The Dichotomy Between ' Commonwealth Literature ' And ' English Literature

She describes how the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) divides the world into two camps: the camp of Islam under the caliphate and the camp of the West under the crusaders. Muslims who have not joined either ISIL or the crusaders are said to inhabit the “gray zone.” To win, ISIL needs to eliminate the gray zone by forcing “the grayish” to choose between the two sides. However, the Moroccan-American author also contends with this black and white view of the world in the United States. She experiences this when people express that the only Muslims they see are

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

Islamic stereotypes are not new to Western culture. Problems can be traced back to the time of the Crusades, when Christians and Muslims were vying for control of Jerusalem. At

Islam, a religion of people submitting to one God, seeking peace and a way of life without sin, is always misunderstood throughout the world. What some consider act of bigotry, others believe it to be the lack of education and wrong portrayal of events in media; however, one cannot not justify the so little knowledge that America and Americans have about Islam and Muslims. Historically there are have been myths, many attacks on Islam and much confusion between Islam as a religion and Middle Easter culture that is always associated with it. This paper is meant to dispel, or rather educate about the big issues that plague people’s minds with false ideas and this will only be touching the surface.

There were 1.6 billion Muslims in the world as of 2010 – roughly 23% of the global population and Islam continues to be the fastest-growing major religion (Pew Research Center). Islamophobia and hatred towards Muslims has also been on the rise. “Islamophobia is prejudice towards or discrimination against Muslims due to their religion, or perceived religious, national, or ethnic identity associated with Islam” (Bridge.Georgetown). In our history we have witnessed many horrific acts of hatred and genocides such as the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide, to society and today 's people that was all in the past. In the books, “Night” by Elie Wiesel and “Forgotten Fire” by Adam Bagdasarian illustrates the conditions of victims having to go through these genocides, this shows the severity of prejudice and how affects people 's lives. The reality of it is that times have not changed that drastically and theses bloodcurdling events have seemed to repeated themselves in a new period of time with a new group oppressed people. Innocent people everyday are being targeted because of their religious backgrounds. These stereotypes of Muslims and Islam have become so widespread and the world 's perspectives have changed drastically. Society is undoubtedly witnessing a rapid uprising of a new era of hatred and genocide, just like in the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide in the form of Islamophobia, media propaganda, and false representations of Muslims being terrorists.

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.

David Eggers, in Zeitoun, shows a story of a Muslim American family living through many challenges. After 9/11 Muslim families, like the Zeitouns, face many problems living in America. Eggers wants to inform other Americans on the situation of Muslim living in the United States, present day. People who are uneducated about the Muslim religion need to be informed on how similar lives are of other people all around the United States. These people throw out stereotypes and aim judgments wrongly at the Zeitoun family. Unjust treatment of the Zeitoun family is a cause of assuming and stereotypes. In this biography, Eggers helps inform his readers about

To further this argument, research conducted by Dr Kevin Dunn (Christopher & Deresky 2008) exemplified how ‘marginalised’ the minority of Australian Muslims and people of Middle Eastern origin are in the Australian society. Australians are thought to be of the opinion that people with these cultural and religious backgrounds are the least likely to be able to fit into the culture of Australians (Christopher & Deresky, 2008).

The idea of a clash of civilizations can be originated largely to Samuel Huntington. He describes a future where the majority of human conflicts will be due to “cultural differences”. (Huntington). In The Butterfly Mosque, Willow Wilson, an American, travels to Egypt, converts to Islam, and marries an Egyptian man. This places her at the fault lines of two cultures. Through her experiences, she sees the frontlines of this clash of civilizations that Huntington predicted, and tries to uncover if she can thread the needle between her two cultures. In this paper, I will argue that through her experiences with Muslims in Tura, other Westerners in Egypt, and in reactions to her writings, she discovers that the clash of civilizations is real. This clash results in cruelty, fear, self-hatred, and an internal existential crisis in Willow that leaves her uncertain about whether or not she can navigate her internal clash of cultures.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight social and legal constructions of both Muslim femininities and masculinities in regards to race, gender, and the Canadian law. This essay will also explore the cultural challenges Muslims face in Canadian society and why there is still a big part of prejudice involved against them as well as examining cultural racism. Men and women are equal in humanity according to Islam; Islam doesn’t teach men to oppress his female counterpart. Women are not oppressed by ordaining to Islamic laws or by embracing the hijab. The culture of the colonizers use the ‘us and them’ or ‘other’ dichotomy as a way to oppress a social group and to grab their identity away. Muslim men have different identities then the one portrayed in the press. The identities of Muslim masculinity and femininity are wrongly shown in the press as an aberrant peoples

