Madi Palat
After learning that Ernst is actually not a follower of the Islamic faith from class discussions, it really gave me a new perspective and respect for Ernst himself. As a scholar and author, it seems that he tends to give readers the “factual” information about the religion, as well as put it into perspective for others who don’t practice themselves. For example, I thought it was interesting when he said “we have to understand the actors, the time, the place and the issues in order to avoid making serious mistakes.” (Ernst 38). This specifically reminded me of when people refer to things they see on the news and just automatically categorize a certain “type” of people in a negative way without any background information about them at all. I think Ernst is trying to highlight that even people, and scholars like himself that don’t specifically follow a practice can still gain insight and knowledge about something or some “type” of people to knowledgeably generate their own thoughts and beliefs. For the class-Do you guys know of any instances where this commonly happens? Or to a certain “type” of people?
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4 thoughts on “Thoughts specifically after reading Ernst and discussing in class”
Aly
I believe that every time we try to understand something, or someone, outside of ourselves and our own life experiences we have to gain insight and knowledge and not just rush into judgement. A clear example of when this happens is probably when acts of terror are discussed. Whenever, for example, a mass shooting occurs, all sorts of people, from broadcasters to law enforcement, want to gain insight and knowledge. They want to know both about the series of events as well as about the history and current mental psyche of the perpetrator of the shooting. In order to do that, the context in which the shooting occurred must be examined critically, and judgements must be suspended.
Sara Tabakha
Yes, I know an instance where individuals have portrayed a certain group in a negative connotation. For example, on social media, comedic videos are usually portraying African American people as “watermelon eating lovers” and people who do not have a father figure in their lives. I believe this really impacts the audience, especially younger individuals, as it leads them to believe that African American people always behave in this way. This definitely negatively impacts the black minority, because of them revolving around these stereotypes. I believe that social media should take into consideration this type of humor, due to the fact any person of age can have access to these videos and can influence them significantly in a bad way.
Abby
When I read that sentence, I thought of it as highlighting the importance of understanding context. Confusion often results from not understanding the context because it is basically not knowing the whole story, whether about a specific person, culture, or time period. Language, especially with translations and time, can further distance modern readers from the original meaning.
I know this happens a lot with the Bible and Talmud, where someone may claim either says or promotes something that it doesn’t. Of course, this happens to the Quran, too. I think when it comes to ancient texts, if we aren’t careful to understand them properly and in their entirety, we can easily walk away with inaccurate assumptions. In addition, if we aren’t careful to separate what the text says (apparently or even in actuality) from what people do, we can begin to demonize groups by assuming everyone follows a particular teaching or interprets it the same way (similar to what you mentioned about news).
ademaio
I think that it is even possible to classify these “types” of people. Throughout history, those things that are new to us and foreign have been seen as negative and “other”. We have to be able to move forward into a world of understanding where we do not attack that which we do not understand or know about.