posted by Sam Richards
In the event that you’d like to revisit the lecture (I can’t imagine) or that you know someone who would like to see it (a bit more likely), here it is. This particular version of the lecture took place during the Fall 2009 semester.
This lecture blew my mind.
I didn't know how to feel about it at some parts, though. A lot of it was reasonable, but, as someone with very close ties to people in the United States military, there were definitely bits and pieces that were rough to hear.
My best friend's father has been deployed with the US Army to Afghanistan and Iraq eleven times to this date. She supports her father in every way without questions, so there have been times where debates about the war have really upset her. I know that if she was in class for this lecture, she probably would've walked out in the first fifteen or twenty minutes.
I don't even know what to say here at this point— this lecture has just really, really shaken things up for me, I guess.
On one hand, I want to support all of my friends and family who have gotten involved in this war, but, on the other hand, how am I supposed to do so with the apparent injustices behind it?
I have a boyfriend who is a submariner in the US Navy who wants to go on individual assignment to the middle east to participate in this war, and, as much as I'd like to support everything he wants to do, I don't know how possible that is after this lecture.
My mind is just blooooown.
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I think that this was definitely one of the best classes of the semester. I was the typical American guy who didn’t understand the Muslim religion. I didn’t think that all Muslims wanted to kill and terrorize us but I thought that they were pretty similar. After this class though, I really understand the difference.
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From my perspective, Osama Bin Laden was always just another Muslim guy. He was probably pretty similar to all the other people in his country. Now I realize just how different he is. I loved how Sam told us to pretend we were Arab Muslims. Then he showed us some example of what Muslim people see of Christians. All the examples he showed us made me think of Christians in a very negative way. It appeared as though the “Christian Invaders” were actually real. He showed us a few example videos like one of Sarah Palin and one of kids at a summer bible camp. The way in which these videos would appear to Arab Muslims is extremely misrepresentative of Christians. If I were an Arab Muslim I could definitely see myself joining the insurgents. It appears as though Americans are trying to take over my land and force their religion upon me. How could I not dislike this? Unfortunately, there are probably a lot of people that join the insurgents because they think this, even though it’s completely false. I’m not saying that I agree with those people, but I understand. I understand how they feel and can put myself in their shoes. I think that is the first step in solving this war.
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I think the solution to many problems in this world is communication. This is a perfect example of how poor communication leads to misunderstanding and eventually a lot of deaths of war. I think that American and Arab Muslims just need to be educated on the truth of each other’s culture and religion and most of our problems would go away. Now Sam is doing a great job of pointing this out to the students of our class but it needs to spread out. Just like the race issue discussions, this needs to be talked about among a lot more people. The same needs to be done among the Arab Muslims. Sometime I feel as though this class shouldn’t be a class at all, but a required course for all Americans to take.
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I really liked the slide show Sam put up at the end of class. It showed how are religions are very similar. He showed pictures of families and friends just hanging out. Sure they definitely looked different, dressed different and probably talk different. That is always going to be the case in this world due to our differences in culture. But what I think this showed is how similar we all are in this world. We all want to be happy, live a successful life and help others out along the way. When you think about it, deep down we aren’t that different at all…
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That video was in your face and if you attended the lecture you would completely understand where this video and Sam is coming from. Thumbs up to whoever edited this too. Good work, it is very intense just like the Jihad video we watched in class. On another note I am not sure how you could get offended by this after attending the lecture and understanding what Sam was trying to do. We were switching places and cultures to better understand where Muslims are coming from and why some might join the fight against America. Just like some Americans believe all Muslims are bad there are Muslims that think all Americans are bad. This is a small portion of each culture but the media presents only one side of each argument for each country. For America were fighting nothing but radicals and for Muslims in the Middle East it’s a fight against radical Christians who are invading their land. The lecture was just meant to show that this does not just happen by chance but is instead created from many misunderstood interpretations by both sides. Just like we develop are ideas from what we see about Muslims on the news, Muslims do the same in relation to Christians.
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I agree with the above post that the solution to most religious problems would be better and more efficient communication. People automatically write off other people's religions because they are close minded or ethnocentric. Ironically however, a lot of religions have the same foundations. I think that is pretty funny because people assume they are so different and that their's is the only "right one". I myself am Christian but even certain Christians claim to be better than the other which is bizarre. That is actually the main reason my mom converted from Catholism to being a Presbyterian when she married my dad. She just felt like certain aspects of the church were a little on the corrupt side and she did not want to be a part of it anymore. I think I consider myself pretty tolerant of other's religions. I do not really judge a person based on what his or her religion is.
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