Concept Application Blog

A few weeks ago we were given the task of deciding upon a culture group of particular interest to us and do further research and analyzation of that culture in order to have enough information to come up with a report on the selected culture. When we were first assigned the task of picking a culture, I was not 100% sure on what I would pick, but, I decided to pick a culture based on religion because religion is one of the most important things to me and I thought that it would be interesting to do some research on another religion that I am not familiar with. I weighed my options and went back and forth on a few different religious groups before ultimately deciding to write the report on the Muslim culture.

The main reason that I chose to do the report on the Muslim/Islam culture is because it is one of the oldest religious groups in the world and, like most things that deal with religion, it has it's fair share of controversial ideas and practices. I recently read Yan Martel's book, The Life of Pi, and in the book he had an interesting quote, "I challenge anyone to understand Islam, its spirit, and not to love it. It is a beautiful religion of brotherhood and devotion." (Martel 2001) I felt this quote fit well with my report because it makes you think about looking deeper into the Islam faith than you normally would. The Islam faith and Islamic people have amazing rituals and breath taking Mosques all across the world. It is a very deep and intriguing religion and so far has been fun to research.

My research is going to focus mainly on the available resources that I have. I have been trying to get in contact with local Islamic groups around Lincoln to find out about meetings and upcoming events they have, but, have not had much luck with that yet. I think I am going to focus my report on two main aspects of the Islamic religion. The first one that I am going to take a look at is the differences between the women of Islamic faith and women of Catholic faith. I chose to target the Catholic religion because, a. I am Catholic and b. I feel like Catholic is a pretty dominant religion in Nebraska. The second thing that I want to focus on may be a little difficult, but, I think that it would be an interesting take on both religions. Both religions are very old and set in stone and I would like to discuss parts of the religion that each side does not agree with. I feel as if this might be a touchy subject, but, I think it will be a very interesting way of looking at things. I personally have my fair share of things that I disagree with in the Catholic teachings, but, I feel as though it is human nature to want to question things that are important to us. Personally I think that me question things about my religion strengthens my faith...but that is neither here nor there and I am not here to push my religion or thoughts on anyone. I just think that these points would be an interesting take on two large and influential religions.

In order to come to these conclusions for my report I will attend an Islamic event on campus and attempt to get an interview to help answer the questions I have lain out. I will gain information through both the face to face contact and through observation of their meetings, both tactics highlighted in our textbook. (Martin & Nakayama, 2012)

I found this video on Youtube and found it to be interesting. It shows the standards that Muslim women are up against even when not in an Islamic based country.

References:
Martel, Y. (2001) Life of Pi. Canada. Knopf Publishing
Martin, J.N. & Nakayama, T.K. (2012). Intercultural communication in contexts (6th ed.) Boston, MA: Mcgraw Hill
Picture of Islamic Mosque located in Brunei. Accessed 3-7-2013.
http://historicalislamicmosques.blogspot.com/
Picture of St. Boniface Catholic Church. Accessed 3-7-2013. (My church growing up)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St._Boniface_(Menominee,_Nebraska)_church_from_NE.JPG
Porn or Art? Muslim Woman's Bra Photo Too Sexy? Accessed 3-7-2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z7As2HiZdM