An instructor explained to me in a past humanities class while we were studying myth and culture that everyone in the world views themselves and others through sunglasses with special prescriptions. As an example my prescription would be….
American/women/military/Christian/semi-liberal/Academic
Ryan’s might be
American/male/family-based/Christian/semi-conservative/professional
These are in no order and by all means don’t include our whole “prescription”
The teacher went on to say that view anyone besides ourselves especially other cultures you have to slowly, because it is difficult and never fully effective, remove our “prescriptions” and look at them with completely clear eyes. Even that doesn’t always give the most effective view sometimes adding some of their “prescription” to your glasses helps you understand their thoughts and beliefs better.
(Disclaimer removing the sunglasses is not removing your beliefs rather looking at a situation with the understanding that everyone doesn’t have the same understanding/knowledge/beliefs you do. Hope this makes sense)
Wow that was a long description to led to my thoughts on the book that let me borrow a different pair of sunglasses for a little while...
JOURNEY OF THE JIHADIST by FAWAZ A. GERGES
If you want a book that allows you do look at the rise and progression of the jihadist movements through the Muslim world this book is it. Rather dry at times and it was hard to keep everything straight because of my lack of knowledge of the various Islamic movements that have occurred over the past 60 years. The author a Christian Lebanese/ American shows the movement from not only his view but also that of Muslim men from many countries that in one way or another had ties to the Jihadist movement. He speaks with Hezbollah, Taliban, Al Qaida ETC… I think he showed other views without being overly sympathetic keeping the writing fairly academic on a subject that its full of emotion for everyone involved.
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