The Bridge Over The Drina

In a post September 11th broadcast, Osama bin Laden’s deputy describes the intermingling of various religions as “the tragedy of al-Andalus.” This reference highlights the overly romanticized characterization of religious tolerance in medieval Spain. Aptly known as La Convivencia, “the coexistence” in English, this period is noted by as a time of flourishing social, cultural, and economic advancement for the major religious groups residing in Spain. Although true in many ways, the notion that it was a time of extreme tolerance is a severe exaggeration, as is seen by the mistreatment and exile of Jews and Christians from Andalusia. Despite cases of non-Muslims rising to positions of authority, non-Islamic groups in Andalusia faced great discrimination

In the play ‘ A View From The Bridge” The protagonist Eddie, an Italian immigrant, seems to have complex relationship with who seems to be his wife’s orphaned niece Catherine throughout the whole play.

Overall, there are a number of similarities in the two faiths’ treatment of minority religions. Still, an examination of Medieval Christians' inter-faith relations finds a history of religious diplomacy much more fragmented than that of the Muslims. In Christianity, tolerance and persecution were part of the ebb and flow of the passage of power from one ruler to the next, as well as the power struggle between the church and the state. On the other hand, Muslims had no such struggle; their church and state were one and the same. Unlike Christians, they did not have separate laws for the sacred and profane, the secular and religious. The passage of power from one Islamic ruler to the next rarely brought with it radical amendments in the treatment of infidels, although exceptions did exist.

In the novel, The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson, the author capitalizes upon society’s expectation of a character to emphasize the struggle to achieving his goals. Ian, one of the central characters in the plot line, is heavily impacted by these expectations, which hold a substantial influence upon his decision’s regarding his future. To teenagers an expectation: a strong belief that something will happen or be the case in the future, is nothing but a restriction upon them. Ian believes he is contained within these expectations; to the point where he does not wish to follow this given path. In a time of adolescence, teenagers are compelled by the strong desire to denounce that which is expected of them; Ian is no exception to

Genocide, the planned murder of an entire nation, race, or ethnic group. From March 1, 1992 to December 14, 1995 that exact thing was happening in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Disagreement between the three main ethic groups (The Serbs, Croats, and the Muslims) proceeded in a genocide committed by the Serbs against the Muslims in Bosnia. Bosnia is one of several small countries that appeared from the break up of Yugoslavia, a multicultural country created after WW1 by the western allies. In April 1992 the government of the Yugoslavia republic of Bosnia stated its independence from Yugoslavia. Over the next several years, Bosnian Serbs commanded Yugoslavia army and targeted Bosniak (Bosnian Muslims) and Croatian civilians for terrible crimes resulting in the deaths of about 400,000 people. In other words, America should have helped in the Bosnia genocide.

This direct linkage between modernization and westernization is, in fact, historically inaccurate. The history of technology development has actually indicated that the ideology or culture doesn’t really influence the modernization. When adopting modernisation, countries, including Saudi Arabia, Israel, doesn’t necessarily need to change its own culture. While most Muslim-majority countries are still undeveloped countries, the driving force is not their culture, but instead the clash of civilization itself. The fault line wars characterised by Huntington in fact have majorly taken place in the Middle East, including the war on terror and the Arab–Israeli War. This clash of civilisation characterised by fault line wars, in fact, leads to the chaos and poverty there. The appearance of this pre-modern image of those Muslim Countries is not the justification for the westernisation but the result of the clash of civilizations. Therefore, the inverted causality is inaccurate, and shall be corrected, as the clash of civilization can, in fact, hardly help those

The theory of ‘convivencia’ between Christians, Jews and Muslims is considered to be the period in Medieval Spain in which the three Abrahamic religions were able to coexist and live together peacefully. The notion of convivencia not only refers to the overall tolerance of Christians and Jews to be able to practice their religion in Al-Andalus, it also incorporates the idea of members of these three faiths sharing a common culture, a language and working towards advancing civilisation through poetry, literature and science. Historians who have studied this issue are largely divided on whether this time period really was as harmonious as it is commonly described. Historians such as Bat Ye’or highlight the lack of convivencia by placing emphasis on how leaders of Al-Andalus would enforce rules such as granting non-Muslims with the status of dhimmi, essentially making them second-class citizens which by today’s standards would undoubtedly lead to the theory of convivencia being somewhat unpersuasive. However, relative to this era, Islamic Iberia was the apex of religious tolerance, immensely surpassing the level of tolerance in surrounding nations and empires. Montgomery Watt goes as far to say that under Muslim rule, Jews and Christians were considered as “People of the Book” who were to be a

