Critical Thinking Question: What are Islam basic beliefs? What about values morals ethics of Middle East religion and the West? Benefits of critical thinking: good tools.

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WESTERN TOLERANCE
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The West and Islam

MY JOURNEY
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MANY JOURNEYScoming to
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of Islam

Steps & Stages

Muslims,
a Danish Cartoon,
and Me ...

The Exploration
Continues

Muslim Outrage
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Political Correctness -
toxic Western tolerance

Western Blocks -
The Enemy Within

tolerance of intolerance,
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a veneer for fear?

The Muslim Religion -
A Religion of Peace?

Exploration of Evidence -
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Explorations
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a look at anger


The Rage of the
"Righteous"

on Muslim outrage
at a Danish cartoon
Feb/July 2006   MORE

Mirror, Mirror,
Who is that Horror?

on the rage of the
righteous when coming
across mirrors
Sept 2006  MORE  ALL

Political
Correctness
and
Fundamentalism

Jan 2008  MORE   ALL

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More Explorations
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and other blocks
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Stupid Opinion #1
the opinion that
all opinions are equal
Aug 2006    MORE

Walls in the Mind,
They Cripple and Bind

inner walls, inner blocks -
invisible from within,
frustrating for outsiders
Jan 2007   MORE   ALL

How To Think -
Tip Number One -
Ask This One Question

Apr 2007   MORE   ALL

The Ingredients
of Good Thinking

Feb 2009   ALL

Breaking the Spell
of Stupid Opinions

rule #1 - don't start by
calling it a stupid opinion
Aug 2006  MORE

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Urgently Needed
Information

Is Islam a Religion
of Peace?

Muslims, Islam,
Koran, Reality

March 2008     ALL

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More Thinking
re Islam,
Muslim
Moderates,
and more

The Pope Speaks
outraged Muslims protest,
kill nun, demand apology
Sept 2006  MORE   ALL

The Rottweiler Pope,
The Danish Cartoon
and Muslim Moderates

the pope's remarks -
help or hindrance?
Sept 2006  MORE  ALL

A Dangerous
Temptation -

Counter-Prejudice

the lure of hating back
and hurting back
Sept 2006  MORE  ALL

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The Hope

Give Peace
a Chance

- by giving empathy
a chance
An Open Letter to
All People, and
for now, especially
all Muslims
-
Feb/Aug 2006
MORE      ALL

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About
the Explorer

Elsa's Quest:
to explore

Elsa Asks
a Final Question:
What is
Islamophobia?

This Is Not Me
but it's a tempting
disguise due to the
"righteous"
MORE


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WHAT IS EMPATHY?
EMPATHY DEFINITION
MIDDLE EAST RELIGION
IMPORTANCE of EMAPTHY
MIDDLE EAST SOLUTION

WHAT IS EMPATHY?
EMPATHY DEFINITION
MIDDLE EAST RELIGION
MIDDLE EAST SOLUTION


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WHAT IS EMPATHY?
EMPATHY DEFINITION
MIDDLE EAST RELIGION

 

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The Idea Emporium

Elsa, brain trainer - always looking with ideas cooking  

Critical Thinking Question: What are Islam basic beliefs? Another question: how did I come to be thinking
and writing about Middle East religion and the West?

As always, lots of questions, this time on why I do so much thinking,
and how I came to focus on the Muslim religion.
One general value: critical thinking, focusing each critical thinking question.
Benefits of critical thinking: increased likelihood of cutting through
barriers to seeing what is happening.

Critical Thinking Question on Islam basic beliefs. Critical thinking question on values morals ethics.
 

WESTERN TOLERANCE and ISLAM
seen through my curious eyes
___________

ABOUT ELSA
and her quest to explore
what is currently happening between
the West and Islam

I think, the way other people are moved to dance, to sing, to write music. It isn't something I have to do, need to be pushed to do. It's something natural, fun, stimulating. And also, like those moved to dance, sing, write music, it's something that's taken a lot of learning and work.

