Radical religions

When you hear the word "Buddhist", what do you think? You think of bald monks in orange robes not eating, sitting cross-legged, and chanting "om". When you hear the word "Christian", you think of people in suits and dresses handing out Bibles and telling you you're going to hell if you don't believe in Jesus. When you hear the word "Muslim" you think of men with long beards wearing turbans, women completely covered up and oppressed. You also think of the men who make the news nearly every day as suicide bombers.

These are all examples of societies perceptions of different religions. Societal perceptions should be based on the majority, but are these stereotypes the majority? The answer is no. In actuality, it's the minority and these people are often the extremists of the religion. As Diana Eck puts it so well, "every religion has it's extremists". (223) But the religion as a whole should not be based on only a few members.

Here is one example of how Islam can be misinterpreted. Because it is so prominent in the American media and you can hardly turn on the TV with out seeing another report of a suicide bomber, this is what the American public sees as Islam.

"Newspapers bring to American homes the images of Islamic jihad and their terrorists organizations, their rifle toting leaders and their hideouts, creating a view of Islam as dangerous, subversive, highly political, and anti-American. When a terrorist attack occurs elsewhere in the world, American Muslims may well be among the first to condemn the attach and to speak of terrorism as anti-Islamic, but their voices are usually not heard let along magnified by the popular press." (222-223)

Obviously the saying holds true that we can't believe everything we read, so before we make any judgments we need to study the religion. According to Qur'an, the Muslim's holy book, a Jihad is allowed for two reasons: self defense and fighting against oppression. Therefore, what these terrorists are doing is anti-Islamic, so that stereotype is not part of the religion. The tradition has 5 pillars of faith: confession of faith, prayer, fasting, charity, and pilgrimage. Suicide bombing is nowhere to be found- neither is the oppression of women. A Muslim that we interviewed shed light of the role of women. She said that being covered was a sign of respect and was a choice. During worship, the women pray in a separate room behind the men by their own preference, as being in front of the men and having to bend over would be embarrassing.

In addition, Eck explains that Christianity and Islam have several similarities. When Muslims say they are worshipping Allah, they are really worshiping God. Muslims believe Allah is the same being as the Christian and Jewish God, and therefore consider them all a type of cousin religions.

Our findings throughout the semester have shown that extremists are hard to find, if impossible. So, what causes these stereotypes. It is a lack of education of the reality of religion. As people become educated and gain knowledge of other religions surrounding them, the common misconceptions will be better understood and hopefully someday ended.

"Now more than ever, all Americans need the instructive challenge of the Qur'an; that our differences require us to get to know each other". (290)