Learning...

My favorite aspect of exploring social justice across cultures was learning about things in very different ways from how I might have previously thought about a topic. For example, as we discussed sexual and gender roles a very different community was brought to my attention. In Luoshui village, there are no traditional marriages. In the walking marriages present in this community, women are free to choose every night what/if any man sleeps in her bedroom that night. If a woman gets pregnant and has a child, then child is raised by her and her family, but not in any way by the dad. Before taking this class I most likely would just be like “that’s weird”, not attempting to look into the cultural differences between my culture and that culture.  But now I am more interested in learning about what the other culture values and why they may have different traditions such as a walking marriage. After seeing the video on the walking marriages my eyes were opened to a culture that that is drastically different from my own. I realized that I can’t just walk around judging other people, who may be from another culture. I need to learn about the other culture and try to understand, but no matter what I need to allow the other people to practice their culture in peace.

Ethics of Life

The Middle East is a hot bed for many of the issues we have been discussing this week around the Ethics of Live. As an area filled with religious countries there is an abundance of cultural issues. Israel is often the center of these issues and conflicts.

On June 10^th 3 Jewish Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and murdered in the West Bank. Netanyahu blamed Hamas for their murder. On July 2^nd,one day after the burial of these teens, a Muslim Palestinian teen, Muhammad Abu Khdeir, was kidnapped and killed in Jerusalem. Far-right, religious Jews have been named suspects in the murder of the Palestinian teen.

These children have been used as pawns of war for these two very distinct cultures living in tight proximity. This conflict is complex and multifaceted. In some ways this conflict would be seen as a Just War because it is against a certain state and its people, but in other ways this is a Jihad conflict because the Jews do not believe in Islam.

Ethically, Jews and Muslims do not have the same background. The Torah says that each life is a whole world. This means that NO ONE should be killed through war or any other means. On the other hand, the Quran says “oppression is worse than killing” (Hashmi). This shows me that in Islam life is not valued the same way as it is in Judaism. This fundamental difference in importance of life may be one of the major problems behind this conflict and that keeps fueling the conflict.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/07/world/middleeast/israel-palestinians-muhammad-abu-khdeir.html?ref=world&_r=0