But at the bottom of it, there's an inner drive toward thinking. Give me information and inside myself I start asking questions, mull over what I've heard, start trying to make sense of things, get caught on the things that don't make sense to me, get more information, do more thinking.

In this case I've been getting information on the Muslim religion for a long while. I spent some time in Egypt, some time in Turkey. More and more Muslims were moving to Montreal, my home city, building mosques, forming communities. Salman Rushdie wrote Satanic Verses and had to go into hiding, a price on his head. More and more suicide bombers were blowing themselves up, with as many bystanders as possible - often other Muslims. A few Muslims took over 4 jets, flew 2 of them into the World Trade Center buildings, one into a part of the Pentagon. The fourth crashed, thanks to passengers who overpowered the suicide terrorists. A Danish cartoonist published a cartoon of the Muslim prophet with his turban turned into a bomb. The Muslim world, what one could see of it anyway, exploded into offended outrage.

All this was happening alongside the rest of my very full life.

It's a life where, as I've said, thinking has played a big role - along with all kinds of creativity - and along with teaching, a personal life, and so on and so forth.

I read a few books, along the way, about the development of Islam, and comparing Islam to the Western world.

At some point, my own perspective came together enough that I wanted to express it - especially as I didn't see my viewpoint widely mirrored.

This is the usual route for me. If others are saying what I'd like to be saying, I haven't felt the need to join the chorus, or even add my voice as a variation. (I may do this more in teaching - but not when it comes to writing.)

Writing. When I've met mainly silence on a subject, or almost nothing expressing my viewpoint, I've been impelled from inside to explore and write, including about possible reasons for why there has been silence.

****

I did this, starting almost 2 decades ago, around the impact of social movements - feminism, race rights, gay and lesbian rights, the rights of the physically disabled/challenged. There was a lot out on how people were hurt because of discrimination against women, people of color, non-heterosexuals, etc. There was nothing that I could find on the impact of getting involved in a rights movement if one was a member of that group. In other words, what did it likely do to a woman to get strongly involved in feminism, someone non-white to get involved in race rights, etc.?

I did long interviews. Amazing stuff.

Another time, starting a few years later - for what became my doctoral thesis - I got hooked on something else I could find little information on: the impact of fear of violence. There was a lot out on the impact of rape, battering, incest. But what was the impact of fear of such violence? - like what's the impact of second hand smoke?

****

This time around, over the past couple of years, I found myself looking at a religion gaining ground in the world, slightly by conversion, much more by emigration - a religion where many parts are against many of my values: equal rights for women and men, for people of all sexual orientations, strong empathy for animals (Muslims have animal sacrifice). Instead of valuing freedom of expression, many Muslim countries have repressive governments. Even in the West, there are threats by some Muslims against people who have spoken critically of the Muslim religion. Further, in the West, some Muslims have asked to be governed, even within the country's legal system, by their religious law, sharia. In Canada there have been legal attempts at this.

Still, all that was flowing by, at the edge of my attention, until something snagged my attention enough to get me to write.

The trigger event: the huge Muslim protests against the Danish cartoon.

One piece followed the other.

I don't know how right I am. I do know the West needs to do much more exploring of this religion, the many branches.

This is my exploration.

I have, over the same time period, done much else, including other exploring - on animal rights, gambling, an American president, my internal moral voice. I've also thought a lot about how Islam uses fear to block exploration - fear, and charges of Islamophobia.

For more on Islamophobia, click here.
The West, Islam, me ... and ISLAMOPHOBIA

For an overview of my exploration of the West and Islam, click here.
Muslims, a Danish Cartoon ... and Me - THE BEGINNING

For all the articles, both on Islam and a major weakness of the West, click here.
WESTERN TOLERANCE, ISLAM - and my curious eyes

Welcome to the ongoing exploration.

