Course Discussion Website
Saudi Arabia has been mediating an agreement with the differing factions of the civil war in Yemen and have reached a power sharing agreement that may be the first stepping stones to peace. As an indication the old government suppose to return to the country and move forward with peace.
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/peace-coming-yemen-191117095544192.html
This is a (well done) 30 minute video review of lots of things we’ve covered in class. Focusing mainly on al-Ghazali, he also talks about (to name a few):
Make sure you’re logged into the library first so you can watch on Kanopy.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-baghdadi-leader-newsma-idUSKBN1X60AQ
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the ruthless ‘caliphate’ of ISIS and former Al-Qaeda regional commander, was killed in an American commando raid in Syria.
al-Baghdadi made history when he announced the restoration of the caliphate from the pulpit of the medieval Al-Nuri mosque in Mosul.
The pilgrimage to Mecca has been a tradition done since the start of Islam. As the 5th pillar of Islam, Hajj holds great importance to all Muslims as a necessary part of their lives. With temperatures increasing drastically due to climate change, it is said that incidents and dangers of this environmental change will largely affect the pilgrimage. Since it takes place during the warmest time of the year, worshippers will be introduced to health risks in future years. Officials of Saudi Arabia are preparing certain protective measures, such as misters outdoors, but researchers state that in coming years the number of participants of the pilgrimage will have to be limited.
You can read the whole article here.
I looked up who led the Rebellion since we weren’t sure in class. It was apparently led by a man named Ali ibn Muhammad. He was from Persia and claimed he was a descendant of Ali and Fatimah. https://www.britannica.com/event/Zanj-rebellion
BBC reported on a mobile game that was created to, according to the developers, change perceptions of Muslims. Players apparently use their characters to work on humanitarian projects. https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-south-yorkshire-50100538/virtue-reality-the-app-aiming-to-change-perceptions-of-muslims
Since we got a little more in-depth on Muhammad ibn Hanafiyya and his possible relations to Ali ibn Talib on being either a spiritual son or physical last class, I decided to look into this and found these three sources on him. One being a Britannica stub on his relation to Ali ibn Talib, while the other two are works on his role in Shia Islam.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Muhammad-ibn-al-Hanafiyyah
https://www.al-islam.org/maqtal-al-husayn-abd-al-razzaq-al-muqarram/journey-iraq
Since we talked about this in class, I thought I should post this article I found while looking for a paper topic. It covers the change of Baghdad through time under the Abbasid Caliphate. It shows the transition of the city founded by Al-Mansur. To the one that was sacked by the Mongols in 1258.
Due to the recent invasion of Syria by Turkey, it has caused Isis militants to escape prison. This happened mainly due to Turkish artillery and airstrikes as well as lack of personal due to the Kurds having to defend their homes and families. We were just talking about this in class and this quote from the article best explains it “Turkey has not put forth a plan for the international community to see how it would take responsibility for these ISIS prisoners” so it is unknown what the future holds.
This article has coverage from the 2019 celebration of Ashura and talks more in-depth about how muslims around the world celebrate the commemorative holiday
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