The Role of Religion in the Middle East

The Role of Religion in the Middle East The Role of Religion in the Middle East Religion is one of the most powerful defining forces of a culture. For example, stores would be closed on Saturday in Israel because that is the Sabbath in the Jewish religion. The hijab fashions in Muslim nations find their origin in the Koran’s prescriptions for modesty among women. However, religion makes the most profound impact on a culture when it is sponsored by the State. For example, many Middle Eastern and African nations have adopted Sharia Law, where thieves are punished by losing a hand, adulterers are stoned to death, and those failing to conform to the dress code are lashed. Before the Muslim Expansion, the predominant religions of the region were Judaism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism. Tribal religions and local deities were also worshiped, as monism was not yet universal in the region. During the early seventh century C.E., Muhammad and his soldiers of faith left the Arabian Peninsula and spread their faith throughout the modern Middle East and Asia Minor. According to Cleveland (2004), this was able to happen because the Byzantine Empire of the West and the Sassanian Empire of Iran were becoming weaker after decades of warfare (p. 6). Since the Emperors could no longer adequately defend their territories, it was the perfect time for the fledgling Muslim Empire to take its place in history. Curiously, there is a strong tradition in the West of viewing the Middle East as a monolithic people of Arab extraction that are culturally and religiously similar. Although Islam is the dominant religion in the area, there are certainly ethnic and cultural differences as to how it is practiced (similar to the cultures formed around the Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant churches in predominantly Christian nations). The three states that will be examined in this paper are Israel, Iran, and Iraq: a Jewish state, a non-Arab Muslim state, and an Arab Muslim state. The choice of these countries will show the religious and cultural diversity of the Midd le East as well as explain how these forces clash when they come into contact. The Jewish State of Israel (formerly Palestine) is by far one of the most ethnically diverse nations in the Middle4 East. Because the Jewish people were scattered all over the world, today we have Jews with African, European, and Asian ethnic characteristics. At the beginning of Israel’s settlement, people had divided themselves by ethnicity, but today they are more divided by sect (degree of religious observance) and social class (Ayalon, Ben-Rafael, Sharot, 1991, p. 280). Shortly thereafter, they had to learn to work together because hostilities with their Arab neighbours threatened the existence of the new state. Suffice it to say, Israel had become accustomed to a siege mentality—segregating themselves from Palestinian and other Arab groups, creating a modern apartheid. Politically, their reasons for holding the territory and seeking foreign aid are rooted in the conviction that the land is theirs by right, as promised by God in their Scriptures (Cleveland, 2004, p . 240). There was also the very basic fear of facing extinction at the hands of an unjust government such as Hitler’s Germany and the pogroms sponsored by tsarist Russia. However, even within the Jewish community, there are several splits. According to Ayalon, Ben-Rafael Sharot (1991), there were reports of â€Å"numerous conflicts, some involving violent confrontations, between religious and secular Jews over such issues as public transportation on the Sabbath, opening cinemas on the Sabbath Eve, burning bus stations, displaying advertisements featuring women in swimming costumes or underwear, free movement of private transportation in areas close to religious neighbourhoods on the Sabbath†¦ and the question of who is a Jew† (p. 279). In Israel, there are those that identify as ethnic Jews even though they do not participate in the religious traditions of Judaism. With this question of definition, there is an implicit question of whether an individual can consider themselves Jewish if they do not identify with the teachings with Judaism. However, these questions have been rendered moot for Israeli citizenship, as non-practicing Jews were also targeted by major world government. For other religions, identity is determined by practice such as profession of faith, attendance at places of worship, and prayer. In other words, there is no such thing as a non-practicing Muslim. However, the Jewish religious spectrum is from Orthodox to the secular and non-practicing (Ayalon, Ben-Rafael, Sharot, 1991, p. 287). There are some Israelis that are atheist and do not observe any of the Jewish holidays or traditions and the Orthodox whose lives are still governed by laws written several thousand years ago. Most of Israel’s Jews fall somewhere in the middle, observing some of the traditions such as the Yom Kippur fast and Hanukkah. Around the time that Greece and Rome were building their sphere of influence, Iran (formerly Persia) was one of the most powerful empires in the world known for its progressive system of justice and great learning and recognized as the birthplace of Zoroastrianism, the Ba’hai religion, and Mithraism (which shares much in common with modern Christianity). Having a history of conquering and being conquered, the Iranian people were influenced by several cultural and religious traditions. However, since the twelfth century, almost 100% of the Iranian population embraced Islam (Cleveland, 2004, p. 33). Even so, the Iranians still resisted ‘Arabization’ and adopted the practice of their religion to Persian life and culture. For instance, unlike Arabs, most Persian Muslims are of the Shi’a sect. In addition, in pre-revolution Iran, professional women were not expected to wear the chador unless they were going to visit family friends or religious events (DeGroot, 2 007, p. 113). However, women of the lower classes were generally expected to wear them at all times. As we have mentioned before, there appears to be an inverse relationship between religious observance and income, which would explain this phenomenon. The Islamic revolution of 1979 was a strong rejection of Western power and the separation of the sexes in all social fields, though females are still allowed access to higher education. Given that the West equates itself with all that is noble and just, this was a surprising leap into backwardness, according to Western cultural commentators. However, to fully understand, Keddie Richard (2006) argues that we must take several factors into account such as the depressed standard of living for the middle class, rising unemployment and the decline of traditional values: â€Å"Once dependence on the West was associated with Western culture, and Western culture with moral decay, it was natural to seek Iran’s salvation not in the West ernization pushed by the shah’s regime but in a return to an idealized indigenous Islam† (Keddie Richard, 2006, p. 188). The revolution also brought about the enmity of Hussein’s Iraq as the Sunni leader was apprehensive that the Shi’a majority would stage a similar revolution and wrest power away from him—a factor strongly contributing to the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980’s (Cleveland, 2004, p. 415). This was quite a change from the past where the people were not very closely controlled by the government. When the Ottoman Turks ruled in Iraq, they confined themselves to the large cities and the people in outlying rural areas lived by their own rules more or less. Turning these pockets of autonomous tribes into a nation was far more difficult than any one administration could bring (Cleveland, 2004, p.204). In Iraq, there was always an enmity between the Sunni and Shi’a sects of Islam, and the nation was often beset with civil war. One of the more bitter cultural struggles are between those that want to adapt their faith to the modern era and the more conservative faction that want to preserve the social climate of their predecessors (Nakash, 2003, p. 262). Ethnically, Arabs comprise 80% of the population, however, slightly over half belong to the Shi’a sect and the minority were Sunnis. Sunni Kurds made up the remainder of the population, and they sought to remain culturally distinct from the Arabs (Cleveland, 2004, p. 205). Today, Iraq is occupied by the U.S. and a civil war between Sunni and Shi’a sects are raging. In sum, religion has shaped these countries profoundly. Israel attempts to expand its borders because her citizens believe that the land was given to them by God, Iran vacillates between modernization and radical Islam as many young Iranians have become quite progressive, and the Shi’a and Sunni Muslims of Iraq are engaged in a great battle for supremacy. In these regimes, there is no room for compromise on an international or social level because the current leadership and prevailing ruling class in each of these countries believes that they are on the right path. References Ayalon, H., Ben-Rafael, E. Sharot, S. (1991). Religious, Ethnic, and Class Divisions in Israel: Conversion or Cross-Cutting?. Tradition, Innovation, Conflict: Jewishness and Judaism in Contemporary Israel. (Sobel, Z. Beit-Hallahmi, B. eds,) New York: SUNY Press Cleveland, W.L. (2004). A History of the Modern Middle East (3rd ed.). Boulder, CO: Westview Press DeGroot, J. (2007). Religion, Culture and Politics in Iran: from the Qajars to Khomeini. London: I.B. Tauris Publishers Keddie, N.R. Richard, Y. (2006). Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press Nakash, Y. (2003). The Shi’is of Iraq. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press

