Haram

This is going to be a little more serious post but I think you may find it interesting. First off, after we got back from Egypt, every students' blood was drawn and tested for both Hepatitis C and AIDS. Good news is that all of us are clean but the news that bothered me the most is that if any of us tested positive, we would be removed from the country immediately. This bothers me on so many levels. This means that if you are HIV positive, you could never live in Jordan, or even visit for more than a month. I'm sorry, but restricting people like this is inhumane, at least that's what I believe. I spent this past summer in Kenya (www.lukasinkenya.blogspot.com) and the thought of some of the children I met being restricted as to where they could go and what they could experience simply because of a disease they have hurts me. I understand it from a governmental standpoint, preserving the nation and protecting the people, etc. But when it comes to basic humanity, this is wrong.

I'd also like to talk about a word you hear a lot here: haram. Haram directly translates to "forbidden" but it really means "forbidden according to Islam." Here are a few things I've learned about that are haram: eating pork, playing any music whatsoever during the Call of the Prayer, owning a dog, any physical intimacy before marriage, sodomy, and then you have your basics of course like murder, adultery, etc. Now with murder and adultery, I get why those would be haram, those are morally wrong no matter what, you don't need religion to tell you not to kill each other. But when I ask my family or different Muslims why they don't eat pork, or why they can't own a dog, or why women should wear a hijab, I have never once got an answer other than "because it is said in the Holy Qu'ran." I don't know if I'm the only one who thinks like this, but I think there should be a reason for a woman to have to cover herself in public, or why sodomy or homosexuality in general is not OK. I've noticed that Christianity and Islam alike don't give reasons for any of this but people still obey them without question. However, it's far more noticeable here in an Islamic nation though since there is no such thing as Separation of Church and State (and that 95% of the country are Muslim). I don't mind if people follow an organized religion but take time to think about it, understand why you're doing something or not doing something, don't just do it because a book says so. Religion was created by humans, not by a higher power or greater being, so if you do follow one of the mass faiths, try to understand it more instead of blindly following what someone else is telling you to do.

Sorry if I offended anyone in this post. Islam and Christianity both are beautiful faiths, if interpreted and understood well. Ma salaama.