|
هذا
الجزء اعداد
الطالبه
في قسم الاعلام والترجمه
نورا مصطفى
Commentary &
Reaction to
the speakers
&Hayawic
UniLogic
West/Islam
Dialogue
COMM.399_ George Mason
University
DR. Raiek Alnakari
هذا جزء
اول لعرض بعض تعليقات طلاب الدكتور رائق النقري
الضيوف المحاضرين في اطار
درس
المنطق
الحيوي وحوار الاسلام والغرب
حيث كان
يستضاف في كل درس شخصيه اكادميه من خلفيات مختلفه:
مسيحيه ام يهوديه ام اسلاميه ام ملحده..
الخ.
هذه
الدروس جرت في اعوام 1996-1997-1998
وبعض هذه
التعليات كانت تناقش في الدرس التالي.. الطلبه كانوا في كل صف اكثر من 150
ومن خلفيات متعدده.. وسوف نعرض تعليقات اخرى بعد تحويلها الى نسخه الكترونيه..
وسوف نقدم لاحقا ترجمه بالغه العربيه لاهمها..
سيلاحظ
القارئ في هذا الجزء حضور الزميله الدكتوره منى
ابو الفضل الاستاذه مع الدكتور طه جابر العلواني في الجامعه
الاسلاميه للعلوم الاجتماعيه كانت ضيفة احد الدروس
بسم الله
الرحمن الرحيم
بعد
حضور محاضرة يوم الجمعة ,طرا على فكري أمور عدة.....
كانت
نظرتي للمحاضرة نظرة متعجبة,بدأت أستفهم عن مواضيع عدة وذلك لطريقة عرضه
للموضوع
إضافة إلى
ذللك طريقة الرجل المسيحي كانت معارضة لأفكار أخرى.....فعندما قال في حديثه
بان الرب لا يستطيع خلق أي شيء إلا إذا كان صافي أو طاهر أو
pure
...وبعد ذكره لهذه النقطة ذكر أن المسيحي عيسى عليه السلام هو الوحيد ال
pure
من الخلق جميعا ..فكيف يعقل ذلك؟؟؟لأن مراده من هذه المقولة أننا نحن البشر
غير طاهرين ...وكيف للرب خلق الإنسان إذا كان الإنسان نفسه غير طاهرا...فقد
تناقض في قوله الأول بأن الرب فقط يخلق الأشياء ال
pure......
نحن
المسلمين نؤمن بجميع الأديان السماوية والتي من ضمنها الديانة المسيحية و
نحترمها جميعها ,لأن المولى عز وجل هو الذي أرسل جميع الرسل لنشر الأديان
وكلها تدعو إلى عبادة رب واحد تدعو إلى توحيد الله فهي مشتركة بهذا الشيء مع
الأديان الأخرى .....
وأختم
تعليقي على هذا الموضوع وعن الرجل المسيحي الذي ألقى المحاضرةبالإشارة إلى
النقطة التي جذبت ناظري من الناحية السلبية ...وهي أنني شعرت بأنه مقيدا
بلائحات التوضيح التي وضعها للطلبة من أجل استيعاب الموضوع ولكن للأسف غايته
لم تحقق لمدى تقيده التام بالائحات ...إلى درجة أنه لم يستطع مجرد الإجابة
على بعض الأسئلة إلا بالرجوع إلى لائحات الإيضاح......
Before
listening to the Muslim speaker, I knew almost nothing about Islam .what I
did know was that Muslims followed the teaching of the Koran and the Bible
.I also knew that they prayed to Allah five times a day. Listening to the
speaker enlightened me to many of cultural beliefs of Islam .One being
that the righteous are those who will succeed. This may sound vague, but
there are clear definitions for how to be righteous. They also base their
way of life on the five pillars of Islam. These are all morals of how to
live a good life and help others. There are some differences between
Islam and Christianity. One is Muslims do not believe in Original sin;
that all are born with the first sin of Adam and Eve. They also believe
that Eve was not the one who made the first sin, but that Adam and Eve
fell together. One thing of many that are the same, is that when a person
is truly sorry for a sin he has committed God will forgive him. They also
that this repentance brings the man closer to God .
I can accept
all of this .but the speaker did say one thing that i feel is not good He
said that the government need religion to be part of it .I cannot accept
this .The greatness and open-mindedness of this country has come partly
from the separation of Church and state.
Granted the
expressed how open-minded Islam is ;all of the governments the had
religion incorporated into them did not tolerate many of the advances that
have lead to our great society. For example ,in Italy Galileo Galilee was
placed under house arrest until the end of his life for saying the Earth
went around the Sun. Another example is the oppression of women in the
countries that have Islam incorporated into their government. Finally
,having an official religion for this country is Iudicrous.This country is
founded on the freedom of religion .to have an official religion would be
the suppression of the right to all other religious expression. It will
also lead to the bnning of free thinking and anything else that goes
against doctrine. I am not saying that the only way for advancement is to
go against doctrine. but that all of the past history in this area shows
that people are punished if they do not go with the follow of society.
This car lead to stagnation of peoples rights and the diversity of a
nation. Diversity is the strength of a nation
HYCINT OSYCHUKWU
COMM.399
DR.ALNAKARI
Second
Discussion:
This
discussion was presented to the class by Mr Newman from Jewish religion.
Most of his presentations was based on his personal experience. He was
influenced by his family in
New York at
a very young age to embrace the Jewish religion .He attended the Sunday
schools and went to synagogue.