From 1992 to 1995, Bosnia experienced an extended period of turbulence due to a Serbian nationalist movement that resulted in violent upheaval. After many years of being part of an empire or another country, Bosnia finally gained the opportunity to be independent in 1992. Yet there was little reason to rejoice independence when many non-Serbs were dispossessed of their home in Bosnia. Although this genocide was coined “ethnic cleansing,” in the early stages, the devastating casualties and human rights violations mark this event as one of the worst mass killings since the Holocaust.

According to Amin Maalouf, “It seems clear that the Arab East still sees the West as a natural enemy. Against that enemy, any hostile action-be it political, military, or based on oil-is considered no more than legitimate vengeance. And there can be no doubt that the schism between these two worlds dates from the Crusades, deeply felt by the Arabs, even today, as an act of rape” (Amin Maalouf). When reflecting on The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, this quote always sticks out as the most powerful piece of Maalouf’s work. As a growing college student this quote brings harsh reality to the world I live in. I believe as you grow through life, you become more and more aware of the world around you through education. In order to

According to Amin Maalouf, “It seems clear that the Arab East still sees the West as a natural enemy. Against that enemy, any hostile action-be it political, military, or based on oil-is considered no more than legitimate vengeance. And there can be no doubt that the schism between these two worlds dates from the Crusades, deeply felt by the Arabs, even today, as an act of rape” (Amin Maalouf). When reflecting on The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, this quote always sticks out as the most powerful piece of Maalouf’s work. As a growing college student this quote brings harsh reality to the world I live in. I believe as you grow through life, you become more and more aware of the world around you through education. In order to be aware you must

It is important to note that Islam and Muslim society as a whole is depicted differently by different scholars. The depiction of the Muslim culture is mainly prejudicial and biased based on the faith and beliefs of the scholars. Most Christian scholars have consistently and unapologetically presented Islam and Muslim society as violent, evil, and idolatrous. The aim of this paper is to analyze how Islam and Muslim community is highlighted in the “Song of Roland” and the ‘Life of Saint Louis.” Both scholars depict Islam and Muslim society as unquestionably evil,

The Middle East is infamous for its brutal religion-based society, and it has held this reputation for well over the past thousand years. Due to its close proximity to the Middle East, Europe has developed a tendency to attempt to control and force the Middle East into a mold that they considered civilized and ideal. Although a modern war such as the Soviet War in Afghanistan, at first glance, seems to have very little in common with the First Crusade, from the circumstances surrounding the two conflicts, the two sides involved, and the difficulties that the invaders faced the two wars are surprisingly very akin to each other.

When observing the Pied Noirs, we see that their ‘Algerianess’ is unimportant with the Arabs and Berbers regardless of their residence in Algeria. This is understood by examining the quality of life of the Pied Noirs through their interactions with the Arabs and Berbers and what had become of them after the Battle of Algiers. The Algerian culture as presented by the Arabs and Berbers in The Stranger and in Savage War of Peace was very different from the French culture in Algeria at the time. The differences in language, religion, and lifestyle provide an understanding of what would define a Pied Noir’s ‘Algerianess’.

Over a thousand years ago, Europe experienced one of its greatest periods of cultural enlightenment.Islam in Spain has had a fundamental presence in the culture and history of the nation. The religion was present inmodern Spanish soil from 711 until 1492 under the rule of the Arabs and Moors of al-Andalus.Islamic Spain was a multi-cultural mix of the people of three great monotheistic religions: Muslims,Christians, and Jews.For more than three centuries in Medieval Spain, Muslims, Jews and Christians lived together and prospered in a thriving multicultural civilization. Here, remarkable individuals of different faiths made lasting contributions in such areas as poetry, art, architecture, music, dining etiquette, science, agriculture,

The work of literature “Midaq Alley” by Naguib Mahfouz introduces the audience an Arab culture through his descriptions of different characters. Each character is used as an analogue, representing people in the alley with different beliefs and ambitions. Moreover, the characteristics of Mahfouz’s characters also draw international readers’ attention concerning how westernization takes place.