Misconceptions about Islam

The two misconceptions that surprised me the most, and I found the most interesting are that Islam is "the religion of peace" because Islam is derived from a Islam word that means peace, and that Islam is well suited only to the Arabs because most Muslims are Arabs.

I always believed that the word Islam was roughly translated to mean peace but it is actually derived from the Arabic word "al-sim" which means submission or surrender. The submission is believed to mean submission to Allah which is the Arabic word for God. This was surprising to me because for as long as I can remember I thought that the word Islam meant peace. I always wondered about the Muslim extremists and how they could use Islam to make what they do reasonable in their on minds when Islam meant peace, but now that I know it means submission to Allah I understand how a terrorist could make Islam work for them and believe that what they are doing is accepted in their religion. I am glad that I know now that Islam is derived from a work that means submission because I can better understand the Islam religion.
The misconception is that Islam is well suited only to the Arabs because most Muslims are Arab. I always thought that most Muslims were Arabic and that there where not many other nationalities that had a very large population of Muslims. The actual numbers are that only 18% of all Muslims are Arabic, the two countries with the highest concentration of Muslims are Indonesia and Bangladesh. Islam is growing religion that is spreading throughout the world. The misconception that most Muslims are mostly Arabic is a very popular misconception, because that is what I have always heard and believed.

I think that there are many misconceptions concerning Muslims and the Arabic race in general and I am very glad that people are letting these misconceptions be know for the misconceptions that they are.

Middle East Background

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One of the interesting things I learned about the Middle East is about just how vuage the term Middle East is. The Middle East has a lot of different Ethnic groups, languages and religions.

Some of the different Ethnic groups that are in the middle east are the Arabs, Turks, Persians, and Kurds to name a few. The Middle East is a very vague definition of an area that includes a lot of different countries so it makes sense that there are a lot of different Ethnic groups.

Because of the many different Ethnic groups there is also a wide diversity of spoken languages in the Middle East. The most popular language of the Middle East is Arabic and the many small variations of Arabic spoken in different areas.

In the Middle East there is a very wide spectrum of religion spanning from Judaism to Christianity, but the most prominent religion in the Middle East is Islam. Islam preaches that there is only one supreme Allah (god) and that he alone is the creator of the universe. Islamic teaches that there is also a judgment day where everyone's soul will be tested and if you have been good you go to heaven and if you have sinned you will not be allowed access into heaven.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East

"Middle East Freewrite"

When I think about the Middle East the first thing that comes to mind is terrorism and different cultures. The Middle East has a completely different set of traditions and outlook on life that we Americans do. Ian Watts talked to our government class about the middle east and about his experiences in Iran and Iraq and then he showed us pictures of where he had been and what he had done. He talked about the different little traditions of the people. Things like how if you show the people the bottom of your feet they take that as a sign of dissrespect. Some of the names that i think about when i think about the Middle East is Sudam Hussain and Assama Bin Laddin but that isn't really a good thing that when i think abou the Middle East all i think about is bad people. There are good people from the Middle East as Well. I saw a movie where a undercover agent in a terrorist cell from the middle east cant stop a suicide bombing so when he tells all the suicide bombers where to go he tells them to all get on the same bus. The terrorist cell was going to blow up a lot of different busses at the same time to scare the U.S. and the only thing that they agent could think of doing was to put all the bombs on the same bus so that is what he did. Thinking about the music of the Middle East i think about a more twangy sound of music and a more traditional style. The technology of the Middle East i think is about the same as ours but when we think about their technology we dont think that they have cellphones or computers but in actuality they almost all have cell phones and they have just about as much technology as we do. it is snowing outside and i am really excited to go SKIING!!!!! i cant think of anything else


The thing I think I might be surprised to learn about the Middle East is how their traditions from the past impact their lives today.