Literature is at the heart of the Australia English Curriculum and is integral to the teaching of language and literacy. Discuss how the children’s literature can be used to develop an understanding of the components of the language?

The United States is a unique country. It is part of a few other countries that allows its citizens to be free to express themselves. Like other countries, the United States has set a standard or a social requirement for its citizens. There seem to be a social requirement to only speak english, have english name, wear certain clothes or practice a certain religion, Christianity. To some foreigners, this seems to be the the American standard, however, there can never be one standard for Americans. People from all over come to the United States so they can have the ability to practice their own religion without fearing being targeted. America's culture is a mixture of other culture so there could not be one standard. However, some people are targeted because they do not fit into America’s standard. To emphasize, the practice of Islam appears to create issues for some Americans. Islamophobia is common in the United States. Some Americans fear to be seen a practicing Muslims. Some free is they express their different religion in America thy will be personally targeted. Therefore, some often try to fit in the false American standards. In this paper I will argue, Muslim feel pressured and obligated to fit the American standard

Although Middle-East Politics Club numbers fewer than 10, my hope is that our little organization can help my high school community embrace Muslim-Americans in the same way Americans have embraced so many other ethnic and religious groups. Addressing the issue will not be easy. Meetings and discussion groups are taking place to explore the possible reasons why Americans have a deep-seeded hostility towards Muslims. Our ultimate goal is to stem the ever-increasing antagonism towards Muslims through education. As Helen Keller said in her essay Optimism, “The highest result of education is tolerance.”

The objective of this work is to examine Islam, a highly controversial sensitive issue in today's world and specifically to examine the misconceptions, beliefs, and values of those of the Islamic faith. Most people think that the majority of Muslims live in the Middle East, while in reality there are more people of the Islamic faith living in Indonesia. Islam, just as Judaism and Christianity, is practiced in various cultures, serves to shape, and is shaped by those cultures. This study examines the perceptions of those of the three faiths in various countries and how they view one another and seek to answer how a level of threat is felt by those belonging to these three religious groups in various countries. Countries examined in this study include those of the United States, Great Britain, India, Pakistan, and the Middle East. The depth of understanding or the teachings of Islam among the various religious groups in these various countries will also be examined in terms of how these understandings impact the ways that Muslims and non-Muslims interact and communicate with one another.

As Peter Berger (1967) explained religion, it is a sacred canopy under which the entirety of life is explained and regulated. Secularization theory as explained by Weber holds that modernity challenges this sacred canopy through two major ways: increased cultural and structural pluralism and increased primacy of economic pursuits (Emerson and Hartman, 2006:129). With globalisation accelerating in the post Cold War era, causing mass migration across borders, increased interstate interaction and huge growth in the global financial market, it was predicted that religious influence would be relegated to the private sectors of social life by ripping the sacred canopy, and leaving people with, at best, sacred umbrellas (Smith 1998). Despite this, what secularization theory did not anticipate is that the demystification of the world provided within it the seeds both for the re-mystification of the world and resistance to the demystification (Berger, 1992:1). Hence the world today, with some exceptions, is as furiously religious as it ever was, in some places more so than ever (Berger, 1999:8). Since the 1970s there has been a particular rise in religious fundamentalist movements, as signalled by the Iranian Revolution in 1979 led by Ayatollah Khomeini, which led to the establishment of the first Islamic State. As Almond et al note, fundamentalist movements have risen to the highest levels of power in Sudan in 1993, Afghanistan and India in 1996, and in India again