However, I
did not understand why the Jews cannot call themselves Christian rather
that Jewish _Christian. Other Christians like the Catholics, the
Protestants and so on just call themselves Christians. In my humble
opinion, a Christian is a Christian regardless of country, tribe, color et
al. There is no hyphen or hyphenated Christian. A Jewish who believe in
the existence of God should call himself a Christian period!
Why do the
Jews regard themselves as the chosen people of God? If the answer to the
Question is yes, does it mean that other Christians are wasting their time
in their worship of God.
speaker on
Christianity
I was
unfortunately unable to attend the last session dut to a family affair.
was told that we had a guest speaker who held a discussion a bout the core
beliefs and attitiudes of Christianity and why those beliefs and
attitudes exist. Iwas also told that he made projector.Because iwas not
present, it is difficult for me to offer any type of criticism towards the
speaker and his efforts,although i will say that christianity is much more
complex then a few simple elements that are presented on an overhead
projector.
Although i
am not very familiar with Christianity,i believe that it is safe for me to
say that there is more complexity to christianity that just some
overhead.I personally have always known Christianity as the most widely
distributed religion of the world in all of the populated continents. Like
any system of belief and values ,Christianity is in many ways
comprehensible only "from the inside," to those who share the beliefs and
strive to live by values .I do believe that Christianity could probably
bedescribed historically although i believe that describing it logically
would be a much more difficult task. I feel that all religions are
assembled through acollection of elements and beliefs and that there are
a number of elements that must be understood before making an attempt to
describe the religion logically.
Eiman Hajabbasi
Response to
Speaker on Being a Jewish Christian
the rather
eloquent speaker ,Mr.Newman did a very good job of explaining his views
on the "truth", He said that he calls himself a Jew because he is from
Bani Israel and yet , he considers himself a Christian because he truly
believes in th christian.
Scriptures
and believes that Jesus was sacrificed on the cross for the sins of
mankind.Ithink that the only reson he called himself a Jewish Christian
was truly believed in Christianity,but he didnt want to completely reject
his Jewish cultural background.He said that he believed in the Old
Testament because of his Jewish background,and in the New Testament
because of his conversionto Christianity,but in reality ,he could have
considered himself a Christian alone because all christians believe in
both the Old and New Testament,so thisshows that his calling himselfa
"Jewish Christia" is due only to the fact that he was born into a Jewish
family, and had the Jewish culture instilled within him. I think that he
would feel as if hewas denying hi cultural heritage as a descendant of
Bani Israel if he only called himself a Christian,therefore he calls
himself a "Jewish Christian"
Overall, the
discussion was very interesting and educational one ,and I think we can
learn alot from speakers who have converted to a religion from
anotherreligious background.
Muna Kalifa
Comm.399
The speaker
that came to speaker to us about Christianity was very Interesting .He
brought graphs to help us understand it better . i feel he was alittle
confusing becauser it was just too much to understand. It was very
difficult to understand the trinity because it is very complicated.When
people in the class where asking Questions, he tried to answer ,but he
really was not convincing.It was very nice of him to come and joinus .I
feel next time i ask about Christianity i will ask ,because now i have
alot of worksheets von now.The questions the class asked were very
challenging to the vman .I feel our class did good in picking question to
ask
The chistian
Jewish man was very interestin as well .He seemed to me that hewas somwhat
stuck between two religions.He was very humorous ,but i feel the questions
he could not answer were turned into jokes. It was very interesting to
know how his family prays ,and what type of belief they follow. He is a
very nice man because he is kind and he believes in some type of god .But
he needs to make himself sound more convincing .He just was not making
enough sense.
The two
speakers were very kind to share their beliefs with us , but i feel i
still need some questions to be answeres.For me to say that i understand
Christianity ,or Jewish religion I need to understand them more !I
respect both of the speakers for sharing their religion with us !
Ming Liu
Comm399
9/22/97
Commentary
I feel that
the speaker did a good job on explaining some aspects of Christianity.I
think he could have done a better job if he had cocentrated on the primary
doctrines and dogmas of the Christian church.The speaker talked too much
about the difference between physical and the metaphysical in
Christianity.I feel that the speaker did not convey clearly the meaning of
Christianity.If you were not a Christian you might have walked away from
his talk being confused about what exactly is Christianity.
The primary
believes of Christianity as i know them is:
1_Jesus was
the son of god
2_Jesus died
for the sins of the world
3_all who
believe that he died for the sins of the world and Jesus as the son of God
will go to heaven
i feel that
some believes of the speaker differ from believe of other Christians.This
is the case because there are many different denominations or sects of
Christianity today in the United States.Most mainstream Christian Churches
believe that if you are not a Christian you will go to hell when you die.
When asked
by Muslim students what will happen to Muslims after death in Christianity
the speaker was vague about his answer but the fact is most Christianity
Churches preaches that if you are not Christian you will go to hell
.Personally i reject this view, i feel everybody goes to heaven or at
worst the "bad"people will just die forever but without going to hell .I
do not believe in hell with fire and demons .All people are the creation
of their environment .Therefore there are no "bad" people .Ibelieve that
the righteous of all religion goes to heaven .
Ming liu
comm399
9/28/97
Commentary
i feel that
mr.Newman gave good speech about his believes.Ialso likedthe pamphlet that
he handed out during the end of this talk. i liked the pamphlet because it
clearly explains the believes of his group.i feel that Mr.Newman can be a"
Christian -Jew" as he calls himself because Christianity is only a sect of
Judaiism.It is just like there are many denomination of Christianity like
Baptists,Catholics.Methodist,and etc.