I wish you good thinking.

signed,

Elsa
April 6, 2008

copyright Elsa Schieder, 2008, 2011, all rights reserved

****

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Click here to go to another critical thinking question,
Is the Muslim Religion, a Religion of Peace
?

Critical Thinking Question: What are Islam basic beliefs?
What about values morals ethics of Middle East religion and the West?
Benefits of critical thinking: good tools for trying to find answers.

___________________________________________

comments, responses, further thinking, more ideas
__________________________________________



blue green idea

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTION on
ISLAM BASIC BELIEFS, MIDDLE EAST RELIGION, VALUES MORALS ETHICS


BENEFITS OF CRITICAL THINKING: knowing how to deal with
CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS

blue green idea

THE PERSONAL EXPLORATION
starting from a
Critical Thinking Question
on many things including
Islam Basic Beliefs,
Middle East Religion,
A Western Weakness

BENEFITS OF CRITICAL THINKING:
far greater ability to see what is actually there

I am brimming with ideas, questions, thoughts.

And around me, most often I have come up against walls.
Like walls against good seeing good thinking, and against empathy,
being the others on a deep inner level.

A critical thinking question got me started: why is so much attention being given to a small Danish cartoon and so little, by the same group, to huge wrongs done by their own group? I could come up with a lot of analogous situations, where some imposed standard of perfection is demanded from outsiders, but even minimally adequate behavior is not asked of insiders - but the analogies aren't needed. Instead it's the general reality that counts, in each case.

Another critical thinking question: why are those not in the group - notably a large chunk of non-Muslims in the West - accepting the standards of that group instead of challenging it.

Still another critical thinking question: how might one alter the situation? That is, in fact, the critical thinking question that has most driven my thinking.

Critical thinking question after critical thinking question.

I could come up with more critical thinking questions. Instead, I come to the benefits of critical thinking: when one follows logical steps, one either does not get as caught up in popular perceptions, or one is more likely to figure out which popular perceptions do not make sense.

I know there is so much more to say. The big thing: both to take the time it takes to get one's thoughts clear enough, to get enough information, to check enough - and then to dare to send one's thoughts and perceptions out into the world - both in the hope that they will stimulate other to think further, and also in the hope that what comes back will lead to even deeper and fuller thinking and understanding.

This is not perfection. But it feels, like a young child being sent out into the world, ready enough for where it is being sent. It feels too that I am being true to myself - in other words, having empathy with myself.

As I just wrote about this project to a friend:

I am ardently avidly at work pulling together my pieces on Islam,
hopefully pulling the browser (and me) through my thoughts.

I'm eager and chomping at the bit to get things out.
Yesterday and today I turned down the chance to go skiing -
I could not tear myself away from this work.
It burns in me to be complete.

And my pace is speeding up. The first pages - so slow.
The first decisions. So slow. Now there's a quick flow,
one I recognize from other work. The gears have meshed.
The goal pulls me forward, so decisions come easily -
not carelessly, because that is useless.

But there's a strong current pulling me along.

****

And now the current has stopped. This is where it has taken me.

I hope my writings encourage you, encourage perception, thinking, empathy -
encourage the development a richer and fuller world also with less fear.

Elsa,
brain trainer
always looking with ideas cooking

April 6, 2008


copyright © Elsa Schieder 2008, 2011, all rights reserved
publishing house - FlufferDuff Impressions 2008, 2011

blue green idea

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTION on ISLAM BASIC BELIEFS
on MIDDLE EAST RELIGION
on VALUES MORALS ETHICS
on BENEFITS OF CRITICAL THINKING

BENEFITS OF CRITICAL THINKING: knowing how to deal with
CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS on ISLAM BASIC BELIEFS

BENEFITS OF CRITICAL THINKING: knowing how to deal with
CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS on MIDDLE EAST RELIGION

BENEFITS CRITICAL THINKING: knowing how to deal with
CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS on VALUES MORALS ETHICS


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