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| Brunswick Jr. High students gain a deeper understanding of Islam |
| 2006-05-13 |
| USM professor shares personal insights into an often misunderstood religion and culture BRUNSWICK — Seventh-graders at Brunswick Junior High School saw their textbooks spring to life Thursday when University of Southern Maine professor Mahmud Faksh talked about the religion of Islam and the importance of understanding it. Social studies teacher Felicity Beede invited Faksh to supplement her classes' annual study of the Byzantine and Muslim empires. After looking for someone to give a firsthand account, Beede heard of Faksh from another USM faculty member. "I enjoy teaching this unit, but I think that Islam and Muslims are often misunderstood by our culture, so hearing about Islam from an expert, an 'insider,' is a powerfully positive thing for these students and me," she said. Faksh, originally from Aleppo, Syria, said he has been teaching in Maine for more than 20 years — but he still hasn't traded his soft Arabic accent for a rougher Maine one. "We were all really hoping he would have a cool accent," Jacklynn Reynolds said afterwards. While his accent doubtlessly caught his young audience's attention, the content of his presentation held it during his hour-long presentation. Faksh started by outlining Islam's historical relationship to three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. "All these are a sequence like a chain," he said, noting that the three religions all had Abraham in common. Despite Islam's well-known roots, Faksh said as recently as 30 years ago, Westerners still pegged Islam as "an exotic" religion. But now, he said, with 6 million adherents in the United States alone, Islam is one of the fastest-growing religions worldwide. "You will find some of your neighbors, if not now then in the future, will be Muslim," he said. He defined the terms "Muslim," "Islam," "Quran," which are central to the Muslim faith as well as terms like "Mohammedan," which Westerners began to call Muslims in the Middle Ages. Muslims view the latter term as derogatory. Faksh also explained the five major pillars of Islam, listing them as faith, prayer, fasting, tithes and pilgrimage, and the religion's three major institutions of religious law, the prophet Mohammed's succession and struggle for God's sake, or jihad. Students then asked questions such as "Does everybody fast during Ramadan?" and "Are there more sects besides Shiites and Sunnis?" and "What if you're at work when it's time to pray?" Faksh answered all of them, not venturing into his personal beliefs but emphasizing the importance of learning about other religions. "Nowadays, you'll find all across the world that God has come back to a prominent place in public and private life," he said. "If you don't know anything about the other person, how in the heck are you going to negotiate?" While Beede's students already knew much about Islam before Faksh's talk, some came away with an even better understanding of the religion. Seventh-grader Audrey Cross said she was surprised to learn Islam was a fast-growing religion and that Indonesia rather than an Arab country held the largest Muslim population. "I liked the fact that he was not opposed to other religions," classmate Tabbi Waite said of the guest speaker. "They were terrific," Beede said of her students after the talk. "I was very proud of their comportment, their respect and openness, their intelligent questions, their ability to serve as ambassadors for our school, our town, indeed our nation." |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #3 Faksh answered all of them, not venturing into his personal beliefs but In other words he just talked in generalities and didn't have to give his opinion on suicide bombs or killing kafirs. |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-05-13 13:37 |
| #2 Now lets see them invite someone like Robert Spencer (of Dhimmi Watch) to talk to the kids about 'Islam'. Sounds like this guy isn't a very devout muslim if he 'tolorates other religions'. Or was that a lie told to further Islam? The world may never know. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2006-05-13 10:04 |
| #1 Oh, Maine, nevermind, it ain't gonna happen in the Marshes 'O Glynn. |
| Posted by: 6 2006-05-13 09:58 |