The speech
Mr.Newman gave was verygood because he used his own past in a humorous
way to make the speech interesting.He also explained why he believes the
way he do inclear understandable fashion.The pamphlet that he handed out
is very good also.The pamphlet explained even more clearly about the
beieves of hi group.I found the believes of his group to be very
interesting because not too many Jews believe in Jesus as the Messiah or
that Jesus was thew son of God .Historically Jesus never wanted to form a
new religion.Jesus was a Jewish Rabbi who wanted to reform Judaism .But
after his death his followers created a new religion with him as the
center. i like the speech that Mr.Newman gave and i hope we will have
other speakers in the future to enlighten us on the believes of other
religions.Learning about the believes of others is important because we
need to respect the believes of others in order to have good
intercultural communication with people of other religious background.
Chris Davis
Comm 399
Prof:Alnakari
Response to
Jewish Speaker
I had no
idea that there were Jews who believed that Jesus is the Messiah .I always
thought that they all were still waiting for Messiah to appear. This has
certainly taken one stereotype away from my mind .i did know that they at
most regarded him as a teacher. I also know that there are different
groups of Jews, but i didnt not know whatmade the distinctions between
them .Another thing i learned asa well, is that Jews pray with certain
preformated prayers.When i say my prayers i am almost always informal and
consider it to be a conversation with God. This is the same with all of my
other Christian freinds.I also feel that God is close and observant to
everything, and not the distant God that Jews believe in .I also believe
he is loving and cares for all, but i also believe he can be wrathful in
the old Testament.
The
compatibility of Christianinty and Judaism does not seem like very much.
However, there are a few branches from each that do have many
similarities.Such as the Messianic Jews, who do believe Jesus is the
Messiah and any Christian Community.Another commonality is that Jesus was
a Jew, as well as his immediate followers.This may not be something that
many Christians take the time to realize.Many believe they are the only
way that is right .Since Jesus was a Jew, some think that Judaism is an
out-of-date religion.As it was said before, religions do not replace each
other through time.We can not judge others, as it says in Bible ,because
that is God's job at the end of time and universe.What we all have in
common, is that our religions all teach good morals and a responsible way
of living .That is something that those who think they are right have
over-looked.
Jeremy Lustman
10-3-97
comm.399
The speaker
we had last week was very interesting.He was much more educational and
dynamic than our speaker was the week before.He spoke of being a
Jewish-Christian,which isdifferent perspective than we have been exposed
to up to this poit.It seemed that he was not sure which aspect of his
religion he associated with more.I was curious as to wich denomination
ofChristianity hewas involved with but it never was answered.He was very
well educated on various religious aspects though it seemed he did not
know much about Islamic faith.As compared to the first speaker he was able
to make connections with different religions instead of working off the
overhead projector.He was very candid an honest but it seemed to me that
he was unsure of wich aspect of his Jewish-Christian faith he believed in
more.I look forward to hearing moreabout different religions as a basis of
comparison.
Nada Al-Barzinji
October 2,1997
Communications 399
Judaism
Last
week.inclasswe were supposed to have heared from aJewish speaker to
continue on our weekly discussions on each religion.
However,
what i found was that the speaker claimed to be not only Jew,but
Christian as well.As my paper last week , this is also aresponse as
towhat i learned or thought oflecture told by this Jewish Christian.
like
Christianity ,i know very little about Judaism;and like Christianity i had
hoped to learn a lot more about Judaism since all i know is that Muslims
are really not too fond of the religion at all.I was very disappointed to
hearhis claimof practicing both religions.I think that they call these
types of peopl Masianiche Jews.Someone who is a Jew, however believes
that Jesus is God .From what i know , if one is Jewish they can not belong
to another religion. Just as my religion(as wellas most others),belonging
to more than one religion at the same time is confusion. One should be
sure of what he believes in and not have to turn to other religions.If he
is Jew, he should be convinced of his religion. Plus, when hewas asked
about it i found that he did not give a good response to this question.He
also claimed to be Jewish because of his descendants or ancestors.Again,I
came out this lecturewith out much knowledge of Judaism.
The speaker
mostly gave a background history of hislife growing up and going to the
church as well as the Senigog, and he told us about howhis kids were lucky
to have both holidaysbecausethen they can get double the gifts.He also
told us about how found himself to be distant towards God growing up, due
to the fact that he was sinning a lot as a teenager.Then he told a story
about how he encountered some Christians talking and having a normal
conversation with God which hefound extremely odd yet
fascinating.Therefore ,from what i understand from hisspeech , he leans
more towards the Christianity belief more that the Jewish one.
Finally ,I
would just like to note that ireally thought that the teacher's questions
were good, however i do not think that the speaker knewor really wanted to
answer them with much honesty.The reason being that most of questions from
the teacher as well as students had to do with Islam.The only thing that
hekept reiterating was that he knew very little about the religion and
therefore could not answer our questions.That really disappointed
me.Other than that ,i enjoyed the class.
Negina Saw
Communication
October 3 ,1997
Last week,
our speaker was a Messianic-Jew.He explained to us that by
"Messianic-Jew", he meant that he believed inJesus Christ as the son of
God , but that he was also completely Jewish. I was really confused about
how hecould do that ; to my knowledge, Jews believe that Jesus was only
ateacher. I could understand how he thought that , because Muslims
actually have a modified belief inJesus, but the reason i was confused was
because he said that , while Christianity and Judaism are
compatible,Judaism,
Christianity,and Islam are completely incompatible.The problem with that
belief is , if he had actually studied Islam, he would understand that it
is the most compatible religion with either of the other two.Thespeaker
invitedusto speak to him oneday in more informal setting ,so ithink that
iwill try to see him then to understand his poit of view.
