In many types of English literature as well as society itself, the idea of us versus them, or you are with me, and against them, come into play. This idea of there being a lack of a grey area creates this black and white dichotomous separations that pit people or groups against each other. However, the false dichotomous, or binaries come with consequences and negative stereotypes in areas where they are applied liberally and incorrectly. In addition, when there is a gray area, the people in the middle ground often ignored or marginalized by the extremes. This binary of east versus west has only increased in the years since the World Trade Center attacks in New York City on September 11, 2001. However, while many look at the East and West as two mutually exclusive stories, both the East and West share an overlap in several major areas, including art, religion, religious and political freedom, and history.
Art has had a major influence in both Islamic, representing the East, and non-Islamic Christians, representing the West. In the book, My Name Is Red, author and famous Turkish novelist Orhan Pamukr, dissects the heart of 16th century Turkey as is straddles the edges of both Europe and Asia. Through his storytelling, Pamuk uses unusual perspectives to demonstrate the struggle against what some on the Turkish court considered a negative influence of the west creating the idea of the binary. While writing from unique outlooks, Pamuk also metaphorically uses red the color of love, describing Islam as the love between the Prophet Muhammad and Allah. This idea of a binary is exemplified between members of the Sultan’s inner circle or advisors and artists. In this tale of struggle, the book focuses on the court of Sultan Murat III, who r...
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...as of art, religion, and a false mutually exclusive history. This concept leads to divisions, and misunderstanding between regions and cultures. This idea that the West and East are mutually exclusive needs to be challenged continuously by scholars, leaders of faith, and the everyday historian.
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In the article “Modern-Day Witch Hunts”, Jamie Dailey focuses the attention on problems that Muslim Americans commonly face on a day-to-day basis. He first paints a picture by comparing the violent acts performed on Muslims to the Salem Witch trial in 1692. The Salem Witch trials resulted in 19 deaths of innocent individuals, because they were accused of witchcraft. Dailey goes on to explain in America, the type of persecution Muslims endure has many forms. A more recent controversy towards this religion involves the building of the Ground Zero Mosque in central New York. The name of this building is very misleading, especially to the eyes of an American. Even though this structure is actually built a few blocks away from where the former World Trade Center stood, problems have still risen from the public. Americans often mistake Muslims as the group of people who had performed acts of terrorism on American soil, when it was actually an Islamic group known as Al Qaeda. Mosques all across the United States started being vandalized by people protesting against their religion. This article shows how irrational fear can corrupt the thoughts of people.
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I chose to elaborate on two of Karen Armstrong’s themes from the first chapter of A History of God as I felt they were both very strong ideas. The first explains how cultural differences between North Africa and Europe during the Romantic Period affected white society’s failure to realize that Islam indeed worshipped the same deity. The second explains how Delacroix’s audience desired the imagery in the painting because people were, during this time, losing their concept of God.
The movie “American East” is base on how cultures react to each other after the twin tower attack. Mustafa is the owner of an Egyptian restaurant in Little Arabian road. Sam and Mustafa are great friends; they are planning to open up an Egyptian restaurant on Washington St. All the century of Jewish and Arabic’s fighting is making it hard for the friend to accomplish their dream. Sam as a business with his family and do not want Mustafa to be a partner, just a manager and the cook, but Sam says, “ We are American we can make a different and change…” (American East). The culture, appearance, and religion represent stereotype people that build fear just because someone else looks different.
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The Islamic tradition, as reflected in Naguib Mahfouz’s Zaabalawi, has over the course of history had an incredible impact on Arab culture. In Mahfouz’s time, Islamic practices combined with their political relevance proved a source of both great power and woe in Middle Eastern countries. As alluded to in Zaabalawi, Mahfouz asserts the fact that not all Muslims attain religious fulfillment through this common tradition, and other methods outside the scope of Islam may be necessary in true spiritual understanding.
Throughout human history power imbalances have been prevalent in almost every civilization. One method of controlling people, in addition to power power, is to control how much knowledge gets out to the masses. This paper examines how iconoclasm is used in the Middle East as a method of controlling popular opinions and thoughts on race,sex and many other important details of everyday life. Iconoclasm is the systemic destruction of religious or cultural pieces of artwork for political or religious reasons. The destruction of artifacts can rewrite cultural history and change opinions on how the history of a nation is perceived. This also results in extensive loss of cultural history which can never be recovered. The Middle East is of particular interest in this research paper as it has been in the news recently for such acts. Most Middle Eastern countries have Islam listed as their official religion. In Islam it is forbidden to show the face of Allah, the God of Islam, in any form of artwork. It is also seen as taboo to have any living creatures such as humans or animals depicted in a mosque, the Islamic place of worship. As such, many buildings which have been converted into mosques have been defaced to suit the proper Islamic code. One such incident of this happening is the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Once a Roman Catholic church, it was converted into a mosque after the conquer of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottoman Turks and all mosaics depicting Jesus, His mother and saints were removed. Another popular incident attributed to iconoclasm within Middle Eastern countries include the missing nose of the Sphinx in Egypt(World Heritage Site). One confirmed incident of iconoclasm in within the past few decades is of the defacing and d...
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These people are the people on either side of the line in the sand. It doesn't matter from whose perspective you view it from, “they” are all that is evil in the world, and “we” are the freedom-fighters, the few who fight against those who oppose us. Those hedonistic westerners with no morality. Those turban-wearing suicide bombers. Both are firmly convinced that “they” are the enemy, and “we” are fighting for what is right. But when right is a moving target, hiding behind various forces that obscure it for a multitude of reasons, how can anyone hope to hit it?
Before I ever became the middle-aged man who lurk the depths of Mecca in the year of 800, I never truly understood my religious identity. As a moppet, I, more or less, had been forced into what my wise formers followed. The material put forth to me was hard to get a gist of, which left me at a disoriented state for many years. In other words, my childhood and adolescence was filled up with “confusion”.
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September 11, 2001 forever changed the landscape of the generalized view of the Muslim community in the United States; these acts created a defining stereotypical image that all Muslim’s are extreme terrorists, or condone such behavior. Although this view of the Muslim community was not necessarily new, it was not widely acknowledged in America until the events of September 11th as it was continually thrust upon the public by print and news media. This study will discuss the dichotomy between representations of the Muslim community held by many in the Western culture as well as the psychological cause and effect of such depictions. The sociological “norms” as determined by popular American culture, the development of “terrorist” stereotypes through modern media, and the cause and effect postcolonial literature has had on the subject are all topics that will be evaluated. The objective of this research is to provide enhanced comprehension of the situational attitudes held by Muslims and Americans alike. Also, this will offer an educated understanding of the gap between what is believed and what is factual, in hopes of creating emphasis for the need of a new approach in creating a discrimination free partnership with the Muslim community while maintaining awareness and security.
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