7/29/2019 The Murray State News 7A, Nov. 16, 2012
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News 7ANovember 16, 2012The News
Sam Villanueva || Staff [email protected]
To help combat confusion and explainthe nature of the Islamic
faith, severalprofessors held a panel discussion onTuesday, during
International Week, tohelp bring about discussion on the topic.
Brian Clardy, assistant professor andcoordinator of Religious
Studies, led thepanel, along with the aid of TaufiqRashid, senior
lecturer and ZacheryHeern, professor. Each of thepanelists work
within theCollege of Humanities andFine Arts.
Clardy began the panel bystating the overall objec-tives, which
included a briefhistory on the religion ofIslam.
Islam is definitely a reli-gion of tolerance, peace andgoodwill,
he said. It is a re-ligion that not only hasspanned centuries but
has, to date, 1.6 bil-lion followers all over. It follows the
basicAbrahamic traditions and sticks to itsown written word with
the Quran.
Clardy raised numerous questions atthe event to help set the
tone of discus-sion. He asked where the religion going,has the
golden age of Islam happenedand how could Mohamed Gandhis
biog-raphy, a film cause a global impact?
The panel was created to promote se-rious, intellectual
dialogues throughoutthe University, he said. Clardy said diver-sity
is among one of the greatest assetsMurray State possesses.
He said he hopes students will takefrom the panel a new
perspective. Hesaid students need to debunk the stereo-
types and that he believed it was impor-tant to stop seeing
foreign as different.
Heerns discussion focused on the his-tory of the religion and
the important ad-vancements made by Islam,developments that
contribute to thewestern world. He said when people lookat Islam
through a historical lens they seeso many great contributions that
areoverlooked, and that the Islamic coun-tries have been the
middlemen of trade.
Heern said some of the most basic hu-manistic knowledge is based
on thetranslations of Islamic works. He be-lieves that the religion
is in its golden ageand one great thing about Muslim cultureis the
followers have no history of racialdivisions like the Western
Civilizationhas.
Heern said one of the biggest problems
that Islam faces is nationalism, because alarge number of the
countries were set-tled by European powers. On the otherhand,
though, Horn said something thatis not greatly realized is most
Muslims doaccept modern technology.
For example, Al Qaeda is very adeptin using the Internet, he
said. Although
most reject enlightenment principals,modern technology is
something they, asa majority, are very open to grasping,even if it
may be for warfare.
The two terrorist groups, the Talibanand Al Qaeda, were a theme
at the panelas Heern said they are among the moreintense of Islamic
sectors.
He said the easiest way to explain wasto say those two groups do
not only tar-get Western civilizations, but they target
anyone who does not fitwithin their standards.
This is the reasonwhy there are actually
more attacks within theMuslim world itself thanis realized,
Heern said.
Rashid wrapped up thediscussion by asking theaudience what makes
areligion successful.
He listed three thingsas making a religion suc-
cessful: adaptability, changewith time and geographical
converts.The three most popular religions in theworld Buddhism,
Christianity andIslam are examples.
What makes them so successful istheir ability to adapt and
change, Rashidsaid. The harder the conversion process,the less
number of people.
He said what makes Islam different
from other religions is it maintains itsidentity with both
belief and practice, butthe standards of practice may change
ac-cording to location. He said being a Mus-lim in Baghdad is
different then being aMuslim in Calcutta.
Said Rashid: They are the same at thecore but they have
different practices.
Panelists discuss Islamic faith
Photo courtesy of Marion Taylor
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Beamer Barron/The News
Taufiq Ra
shid
, seni
or lecturer of Humaniti
es and Fine Art
s, sp
ok
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day about the most su
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Islam is definitely a religion of tolerance, peace and
good will. It is a religion that not only has spanned
centuries but has, to date, 1.6 billion followers all
over.It
follows the basic Abrahamic traditions and sticks to its
own written word with the Quran.Brian Clardy
Assistant professor
MURRAYSTATE GOES INTERNATIONAL
Ben Manhanke ||Staff [email protected]
International Education Week, an
annual lecture series sponsored bythe Institute for
International Studiesat Murray State which aims to edu-cate
students and community mem-bers on the importance of
globaleducation and awareness, endedThursday night.