The Film American Beauty Essay -- Movie Films American Beauty Essays

The Film American Beauty   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In life, everyone must make choices. Choices give an individual the freedom to decide the path which they will follow. In the movie American Beauty, each of the characters has a choice he or she needs to make. The main character, Lester Burnham, is faced with many choices that could either lead to his ultimate happiness or draw him further into his despair. Carolyn Burnham, Lester's wife, is faced with a loveless marriage that exists only because she does not possess the willingness to break the cycle. This cycle involves protecting their daughter by staying married. In reality, children of a marriage such as this are often the biggest victims of this sham. Jane Burnham is Lester and Carolyn's daughter. She is caught between the two of them, and her decision is to tune her parents out. Ricky Fitts, the boy next door, makes his choice of knowing when to cooperate with his father. Ricky's dad, Colonel Fitts, makes his choice of finally admitting of his sexual prefer ence. Angela Hayes, Jane's friend, makes her choice of losing her virginity to Lester. Each character has to learn how to deal with his or her own problems.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lester Burnham is in a state of despair. Lester's dull and monotonous voice introduces the audience to his daily routine of life. At the age of 42 he has become sympathetic to everything. He realizes that his family life is the "pits" as he becomes aware that both his wife and daughter consider him a gigantic loser. He feels they are right about this. He believes he has lost something and that he did not always feel this sedated. Lester's disheartenment is symbolic in the car scene. Lester sits slouched down in the back seat with a look of emptiness while his daughter sits up front next to his wife, who is driving the car. Carolyn drives the car just as she drives the family, especially, Lester. She has evolved into the decision-maker and leader of the Burnham family. Sitting in the backseat, Lester avoids further conflict with his wife, leading him to become an even unhappier and more desperate person.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lester's life at work is no better than his life at home. After fourteen years at a job, that is viewed by Lester as nothing more than being a corporate slave at a media marketing magazine, Lester is asked by an efficiency expert at work to write a memo justifying his position. In Lester's ... ... Health 29 June 2001:11-26. Berardinelli, James. "A Film Review, American Beauty." September 15, 1999. [Online] Available http://movie-reviews.colossus.net/movies/a/american_beauty.html.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  "Drug Statistics." October 2000. [Online] Available http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/briefingbook/page15.htm.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ebert, Roger. "Review, American Beauty." September 14, 2001. [Online] Available http://movie-reviews.colossus.net/movies/a/american_beauty.html "Family Violence Statistics." September 18, 2001. [Online] Available   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://www.soundvision.com/domesticviolence/statistics.shtml.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  "How to Survive Infidelity." September 14, 2001. [Online] Available http://www.marriagebuilders.com   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  "Marijuana 13551." January 22, 2001. [Online] Available http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofax/marijuana.html.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  "Nationwide Trends 13567." February 15, 2001. [Online] Available http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofax/nationtrends.html   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Payne, Robert. "Reel Review, American Beauty." September 14, 2001. [Online] Available http://www.reel.com.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  United States. Department of Health and Human Services. Marijuana: Facts Parents Need to Know. Publication No. 98-4036. November 1998.