The problem
with Messianic- Jews is that their beliefs are so similar to Islam that
they cannot believe they are wrong.So by saying that Islam is completely
incorrect, they are able to keep their own beliefs and believe that they
are the right beliefs.I would like it if our next speaker could be real
Jew, because i think thay would give a great discussion.
Reem Kodsi
Comm399
My Views on
Judaism
Due to the
fact that i had the flew last week and the beginning of this week, i have
gathered some of my thoughts on Judaism.My earliest memories about this
religion was watching the friends i went to elementary and high school
with .They would make sure to tell everyone when the first day of Hanukkah
was and what they got for presents.So basically this isall i grew up
knowing about Judaism,until i took a religion course here at GMU
The class
spent a couple of weeks discussing Judaism briefly from how it
originated,until how it is practiced still today.One of the things i
remember was our discussion about the emergence of Rabinnic Judasim..When
Rabbi's began to take a main role not as a prophet,but as ateacher ,a
studier,and a decider of law. We also learned about some major Jewish
holidays like Rosha Shanah andYom Kippur.As practiced in Islam,they have
away of slicing their animals as being a form of compassion for
animals.They pray three times a day ;morning, afternoon, and evening .By
praying, they are asking permission in the taking God's things.Some of
their daily sets of rituals are:study all the time, study the Torah,and
students engaging together communicating about meanings.These are among
the things we learned in my religion class.
Reem Kodsi
Comm399
Dr.Alnakari
My Views On
Christianity
Since i was
not in class on Friday, because iwas getting my cast off , i thought
iwould write about my encounters with christianity.Unfortunately my
friends came to take part in his memory. They told stories, sang out of
the bible ,and the minister read some excerpts out of the bible. Ofcourse
all i could do was hear the words from the Bible and just listen to what
the people around me believedin.I kept listening and comparingwhat i
understood of Islam with the Bible's words.Especially when he saidthat he
is now with their Lord,etc. It allseemesso odd to me because ireallydont
read the bible, and iwatched as everone spoke together and prayed, when
all icould dowas look all around.....
On Monday
,they took the casket to Military graveyard in culpeper.The minister stood
by it and read out of the bible and then stopped and it was over.It took
all of about fiveminutes,and we were ready to leave.The whole situatuion
was sad, but at the sametime i was so curious to why they were doing
everything the way they were.It is really interesting to watch peoplefrom
different religions handle certain dilemmas, especially when you are so
used to your own religion.
The
Christian religion has always been around me ,obviously because iwas born
here and raised around Americans ,but ihave never truly understood it .I
have been ina number of churches, but for artistic reasons,and ihave
attended a few services, like a freinds confirmation,etc.I am glad that i
go the change to see the differences but even happier to bea Muslim.
although i found the speaker's presentation interesting and informative ,i
found it difficult to grasp the concept of Christian Jew.Dont agree with
the idea becauseon follows the Old Testament at the New Testament, that
makes them both Jewish and Christian.I feel the way because Christian
also follow both Testaments.My point is what is the difference ?I also
feel that the words Messianic Jew is just another way to say that one is
Christian.After all the meaning of Christian is one who followsthe
teaching of Jesus, and if our speaker follows the teaching of Christ,
Contrary to other Gews ,then what does that make him
I am not
criticizing the way in wich the speaker chooses to worship.I just dont
agree with his use of certain contradictory vocabula such as "Christian
Jew".I also felt that his justifications were weak and vaggue.If he feels
so strongly about his beliefs then he should be able to make a stronger
stand and conviction towards his religion.
Another
problem i had with the presentation was that the speaker seemed to be very
close-minded relating to Islamic beliefs.He said this even after admitting
he didnt really have much knowledhe in the field this seems contradictory
since he basically praised himself in telling us innovative, well rounded
,and open-minded he is.
Overall the
presentation was insightful.We were exposed to a unique from of worship.
Iam sure i was not the only one who had never heard of this
Judeo-Christian ideology. This makes me wonder what any other religious
mergers exist.
Reaction to
the speaker
Sally Hamandi
i think lastweek speaker
was one of the best speaker we ever had in the class .She was friendly and
knowlagable of what she was speaking about.
i liked the
fact that she was relating the religion speech to everyday life
conversation.She was aslo poetic .She describe things in poetic way ,such
when she was talking about god creation of the earth and the "golden
desert"i think all this added a touch of beauty to her speech.She was able
to inform us about her personnell experience a childhood years wich made
the conversation interesting and open. i think that most of her knowalege
ofthe religion camewith herlife experience and her search for the truth.
i think that
sheexplained the many of points we were discussing inclass verywell
speciallythe point where the muslim have to give mony to the pooror Zacat.
i think she also was able to give students an idea about Arabic culture
and not only Islam and especially Egypt.She talked about how Egypt id
different from Sudie Arabia and other countries.She talkedabout experionce
wi8th her mon and how Egypt was. i think she gave a very god speech and i
wish if we could invite her again..................
Negina Sawez
Communications
October 3,1997
Last week,
our speaker was a Messianic-Jew.He explainedto us that, by"Messianic-Jew".
he meant that he believed in juesus Chris as the son of God,but that
healso completely Jewish .I was really confuse about how he could not do
that; to my knowledge,Jews believes that Jesus was only a teacher .i could
understand how he thought that, because Musllim actually have a modified
belief in Jesus, but the reason iwas confuse because he said that, while
Christianity and Judaism are compatible,Judaism,Christianity,and Islam are
completely incompatible.The problem with that belief is ,if he had
actually studied Islam, he would understand that it is th most compatible
religion with either of the other two .The speaker invitedus to speak to
him one day in amore informal setting.so i think that i will try to see
him then to understand his point of view.
