David Aldridge

Humanities 1100
December 9, 2015
Kim Anderson

Reflection paper
Humanities overall has broaden my experiences in life beyond what I would have
been able to do on my own. From experiencing art museums, to reading poetry,
watching a foreign film or the study of religions. The part of the course where I felt
the biggest impact was the study of Islam.
The assigned reading about Islam and the Quran allowed me to begin to
understand a religion and way of life that is so prevalent in the news today. Before
the assignment I was ignorant to the teachings and ways of Islam. My
understanding of this religion and culture came from the negative media stories
that we see almost daily in the West. This has driven me to do my independent
research and open up my views to form my own opinion on this religion. You hear
the word islamophobia almost daily in news reports or news articles. The fear
that the United States seems to be feeding with the word Islam is sad and
misguided. You hear of presidential candidates, Donald Trump, calling for the ban of
people who identify their religion as Islam from entering the Unites States. You see
legislation being passed by representatives in Congress prohibiting people from
Iraq, Syria, Iran and Sudan from entering the U.S without visa. Speaker Paul Ryan
said This will help neutralize the threat from foreign terrorists entering our
country. Is it of any concern that the majority of the population in these countries
are Islamic, and this legislation seems to be a hidden way of baring people of the
Islamic faith from entering the U.S? As I engage in discussions with friends and
relatives about the current state of the world I find myself constantly having to
educate them on the Islamic faith, with the minimum knowledge I have, and allow
them to see that Islam is not causing these actions, people are doing these actions.
If we want to fear religion then we might want to add Christianity to that list as I am
sure there are just as many atrocities performed with Christianity as a belief system
as Islam. Through knowledge and understanding it helps a person relinquish a fear
and allow acceptance into their life.
The learning objectives from Humanities has allowed me to grow as an individual
and to experience things with a different pallet of sort. College to me is about
expanding not only ones knowledge of subjects but also allowing them to further
grow as individuals. This class has required that I remove myself from my comfort
zone and experience things that I normally wouldnt have. I was usually a more
reserved personality but through these experiences I am have been open to hearing

and learning not only other individuals points but also experiencing things through
a different set of eyes. From experiencing an art collection and writing about it to
reading poetry and seeing how the words and sayings are different but the meaning
is something we can still practice today. The world is full of ideas and experiences, I
for one plan on experiencing as much as I can in order to shape who I want to be
and what my values are.