Project Proposal

First and foremost, an apology!  My original idea for a project did not work out, so I have a new and improved proposal to share!

In the past five years or so, my family has gotten to know a man named Fareed, originally a Palestinian lawyer.  When we first met him, he was beginning to attend the same church that my family attended at the time, having just found asylum in America.  We learned that his family was still overseas, and would not be able to join  him here for at least two years.

Knowing this, we invited Fareed to out house for Thanksgiving that year.  Even with extremely limited English, we were able to learn a lot about his life and why he had been forced to flee his home country.  In Palestine, he had become a political activist, speaking out against militant groups using child soldiers.

Fareed is a fascinating person who would be very interesting to interview and ask what Jerusalem, and the area surrounding it, means to him.  At the time I met him, he was a Christian whose Muslim family, for their own safety, could not know that he had converted a year after he came to America.  It would be eye-opening to see if/how this impacts his view of the holy city, and why inter-cultural and religious "sharing" is so important.

Journal 3: من أنا؟

Friends

Here are my three best friends I have known since age 14.

Another best friend of mine.

Sacred Space and Sentiment

These photos represent the sacred geography of my University, and how honored I am to participate in its revered practices.

This is a picture that incorporates both my personal faith and the place where I grew up.  The National Cathedral, DC.

This picture, also taken during my summer in D.C., shows an inscription at the Navy Memorial with words that hold deep meaning to me.

Inspiration

Summoning courage- 2010

Some of my favorite things.

"The most difficult lie I ever contended with is this: Life is a story about me." –D.M.,  Blue Like Jazz.

Readings by Dr. Salim Tamari

The first article I read was about the nearly forgotten writer Isaq Shami.  This article brings to light a topic not really discussed in the Armstrong book; that the words “Jew” and “Arab” are not exactly mutually exclusive.  In fact, it seems that the use of these terms to designate two distinct ethnic identities is a relatively new phenomenon.  When, where, and how this changed seems a bit contested, but the post- WWII Zionist movement was a major contributor as to how this would play out.  Shami’s work must be appreciated within the context in which he wrote: a world in which Jews and Arabs were one and the same people, not merely two peoples with a common ancestor.

The reading entitled “Lepers, Lunatics, and Saints” taught us about another important person of that past that we have not likely heard of: Dr. Tawfiq Canaan.   In the years after the Palestinians were expelled from the newly-founded Israel, Dr. Canaan proved to be more than a leprosy doctor.  It was interesting to see how he and his contemporaries sought to document as much Arab/ Palestinian culture as possible, but even more interesting to see how they sought to legitimize their way of life and belief systems for the Western world.  Zionist groups had the advantage here; they could establish a religious connection with the Christian West by portraying for them a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.  Canaan’s work, on the other hand, had the challenge of trying to show the ingenuity of a culture that was beginning to be undermined by modern Western ways of life.  The things that Canaan an others like him have accomplished is impressive, and I am surprised I have not heard his name before.

Chapters 14-18

The very title of chapter 14 informed me that I was about to learn something from reading the end of this book.  As it is with many young people who grew up in this part of the world, the term “jihad” has become embedded in my mind as a signal of something frightening.  Since fourth grade, the context in which I heard the term was almost entirely from the news on television, and thus, when reading the boldfaced title at the top of the page, my subconscious instantly flashed to images of those who, for whatever reason, would like to see me dead.  This happened despite the fact that, since I came to college, I have made Muslim friends who use this term in a very different way.  It is safe to say that I have struggled (hah) with trying to defeat these old assumptions over the past couple years.  Armstrong, yet again, helped to give a succinct and understandable explanation of the word’s meaning in Islam in a peaceful context.

The next series of conquers seemed to be portrayed as something like home-improvement projects for the new inhabitants.  When the Muslims under Saladin defeated the crusaders, they felt that they were coming home, but that this home needed to be renovated.  And so the furniture was taken out of the Mosque and rugs laid out.  Whenever a new group came in, it seemed that the new inhabitants would make use of whatever the previous inhabitants had left them- making it work for themselves.

This holds for holy sites only when it comes to the establishment of Israel.  It is, as Armstrong points out, extremely surprising how quickly and successfully the British were able to accomplish their aims.  Whether heralded as a miracle or a disaster, this spark of the “modern conflict” has changed the lives of both Israelis and Palestinians to this day, and likely for years to come (unfortunate as it is).  I wonder how Zionists could have gone about their aims differently.  Perhaps if organizing a peaceful mass- migration to Palestine was feasible, Jews could have naturally integrated themselves into the majority in that area.  I am not sure how this would sound, however, to a Diaspora who had been escaping oppression for centuries.

Chapters 11-13

I found Armstrong’s portrayal of the birth of Islam very refreshing, as well as very uncomplicated.  Refreshing, because Islam is not described to be an exclusive, radical new faith, but rather the simple act of surrender to a God already worshiped for centuries.  Uncomplicated, because Armstrong’s description has been stripped of all the biases and cultural implications that Islam carries in today’s Western world.  Its heart can then be observed: simply an extension of the worship of the one monotheistic God.