The series, hosted by ISS and span-ning four days, included a
total of 27presentations on a variety of topics.
The turnout of this years eventswas higher than other similar
eventshosted in the past.
A large portion of these eventswere dedicated to promoting
thestudy abroad program and interna-tional travel.
The week was kicked off by twolectures: London 2012: Out of
MyComfort Zone and Into My Element
presented by Rachel Isom and Getthe Taste of Life by Bassel
Alhashemiboth geared towards giving a studentperspective of what
studying abroadis like.
The Arab Spring: Reflections fromMSU Students, a multimedia
presen-tation by four international studentsfrom Yemen, Egypt,
Syria and Libyarespectively focused on the unprece-dented number of
revolutions,demonstrations and protests acrossthe Arab world
beginning in 2010.
Osama Benyaia, an exchange stu-dent from Libya, spoke about what
itwas like to live under the reign of dic-tator Muammar Gaddafi,
who ruledLibya for 43 years and who didntallow any elections to
take place.
He said most of Gaddafis govern-
ment was filled with his close friendsand family people who
would notquestion his authority.
Benyaia showed the audience pic-tures of his hometown, Tripoli,
the
capital of Libya, which is now in ruinsafter the intense
fighting betweenpro-Gaddafi soldiers and rebels, andspoke on
post-Gaddafi Libya. A coun-try he said is still feeling the
impactof violence even after Gaddafis deathin 2011.
Not all the events of the week wereas politically charged as The
ArabSpring; Jie Wu, assistant professorwithin the College of
Humanities andFine Arts, in collaboration with theInternational
Cultures and LanguageAssociation (ICALA) taught a hands-on workshop
on Chinese calligraphyTuesday night.
An International Bazaar was heldin the Curris Center
BallroomWednesday from 9:30 a.m. until 2 p.m.
Approximately 600 students fromsurrounding elementary, middle
andhigh schools attended the event.
There were 22 countries repre-sented by displays and by flags in
theballroom.
Each arrangement was supervisedby a student from their
respectivecountry who answered questions andelaborated on their
displays informa-tion.
The international students createdthe displays themselves and
chosewhat information to share about theirnative country.
Displays were diverse. Some in-cluded video presentations,
itemsfrom the country, informational pam-phlets and pictures.
At the Japanese booth people were
allowed to make their own origamiand those that visited the
South Ko-rean display could get their facespainted, dress in
traditional clothingand play the popular Korean gameGonggi.
Other events were targeted at fac-ulty specifically.
On Thursday, education professorLee Kem and assistant education
pro-fessor Jennifer Wyatt led a panel dis-cussion with
international students
from Murray State graduate programsand other faculty to discuss
the im-plementing of teaching and advisingstrategies that are
better suited for in-ternational students.
At an event geared toward LGBTstudents studying abroad,
faculty,staff and alumnna shared insight intothe impact sexual
identity may haveon a students experience travellingabroad.
At the event a key focus was how a
students identity can enhance expe-riences in both positive and
negativeways in another culture.
Bill McKibben, associate director ofinternational studies, said
Interna-tional Education Week is a good wayto share and learn about
new cultures.
Said McKibbon: International Ed-ucation Week helps to open the
eyesof our student body ... this is a chanceto see that there are
other culturesout there and to be a global citizen.
International lecture series boasts high participation
Beamer Barron/The News
Ew
a Wantulok, senior from Wi
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dents from sev
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chools how to m
ak
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a display from constru
ction pap
er. There wer
e mor
e than 27 c
ountries r
epr
es
ented at the Internation Education W
eek in total
.
