Okay, the first time I hear this I wrote it off as my grandmother being old.
However I just had it happen again, in one of the class presentations.
*gets out lecture stool/soapbox*
Muslim is to Islam as Christian is to Christianity. Is that really that hard to understand?
The people doing this presentation were touching on the religious aspects of Physician Assisted Suicide. Basically, what major religions said about it.
And they listed, as separate religions:
Christianity
Islam
Muslim
Judaism
And there I am in my seat, facepalming.
Muslim and Islam are not separate religions. A Muslim is someone who follows the religion of Islam. Just as a Christian is someone who follows the religion of Christianity. How can you not know that? How?
You'll be happy to hear that Islam and 'Muslim' both say the same thing about P.A.D. though. It's good when a religion can agree with itself.
Was it maybe just a slip of the tongue, like they only did it briefly and they might just not be good with words and said "Muslim" right after "Islam" because they weren't sure which was right? Or did they do a full explanation of both Islam and Muslim as separate things? :D (I'm guessing it's the latter, based on the last paragraph of the post, but I need to hold out hope for humanity and keep the less disappointing option open until you confirm they're just *that* wrong.)
ReplyDeleteNot only did they do the full explanation of Islam and Muslim as separate things, they had them listed separately on their PowerPoint. This was not a slip of the tongue. Slip of the tongue I wouldn't even mention. Anyone can do that. Nope. Totally separate entities as far as they're concerned.
DeleteFor some reason I found many people who can't distinguish between the two words; Islam and Muslim.
ReplyDeleteAfter September 11, 2001 I don't think there have been a religion, or a concept or an ideology that is been mentioned in the American literature and media more than Islam. And I thought after America spent trillions of dollars in Afghanistan they would know whether Afghans are Muslims or Islams :)
This is the second time I've encountered it and this time it was a group of four people who let it get into their presentation. I can't believe that out of the four of them there wasn't a single person who looked at that and knew enough to say 'Wait-'
DeleteOne of *my* group members didn't know. She asked me why I was shaking my head and I had to explain it to her. I just- I don't understand this level of ignorance. Maybe it's just the people I've met? *holds out hope for the rest of the country*
I've had someone ask me about this, and once I had a lady tell me Obama was part Muslim as if it were an ethnicity! :)
ReplyDelete*headdesk*
DeleteI don't understand how people can be so ignorant....
Don't hate me, but I have to admit that it didn't make sense until the analogy. Maybe it's because I see the term "Islamist." (Is that term being used correctly in the general media?) Not having done much reading about it, I thought
ReplyDeleteMuslim : Islam :: Catholic : Methodist.
But if I prepared a presentation like this one, I'm pretty sure at some point in my research I would come up with something that made me question that.
Okay, so...maybe that's the problem? The use of the term 'Islamist' in the media? As I understand it 'Islamist' refers to a radical fundamentalist movement within the greater Muslim society but it's not a proper term for all Muslims, no.
DeleteYeah. At some point, someone should have realized that Islam and Muslim were not separate religions. They had to be reading about them enough to figure that out if they were figuring out what they believed about end of life matters.
How did this not come up in their research? I get that "Muslim" doesn't exactly have obvious wordplay with "Islam" like Christian and Christianity but come on. Silly people.
ReplyDeleteI don't know. I've got no answer. None. I'm left with the conclusion that they just didn't actually read whatever they were looking at.
Delete