Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah

NPR Clip

I have no idea how to get the clip to just play in my blog, so you'll have to click the link to listen to the clip. 

I talked about this clip a little in our class presentations, it's from a 2014 NPR article about Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah issuing a fatwa against ISIS violence. NPR decided to republish it after the Paris attacks, to show the real work that was being done by Muslim officials in combating ISIS. 

I think it's a great thing to share with those pesky uncles (grandfathers in my case) around the table this holiday season - it's showing just what "moderate muslims" are really doing to help combat the terrorism we've seen lately. Many people in the United States are asking, "what are the moderate muslims doing to help us fight these radicals?" and saying things such as, "they're as bad as the radicals if they don't do anything to help fight against it". Well show those people this clip and show how a highly esteemed Sheikh is helping. He's saying that it's not something that will happen overnight. People need to hear sermons and teachings and have discussions about the terror that is being committed, and only when it trickles down to the everyday person will it really start making a difference. 

Overall I think this is a great piece about this Sheikh, and I'm sure there are many more out there just like it. 

Resources vs. Refugees

Throughout our class presentations the past two classes I've been listening to a large trend: these Middle East/North African countries are struggling with resource management, and the refugee crisis that is going on. While not every group talked about refugees, I saw that theme throughout the presentations. For the levant region it is especially true, show largely through Lebanon and Jordan. These countries are struggling to keep their government running the country well as well as struggling to help refugees that have had to flee their homes. 

When first thinking about it, Lebanon has it the worse out of the countries in our region (Middle East/North Africa), and especially worse out of the countries in the levant (other than Syria, which has very obvious problems). Lebanon is without a president, has such a wide diversity of religious culture, and such a large resource problem, as well as a great influx of refugees to their country. With a starting population of 4 million before refugees, that has increased to 5 million, meaning almost a fifth of their population is refugee now. The trash problem in Lebanon is causing serious harm to both the environment and the citizens of Lebanon, as well as the tourism industry. Along with the Beirut bombing and the terrorism going on in Lebanon, their tourism industry has taken a huge hit, which stresses the resources/government problem even more. 

In Jordan, the government is struggling to give their citizens fresh drinking water and infrastructure to go about daily life in a healthy way. Their problems are not as catastrophic as Lebanon, but the economy and workforce in Jordan are seeing hit after hit, which is also stressed by the refugee population they have taken in over the past four years. 

To combat this, international funding should be made available for these countries and countries like it. With such a large amount of refugees, the international community cannot afford for these countries to go through such a large financial or resource crisis that they have to dispel refugees. The international community should also be giving aid to the governments of these countries to fund refugees in order to keep them safe and healthy while they are in country. 

Trump

As we all know, Donald Trump is running for president. Whether your opinion is positive or negative towards him, he has done something that is opposite of everything the United States has stood for since it's creation as colonies. Saying that the United States should turn away all Muslims because there are a few radicals is ridiculous for many reasons, I'm just here to name a few.

People immigrated to the United States way back when to flee religious persecution in England. If they had been sent away by Native Americans, where would we be today? Our country was literally founded by people who had come here because they wanted religious freedom. Who are we to now take back that religious freedom we were once given as refugees, and who are we to suddenly change something about our country that has been around since its founding? It is hypocritical for our government, or people in our government, to spew this change of policy so openly.

Secondly, saying these kind of hateful things runs the risk of making Muslims around the world resent the United States and what it stands for. This, in turn, is dangerous because it could impact how the United States is able to conduct business in certain countries abroad. In addition, it is certain to make Muslim Americans feel ostracized in their own communities. This in itself breads radicalism, the very thing we are trying to combat around the world.

It is clear that these ridiculous comments made by Donald Trump are not shared by the majority of Republican presidential candidates, but it is scary how many common people agree with him. There are opinion pieces all over the internet agreeing with Trump, saying we should turn away Americans trying to come back home if they are Muslim. It is disheartening and unbelievable, and in my opinion we should be working as hard as possible to raise a new generation that believes in equality of religion, even though the first generation of Americans were raised this way. We need to get back to the understanding that the United States was built on religious freedom and we cannot take that away from any group of people, no matter the circumstances.

Shooting in Jordan

Two days ago, Monday, November 10th, a Jordanian man entered a training camp on the outskirts of Amman, Jordan and opened fire, killing 5 people, including two Americans. This is heartbreaking news and of course condolences rolled out to the families of the victims and visits were made to the injured while they recuperated in the hospital. The Obama Administration said the U.S. is working with Jordanian Intelligence to learn the motive behind the incident, and will continue to work closely with the Jordanian government.

