Research Excursions

     In Hilary's research essay about sexual expectation and norms in Islam, I found many things to be surprising. The inner controversy that Islamic women face everyday regarding sex must be extremely hard as they seem subject to everyone else's opinions. To me, this vulnerability seems extremely unfair as I believe it should be a women's right to do what she wants with her body no matter the opinions of others. As Hilary mentioned, a women who choose to abstain from sex is seen as a prude in most western societies, although praised in Islamic communities; whereas, women who have sex are seen as "westernized" in Islamic communities. These different perspectives seem confusing and I know would make me anxious if I were to be in their shoes. 

    Next, in Gema's research essay about the ISIS recruitment process, I learned a lot about the physcological tactics used by ISIS to lure young men in like Parvaiz. I thought it was most interesting how they use social media to further help them. Nowadays social media is usually portrayed as a good thing and I never really thought about how it could also be a tool for recruiters to find young men who look like they could be convinced. Their use of propaganda is truly frightening and it is hard to believe they could turn something that violent into something that seemed like a "good cause."

    Finally, I read John's research essay on the British Consulate. When this topic was mentioned in the book, I was curious about but never really took the time to deep dive into what it meant. After reading this, it made much more sense. They deal with a lot of terrorism and I thought it especially interesting the comment John made about how the Prime Minister of Turkey responded with what seemed like such a personal religious threat to the attackers. He noted how odd that would have been if say the President of the US were to say something like that. I wonder why that is accepted and if religion is more deeply tied into politics in Turkey. 

    Overall, all three of these projects were very interesting. I want to write an essay for my next research excursion so that is why I read only essays to see how different people went about writing them and the different ways they cited their sources.