Cultural Essay: A Glimpse at the Muslim World

Juan Carlos Arguello

University of Kentucky

A Glimpse at the Muslim World

Islam is a Religion that bases itself on practice and willfulness to satisfy with
Gods guidelines, Islam means submission and that is what a practice of Islam needs
to do in order to fulfill the requirements of Allah to go to heaven. The Muslim culture
is one that has grabbed a lot of attention in the last few years for probably bad
reasons but I am going to give a full representation of what that culture really looks
like. Islam is a religion that is practiced mainly in the Middle East and is one of the
oldest religions we know of, although old people dont fully comprehend the religion
so I wanted ton show a larger side of Islam and put some of the stereotypes to rest.
In this essay, I will be arguing the major traditions, beliefs, the role of men and
women, as well as the stereotypes that are present in Muslim society and by
analyzing these elements of Islam I will help create a greater knowledge of this
culture.
Islam is religions that as all of the rest of religions have a certain structure
that has to happen in order to achieve eternity. The Muslim people believe that
there is only one god Allah and that there are many prophets but the most
important prophet is Muhammad who wrote the Quran, which as explained by
Hanni Believe in God, Allah, and its messenger, prophet Mohammad. We follow
everything Mohammad told us to do. We learn Islam based on what prophet
Mohammad told us to do. Thats like the main thing|, and we have the five Pillars of
Islam. When he talks about the five pillars of Islam he is talking about this
guidelines that Muslims have and that if they follow this guidelines they are going to
achieve immortality. I believe that this is a common ground with the rest of the

religions as in Catholicism there are the 10 commandments that if you follow you
are going to reach eternity and this will help people see that this two groups have
many similarities. People that practice Islam know that the beliefs arent as
importance as the practice of the rules that are set for the religion, because
ultimately if you follow the rules of Islam you are considered a good Muslim and if
you dont practice them you are considered a bad one. The Muslims have three
subdivisions of Islam which are Sunni, Sufi and Shia, and within this subdivision we
can see that as the different religions there is always the popular group and there is
the really extremist group. They believe that in order to achieve eternity they have
to be good in earth and follow what Allah and its prophet Muhammad say as well as
many other religions that have the same system. When looking to achieve that
eternity they have to follow all of these rules that have been given to them, if there is
a good practice of Islam and they guide their lives with the five pillars they will do
so. I believe that people think of this idea of eternity for many different reasons and
one of them is no give purpose to their lives. If a Muslim person follows these
guidelines in other words he is going to be giving purpose to his life, although there
are a lot of evil in the world if they are able to remain alienated from that evil they
are going to achieve eternity. At the end of times in Islam there is the belief of the
judgment day (yawm al-Qiyamah) in which Allah will balance the good deeds a
person has done and the bad deeds and if If the good deeds outweigh the bad, the
person will go to paradise (Jannah), a place of joy and bliss but If the bad things
outweigh the good, then the person will be punished in hell (Jahannam). When Allah
is making a judgment, even a persons intentions (niyyah) are taken into account ,

this is very similar to the way that the rest of the religions have portrayed a
judgment day and this shows that if you do good you are going to be compensated
and if you do bad you are going to be punished by Allah.
The Muslim people surround themselves of all of these traditions that they
have been doing for centuries and these traditions are the ones that give the identity
to this group. One of the big rituals that is practiced in Islam is the pilgrimage (the
Hajj) which consist of going to Mecca, this city is located in Saudi Arabia which is
considered the first place that god created, in which the temple of Kaba is located.
The importance of Mecca to the Muslims is huge as they pray 5 times a day towards
Mecca. When you fulfill the pilgrimage you are able to do one of the 5 pillars of
Islam. As Explained by Najwa Abu-taha (a member of the Muslim religion) going to
Mecca and praying in the city gets you closer to god, makes your soul a little more
pure. Going to mecca is just something we (Muslims) do that gets us closer to god
this shows the significance that Mecca has to the Muslim community as one of the
ways you can connect in a better way to god and in that way achieve salvation more
easily. Ramadan is a month in which the Muslim people fast except for people that
are incapacitated for different reasons, Ramadan is a month in which this group
practice one of the five pillars of Islam which is fasting as well the fasting is a way to
clean your sins so only by fasting in Ramadan you are able to clean your sins and get
yourself closer to god. Another big tradition that Muslim people practice is the
praying five time towards Mecca and this shows the importance of Mecca as it is
said that there is the first place that Allah created and therefore making it the holiest
place on earth. A big tradition that exists as well in Islam is this idea of a tax system