My father graciously gave me a subscription to the New York Times for my 18th birthday (he said it was fitting), so of course I have a new "Breaking News" piece pop up on my phone twice or three times a day. It wasn't until dinner Monday evening that I heard about the shooting in Jordan, and I haven't heard much of an uproar about it on my Facebook timeline which really got me thinking about how two Americans could be killed in a Middle Eastern Country without anyone tying Islam to murder, hating America, freedom, pork, etc. the usual stuff that comes with this kind of attack. It dawned on me that I hadn't receive one of the annoying "Breaking News" updates from NYTimes or gotten an email or even seen it on Facebook at some point that day. This all got me thinking about why it might be different this time.

In my opinion it all comes down to media. I'm so shocked and even more glad that is was not pinned as some "Muslim Terrorist" the second he open fire. The media didn't tag him as some Christian-hater  who was out to kill Americans even though they could have framed it that way fairly easily.

Really I'm just wondering what made the entire media decide to not label this as a terrorist act? I understand it was not a terrorist act, but they have certainly mislabeled things in the past. Is it they understand the relationship between our countries and how important it is at the moment? Or some other reason?

Water Consumption

Monitoring my water intake for the day wasn't hard, just a few cups of water there, a shower, dinner and some driving. I didn't think I consumed very much water when I kept track of it on Friday. When I used the water footprint calculator I was shocked to see how much water went into everything I did. Food, driving, our "yard" (I used KW lawn), everything else that I do in my day-to-day life. I found out I use approximately 900 cubic meters of water a year, which is 650 gallons a day and 234,349 gallons per year. This is actually a lot less than most of the people in the U.S. who use approximately 2,060 gallons a day. This could be because I drive a diesel car that has a great mpg, I don't eat much meat at school, and I try to keep my water usage to a minimum with regards to laundry, showers, etc.

When using the National Water Footprint Explorer I was surprised to compare some of the countries in the region to the U.S. I assumed the U.S. used more water per day than those other countries, but I didn't realize exactly how much more. In the U.S. we use 2,060 gallons a day as stated earlier; Egyptian citizens use 977 gallons per day. Egypt is one of the lowest water-usage countries in the region, while the United Arab Emirates uses more per day than the United States, coming in at 2,271 gallons per day. The majority of other countries in the region fall between Egypt and the UAE.

The most interesting fact is the amount imported versus the amount from in-state. The U.S. imports only 20% of it's water while the countries in the Middle East import at least 66%, excluding Egypt which only imports 29% of its water used. In the case of Jordan, 86% of water is imported and only 14% is in-state water. In my opinion this is the source of most strife and insecurity with regards to water usage. States that rely on imported water are at the mercy of the international market and price fluctuations. International relations between states with mostly state-dervived water, such as the U.S., and states who import most of the water they consume, such as Jordan, could be greatly impacted by "water politics". This is something I just made up, a term for states relations when one impacts virtual water to the other. In my opinion, this is something that could change the relations between countries during agreement/treaty talks.

Socially I think it's important to discuss how people in water poor countries regard water and the price for water rich products. These products are more expensive in water poor countries, even though they could be very affordable in water rich countries. I don't think this is an equally important topic, but still one to be pointed out.

Local Politics?

In class we talked about Mohamed Bouazizi and Khaled Saeed, who sparked revolution on a national scale with their individual actions. There are examples of people inciting change all over the world, but these are the two in our region that really stand out. We usually think about how our voice doesn't reach the "right" people when we're trying to change things - but who are those "right" people? In my opinion we have the responsibility to change what we feel is not right, and we have the voice to do it; in this way, politics are local as well as activism.

Individuals are the basis of every organization and state, and sometimes those in power forget about the individuals below them. This is when people start to really incite the change, not quietly when things start to go wrong, but loudly and with passion when things can no longer carry on the way they are. People don't change with just their individual voice, it takes others standing with them.

The argument against this is that there are a few people in a nation or region that really hold the reins, who control what happens. I think this true, that there are families, companies, organizations, etc. that really do the day-to-day running of things. I'm not saying that things are always controlled by individuals, I'm arguing that those individuals only come to the surface and thwart power when they are at the end of their rope. And getting things changed, no matter how spaced apart those changes are, is how people show their individual power.

Nations can interact with each other in a certain way for years and years, but when the people in one nation stand up and incite a revolution, the nations start interacting with others in a very different way. In this order individuals are changing things on a global scale, whether they realize the impact their actions have or not.

My political influences

Here's the link to my infographic: Political Influences

The Outsiders

Coming from a small town in Virginia, it's easy to point out groups that are considered "outsiders" to our community. Our town is very rural and surrounded by farmland, so anyone from the city is considered an outsider in our community. In addition, anyone who moves into our community in general is considered an outsider for a while. Neither of these "outsider" groups are looked down upon or talked about in a bad way, but there are considered outsiders nonetheless.

