So I mentioned awhile ago that I'm reading Matt's copy of Reza Alsan's "No god but God", a book about the origins of Islam, and last night I was reading and I though that this passage was very poignant:
After having a monogamous life with Khadija for more than twenty-five years, Muhammad, in the course of ten years in Yathrib, married nine different women. However, with very few exceptions, these marriages were not sexual unions but political ones… Nevertheless, for fourteen hundred years – from the medieval Popes of the Crusades to the Enlightenment philosophers for Europe to the evangelical preachers of the United States – Muhammad’s wives have been the source of numerous lurid attacks against the Prophet and the religion of Islam.In response, contemporary scholars – Muslim and non-Muslim alike – have done considerable work to defend Muhammad’s marriages, especially his union with Aisha, who was nine years old when betrothed to the Prophet. While these scholars should be commended for their work in debunking the bigoted and ignorant critiques of anti-Islamic preachers and pundits, the fact is that Muhammad needs no defense on this point. Like the great Jewish patriarchs Abraham and Jacob; like the prophets Moses and Hosea; like the Israelite kings Saul, David, and Solomon; and like nearly all of the Christian/Byzantine and Zoroastrian/Sasanianmonarchs, all Shaykhs in Arabia – Muhammad included – had either multiple wives, multiple concubines, or both. In seventh century Arabia, a Shaykh’s power and authority was in large part determined by the size of his harem. And while Muhammad’s union with a nine-year-old girl may be shocking to our modern sensibilities, his betrothal to Aisha was just that: a betrothal. Aisha did not consummate her marriage to Muhammad until after reaching puberty, which is when every girl in Arabia without exception became eligible for marriage. The most shocking aspect of Muhammad’s marriages is not his ten years of polygamy in Yathrib, but his twenty-five years of monogamy in Mecca, something practically unheard of at the time…
I feel that this passage is a great example of how many Western attitudes toward Islam are so one-sided and uninformed. I’m way too lazy to go into great detail, as school is almost here and I’m going to have to actually put thought into things way too often soon, but it reminded me that some of the world’s largest religions have histories that are so intertwined that one cannot simply attack a religion other than one’s own before really thinking about how both religions actually came to be. Right after this Aslan goes into the history of the use of the veil, which is also incredibly interesting to read, unless you are one of the screaming anti-Islamic ultra Christians of the Midwest… Anyway, I just wanted to appreciate a different view of the world, and not the processed one you find in the US news. I also wanted to remind you all that deep, deep down inside you secretly want to be a History major. Deep… deep down.
Hmm, it's been awhile aready. I've been meaning to update for ages, but work/laziness/other excitement got in the way. Weekend before last Casey, Kim, Becky, Matt and I went camping up to the Porcupine Mountains in the U.P. It ended up being very much fun, even though at several times our camping demeanor and level of experience would have pushed my ultra-Boy Scout dad to tears... The weather was beautiful after we were pretty much rained out on the first night (which led Matt and I to stumble out of the tent at two in the morning to pull a tarp over it...) We spent Saturday swimming in Lake Superior, visiting Lake of the Clouds and the highest point in the mountains, and watching the sunset. While driving home on Sunday we stopped at my cabin at Trout Lake, and allowed my dad to give us a pontoon ride around the lake (which included the acreage of the lake, depth, and other historical facts about other cabins on the lakeshore...) There are many other pictures besides these, but I'm too lazy to post them in the gallery at this moment... But they are on Facebook.
On a sad note, Matt, my dad and I had planned to go to the stock car races on Thursday night, but they were canceled due to rain... which left me very upset. But I suppose the night wasn't completely ruined, we did end up watching lots of Miami Vice.
What's worse, summer is coming to a complete close soon. Kim is already back at EC, Dylan is leaving soon as well... Gah!
But... I did make a lovely new friend today while waiting in line for books.
Also, yay for a very productive day.
I always have so much to say when I think about posting, but when it comes to actually writing it, I forget. Anyway, it's time to go try to enjoy the last bits of summer! (And you'll notice that I took the bloody tagboard down).
Just another quick post... I've added lots of pictures from the last few weeks in the gallery, so check those out... I'm also attempting to stop the spam on the tagboard so I don't have to remove it completely... plus I really don't want to buy any Cialis.
Otherwise not too much has been going on... working a lot as usual, I walked dogs with Casey, saw Talladega Nights and really enjoyed it, and I just made myself some pasta and it was delicious.
I'm very much excited for this weekend though... yay for camping in the Porkies! There should be lots of lovely pictures posted sometime early next week. Have a good one!
Hello again. I've posted pictures in the gallery of the Midwest Freestyle Championships that took place in Wausau on Saturday. It was definitely worth a watch, I'll try to post ahead of time if I hear of any more competitions planned for the Wausau course. I also managed to get a video of one of the runs, which turned out to be a fun project as I was actually motivated enough to figure out how to do some light video editing, which turned out to be a fun adventure. Hopefully I won't get too hooked on it though, videos take up way too much server space... Anyway here it is, for a limited time. There isn't much in other news, I'll probably be stumbling to the fair at some point as well, but since Seether canceled their concert I have doubts I'll actually go to any of the shows. Oh well, there's always the Monkey Tails. Also, check out the OK Go video below, it's pretty amusing, just like the original one. Time for my book though... I'm reading Matt's copy of "No god but God", Reza Alsan's book on the origins and evolutions of Islam. So far it's been really interesting, as it definitely puts the religion into perspective, as it is greatly misunderstood. Apparently the author spoke at the MC last fall, I'm pretty sad I missed it now. That's it for now, I suppose.
