Intro to Religion Blog

Last week in class we went on a little pilgrimage. First we started by washing our hands through a process called purification. Next we circled the “Kaba” seven times counter clockwise. The Kaba is a HUGE black building with gold on it. Next we had to run in between two hills that represented two big hills located in the dessert. The reason we do this is because it started when a women was searching for water for her child and then after running from hill top to hill top seven times. The women then finds water in a spring and gets to drink. Next we moved on to a hillside to stand for one minute without moving and just thinking. In a real pilgrimage you would stand on the hillside for one whole day praying and thinking about the world ending. On the fifth day you go to visit 3 pillars and throw 7 stones at each of them. The final thing to do in a pilgrimage is to sacrifice a lamb.

In class we learned the top 5 misconceptions of Islam. I honestly was one of the people that believed in these. I think that has to do with how the media presents the news to us. Well the media doesn’t even know what they are talking about because Islam is a religion and Muslim is a person. The media thinks that the word means the same thing and clearly they do not. Another thing the media leads us to believe is that ALL Muslims are terrorists. This is sooooo untrue and pathetic that people would think that. Have they ever heard of guilty by association? Yeah well there are good people everywhere so who are they to “label” people? And with the good always comes the bad unfortunately. Look at us Christians for example. We all like to think that we live the perfect life and always do the good thing but that is not true. We may go to church but actions speak louder than words. At the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta there was bombing that killed many children. The bomber is still unknown but the officials say that is was someone protesting against abortion. Not saying that and terrorist is right but at least when Muslims attack they are proud of it and let it be known it was them. I just feel that we as a society need to watch how we “label” people just because of what groups they belong to or what they believe in. I think this happens more about religion than with other topics because people are so touchy about the topic.