Prayer : Fasting, Faith, And Football

For this paper, I have chosen to interview an acquaintance of mine who is a devote Muslim and follower of Islam. For the sake of this assignment I will be referring to him under the pseudonym of Jack. I spoke with Jack about some wide-ranging topics discussing things such as, media, bias, stereotypes, and really in general what being a follower of Islam is like in this divided country right now. In our country, today it’s pretty apparent there is a type of fear of Muslims, so much so that 7 heavy populated Muslim countries are not permitted from entering the United States of America. I never had conversations as personal as this with Jack and I feel as if I gained a lot of insight into the types of things minorities, and especially Muslims

The First Amendments is a blessing that the United States is fortunate enough to have. First and foremost, First Amendment protects the right to freedom of religion and expression, without any government interference ("First Amendment" n.p.). The freedom of expression includes the right to free speech, press, assembly, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances ("First Amendment" n.p.). Redress of grievances guarantees people the right to ask the government to provide relief for a wrong through courts or other governmental action ("First Amendment" n.p.). People are allowed to practice their own religions and do not have to conform to one religion, all because of the First Amendment. People's rights are protected with no government interference.

Our first amendment to the United States Constitution reads; Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the

Growing up as a first generation Pakistani American Muslim not only came with the benefits of being exposed to different cultures, but it also came with a continuing challenge to incorporate the two cultures and my religion into the society we lived in. There was always a need to be more American, more Pakistani, while respecting the boundaries of religion. When we went to school, we weren’t American enough, when visiting Pakistan we were often labeled with the acronym ABCD- American Born Confused Desi. We were neither here, nor there. No matter how hard we tried to assimilate into the two societies, we could feel the absence of understanding and acceptance. This search for an identity not only allowed me to easily interact with people facing similar dilemmas, but it allowed me to embrace culture, religion, and people that were different.

Americans strongly affirm the principles of religious freedom, religious tolerance, and separation of church and state. Nearly 9-in-10 (88 percent) Americans agree that America was founded on the idea of religious freedom for everyone, including religious groups that are unpopular. Ninety-five percent of Americans agree that all religious books should be treated with respect even if we don’t share the religious beliefs of those who use them. Nearly two-thirds (66 percent) of Americans agree that we must maintain a strict separation of church and state. Americans’ views of Muslims and Islam are mixed, however. As with other previously marginalized religious groups in U.S. history, Americans are grappling with the questions Islam poses to

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees American citizens. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people

Zeba Khan writes this article in response to the absence of Muslim Americans in politics and in an effort to remedy the issue. The author builds her argument and convinces her audience through the use of an anecdote, evidence and statistics, as well as rhetorical questioning and vivid language.

Every single person in the United States have the right to express their religion of preference or no religion at all, however him or her wants without offending anybody, and the best way to protect religion’s liberty was by keeping the government out if it and creating this First Amendment freedom of religion, to separate the church from the state.

On the one hand, it is true that is I feel special to be a bicultural person and speak more than one language, and I love the fact that is I am a middle Eastern - American, but on the other hand, I face a numerous of challenges because of my identity for being an American with an Arab roots. Some of the challenges I face are; first racism. Secondly, stereotypes. Finally, keep maintaining the relationship and the value with the family and friends.

Lets face it, it can be very difficult today growing up as a Middle Easterner in today’s society,  I can personally recall a time where I went out with a few of my muslim friends; during this outing a white male bumped into a couple of my muslim friends and yelled “Watch out, don’t bomb me!”  Seeing the anger that this caused for my friends led me to realize that middle easterners are just like any other minority and maybe even worse.  Today, Arab Americans often have to question themselves who they truly are.  In the book Rethinking the Color Line article 18 by Moustafa Bayoumi, mentions that muslims face a mixture of suspicion, misunderstanding and fear. (Bayoumi 134) Ever since 9/11 occurred, society has had a negative assumption of all

The United States history is the history of immigrants. People from different countries came to the US for different reasons. Some came for political or religious freedom. Others came for economic status. Among those were Arabs. What is an Arab? What is an Arab American? Are these terms subject to negative treatment by others? What is it important to recognize these differences in the treatment of Arab-Americans and particularly in the work place and education?

On September 29th, 2014, a raucous Kansas City Chief’s stadium dismantled Tom Brady and the Patriots on Monday night football as an audience of over nine million viewers watched Hussain Abdullah of the Chiefs seal the game away with a “pick-six”. As Hussain ran into the end zone, he then proceeded to slide onto his knees and perform Salaat with a dome of fans cheering around him. Despite being a truly spectacular display, Hussain was rewarded instead by getting penalized for excessive celebration. This being said, although many avid sports fans may remember this result purely as one of the greatest deficits ever faced by the legendary New England Patriots, others may recall this event at a time that America showed how little we still know about religious traditions and the influences they play in peoples’ lives. What really intrigues me though is not why the flag was thrown, but why Hussain chose to perform Salaat instead. Out of one of the most defining career moments of his life, what was it that made him choose to do what he did? Due to this curiosity, I will discuss the various roles that Quranic readings and Muhammic teachings have to play in American athletes’ lives by analyzing the impacted lifestyles of Muhammad Ali, Mahmoud Abdul Rauf, and Ibtihaj Muhammad.

Throughout history religion has been connected to sport. The use of prayer is evident in the lives of athletes today and has been present in athlete’s lives for years. It is important to understand the reasons behind prayer before we explore prayer in sports. The decisions athletes make are impacted by their view of prayer. Grasping the reasons behind prayer will allow us to understand Europe’s history of religion and sport. Taking a look at Europe’s role in the integration of sport and religion will produce an idea of how important they were to the birth of sports ministry and to mending the tensions between two conflicting parties. Sports played a vital role in reducing conflict between Italy and the Roman Catholic Church.

When I chose the topic of Americanization of immigrant Muslim women, I think I expected a straightforward, easy to categorize, research project. On the contrary, what I found was surprisingly different. While I think of myself as a liberal, open-minded female, this project gave me a very new perspective on myself and many of my views as well. Muslim women living in the United States are quite honestly more diverse, more complex, more structured, more contemplative, and more culturally intuitive than I could have ever imagined in my limited experience and knowledge of them. The ‘Americanization’ I sought to illustrate turned out to resemble something closer to a religio-cultural tug-of-war than the predicted homogeneous

On the other hand, Muslim students of different nationalities work together on the formation of student associations and carrying out Salahs and other religious duties (Yasmeen & Markovic, 2014). The Muslim youth, which enters, for example, the United States, have clearly contrasting values and customs to the dominant ethnic group in the host country and accordingly adapt to the situation, taking