in which people that follow Islam give 2 two percent of their wealth to the poorer
people and this is a way to support their community and in some ways make the
community a little more united. The traditions of this group are what give identity to
all of them and because of the traditions they practice they have the ideals and ways
of thinking that this specific group has.
The role of women and men in society is one aspect in which I dont agree
totally in the Muslim culture. In my opinion there are too many restrictions to the
Muslim women and this restrictions only help there to create more boundaries and
more chances for sexism to appear like for example women are required to cover
themselves by a veil and men arent required to do anything that equal to that. One
of the ideas in which I dont really agree is the idea that men can marry many
women although there are some limitations to this and is explains by Hanni Abutaha (a Muslim practicing) Basically polygamy is when you marry more than one
woman, and we have rules for it. If you marry another woman, both women should
know what to do, they should like each other. If you want to marry another girl, they
should accept her so they compensate with each other. I think that women dont
have much of a say in what goes on and they only do as men tell them to and that is
why I do not consider them entirely free because they are controlled by what men
say and they are always trying to accomplish mens expectations. Men in society
have the role of guiding it and if they want something women are required to do it
for them, I believe that this system is dysfunctional and it will end in a huge revolt
against men by the women. This part of society is seen by me and the rest of the
world like this but actually many women believe that this is correct and they dont

mind all of the limitations because they have been born to those traditions and if
any they think that American women are too liberal. In the Quran it says that men
own women and this has to do with the way women play their role in society
because for starts they are already considered as an object. Women are told how to
dress and how to act by men because they own the women but I believe this is a
big oppression in women as they should be free to act as they want, the problem is
that if they act as they want they would be violating with what Allah says and
therefore not being able to achieve eternity. Also another thing that is said in the
Quran which creates bigger roomk for oppression towards women, is that in
womens soul there is evil and that its up to men to control that evil and therefore
men should control woman, or in other words men should on women. The different
perspectives are because of where they were born and what kind of upbringing they
had so I believe that actually its all relative and there are no definite just different
perspectives.
There are many different stereotypes that surround this religion and they
have created a large amount of limitation to the members of this group. One of the
biggest stereotypes that have been created by foreign people is that Muslim people
are terrorists and this arrived after the terrorist attack of 9/11. These stereotypes
have made people think that all Muslim people are this way and have limited their
possibilities in the world. In many articles and many commentaries if heard there
has been a lot of discrimination in airports, job interviews etc. Media helps
Muslims to be portrayed that way and as Najwa Abu-taha said Some media could
help. But mostly media refers to us as some kind of terrorist, so many people around

the world refer to us as terrorists, so they dont really help. They dont show the true
nature of Islam, they dont show what Islam is about when she said that it means
that she is kind of resentful for how the stereotypes have been portrayed by media
and how media actually damage the image of Muslim people. I think that only
because a certain terrorist group practiced Islam it does not give the right to
generalize that all people that practice Islam are terrorists. In Spain there is a big
terrorist movement called ETA and the problem why Spanish people arent
discriminated is because they have never attacked the U.S in their terrorist
movements. The U.S has the ability to use media in order to oppress a certain group
and it has done so with the Muslim people and this has led to a huge number of
people that dont want to get involved with Muslim people because they think that
hey are all terrorist and violent people. From first hand experience I can say that is a
complete lie as people that I have met that are part of Islam are really warm, and
this was a surprise to me as because of the U.S influence in my country I have begun
to think the same way and thinking the way the media want me to think. I think that
people think this because the media and the American government has made them
think so that they are seen as bad people that they only have bad intentions and that
is a complete lie because thats not what the Muslim group is not like its been
portrayed.
In western countries the Muslim culture is not fully comprehended and
sometimes judged, I believe that I presented the complete truth so that people can
judge by themselves. When we think about it, Muslims are like us, we believe in a
creation, we believe that if we do good we are going to have good consequences but

if we do bad we are going to have bad consequences, they also believe in an after life
that depends on how you followed gods rules if its bad or good. Muslims have a
number of beliefs and traditions that make them unique and because of stereotypes
the rest of the western world are not able to appreciate everything that comes from
this cultural group and if we think about it they are like us and we cannot judge a
whole group of people by what a coupe have done, we need to see beyond those
stereotypes because beyond that we are going to be surprised at we are going to be
able to find. If we see all of the sides we are able to ultimately understand the whole
religion and the people who practice it.
References

Abu-taha, Najwa, and Hanni Abu-taha. "Cultural Interview." Personal interview. 28

Sept. 2014.
Esposito, J. (1988, January 1). Introduction: The Islamic tradition. Retrieved October
18, 2014, from http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/ecumenical-andinterreligious/interreligious/islam/introduction-the-islamic-tradition.cfm
Islam: Beliefs about life after death. (n.d.). Retrieved October 18, 2014, from
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/rs/death/islambeliefrev2.shtml

"Ramadan." Wikipedia. Wikimedia foundation, 10 Feb. 2014. Web. 02 Oct. 2014

Islamic women and religious oppression. (n.d.). Retrieved October 18, 2014, from
http://www.famafrique.org/oppression.htm

"Importance of Ramadan what makes Ramadan very special?" Orbit Islam. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 02 Oct. 2014.
"Ramadan." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Feb. 2014. Web. 02 Oct. 2014