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.