Islamophobia and radicals

Islamophobia and radicals

Do you know the word “Islamophobia”?  This word means one of the phobias. There are some people who have a fear of Islam.

     “Islamophobia is actually very old. In the French colony of Algeria a preconceived negative image was used to deprive the colonized of their property rights and civil rights: according to the décret Crémieux (1870) they could become French citizens and recover their rights as citizens insofar as they rejected their Muslim faith – which of course very few did. If they did not, they lost their rights and liberties and, thus, became fair game for the colonizers.”(Catherine Delcroix 2011)

     We can say islamophobia is discrimination against Muslims. After 9.11, many American people came to feel fear, uneasiness, and hatred when they see Muslim. I understand there are many people they remind terrorism, war or conflict when they see Muslims. Actually, I was one of them. But I become not one of them after I study a little about Islam. The important thing is there are radicals who act terrorism.

 Radicals are muslim who want to establish Islam nation by violence way as Jihad. They extremely hate the intervention of heathen and they act terrorism to express their retaliation.

If you hear the word “radical”, you may remind Osama Bin Laden or Taliban. But radical is not only them. Following groups act terrorism and act in their own place.

・Hamas　　　　─────	Hamas means “Islamic Resistance Movement” and it also means “a violent emotion” in Arabic. The alliance against Israel composed of Palestinian
・Islamic Salvation Front─	The organization that formed against national liberation front in Algeria.
・Taliban　　─────	The Islamic fundamentalism power in Afghanistan. The word “Taliban” means “students” in Arabic. This is formed by student who are educated and trained theologically and military in the Islamic theological seminary. Taliban ruled Afghanistan and confronted Shia Islam(the sect that recognize only Ali, the 4th Islam Residuum, and his descendant as Caliph). A wirepuller is Osama bin Laden.
・Hezbollah　　─────	The word “Hezbollah” means “a party of god”. The Islamic fundamentalism power in Lebanon. This was formed by support by Iran and confront the military of Lebanon that help Israel based on support by Iran and Syria.

What should International society do to restraint the act of radicals? The big reason of act of radical is the attitude of America. They try to stop terrorism by military power. Islamic people watched the misery pictures that American military ill-treat Iraqi. So young people hate America and that is help for radicals because angry young people become easy to be influenced by radicals. So, international society, especially America, should not take aggressive attitude. And most important thing is to support moderate Islam leaders. As I write from the 1^st blog, Islam is not dangerous religion and Muslim have tender heart and strong belief in god. So, they have strong sense of unity. If international society support appropriate leader, Islam country become really strong country. The first thing we should is to learn about Islam and stop the discrimination on Muslim.  

Reference

What is Islamic fundamentalism? (2003). Periodic lecture. Retrieved Jury 16,2012 from http://www.wombat.zaq.ne.jp/matsumuro/LEC13-10.html

Tadashi,M.(2006) Modern Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism. The foreign legislation.229.pp228-244Retrieved jury 16, 2012 from http://www.ndl.go.jp/jp/data/publication/legis/228/022815.pdf

Catherine D.(2011) Negotiating Islamophobia: Exit, Voice, and Loyalty. GLOBAL DIALOGUE 2.2 pp3-5 Retrieved Jury 16, 2012 from http://www.isa-sociology.org/global-dialogue/2011/11/negotiating-islamophobia-exit-voice-and-loyalty/

The life of Muslim women

The life of Muslim women

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Kato Satona

I didn’t think that Islam was kind to women. I heard Muslim women can’t wear what they want to, can’t drive car and can’t fall in love with man they chose freely. Are those true?

Fashion and Shopping

     Enjoying fashion is important things for women. Can Muslim women enjoy fashion? I am going to write about fashion in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is one of the countries whose state religion is Islam. When I hear Saudi Arabian women, I imagine women wear cloth that coverer the whole body and masks. We can only see their eyes. So we think that they can’t enjoy fashion.

But, actually, there is no rule that decide what they should wear under the cloth called Abaya. Abaya is a cloth to cover from neck to foot like a mantle. Saudi Arabian women wear modern cloth under the Abaya. This is not only in Saudi Arabia but in many Islamic countries.

 Muslim women enjoy fashion, but they can show only women, their husband, parents, brother, father-in-low, nephew, a little children their cloth under the Abaya. This is the rule written in Koran (“Koran” chapter24:31). But, women want to stand out when they are in the place only for women or only relatives.

 So there are a lot of shopping malls. Recently, people in wealthy Islamic countries came to get information about the latest fashion by developing Internet, increasing the number of people who travel abroad. There are some European and American brand shops. Of course, there are a lot of shops that sale Abaya. There are many Abaya whose figure is modern.

And shopping malls also develop. Some shopping malls have the floor only for women. Men can’t enter that floor. Women enjoy shopping without Abaya or their mask called Niqab.

Love

     Generally, in Islamic country, women marry man who their parents introduce. There is little marriage for love. Muslim women don’t have opportunity to communicate with man except relatives. Muslim men can’t see even face of women except relatives.

Car

     In strict Islam country like Saudi Arabia, women can’t get a license. But there is movement to get the light to drive by women.

Women who are treated cruelly

     In Afghanistan, when the Taliban control country, women were treated cruelly. We can see cruel information or picture about their treatment of women. These have great influence on us. Some of us may have a misunderstanding of these. Taliban is one of the groups of Islamic fundamentalism. They are radicals. I want to write about radicals someday.  We should understand not all Islamic countries treat women cruelly.

