Reading Armstrong: 11-13

I think I'm starting to like Karen a little more (not that I really had anything against her before) or maybe I'm just starting to be able to process the history or something but these last three chapters were great!

I loved reading about Islam through Karen’s perspective. I didn’t know that Islam meant existential surrender (it’s similar to, but not quite, the word we use in slang Arabic, so it’s obviously related but potentially it could have been related in the same way that peace sounds like it – salaam. I think she mentioned that too?) The history of Islam and Muhammad (PBUH) was a required course when I was in primary/middle school, but it’s been so long (and I was a poor student, let’s be honest) so I’d forgotten most of it until this chapter. The entire tenth chapter was just really interesting, especially when she translated words from Arabic and I was just like, “OH YES, it does mean that,” and I’d just never put two and two together because I’d never had to link the Arabic and English together before.

Another thing that I found really interesting was that Islam had unified all the tribes together that was in the region. I was wondering about that actually – when she means ‘tribes’ does she mean Bedouins or were there little towns/cities of Arabs? And if there were towns, were they secular or Jewish or Christian?

Mostly what I thought about as I read the chapters on Islam is how different the perception of Islam in the west is from the actual fundamental beliefs of the religion. I don’t really discuss religion with my friends, and Islam in general even less than that, but whenever it does come up I feel like a general first impression of Islam is the Fox News version where everyone is just yelling and sobbing over children and threatening America. Islam is a very peaceful religion with a minority of very loud and angry groups, and unfortunately the News most often shows the second group.

Reading about the Crusades felt more like up Fox News’ alley. You know going into it that it was bloody and terrible, but still, reading that they ‘slaughtered’ thirty thousand people and that ‘the streets literally ran with blood,’ and that there were piles of dismembered limbs is horrifying. And then, after all that, when she wrote that Crusader Jerusalem became more secular it’s kind of just like, really?!