Jerusalem under early Islamic rule seemed sort of nice.  Since the religion itself allowed for the respect and acknowledgement of Judaism and Christianity, this early model was an attempt at a peaceful Jerusalem.  Unfortunately, perhaps this was a bit too idealistic in the long run, but I have to admire the humility and dignity with which the Muslims approached their Holy City, a city which they knew they shared with others.

Finally, the Europeans (consistently making themselves the bad guys throughout history).  As anticipated, the final chapter dealing with the Crusades was pretty sickening and incomprehensible.  However “love your neighbor as yourself” could possibly have been interpreted as “I mean, it’s okay to slaughter a few thirty thousand” is totally beyond me.  But whatever the cause of this disturbingly obsessive genocide, there is no doubt that an event of this magnitude can and will be felt a thousand years afterwards.  One phrase at the very end of the chapter stood out as particularly poignant:

“…the violent dislocation of Crusader rule had damaged relations between Islam and the Christian West at a fundamental level.  It had been the Muslim’s first experience of the Western world, and it has not been forgotten to this day.”

Chapters 8-10

These few chapters managed to keep me engaged out of pure curiosity for the history of a faith I thought I knew so well. 

First off, these chapters surprised and delighted me with the first mentions of women actively changing the history of faith, a breath of fresh air from the lists upon lists of men we have encountered thus far.  Helena, Melania, and Egeria made powerful impacts on history, and it makes me curious as to whether their influence during the early stages of Christianity contributed to later legends and cults surrounding Mary.

I see modern Christianity incorporating both the ideas pushed by Eusbius and the Jerusalem cult.  From the early days, I was taught that God is everywhere- there is no place in the universe that does not contain his presence.  In addition, I was taught that the body of the Christian is the “Temple” of Christ, rather than a physical place.  However, Christians also place high significance in holy places.  Jerusalem is still seen as a treasure on earth, and there are behaviors that are simply not permitted in any church building.  In high school I read a very cool, very strange, Old English poem that described the death of Christ from the perspective of the actual wooden cross, reflecting ancient Christian obsession with holy objects and places.

I was disturbed (although, sadly, not surprised) by the way that Christianity was first implemented.  The early believers seemed to think that the only way that growth and legitimacy of their faith could be established was by first desecrating and undermining the previous existing faith, which in Jerusalem’s case, was Judaism.  The mentality stuck.  This pattern has been repeated almost everywhere else in the world that Christianity has been introduced over the centuries.  Even in the Midwest US, the land I grew up in, Jesuit missionaries who came into contact with native peoples in the1600’s struggled to convince them that their understanding of the sacred was backwards and hopelessly flawed.  This has caused many conflicts, persecutions, and bloody wars throughout the history of the faith that blackens its reputation as a peaceful way to seek God.  I wonder how history would have been different if early Christians had not looked at their faith as a “defeat” of Judaism. 

Journal 2: قصة من طفولتي

For a short time during my elementary and middle school years I attended a very conservative church that occasionally got very political.  My parents decided to attend because it was very geographically close to home, and a good number of our close friends from school and work also attended as their “home” church community.  I found out quickly that the style and focus of this church disagreed with my personality and particular sensitivities greatly, and it sort of became a catalyst for later “rebellious” years, which is not at all what the focus of this journal will be.

My intention behind saying this is that during those years (before my family felt they had had enough and moved to another church community) I was fed a lot of strongly-held, politically-charged beliefs which seemed to be universally accepted by the church as scripturally supported, and not all of which I agreed with.  The topics ranged from the evolution debate, to assumptions about the LGBT community, to modern-day Israel- a country “called into existence by God.”  I know now that the existence and legitimacy of this nation is an emotional issue that is much, much more complex than this church would make it seem.

My childhood vision of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was molded around the story of Abraham, a man from Canaan who was promised a son.  But seeing as both he and his wife were about 100 years old (which I always found pretty gross), Abraham gave up on God’s promise and had one of his servants bear him a son instead (Ishmael).  Well, then God got mad and Abraham kicked the two of them out and his wife did end of having a son, after all, named Isaac.  The Sunday-school moral of this story is, “God always keeps his promises.”

This story, and the interpretation that this particular group held to, had a profound impact on how this church community felt about the modern-day conflict over Jerusalem and the lands surrounding it.  The descendents of Ishmael, I was told, were a result of Abraham’s mistrust, and thus were condemned to be in constant conflict with the descendents of his promised son, Isaac.  According to their worldview, the Israeli- Palestinian conflict had no hope of being resolved, because it was a spiritual battle, and a lesson to us all about trusting God.  Either way, they emphasized, it was in the Christians’ best interest to support the nation of Israel, the home of God’s Chosen People.

Phew, just typing this stuff out gives me ulcers.  I know how emotionally charged the question of Jerusalem is, how much these ancient names mean to people, and the extent to which meanings can be misconstrued.  Needless to say, the views of this old community I was once a part of are not my views today, and when I started taking classes in college and learning about the facts of the modern-day conflict, I felt very resentful of and a little bit furious with many of the teachings I absorbed as a child.  I hope that in relaying this history that it will not be offensive to readers, but rather that it will point out this viewpoint exists and is believed my many Americans today.