The problem
with Messianic-ews is that their beliefs are so similar to Islam that they
can not believethey are wrong .So by saying that Islam is completely
incooect ,they are able to keep their own beliefs and believe that they
are the right beliefs.I would like it if our next speaker could be real
Jew ,because i think they would give a great discussion
Christianinty to
Me Sally
Hamandi
I am an
Iraqi Muslim.i have studied Islam back home.The first school that i
attended in Iraq was Christian school.i stayed in Christian school system
until i came to this country in 1990.i learned about Christianity early in
life from school and from my Christian friend back home .My parents
always reminded me of my religion and i knew then that we believe in
Mohammed to be our prophet and they believe in Jesus.Religion differences
did not cause any conflict or discomfort among friends .I respected their
religion and they did the same.Back then i never really tried to learn
about Christianity ,because Islam was religion of country and i felt part
of the majority which made me comfortable being part of the majority.As
i came to the United States my pride in Islam became stronger and
especially because i felt my religion is minority in this country and i
belong to the minority group .I felt that it was necessary for me to know
about the majority religion in this country which is off course
Christianity.I decided to take a religion class in college and to learn
not only about Christianity but also about other religions as well. I also
tried to find out about Christianity from friends in college.I think
that there is so much to learn about both my religion and Christianity.I
could say that iam proud to be muslim and i willtry my best to increase my
knowledge of other religions.
My Reactoin
to last week speaker:
i must say i
like what last week speaker had tosay .I think He was a very knowledgeable
man and he knew a lot about Islam. I think that for a non Muslim sitting
in the class he gave them a very good idea about Islamic religion. i think
that Dr.Toutonji touched on almost on most of the important aspects of
Islam.I also believe that he was able to answer many of the students and
teacher questions and without hesitating .i think it is very hard to try
to talk in one hour about religion that took years to discover.But i think
he did a good job . i also did not like the questions that was brought up
about Jews and Aabs . i think this was not necessary when we are there to
talk about Islam and not politics.But overall i think he was good speaker
and did a good job covering the issue.
Zayad Is-Hak
comm.399
9/26/97
Paper
#2:Gest Speaker
Today in
class we had a guest speaker whodiscussedJudaism and hislife as a
Messianic_Jew(as he referred to his religion). I found this lecture to be
ver interesting as this is the first time ihave come across a person of
this faith.Furthermore, the guest seemed to be agood communicatorin that
he answerd each question with respect as well as explained his ideas in
clear manner.Finally ,i felt the class discussion that developed
afterwards was interesting as well as informative.
Zayad Is
comm.3
10/3/97
Paper #3:
Guest speaker _Islam
Today we had
aguest speaker who discussed Islam athe various aspectsof the Muslim
religion.He discuss Islam from a historical aspects as well as at the
personl level.I found today speaker to be very informative and discussion
was informative.
response on
Christianity
Noha Altalib
Living in
the United States of America most of my life hasgivev methe advantages of
beingexposedto many religions especially Christianity.Sincechildhood i
have heard about Jesus Chris and the Trinity.i have also learned there are
many different sects in Christianity . I am slightly familiar with the
Bible but wish to learn more .Forthis reason iwas happy to hearthe
instructor say we were going to have aspeaker lecture us on Christianity
The speaker
gaveus apacket onChristianity to start out.The packet focused mainly
onmetaphysical which can be very hard for people to grasp so earl on in
the lecture.He did not explain it very much ;rather he mentioned it as if
the whole religion was basedon metaphysical and i started to wonder if
there wasany physical proof of this religion .He did not discuss the
issues ithought he should have discuseed .i thought he would explain
Christianity to us and enlighten us about thisreligion.Christianity is so
closely related to Islam,my religion ,that iassumed it would beeasy to
understand .However i was greatly mistaken.Throughout the lecture
thespeaker confused me toagreat extent.i had so many questions to ask.As i
realized i was not the only one who was confused .
Many of
students asked the same questions i had .Unfortunately the speaker was
unable to answer the questions enough to gain my understanding.He did not
answer the questions or maybe he answered in the way Christians understand
.I was greatly frustated and so was the speaker He even started to get
defensive .I still wanted to learn about this religion especially the
parts Iwas interested in in the past. I looked through the packet and it
emphasized mostly Love andGod's attributes.It did not really mention
anything about the crucifixion or anything important to the Christians
religion.
I was
disappointed to leavethe classgaining more confusion than knowledge.
Maybe in the
future he can come again and explain to the class the concept of
Christianity......
Chris Davis
comm399
Response to the Christian Speaker
The Bible is
the basic of many religions that has been formed overseveral
millennia..Jewish beliefs are founded in the Old Testament,but they call
it the Torah.Islamic roots are found in the Bibleas well .the religion of
Islam believs in the profits inthe Bible .Christians believe in the Old
and New Testament of Bible.Another commonality between these religions is
they are all branches from the line of Abraham and believe in one God.The
main point of the speaker wasthe beliefs of Christians and how they view
the universe and God.
In my
ownbelief as a Christian i hold to muchof what the speaker said. ibelieve
there are two parts to life, the physical and spiritual.The physical is
what we can sense, the spiritual iswhat is beyond our sights. i also
believe the universe is a part of God.Each part from the largest galaxy to
the smallest subatomic paticle is part of Him.Through the forming of the
universe,humans came about .Now I am not saying that universe was formed
just for humans,but for all life.
One part i
do wonder about is that since God is perfect.Then what he creates must be
perfect.So, how do you explain that people commit acts that are wrong in
the eyes of God?