Eassays English

PART 1: The brand competition between the cocacola and pepsico has occurred for a long time. The corporations continue to improve technology and reduce cost. The people who enjoy the most benefit from this competition is comsumer, they can buy goods with lower price and good quality. On january, 2013 Starbucks have just opened the first store in vietnam. It make the violent competition with local brands. Typically, Trung Nguyen corporation We will analyze some strong points and good conditions of starbucks and trung nguyen corporation in vietnam market.When starbucks went into vietnam market, there was a lot of coffee brands in viet nam, but the number of people consumed coffee is very huge, this is officer, businessman, †¦ all of them are young men, they like new things, foreign goods and expecially the starbucks is the top brand in the world. The financial potential of starbucks is very strong, its sale is 10 bilion dollars each year with 150. 000 staffs, more 18. 000 coffee s tores all over the world.Schultz is the CEO of starbucks, he is a talent manager and looked like the second steve jobs of apple brand about ability of exchange situation. Trung nguyen is the vietnamese brand that has become fond of vietnamese people for a long time. The taste of Trung Nguyen coffee is strong, that is suitable to vietnamses favourite. Trung nguyen defeated nestle in vietnamese market, that is historical mark for all staff of trung nguyen in competition with starbucks. The CEO of trung nguyen is Dang Le Nguyen Vu, who grew up from difficult conditions.Moreover, he is ambitious and always give dreams for youngman, many people drink trung nguyen coffee as they like dang le nguyen vu. PART2: The war for coffee market share staged All the coffee brands have to compete fiercely with each other to scramble for the pieces of the cake. The brands have been competing with each other acute by making heavy investments in technologies, plants, lowering sale prices and offering sa les promotion campaigns. Meanwhile, the other lesser known brands have also been trying to diversify their products to share the remaining modest market share.Trung Nguyen has spending heavily on advertisement campaigns, offering many sales promotion programs, trying to make the brand more friendly by organizing writing and photography contests. Especially, Trung Nguyen has launched a lot of new products that fit the taste of consumers in different regions 1. Marketing: owner flexible marketing strategy with effective brand promotion activities, creating brand Trung Nguyen coffee strong and the products perfectly suit customer tastes. 2.Production: application of advanced production technology brings unique products bearing its own characteristics of the Trung Nguyen 3. Distribution: Trung Nguyen has strong distribution network spread across the country with full of dealers, distributors and major retail, franchise ensure Trung Nguyen products are brought to consumers using a quick and reasonable Trung Nguyen's competitive position. In the coffee industry today, Trung Nguyen is considered to hold a dominant position.Besides, Trung Nguyen is a Vietnamese brand first implementation of the strategy franchise in Vietnam and in the world market with the marketing strategy flexibility be applied successfully. Recently, Starbucks has officially entered the Vietnam market, and become formidable competitor of the domestic coffee brand It’s not easy to squeeze into Vietnamese coffee market According to Jinlong Wang, President of Starbucks Asia Pacific, are built based on high-quality arabica coffee, products and especially passionate and experienced baristas.Besides, Starbucks will boost the localization of stores in its business strategy in Vietnam to make Starbucks stores the third destination for local people, after their home and office. Staff professional and friendly service According to the principle, the customer will be served within 3p and 5p latest in rush hour too busy shops. Starbucks employees are trained Each expert preparation of Starbucks coffee at the same time managing four trays, at least 15 minutes stirring once and never allow a cup of coffee for more than 30 minutes.They do this even during breaks, cold coffee thrown away and not served. They also design the self-timer for iced coffee, iced tea and pastries to ensure that everything is fresh flavor. Most Starbucks stores are equipped with coffee Mastrena sophistication of Switzerland, is designed to give the highest quality Starbucks provides much more than just the best cup of coffee, we will offer a place where people come together, connect with family and friends and celebrate the local Vietnamese coffee culture and heritage,† Wang said.Starbucks has started to purchase high-quality arabica coffee in Vietnam and will continue seeking arabica coffee supply in Vietnam in the long term. In addition, Starbucks will work closely with local coffee farming cooperati ves to increase the quality of arabica coffee and introduce Vietnam’s distinctive coffee heritage to its global customers. PART3: Starbucks is the brand for entrepreneurs who are always busy and lack of time. They are the loyal customers of the brand. Many people in VN like tasting a cup of rich coffee in the traditional booth or on sidewalk, sightseeing and talking for hours.Meanwhile Starbucks customers of Starbucks need