mmp008's blog

The first step when Muslims get to Mecca they are suppose to cleanse the hands and feet. In Religion class we just used some good old bottled water and washed our hands. Second, the Muslims circumambulate around the Ka’aba seven times. Although Morningside couldn’t take the Intro to Religion class to Mecca we found a Ka’aba that was probably just as good as the original. We circled around a black cardboard box in the middle of the “M” seven times and one of the times we had to touch the Ka’aba. After circumambulating the Ka’aba, Muslims run between 2 hills seven times “looking for water”. They do this because Ishmael’s mother did this trying to find water for her dying son. And on the seventh time a natural spring appear and she can save her dying son. In our trip to Mecca, we ran between 2 trees 7 times. I’m just glad we didnt have to run up and down Dimmitt Hill. After finding water, Muslims stand in silence for a day, also known as Prejudgement Day. They think about death and judgement day on top of Mt. Arafat. We only stood in silence for one minute tho in our Morningside Mecca. After being silent, they cast rocks at the 3 pillars. They throw 7 stones at each pillar. They do this to remember Abraham casting out the devil. After the Muslims cast out the devil they return to the Ka’aba and recircumambulate the Ka’aba. And after that they sacrifice an animal by a halal butcher.

There are 5 basic misconceptions on the religion of Islam. The first misconception is that Muslims worship another God. That is false because Muslims are the people who practices the religion of Islam. The Islamic term for their God is Allah. The Islam prayer called the Shada is recited, “There is no God but God, Muhammad is the prophet of God”. The second misconception is that Muhammad is the “divine”. He isn’t the divine but simply the last prophet to be born. He is the prophet because Gabriel the angel talks to Muhammad and tells him to recite words which later become the words of the Koran. The third  one is that the Koran promotes violence and oppression of women. The Koran was given to Muhammad to tell people about Allah. It’s in comparable size to the New Testament.The fourth is that all Muslims are terrorists or believe in jihad. Jihad means struggle. They struggle to get over the inner struggle is the hardest. And the final misconception of the Islam religion is that all muslims are Arabs. Islam religion is spread throughtout the whole world. For every 2 Muslims in the United States, there are 200 Muslims in Southeast Asia. (Indonesia) And surprisingly Islam is the fastest growing religion.

Also with the Islam religion there are 5 main pillars. The first is saying and believeing in the Shahadah, the creed. Next its to participate in the Salat, which is saying prayer 5 times a day towards Mecca. Third, is Sawm, which is to fast during the month of Ramadan. Then, Zakat is random acts of charity and finally the Hajj is the pilgrimmage to Mecca.

Judaism is based off 5 things. The first is that it is a monotheistic religion, meaning it gives its God human attributes. The name given to the Jewish god is YWHW, (technically, you’re not suppose to say it!) And the Jewish people sing the Shema at the synagogues. The Shema states, “Hear O Israel, YWHH is your God, YHWH is one.”

The second is that it’s a textual religion, meaning that it follows out of the tanak. The Tanak is also known as the Hebrew Bible, it is different than the Christian Bible because the Tanak is only the Old Testament. The Tanak is made up of 3 texts. The Torah, which are the rules for living, is the first the first book. The second is theh Neviim, it is the historical part of the Tanak. And the third book of the Tanak is the Ketuvim, which are the writings. Also in the Tanak there are 4 story covenants. God will never flood the Earth again(Noah). God will provide land and descendants(Abraham). God will be “their God”, people will keep the Torah(Moses). God will give an eternal Kingdom and will dwell in the temple forever(David).

The third is that its a religion of the land. Israel is the place to be. In Israel the North half is lush and green, and the South half is dry and “dead”. There is a lot of fighting in Israel because everyone is fighting over Jersulam, “the holiest of the holiest”.

The fourth is that is a Ritual-Oriented Religion. For example, a daily ritual is Kosher which is appropirate food and dress. A weekly ritual is sabbath and to rest on the sabbath.

The last trait of Judaism  is that it is a nonpilgrimage religion. Some religions that they celebrate yearly is Yon Kippur (Day of Atonement) Yon Kippur is mostly spent praying and fasting for 25 hours in the synagogues. They also celebrate Rosh Hashanah also known as the Jewish New Year.  And lastly the holiday of the Passover which is celebrated to remember Exodus when Moses freed the slaves from the pharoah.

This weeks reading was about the Wall Street and the protesting that is going on all over the world. I found it interesting that so many types of people that sitting in on the protest. For example that homeless man who rode a freight train just to say he screwed the government. I want to shake that man’s hand. And the lady who has social security and is retired, she still found the need to go out and support the next generation that probably won’t have social security.

To be honest I don’t have a clue on what’s going on because I don’t watch the news. I hate watching the news because it is seems like it is full of bad news today. But by what I’ve heard its not good and its probably not going to get any better for a while. A lot of people are blaming Obama, and he may be to blame but he couldn’t have done this without help from some other people..

In the reading, “Offensive play”, by Malcolm Gladwell, his exigence is the dangerous effects that contact sports, such as football and boxing have on the athletes brain.After years of hard hits to the head the brain starts to get injured and leads to negative changes in a person. The audience for this reading would be the athletes themselves, by reading this they can learn the negative parts of being in a contact sport over a period of time. It could also be directed to the makers of football helmets. They could be trying to make a helmet that helps prevent such hard blows to the brain. The constraints are that that type of technology isn’t necessarily known yet. And we can’t stop football because it is such a crowd pleaser, a lot of people would be mad.