Well
,actually he did creat us in every way that isperfect, including free
will.So we were created without flaw, but the aspect of free will lets us
do things that can hurt others.However, this could be away for God to
separate us out. In that way ,we can choose if we want to be with
orwithout God in the end .
Finally
,none of these religions have endedtheir time ,they are continuing to
growand prosper.So ,they must learn how to live in closer quarters and
lose any stereotypes they have.
Abdul Satar
9/23/97
West/Islam
Dialouge
The speaker
.who came to our Communication 399(Western/Islam dialouge)class was
helpful in understanding Christianity .He showed great attiude and caring
to have us understand the Christianity religion,he bought diagrams and
pictures to make it easy for all the non Muslims to see and understand
better on the idea of Christianity.He answered qusetions as best as he
should while being honest.The projetor he used made it easy to see his
diagram and theory of Christianity ,he also spoke well and made sure
everybody could hear him .
i liked his
presentation it was very good it helped me understand things i didnt know
about Christianity.He answered everyone's question in class and did his
best to respect other religions and say anything bad about other
religions that were not Christianity.
He showed
however a little less knowledege about Islam .he did not really have that
much of answers when the subject was Islam.The answers he knew were only
the one's he talked about with his diagrams,but when it came to a
different subject that he didnt talk about he wasnt sure on what to say .
i was hoping he would understand Islam a little more,and compare Islam and
Christianity with specific examples but he couldnt because he didnt know
the specifics about Islam .He only knew Christianity and nothing really
well about Islam .except that it also believes in one God and that Prophet
Muhammad is a prophet with Holy Koran being the last book after the Bile.
In
conclusion.iam glad he came to our class he did show interest to have us
learn about Christianity and he did a good job with his pictures and
diagrams.Howerver due to the fact he didnt understand Islam real well ,it
made it tough to get good answers from him.
Jeremy Lustman
comm399
9-26-97
In response
to the speaker last Friday i think it was an educational
experience.bacically,he spoke about the core beliefs and attitudes of
Christianityand why they exist i really did not like the format he used in
explanation.He was very regimented and di not clarify or Emphaize beyond
what was written on the over head projector.I am Christian myself and i
was getting confused with some of discussion he was providing. i thought
he was a bit defensiveat the end as well during the question portion of
the presntation .He had all the necessary information and fact but tired
to make everything fit neatly into his overhead slides.Religion is not
like a math problem with a right or wrong answer .There are many more
elements involved ,which he did not touch upon. i am glad we had the
opportunity to hear another speaker but i think we have done a better job
of covering the differences between Islam and Christianity in our class
discussions.it was very clear that he was knowledeable and educated on
the topic but he might consider changing the format of the discussion.As a
Christian myself i did learn more about some aspects iwas not clear on.At
the same time though i now have more unanswered questions than i started
with.
Zayad Is_hak 9/19/97
Paper
#1:Guest Speaker
Today in our
Communication 399 class we had a guest speaker who discussed the
Monotheist religions of Judaism and Christianity.His main focus was
Christianity as well as it 's relation to Judaism.Furthermore he discussed
the differences between these two religions.During his speech he discussed
the beliefs as wellas misconception related to Christianity.He also
supplied the class with a handout detailing his speech.Included in this
handout are quotes from such people as charles DuBois and Newman. i found
these quotes to be interesting but at the same time approached them with
caution.For example the first quote stated"The important thing is this ;to
be able to sacrifice at any moment what we are for what we could
become".At first glance that may sound very enlightening and inspirational
but when one takes a closer look what is actually being said?Is DeBois
saying that man should be able to release himself from all social
responsibilities as well as values and beliefs in order to reach some
self-fulfilling prophecy?Is this what world really needs?People whoare
willing to sell their souls in order to become something?What would man
become ?And to who?
Furthermore,at times the lecturer seemed to be claiming that if man does
good in this life then he/she willautomatically go to paradise.I see
things a bit differently .Any man can knowingly do good on this earth
hoping to secure a place for himself in the heavens,but if a man does do
this is not he /she acting with self-interest as the main objective?
Finally i
would like to say that the lecture today was interesting and
informational.Also the question session at the end was good tool in
getting the class involved.
Tel#:(703)379
Nada Al-ha
Oct.3
This
Friday's presentation about Islam by mr Ahmed Totonji was a good one .Mr
.Totonje gave abrief introdution to Islam .He talked about what Muslims
believe in, the five pillars of Islam the effect of being a Muslim on his
personal life and several other things.What i really liked about
Mr.Totonji's presentation is that he brief touched onvarious topics so
that hecouldgive to non _Muslim a general idea about Islam
Being a
Muslim myself, there is not much icansay about Mr.Totonji;spresentation
,simply because there is no apparent conflict between my ideas and his.I
think that mr.Totonji's presentation was especially infcrmative to those
who are non_ Muslim s because it gave them a chance tosee a general view
of Islam.
Reem Kodsi
comm399
Seaker
Dr.Mona ABo-Alfadel
Last
Friady's was a delightful breath of fresh air.She gave a different type of
presentation that seemed more flowery.She seemed very knowledeable about
Islam and she related it directly to real life which was nice.It was
impressive to seeall of the books she has written and the accomplishment
she has made.She really deserves a lot of credit.
it was
espically interesting that she talked about her own experiences which made
the speech more personalized.You could actually relate to what she was
saying .Her style and her accent was a unique touch while listening .She
seemed like she was willing to keep talking and expanding her topics,but
unfortunately we were running out of time
i hope that
she will come visit usagain so that we can open up more discussion and
learn more about her school of thought .Dr.Abo alfadel's educational
background was also very impressive along with her experiences in Egypt.I
would even like to learn more about her upbringing and her personal
experiences....