In addition to being a small farm town, there is a fairly high military enlistment rate in our area. This is very important, because for most in my community the only time they go abroad is when they are sent through the military. This has the effect that people were drafted in Vietnam, sent to the Middle East for the Gulf Wars, and then in 2003 for the Iraq war. The men and women, but mostly men, who served in the Iraq war had sons and daughters close to my age in school; my peers only heard about the negative effects that the Middle East had on their families, and that is how their opinion of the region developed.

A picture of our family farm

A boy in my grade during middle school is actually the person who made me interested in the Middle East and the Islamic faith. He made multiple comments about "towel-heads" and other negative names for Muslim men in the Middle East. His father was deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq, which tore his family apart. While the boy's opinions were just rehashing of his parent's words, it established a negative attitude about Muslims and the Middle East with many of his friends, and then many students in our grade and school.

Through these negative words and thoughts, Muslims and those of Arab descent are major "outsiders" in our community who are looked down upon. Studying the Middle East in college, I am constantly asked by my friends at home what it's like and why I would ever want to study in the region. Hopefully this can change at some point, I would like to see my friends love the region as much as I do - at least not hate it anymore.

Photo credit: me

Al Aqsa Mosque and WWI Agreements

There is currently fighting between Israeli police and Palestinian youth in and around the Al Aqsa Mosque, sometimes called Dome of the Rock, in Jerusalem, Israel. This clash has led to King Abdullah II threatening weakened relations between Israel and Jordan if the fighting does not stop.  This is an unprecedented move on the part of King Abdullah II of Jordan, who has a mainly positive relationship with Israel.

The fighting started on Sunday with Israeli forces trying to secure the area with the arrival of Jewish visitors for Rosh Hashanah to Jerusalem. The fighting started and has continued because the Palestinians believe Israel may be trying to establish dominance in the holy site.

Dome of the Al Aqsa Mosque

The Sykes Picot Agreement and the Balfour Agreement that were formulated during the first world war by the British and French governments had much to do with todays struggle between Israeli police forces and Palestinian youth at the mosque. Sykes Picot, as we know, divided up the in the Middle East between their two governments in order to establish imperial control and resource control. The Balfour Agreement in Britain supported the establishment of a Jewish state in the Middle East which caused rifts in the Arab countries which had controlled that land in the past. 

Today there are fights over contested Holy Land in Jerusalem because the Arab countries surrounding what would become Israel were not consulted on the creation of the Jewish state after the First World War. If consultation had happened when Britain backed the Jewish State instead of imperialistic creation, there is a possibility that there would be peace now. Consultation was not an option because the Arab states were not even their own states, due to Sykes Picot. This cannot be known for certain, but one can imagine that there would be a better possibility for peace if imperialistic powers had not been at play at the time. 

News Source: New York Times, Fighting at Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem Stretches into Third Day http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/16/world/middleeast/israel-palestinians-violence.html?ref=middleeast

Photo credit: me

Virginia to Jordan

I'm a fan of using personal connections when thinking about different topics. If I can connect a subject to something that I've experienced or witnessed it becomes easier for me to understand and gain more knowledge on that topic. When thinking about the differences that would make understanding between my perspective and a perspective of someone living in the Middle East I can link it to my study abroad experience in Jordan this past summer.

I live in a very small, rural town in Virginia named Strasburg. My family has lived on the same farm since the 1700's and I have never lived outside Strasburg - except during college - which gives me a somewhat different view than someone who lives in a more urban/suburb setting. In my town religion plays a large part in everyday life, as can be seen by the nine churches within the town limits and the numerous ones close to us. I think it's important when thinking of how one culture compares to another to first understand your own culture and country and what makes you individual and special in the international sphere.

When people think of how our country compares to the Middle East, many Americans would think firstly about religion, then about how Islam dictates everyday life in the Middle East. 

In reaction to that, I would say that Christianity plays a very large part in our government. I think it's hypocritical to tell the Middle East they place too much religion into their government when we have congressmen campaigning on "Christian values" in regards to subjects such as abortion, gay marriage, etc. I would think we're more alike in that sense than many people realize. Of course we don't hold the bible as our constitution like Saudi Arabia holds the Quran as the constitution, but there are similarities to be found. It is my belief that religion plays a very large role in the government systems in America and also those in the Middle East, even if not to the same extent. 

As far as other differences between our two regions, there are many environmental challenges. In America we do no understand the lack of food security. With the amount of arable land and water resources we have, we do not need to constantly think about sourcing and cutting back use. In the Middle East the climate is much different, both natural climate and feelings towards food security. Many of the governments in the Middle East have to constantly think about how they will continue feeding and giving fresh water to their citizens. This becomes an economic problem in the sense of imports and exports when countries have to import almost all the food they eat. 

Despite some major differences, the two regions are more similar than one would first think. While the differences might seem big they are not as hard to overcome as one might think, if we take a step back and understand all of our similarities as well. 

Photo credit: I took both of these photos in Jordan.