering can be ended by letting go of these desires, ending in following the eightfold path. I personally found it odd to focus a religion so much around suffering, but it makes sense that the end balances it out.