Personal Narrative: Islam

Islam originated in present day Saudi Arabia where the prophet, Muhammad, had been born. Islam would later be able to spread quickly through trade, the appealing nature of the Islamic faith, and military campaigns.

Every paper, no matter how well written needs to be revised and edited as time goes on. In some ways, life is similar. We all go through changes that influence us and shape the direction we are headed. Some of these changes come from our own prerogative while others are inspired by friends and family members. I know that my worldview has gone through this revision process. Even looking back to freshman year I had many of the same ideals, same focuses on values and hard work, but over time they have come to manifest themselves in different ways. For instance, I am much more willing to share my beliefs and opinions on controversial issues. This developed as I came to realize my ideas are worth arguing for and I gained a knowledge of

Jamal Wallis at the start is a student attending a normal normal high school and is also decent at basketball. While Jamal openly doesn’t like school he is smart and a good writer. Things take a turn for the better after he accidentally leaves his pack after a bet but Forrester drops it to him with his edited writings. Jamal also starts attending a better school due to very good test scores. He starts to befriend Forrester and slowly Jamal becomes his student. Jamal's writing is too good however and his teacher thinks he isn’t the writer. He then turns in something referencing Forrester which Forrester said never to do. Jamal then must win states so that he can keep attending but, he purposely misses two easy shots. Forrester then comes into his class and states his friendship with Jamal and Jamal is dismissed from charges and

It started when I was 12. When the clock changed from 1999 to 2000, numbers appeared over everyone’s heads. I didn’t bother to tell anyone about it because I’d seen enough movies to know no one would believe me. I couldn’t ever see my own number, not in photographs or mirrors. My mother was a three and my father was a two. It took me three years to figure out what the numbers meant.

Wherever we are and in whatever time we happen to live, we cannot avoid asking the basic questions of who we are, where we came from, what we are doing here, and where we are going. In everyone's life, especially when one is young, these basic questions arise in the mind, often with force, and demand answers from us. Many simply push them aside or remain satisfied with established answers provided by others in their family or community. In traditional societies such answers always came from the teachings of religion, and to a great extent they still do for the majority of people in many parts of the world. But there have always been and still are today the few who take the question "who am I?" seriously and existentially and who are not satisfied with answers provided by others. Rather, they seek to find the

On June 13th, 2016, 49 people were killed and 53 were injured in an anti-LGBTQIA+ shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Following the shooting, many queer and trans* people of color demanded media coverage to specify that that shooter targeted Latino, Indigenous, and Black people. However, while doing so, other queers and allies took to attacking Islam -- claiming that religious extremism motivated the attack. But, amidst demands of looking at the identity of both the shooter and victims, the perspectives of LGBTQIA+ Muslims were erased. Such noted, in this paper, I hope to investigate other instances how Queer Muslim narrative have been erased by American mass media. To build my argument, I will be relying on Raham’s theory of ‘queer intersectional identities’ and Hoodfar’s meditations on the theoretical construction of ‘the Muslim woman’ and ‘the veil’. Moreover, (methods - comparative historical analysis). This is to ultimately argue that assumptions of incompatibility between various Muslims cultures and LGBTQ+ identities are responsible with erasing Queer Muslim American narratives.

Ever since I was young, I have seen the world in a different light. I owe this in part to being an American Ismaili Muslim. Each experience I have had has built me into the person I am today. From Golden Jubilee in 2007 to events like 9/11, I have learned to see people, my environment, and other cultures in a unique way. After 9/11, many people viewed Muslims differently. We were held responsible for what happened and have felt the backlash since. I remember when I was young, students would not invite me to their birthday parties in fear. This had a profound impact on me. At first, I blamed myself, and began secluding myself from my friends. It was only later on, through the guidance I received in religious education, that I realized that I

