Suheir Hammad & Marjane Satrapi on War

"I will not hate for you or even hate you." She choses not to follow them, yet not to oppose them. I found this line really interesting. If she chooses to work for those she dislikes then she's forced to hate for for a cause, but isn't hating those she dislikes still hating for a cause, even if it's a different cause? "Rhythm is half silence." This line just blew me away. It's just something so interesting. It reminds me of "The glass is always empty," really just a pessimistic view of the world, even if it's pessimistic, it's really such a different view of the world. 


Suheir was speaking about how she "Wouldn't dance for that war drum", that she wouldn't follow the ideas of the military, or who's fighting. Marjane, really opposed the government, everything they did. Marjane despised their ideas so much that she in fact ended up moving to a completely different country for the rest of her life. Suheir's words aren't as strong an idea, but rather print the idea in your head through hidden messagesm the way her poetry is written.


Overall, I think that hearing the story and emotions of somebody who lived in a country that had a war going on in it really strikes something in me. I never really saw the world in many different ways, thinking of the world as such a frightening place really adds some thoughts to my head. Hearing the emotions displayed poetically, though, makes the emotions easier to feel.


PART II


"The sky where once was steel." Suheir is talking about the building, the embodiment of the government, shown high above the people, a strong building, enforced with power. The people of the revolution took away the building, leaving just sky, but if there is but sky then the modernism is being taken away. She's explaining the faults of a revolution that may have looked good at the time. The revolutionaries, the ones tearing down the building didn't look ahead to what the world would be if they didn't have their government. They didn't think of the war that could come to be without their higher power. They didn't think of what the next rulers might be or what they might do.


Marjane as a child really defines what the revolution can do to somebody. She was really just swayed in whatever direction she was told to follow. When the Shah was in power she liked the Shah, but after her dad talked with her she hated the Shah, and after, when the Islamic Regime took over she simply hated them, too. She later started to make sense of her hatred and realized how she could revolt against the Regime passive-aggressively, in her own way.  

Islam

The Islamic law (Sharia) is a very interesting thing, as are the rules for most religions. For example, a Muslim is only supposed to rely on information told by they're faith, not necessarily what others say. And, a Muslim is supposed to follow the rule of a Mujtahid, an Islamic scholar who's able to understand the Sharia. The rules of a Mujtahid are decided by what he thinks is best. Even if others say that what he does are incorrect, he still should only do what he thinks he should do. 


The Islamic religion also has an equivalent of Kosher things, what you can eat/ ingest and what you can't. Things that cannot be ingested are Najis. Things that can be ingested are Pak. Things that are officially stated as a Najisat are urine, faeces, semen, dead bodies, blood, dog, pig, kafir (something that isn't Islamic), liquor and the sweat of an animal that has ingested a Najisat. Technically, a Muslim is allowed to eat something that's Najis, but only if they don't know it's Najis or if it's been made Pak, by water, earth, the sun, through transformation, through change, through transfer and through other methods. If meat is Hallal, though, it's been cut from an animal that's been killed under certain conditions. It must be killed while sane, across the throat with a not serrated blade, while saying the name of 'Allah'. 


These are but two rules among thousands of the others stated in the Sharia, but I don't think I should completely study all these rules, because I don't understand a great deal of them and I don't think I will unless I accept and study this as my main religion for a few years.

Asia Current Events

Syria is located in western Asia. It neighbors Jordan, Israel, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq. The country just barely touches the Mediterranean Sea on it's western border. The majority of the religious studies in Syria are Islamic or branched from Islam, though there are some Christians, too. The main language spoken in Syria is Arabic, but different regions sometimes choose another language. 


Recently, in 2006 riots started in Syria due to controversial cartoons made in Denmark about one of the prophets of Islam, Muhammad. During the riots the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish embassies were attacked. Suddenly President Bashar Assad, the leader of Syria, said that the message had gone through and the riots halted immediately.