The Day of Ahmed's Secret and Sami and the Time of the Troubles

The Day of Ahmed’s Secret is about a young man named Ahmed, who has big news to share with his family, but before doing so, he must complete all of his duties as a butagaz boy, doing things such as delivering cooking gas to customers.

Thought the story Ahmed is thinking about when it would be best for him to

share his secret. It was until the very end of the story that Ahmed finally did so. His big secret was that he could now write his own name. Thi

s was not what I was expecting at all, but it’s pretty cool that he was so excited about it.

Sami and the Time of the Troubles is a story about a boy named Sami. He is ten years old and lives in Beirut, Lebanon. His life is different from how most of us grew up, for his family and him spend most of there time in their uncle’s basement, due to the gunfire and bombing happening in the streets. I feel think book had a great message behind it, and I really enjoyed our class discussion about it. Sami is a lot like kids all of the world… he hates fighting, and violence.

```When we are older, we will have real guns,''' says Amir. Sami disagrees. ```The fighting will be over then. It cannot last forever.'''

When people get older it seems as if we are forced to take sides, but with children its different, they haven’t been around long enough to be forced into doing so, because of this they remain unbiased. Maybe if we still thought as if we were kids, there wouldn’t be as many problems with this world.

Gold Dust

Gold Dust was a very interesting read to say the least. I am still shocked by the amount of love Ukhayyad has for his camel. I mean after reading just the first chapter you already know how the camel came into Ukhayyad life and how very proud he is of it. Here in the states, people say a dog is a man’s best friend. Well in Ukhayyad case the dog is his camel. When I really think about it, almost everyone of my friends or family members have had a pet that they consider family, but where should one draw the line. I have to agree with Saralynn’s blog, Ukhayyad, love for his camel, does not allow him to make any connections with humans, especially women. At the end of the day Ukhayyad needs to realize that he needs human interaction in his life.

War in the Land of Egypt

In class, we were assigned to read War in the land of Egypt. I found this book to be very interesting. The story takes place during the 1973 Yom Kippur war. The author fuscous on one young man in particular, named Masri, who is sent into the Egyptian army. The story is told through several perspectives such as, the Umda, a broker, Masri friend, and father, the commanding officer, and an investigator. This was great because it helped the story truly come alive.
I thought it was very interesting, that Masri perspective was never shared. Then again, when you think about it, what really would he have to say, and even if there was something would it have changed his future? For he never had a choice in what he did. His father was the one who made the decision to send Masri in place of the Umda son. This also makes me question, should Masri really be considered a hero because of the choice others made for him?

Kalamazoo Islamic Center

Last Thursday my classmates and I went to the Kalamazoo Islamic Center on Westerns campus. It was an amazing learning experience. First we were given a tour of the center by the Imam himself, after that, He told us some stories about his religious background explaining how he got to where he is today. You could tell by just talking with Imam how passionate he was about his religion, for it is his life. While there all misconceptions and stereotypes were broken and I found how imported it is to not always believe everything you hear. At the end for our visit, we were able to sit down with Imam and ask him any questions we had. During this time I learned that all kinds of people pray at a mosque, black, white, Indian, it doesn’t matter because there, they are all the same. In the mosque people become family, and I thought that was really cool.

I cannot thank Imam enough! He did an amazing job with our class, and I learned sooo much. I think this is a trip that everyone should try to make at least once, I promise its well worth your time!

http://www.kiconline.org/

Relationship between Homosexuality in America and in the Middle East

In class we watched a documentary called, “The Road to Love,” a film about homosexuality in the Middle East. I had a hard time keeping up with the film at first, due to subtitles and bad lighting. But what I got from the film was very interesting. I had to ask myself is homosexuality for the people living in the Middle East that much different from here in the United States. In some ways yes, In the Middle East homosexuality was much more common in early years, it was a practice that was normal for a young man before marrying. In the United States homosexuality is more common today than it ever was in the past.

Homosexuals in both the Middle East and United States still face a lot of the same problems today, like having to tell friends and family. Having to worry about what one will think of them after telling them they are gay. Many still have to fight for the right to live happily with their partner. This film has shown me that homosexuality in the Middle East really isn’t that different from in the United States, maybe we have more in common than what we thought.

Blood and Oil

Today, I watched the documentary “Blood and Oil,” and found it to be very educating. To be completely honest before watching this, I never knew how, why, or when we started using oil from the Middle East. This film made some points, which totally shocked me, like in part 2 of the film. It was explaining how much of an effort the U.S. put into creating a very elaborate military establishment in Saudi Arabia, pervading them, with some of the best arms and military training. I know this was only done so they could help protect this oil, that is valued as gold, but still I felt this was putting, maybe a little too much trust in the Middle East at the time. I know the United States did whatever they could to stay on good terms with Saudi, so we would continue to use their oil. But when does it start to be too much? I mean at one point we were even fighting there wars for them? I found the end of the documentary to be very interesting, as it talked about how China and Russia, are preparing to fight for control over the oil in the Middle East, as are the United States. It’s scary to think about what could happen next! The last thing we need is another war.
After seeing this documentary, I can only pray that we find some kind of alternative for oil and if not find some way to decreasing the amount we use every day.