Jamilah
Alzer
comm 399
10-24-97
Our speaker
last week was very informative Muslim sister.Usually speakers that we have
had focus on the facts of their religion.Past speakers also only focused
onwhat they thougt of their own religion ,including their tranlations and
their correlation to the religion. Last week speaker was different
though,which is why i could relate to her a little more than i could to
the other speakers we have had.The speaker focused on the in_depth
meaning behind Islam Ialso enjoyed how she talked about her background in
Islam.It was nice to see that she has had a history instudying Islam.He
back-ground,and being born in Egypt was one of the key factors that
allowed her to be around Islam.I also enjoyed how she talked about various
Islamic views and duties,such as what we as Muslims can do for other.One
one of her main points of view was giving charity ,and our duties as
Muslim to do so. Her examples were very relative to this ,and what we can
do.Ialso enjoyed how the speaker talked about her background .
Ming Liu
comm
10/21/97
Commentary
I enjoyed
the speaker very much . i like the speaker because this is the first time
we have Islam from a Women;s point of view.This women speaker is very well
educated andher background isvery western in outlook
The speaker
grew up in United Kingdom but she is and Egyptian abd she is a Muslim.She
wrote abook about her view of Islam .She is very interesting because she
gave us a different point of view.this point of view is very interesting
because the west percieves Islam as anti women religion.
the speaker
told us about her view of the place of women inIslam she feel that Islam
is good for everybody and it does not necessarily discriminate against
women. Islam protects women from the world in the past .
I enjoyed
the speaker very much because she gave us a different point of view than
the usaul.Her point of view was very special because it tooks at Islam
from a women's perspective..
Andrea M.Smith
September 24,1997
Ihave found
all of the speakers that we havehad in class interesting ,although i do
not agree with some of issues that they havespoken about.As a Christian,I
find it hard to containmy ideas and opinions given by muslim speakers.Iam
interested in other people's religion ,but i feel that my religion
(Christianity)is the only way that one can recevie eternal life.When i
first became a christian ,iwas overwhelmed by the abundance of information
and lawsv that i would have abide by.Iwas afraid because i knew that
there would be things that iwould have to give up and places that iwould
not be able to go anymore.Even though it has been a rough road.i feel that
Christianity has given me a foundation that is strong through my religion
. i have learned about my strengths and my weaknesses.God has taught me
how to love andlive a life that is pleasing to him..
Response On Dr.Muna's Lecture
Noha
Altal
October 24.1997ib
The speaker
Dr.Muna disappointed me very much . i di not know what the point of
bringing her inwas .The vquestion asked by teacher concerned her life
experiences.Maybe she was asked to come to share her Islamic
experiences.Other than the fact that she didnt even attempt to answer the
question the teacher asked she did not answer the questions she thought
she was answering .The problem was she kept going about nothing.
What she
said was sort of interesting but it was not what i came to listen to.I
learned nothing in that class .This could be because i left early or she
came late... i know the main reason however was igave up listening . i
kept waiting for her to a least even touch on the answer,but she never
did.She is a good speaker ,but it was the wrong setting she was placed in
that made her speech unbearable to hear.I felt like i needed to leave as
soon as possible ,eventhough she was not that boring.I just got frustrated
that she did not eventouch on the points she should have touched on or
mentioned.
Haval Dosky
Comm 399
10-24-97
Last weeks
presentation by the Muslim sister was very productive .I really never
looked at Islam through the perspective in which she spoke.She was very
enlightening and informative speaker.I really enjoyed the way she kept
talking about Islamic views.It seemed as though she could have spoke
about Islam all day .Islam seemed to have a great effect on her life.i
came to this conclusion by the way she spoke and carried herself about
Islam.She spoke of her upbringing in England and her transaction to the
Middle East when she went back to her country after being brought up in
England .She spoke of how hard it was to make the transaction from England
to the Middle East .This really helped me relate to her because i had a
similar experience when i went to Iraq in 1992.i felt as if she was a
great speaker and hope that in the coming weeks that we have many speaker
that are as well educated and informative as she was late week
Huda Totonji
Communication
October
24,1997
Response to Dr.Muna
The speaker
,Dr.Muna came as a guest to our class.Her speech was confusing to a point
.Shewas effective intalking about her family having a Muslim
background.This gave me a great picture about how she built up her Muslim
character.The weakness in her speech was that she did not directly answer
the questions,which were addressed to her .However ,she started to talk
about different subjects,whichwere not asked from her.It was difficult for
her audience to ask her questions freely because she would take a long
time to answer them .i did not benefit greatly fromher visit to our class
as muchas i did with the other visitors.Although she came from a Muslim
background,however ,the speech was not quite interesting.In fact ,it
washard for me to follow up with it .Furthermore, i would rather listen to
a person from a Christian or Jewish background to extend my knowledge.
Also i find that more challenging and beneficial for me .Nevertheless
listening to both Christians and Jews makes me proud of my Muslim religion
.Furthermore,the way she presented her ideas was not very organized.This
made me question myself about what she wasdiscussing.
Abdul Satar
comm399
In class we
discussed the understanding of Islam and the way it's understood to
others.The speaker was great and did a qrat job. i learned how others
understand Islam and the way the speaker understood rules such as the
two-percent rule.She did a great job along with other classmates who were
asking about their religions backgrounds and how it influences them.
We need more
dialoque and speeches between faiths and religions to get a better
understanding of each other .As a Muslim,idid understand many of the
topics and points the speaker made ,but it was good to see other students
follow this understanding.
