There was no prompt this week so I think I am going to blog about this idea we had in class. A point was made, I think by my Professor, and he said "Do we view the Middle East differently because of their religion? Not only that but why is Religion the first thing we think of when dealing with the Middle East. When we study and talk about the foreign/domestic politics of Japan we don't talk about religion."
This point really stuck out to me for the rest of class and honestly for the rest of week. How does this notion that the Middle East revolves around religion affect our every day lives all the way through foreign policy. I know when I think of going on vacation, the Middle East is the first place that pops into my mind, not just because of the desert climate and sweltering weather but because I feel as though I wouldn't fit in. I'm not Muslim, I don't know what it means to wear a Hijab or even if I'm allowed to wear one? Must I wear one if I visited a country in the Middle East? When I traveled to Europe two summers ago, these questions didn't plague my mind, I was more or less thinking "How much German have I actually learned in four years of study? What am I going to see while in Europe? Am I going to know how to operate the trains?" Why did I not worry about being religious in Europe? They are primarily Catholic, especially in the area that I was visiting, of Southern Germany. However that thought never crossed my mind.
Its hard for me to handle this thought because not all Arabs are Muslim and not all Muslims are Arab. There are Jewish minorities, Coptic Christians and other Christian sects as well. However I think the answer to this question my professor posed is that the Muslim religion is heavily intertwined with culture AND government in this area. Many governments in the Middle East are based of the Koran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are just two examples. It would not be in our governments benefit to ignore this fact, and therefore they have to be sensitive when dealing with this region. Culture inevitably defines government and because this area is a Muslim dominated culture it will therefore create this preconceived notions of why we think of the Middle East in the manner we do.
Intertwined religion and government seems like such a foreign concept to Americans because according to our Constitution, there should be separation between church and state. I feel many Americans are confused by the mixture of the two in the Middle East. Also, because our government is structured for a separation, some Americans may view this connection as negative.
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