Conclusion

     What do you think after read above? Is Islam country discriminatory for women? Is Islam country kind for women? There are a lot of rule restrict women’s action. Is it a rule for protecting women? There are a lot of answers because of our different perspectives.

References

Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO). (2012, March). A market survey of women fashion in Saudi Arabia. http://www.jetro.go.jp/jfile/report/07000937/sa_fashion.pdf

Sakurai, k. (2004, November). Women in modern Iran and Islam culture. ACCU News, 346, 4. http://www.accu.or.jp/jp/accunews/news346/346_01.pdf

Review

Professor asked Mitsumi to say “Shameless” emotionally in Japanese. Mitsumi said “Hazisarasi!” That means “bring shame on you”. I laughed because classmates laughed. But, actually I didn’t know the mean of “Shameless”, too.

Kato Satona

The rules of Islam

The rules of Islam

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Kato Satona

Eleven years ago, on 9.11, I saw shocking image on the TV. At that time I was a second year student in elementary school and I got a bad image of Islam. But in high school, I learn world history, and I find Islam is not dangerous religion. And I think it is very interesting religion. And I want to learn more in university. So I am going to write about the Islam, its teachings, problem, radicals, and modern life. And today, I want to write about what is Islam.

“The religion and philosophy of Islam, is based upon the belief that God (Allah) transmitted knowledge to Muhammad (c. 570–632) and other prophets (Adam, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus). The followers of Islamic religion, muslims, believe that this revelation to humanity was written down in the Quran, which is the word of God.”[1]
The theology of the Islamic scriptures informs most aspects of muslim life and culture. There are Five Pillars and six basic beliefs of Islam.

The Five Pillars are

“Shahahada” -confessing every time muslim worship

“Salat”- pray god five times a day

“Zakat”- pay money to the poor

“Ramadan”- fast during Ramadan

“Hajj”- pilgrimage to Mecca, the holy ground of Islam

And the six basic beliefs are

“Allah”- one and only and absolute God, Almighty God

“Malaika”- an intermediary between God and people

“Kitab”- a divine revelation(Koran)

“Nabi”- all prophets and messengers

“Akhirat”- the day of judgement

“Qadar”- all action of people is created by God

And jihad is also important rule in Koran. Jihad is the word means fighting for Allah. Originally Muhammad told to fight against various enemies in our own heart. This word has wide meaning. This is the duty for community of muslim. And muslim have to fight as thorough their life depended on it. And also Koran say “Any type of aggression would make Jihad null and void” (2:190-191).

Radicals who cause terrorism often say that their action is one of the Jihad. But they give a broad interpretation. [2] Some muslim say “In islam, killing people who are innocent is most big crime. I was shocked when I hear the fact that Bin Laden declare of Jihad to America. Because Jihad is not such  meaning.”[3]

Muslim people pray five times every day even if they are in company, station, and so on. Most of Japanese people don’t have such a strong faith. So sometimes we can’t understand why they stick to religion. We must learn their history and belief more and more.

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[1] Introduction to Islamic Religion and Arabic Philosophers. Retrieved June 13, 2012, from http://www.spaceandmotion.com/religion-islam-muslim-islamic-quran.htm

[2] The study of Islam(4) about Jihad. The study of Islam. Retrieved June 13, 2012, from http://www.geocities.jp/jukutabi2/newpage6.htm

[3] “Jihad is not such meaning” confuse English muslim(2011). BLOGOS. Retrieved June 13, 2012, from http://blogos.com/article/23809/

Learn with World Map by Satona

In the Academic English class, our professor told us to draw a world map. I was very confused because I have never drawn world map without watching a model and I could not remember a shape of countries except Japan. And I could not draw island countries except Japan, Australia and New Zealand. I realized that I did not know much about world geographical features. Next, our professor told us to watch classmates’ map. I worried about my map’s quality. And I thought I didn’t want classmates to watch my map. But every classmate didn’t draw in detail and also most of them didn’t draw island countries except Japan. I thought that what I have to do was not to compare the quality of map, but to compare the differences in the way of drawing.

By the way, I expected that my classmates who came from foreign countries drew quite different map from mine because when I was an elementary school student, I heard other country’s world map is quite different from that of Japan. But all of my classmates are from Asia. So the part that we draw in the center of map was almost same. And I found that almost every one of classmates drew Japan and Japan in their map was big. But almost everyone did not draw Okinawa. And I found that some of classmates seemed to draw the world as one thing and others seemed to draw the world separately according to the continent. After we watched others’ map, professor asked us what we found. My classmates said a lot of points I did not find.

 I thought that it is exciting to hear various opinions and that there were various perspectives. And I thought I want to have more perspectives and to find more. It is very important thing to have many perspectives. When we have to solve some problems, we couldn’t solve if we have only one perspective. We have to consider a problem in all its aspects. I think this is the reason why we discuss. But we cannot always discuss. When you must decide by yourself, you need as many opinions as you can have. Because many opinion increase the amount of your choices and you can choose better answer. When you become a working member of society, you must do everything by yourself. You can’t rely on anyone. And society asks you for a right judgment. So we need many perspectives.

 After the class, I thought about this task’s purpose. Our professor didn’t say that. I want some reasons why we did this task. Why did our professor tell us to do these tasks? Did he want us to improve our skill to find differences? Did he want us to realize that we think about something from different perspectives? I tried to find this task’s purpose. But I couldn’t find. But I think I can find later. I don’t think that there are meaningless classes in all my life. If I can’t understand meaning of classes when I am participating, 

 Satona