In
conclusion ,i hope to understand other speakers concerning their views
and attitudes of other religions,and why they dont believe other
religions .i want to also know how they chose their religion was it either
because of their families or because that was the only religion they knew
and understood, i believe such topics will be addressed in this great
class and that we can achieve higher goals in society and in life by
understanding and listening to others besides arguing with them.
بسم الله
الرحمن الرحيم
بعد
حضور محاضرة يوم الجمعة ,طرا على فكري أمور عدة.....
كانت
نظرتي للمحاضرة نظرة متعجبة,بدأت أستفهم عن مواضيع عدة وذلك لطريقة عرضه
للموضوع
إضافة إلى
ذللك طريقة الرجل المسيحي كانت معارضة لأفكار أخرى.....فعندما قال في حديثه
بان الرب لا يستطيع خلق أي شيء إلا إذا كان صافي أو طاهر أو
pure
...وبعد ذكره لهذه النقطة ذكر أن المسيحي عيسى عليه السلام هو الوحيد ال
pure
من الخلق جميعا ..فكيف يعقل ذلك؟؟؟لأن مراده من هذه المقولة أننا نحن البشر
غير طاهرين ...وكيف للرب خلق الإنسان إذا كان الإنسان نفسه غير طاهرا...فقد
تناقض في قوله الأول بأن الرب فقط يخلق الأشياء ال
pure......
نحن
المسلمين نؤمن بجميع الأديان السماوية والتي من ضمنها الديانة المسيحية و
نحترمها جميعها ,لأن المولى عز وجل هو الذي أرسل جميع الرسل لنشر الأديان
وكلها تدعو إلى عبادة رب واحد تدعو إلى توحيد الله فهي مشتركة بهذا الشيء مع
الأديان الأخرى .....
وأختم
تعليقي على هذا الموضوع وعن الرجل المسيحي الذي ألقى المحاضرةبالإشارة إلى
النقطة التي جذبت ناظري من الناحية السلبية ...وهي أنني شعرت بأنه مقيدا
بلائحات التوضيح التي وضعها للطلبة من أجل استيعاب الموضوع ولكن للأسف غايته
لم تحقق لمدى تقيده التام بالائحات ...إلى درجة أنه لم يستطع مجرد الإجابة
على بعض الأسئلة إلا بالرجوع إلى لائحات الإيضاح......
Zeena Altalib
Comm399
Response
Mr.Newman's
personal story about choosing his religious belief was ver
interesting.However ,i did not understand his concept of being
"Judaic_Christian"at the same time .My understanding is that Christianity
completes Judaism and as long as a Jew person stats believing in Jesus as
the manifeststion of god or the son of god then he or she becomes
Christian.Whereas in Mr.Newman's case it seems that he does not want to
completely be a Christian and desperately keeping his Jewish connection
just to say that he is still a Jew.
I also
thought that he didnt give any insights about the belief of Judaism,
instead he mostly spoke about Christianity(which he did not come to speak
about supposedly),love and respect which is really present in all the
religions and there is not the need to put a big emphasis on this issue.I
did not like it when he brought the issue of Islam having the Sunnis and
shiis because I noticed that every religion class professors bring it up
and try to show that it is very evident and destructive between Muslims
which i found very annoying because our differences are not in our
beliefs but they are political ones and religiously there is no major
conflict.
The way he
presented his speech was good and organized.However ,he did not
understand the questions that he was asked and kept saying that it needed
a longer discussion.The answers he gave were lacking credibility and
they were not full and satisfying answers. I would like to argue with him
about many things not to convince him that Islam is right but just to
prove to him that what he is saying does not make sense at all and that he
should be thinking more deeply about issues like that.
Nada Al-Barzinji
September 26,1997
communications 399
God ,the
Spirit,and the people of god
this paper
is a response to the Christian speaker who came to visit our class last
week.Before he gave his speech ,i had many questions pertaining
Christianity and what exactly it is they believe in.i looked very forward
to this lecture because i thought that this speaker could maybe answer
many of my questions about the religion and that he did not answer any of
my questions.Actually ,I saw that most of his lecture was about questions
that he himself never answered which was quite odd if you ask me for my
opinion. The lecture was titled :God,the Spirit,and the People of God .He
basically went through a handout that he gave to all of us in the class
which was full of different sorts of charts.However ,these charts only
further confused me.With all due respect to anyone who is Christian,i used
to think that christianity was a somewhat boring religion and i felt bad
about thinking that way .However ,his lecture bored me so much .Not
because he was a bad speaker ,but because the religion was just so
meaningless and ununderstanding to me.the thing that has always confused
me about Christianity is the whole thing about God being three things.Also
,about how they say that Jesus is God ,but isnt he the son of god? I
always wanted to know how they believe that God could have a son .But then
he said that God transformed himself into Jesus.(a human form),in order
for us to have a physical relationship with him.Why did the speaker not
talk anout this at all .i thought that this topic would have been
important for him to address to us .
Later ,while
people were askinghim the questions and answers i felt that he didnot quit
answer the questions as they were addressed to him and that he pretty much
tried to avoid alot of them .However ,i have found that most christains
have a great deal of difficulty answering gestions addressed to them about
was the whole ordeal about jesus and how he crucified himself in order to
sacrifce for his people'ssins . he did an okay job about explaining it to
us , but in the end he had a very hard time with answering one of the
boy's guestions about how people's sins should all be forgiven . in
conclusion though , he seemed like avery nice man with many different
thoughts and aspects shared with us about christianity , but in all just
did not do a good job teaching me more about his religion
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