Religions Spread Through Conquest Essays (2403 words) - Culture

Religions Spread Through Conquest When studying history, both in a professional and academic sense, we try to make connections between civilizations and time periods. Historians have attempted to discover universal conezts of human nature, a bond that forms from continent to continent, human being to human being. Is there a conezt quality that all peoples posses, and is reflected in all civilizations? Indeed, it is extremely difficult to make generalizations about centuries of modern history. To say that something is true of all of history is virtually impossible, as a counter-example exists for just about anything that can be said of any group of civilizations. To say that all religions are spread by violence is equally unfair and untrue - because contrasted religions has been spread in exceedingly diverse regions of the world, by vastly different cultures. Islam, as a prime example, has been characterized inequitably by historians and the media as a religion of violence. To put it bluntly, as this article does, "Islam was mainly spread through Arab territorial conquests (Sudo, 4)." However, upon examination, it is not fair to make the generalization that Islam is a religion of violence, and one notices when looking at world religion on a whole, one finds that Islam was no more violent than any other religion. In fact, not only is Islam not a fundamentally violent philosophy, but we can also see that many other religions normally considered "non-violent," such as Christianity or Hinduism, have been spread through bloody conquest. Thus, in searching for a universal conezt of history, we ought not fall into the "fallacy of abstractions," as Sydney J. Harris keenly puts it, and assume that because of isolated incidents and conflicts of territorial ambitions, that all religions have violent tendencies. Islam has, throughout the centuries, been somewhat a victim of circumezce - indeed it has been perceived by many as oppressive and cruel. This belief originated over a thousand years ago, when Islamic peoples first threatened the western world. As they slowly undermined Byzantine authority, Christians became terrified of their presence, resulting in widespread animosity and aversion. Hindus and Buddhists of the South Asian subcontinent lived under Islamic law for hundreds of years (Ahmad, et. al., 186), and eventually, in the twentieth century, split the region into angry factions (Ahmad, et. al., 207). Mohammed, the prophet of Islam, was a great warrior. This invariably lead defeated peoples to believe that he begot a cult of war and violence. Over the centuries, it also has developed the ability to instill a sense of holy purpose onto its believers and soldiers, where they go into a battle of certain death for their faith in the jihad, or holy war. Even today, the jihad is still a potent source of conflict and aversion, as the many of the problems in the Middle East center around the issue of Islamic Fundamentalism and the jihads. Originally, Islam was perceived by western historians as a religion of violence and conquest; "by preying on the caravans of the Quraish, [Mohammed] weakened them to the point of submission (Mohammed and Islam, 1)." In fact, Mohammed was a warrior, aristocrat, and brilliant strategist - a stark contrast to many other holy men of history. He was forced to both defend his cities and force submission, as the passage had shown, because of the strong military powers of his religious predecessors and oppressors, the pagans of the Middle East. Islam means "submission" according to the Islam discussion in class - and one might assume that the submission was attained through military and forceful means. In fact, while Mohammed preached peace from 610 to 622 AD, he attracted few converts and was persecuted by the current ruling paganistic regime. After the visions of 622 AD, he realized that his cause was even more urgent than before, and only at that point did he begin to utilize his military skills (Class Discussion). However, despite the more violent nature that his quest took, even after the revelations by Gabriel in 622 AD, "by reciting his revelations aloud, Mohammed made many converts, (Mohammed and Islam,1)." Mohammed was not a purely violent man, but also a great speaker and demagogue (Mueller, 2). He did

Getting Ready For College Math

Getting Ready For College MathThe sample IA essay sample, also known as the SIIA essay, or the syllabus, is used in college courses across the country. The student will take an IA exam that is not dissimilar to the SAT or ACT in order to graduate from high school.All students that want to go on to college must take a math test, regardless of their ability level. For those students that do have a working knowledge of algebra and advanced mathematics, the SAT will still be the primary method of testing out ability. In addition, students should know the following about the college admission test, or the SAT, before going to take it. This helps them prepare for the main exam that they may not know much about.The first thing that a student should know about taking the sample math SIIA essay, or the SAT math exam, is what time of day they should be studying. Students should have a good idea of when they will be tested. The best way to get this information is by the SAT test date. Taking a reading list of books to read as well as other materials will also help prepare a student for the test. It also helps to make sure that they have the proper math textbooks and practice problems so that they are ready for the test.The second thing that a student should do is to prepare for how they will do on the math section of the exam. The best way to do this is to make a practice test. A study guide will be helpful in helping them with this process. They should make a short test about four times as long as the actual test and do it in order of difficulty. This allows the student to see if they are doing well or not.The third thing that they should do is to set aside some time in their schedule to study. After all, that is what they were told to do when they enrolled in college. By creating a schedule that allows them to take practice tests and set aside time to study, they can be sure that they are preparing themselves for the test.The fourth thing that a student should do is to prepare for how they will do on the math section of the exam. The best way to do this is to make a practice test. A study guide will be helpful in helping them with this process. They should make a short test about four times as long as the actual test and do it in order of difficulty. This allows the student to see if they are doing well or not.The fifth thing that a student should do is to prepare for how they will do on the math section of the exam. The best way to do this is to make a practice test. A study guide will be helpful in helping them with this process. They should make a short test about four times as long as the actual test and do it in order of difficulty.The sixth thing that a student should do is to prepare for how they will do on the math section of the exam. The best way to do this is to make a practice test. A study guide will be helpful in helping them with this process. They should make a short test about four times as long as the actual test and do it in ord er of difficulty.