Today, word of “Islam” connected with more terrorism and violence. Here, article “Islam” by Vincent J O’Malley explains about what is Islam in real sense. According to O’Malley, connection between world second largest religion Islam and terrorism makes very different and negative scenario towards Islam religion in the world population. He explained Islam through different question related religion and philosophy in the article. He started with Muhammad’s life and his background with first question. According to O’Malley, Muhammad was born in 570 in the area of Arabian Peninsula at Mecca. Muhammad was raised by grandfather in the begging and, after he was taken by his paternal uncle. He also describe about Muhammad personal life that he was married with Khadija while he was 25 years old. After first question about Muhammad’s personal life, he moved to the next question of Muhammad’s religious insight. In the begging Muhammad was believed in polytheism but latter on changed with monotheism. According to O’Malley, monotheism means “there is no god but God”. He also explain, Muhammad was borrowed some stuff from the Christianity and Judaism to develop his own religion. Muhammad included some old and New Testament from the Christianity regarding Jesus, Mary and John. After discussing about Muhammad’s religion, Writer O’Malley moved to next question about begin of Muslims calendar. So, the whole idea about beginning of Muslim calendar has explain about beginning of Islam religion.

Growing up in Ethiopia I hated wearing the hijab. I hated waking up every morning and covering my beautiful thick black hair. I was always surrounded by Non-Muslims and wanted to show my hair just like they were. Whenever I was tempted to be like almost everyone else, I would be reminded of my culture and my religion. The Somali culture is one of the most austere cultures in the world. It gives you little to no freedom and scrutinizes a woman’s every move. Not only will they be the talk of the town for just wearing pants or even letting their neck show, their mother will take most of the heat as “she should’ve taught them better.” In that environment, I lost confidence in my religion as people used it to justify their opinions of me and my

On February 5th, 2016, I left Islam. Growing up in a conservative religious family in Saudi Arabia made Islam seem like everything. Empowering Islam was my purpose in life. Islam answered all of the big questions I had. Islam was my Identity. Losing my faith was not easy especially because the Muslim community showed people who lose their faith as lost, depressed, and suicidal. Without knowing it, after I lost my faith, I started to follow that stereotype. I felt like I was alone and there was no one like me. I was afraid to tell anyone because in Islam and Saudi Arabia apostasy is punishable by death. I finally got the courage to tell my older brother and he

One day, peeking out into the rapidly developing, peaceful, beautiful nation when chaos spread. Our Country was being attacked. Word spread out Iraqi forces started attacking our borders. I, being chief of the Kuwaiti military acted by informing out countries leader. Whom called border control suddenly and placed the country on lockdown. Stopping any external threat immediately, However internally trouble spread. People thought this was the beginning of the end of this country.

"Islam" is derived from the Arabic root salaama meaning peace, purity, submission and obedience. Islam stands for making peace by submitting to the will of God and obeying His law. Jews and Christians view Islam as the latest of the world's great religions. However, worldwide Muslims (sometimes written "Moslems") understand their universal religion as the "final religion" and the "primal religion."

For my paper I decided to choose the religion of Islam. I decided to pick this religion because of its fast growing rate. It is also different from what I am used to growing up with, so I was interested in learning more. I had learned some basic facts after the 9/11 event, but the Muslim religion and culture was still a mystery to me. Picking this topic has helped me learn more about Muslims and will help me better relate to them in my future work.

Islam is one of the oldest religions in history dating back to about 600 AD. It began when a man named Muhammad heard a voice from the heavens instructing him to proclaim the word of god. Currently there are over 800 million followers of the Muslim religion. The main text of the religion is the Quran which is said to be the word of God, or Allah as called in Muslim. Within the Quran, The five pillars of Islam are proclaimed along with many other concepts very unique to the Muslim religion. Prayer is a very important aspect of Islam as well. Islam has a long history of invention, heritage, and world imperialism that must be understood to completely identify with the concepts of the religion and culture.

The objective of this research paper is to examine literature to gain an enlightened perspective into the idea of the “Islamic State” in regards to the Middle East and other traditionally Islamic territories. To gain this insight the theories and ideas of noted Islamic scholars like Maududi, Tahtawi will be probed and analyzed. Tahtawi in particular is a scholar of importance in regard to the idea of the nationalism and the “nation state” in Islam. The ideas he acknowledged and adopted from his travels from France are key to look at. However, it is necessary to play homage to the practice/idea of “democracy” or in Maududi’s case “TheoDemocracy”. These theories and the themes for an Islamic state were bred under liberal societies as well as democratic functioning states for Tahtawi, but these tools were given to man already in Maududi’s view. What did Islamic scholars like Tahtawi and Maududi believe the benefit and advantages would be from pursuing their models for governance under Islam and eventually an “Islamic State”?