environment, space, style tasting coffee than flavor, Trung Nguyen focus on versed crew in coffee. Sure many people choose Starbucks when being busy, receiving guest. But when they want to taste a cup of delicate and rich coffee,they com with Trung Nguyen cofee. Obviously Starbucks and Trung Nguyen can be parallel, with different customer. The problem is which customers they will access and how to maintain the top position in the group. The arrival of Starbucks has brought great lessons for business in Vietnam.Without direct an ad on TV, Starbucks bring the position of famous and have from benefit from the brands they build in a long time. Young people with curiosity and your experience become PR channel for the arrival of Starbucks on social networks, in the stories and spreading images. These are great lessons for Vietnamese enterprises, because,no brand yet we do like that The entering of Starbucks and many other coffee companies bring different style models, the modern way of doing business and honest. They help Vietnam coffee market more healthy competition.Dang Le Nguyen Vu have from benefit the war with Starbucks all the time. Trung Nguyen image at this time in the eyes of Vietnamese associated with one of the world's most famous names. Starbuks not only bring a beverage, it also brings own culture, to help the Vietnamese have opportunities to access cultural the world . Consumers have more choice. The competition between brands contribute to improving the quality of coffee products, bringing real benefits to consumers and cont ribute to Vietnam's coffee industry. Eassays English PART 1: The brand competition between the cocacola and pepsico has occurred for a long time. The corporations continue to improve technology and reduce cost. The people who enjoy the most benefit from this competition is comsumer, they can buy goods with lower price and good quality. On january, 2013 Starbucks have just opened the first store in vietnam. It make the violent competition with local brands. Typically, Trung Nguyen corporation We will analyze some strong points and good conditions of starbucks and trung nguyen corporation in vietnam market.When starbucks went into vietnam market, there was a lot of coffee brands in viet nam, but the number of people consumed coffee is very huge, this is officer, businessman, †¦ all of them are young men, they like new things, foreign goods and expecially the starbucks is the top brand in the world. The financial potential of starbucks is very strong, its sale is 10 bilion dollars each year with 150. 000 staffs, more 18. 000 coffee s tores all over the world.Schultz is the CEO of starbucks, he is a talent manager and looked like the second steve jobs of apple brand about ability of exchange situation. Trung nguyen is the vietnamese brand that has become fond of vietnamese people for a long time. The taste of Trung Nguyen coffee is strong, that is suitable to vietnamses favourite. Trung nguyen defeated nestle in vietnamese market, that is historical mark for all staff of trung nguyen in competition with starbucks. The CEO of trung nguyen is Dang Le Nguyen Vu, who grew up from difficult conditions.Moreover, he is ambitious and always give dreams for youngman, many people drink trung nguyen coffee as they like dang le nguyen vu. PART2: The war for coffee market share staged All the coffee brands have to compete fiercely with each other to scramble for the pieces of the cake. The brands have been competing with each other acute by making heavy investments in technologies, plants, lowering sale prices and offering sa les promotion campaigns. Meanwhile, the other lesser known brands have also been trying to diversify their products to share the remaining modest market share.Trung Nguyen has spending heavily on advertisement campaigns, offering many sales promotion programs, trying to make the brand more friendly by organizing writing and photography contests. Especially, Trung Nguyen has launched a lot of new products that fit the taste of consumers in different regions 1. Marketing: owner flexible marketing strategy with effective brand promotion activities, creating brand Trung Nguyen coffee strong and the products perfectly suit customer tastes. 2.Production: application of advanced production technology brings unique products bearing its own characteristics of the Trung Nguyen 3. Distribution: Trung Nguyen has strong distribution network spread across the country with full of dealers, distributors and major retail, franchise ensure Trung Nguyen products are brought to consumers using a quick and reasonable Trung Nguyen's competitive position. In the coffee industry today, Trung Nguyen is considered to hold a dominant position.Besides, Trung Nguyen is a Vietnamese brand first implementation of the strategy franchise in Vietnam and in the world market with the marketing strategy flexibility be applied successfully. Recently, Starbucks has officially entered the Vietnam market, and become formidable competitor of the domestic coffee brand It’s not easy to squeeze into Vietnamese coffee market According to Jinlong Wang, President of Starbucks Asia Pacific, are built based on high-quality arabica coffee, products and especially passionate and experienced baristas.Besides, Starbucks will boost the localization of stores in its business strategy in Vietnam to make Starbucks stores the third destination for local people, after their home and office. Staff professional and friendly service According to the principle, the customer will be served within 3p and 5p latest in rush hour too busy shops. Starbucks employees are trained Each expert preparation of Starbucks coffee at the same time managing four trays, at least 15 minutes stirring once and never allow a cup of coffee for more than 30 minutes.They do this even during breaks, cold coffee thrown away and not served. They also design the self-timer for iced coffee, iced tea and pastries to ensure that everything is fresh flavor. Most Starbucks stores are equipped with coffee Mastrena sophistication of Switzerland, is designed to give the highest quality Starbucks provides much more than just the best cup of coffee, we will offer a place where people come together, connect with family and friends and celebrate the local Vietnamese coffee culture and heritage,† Wang said.Starbucks has started to purchase high-quality arabica coffee in Vietnam and will continue seeking arabica coffee supply in Vietnam in the long term. In addition, Starbucks will work closely with local coffee farming cooperati ves to increase the quality of arabica coffee and introduce Vietnam’s distinctive coffee heritage to its global customers. PART3: Starbucks is the brand for entrepreneurs who are always busy and lack of time. They are the loyal customers of the brand. Many people in VN like tasting a cup of rich coffee in the traditional booth or on sidewalk, sightseeing and talking for hours.Meanwhile Starbucks customers of Starbucks need environment, space, style tasting coffee than flavor, Trung Nguyen focus on versed crew in coffee. Sure many people choose Starbucks when being busy, receiving guest. But when they want to taste a cup of delicate and rich coffee,they com with Trung Nguyen cofee. Obviously Starbucks and Trung Nguyen can be parallel, with different customer. The problem is which customers they will access and how to maintain the top position in the group. The arrival of Starbucks has brought great lessons for business in Vietnam.Without direct an ad on TV, Starbucks bring the position of famous and have from benefit from the brands they build in a long time. Young people with curiosity and your experience become PR channel for the arrival of Starbucks on social networks, in the stories and spreading images. These are great lessons for Vietnamese enterprises, because,no brand yet we do like that The entering of Starbucks and many other coffee companies bring different style models, the modern way of doing business and honest. They help Vietnam coffee market more healthy competition.Dang Le Nguyen Vu have from benefit the war with Starbucks all the time. Trung Nguyen image at this time in the eyes of Vietnamese associated with one of the world's most famous names. Starbuks not only bring a beverage, it also brings own culture, to help the Vietnamese have opportunities to access cultural the world . Consumers have more choice. The competition between brands contribute to improving the quality of coffee products, bringing real benefits to consumers and cont ribute to Vietnam's coffee industry.

The Controversy Of Genetic Engineering - 1369 Words

Genetic Engineering, for most individuals not knowledgeable on the topic, conjures visions of sci-fi movies and humans being grown in a lab far off in the future. What more and more individuals in the early 21st century are coming to realize is that Genetic Engineering has already exceeded our wildest imaginations in a dark corner of a lab, outside of the view of the main stream public. Indeed, in 2017, genetic engineering is in full swing on both plant and animal life. Only from hearing major news stories such as Dolly the world s first cloned sheep or GMOs already being a major part of North America s corn production, have the masses been made aware of the sweeping advances that science has been able to make. Now that we as a†¦show more content†¦The paper will also attempt to apply well accepted ethical types to the subject in an effort to shed light on the morality of genetic medication studies and experiments. First of all, a definition of genetic engineering is in orde r. Genetic Engineering is defined by Merriam-Webster as the science of making changes to the genes of a plant or animal to produce a desired result (Genetic Engineering, n.d., para. 1). At first glance, genetic engineering sounds remarkable similar to cloning, which is also a hotly debated bioethical issue that has recently arisen. Cloning, however, differences from genetic engineering in the end result. While genetic engineering allows for pinpointing and transferring a specific gene known to produce specific trait in an organism, cloning is making an exact copy of the organism s DNA (Holtzmann, 2014). It s important to note that both cloning and genetic engineering, in their most rudimentary forms, have been practiced for years. As science has progressed over the years, it has become better at and found new ways of injecting new traits into plants to make them less susceptible to insects in an effort to prevent the erroneous use of pesticides, or to produce larger yields with larg er plants. The end result of these technological innovations: known as genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have started a worldwide debate as to the environmental