I see from my account here that it's been almost a month since my last post. Oops!

Anyway, as you may or may not have read on my other blog, I was recently admitted to Concordia as a Qualifying Student for the Master's in History and Philosophy of Religion. My first course, which was chosen almost entirely due to its temporal location in the work week, will be Shiite Islam. This is all fine and good since it's becoming more and more important for those of us in the West to really understand Islam and where it's coming from. The problem is that I don't know much about Islam, so taking a course specific to Shiite Islam could be a little tricky.

So I got online and found a book that's used as a textbook for the Introduction to Islam course called, appropriately, Introduction to Islam! It was $90 at Concordia's bookstore, but I managed to find a used copy in the States for about $6. I just started reading it this morning and - so far - it isn't as bad as I was expecting it to be. Not Islam, but the writing style, I mean. I haven't even gotten into Islam yet as the author is giving an overview of Egyptian culture and religion first. There will be a review here in a few weeks when I finish the book.

When I finally get into the Master's program, I'll need to pick two religious traditions on which to focus. I'm assuming that one of the two should NOT be Christianity, otherwise I would prefer studying Theology instead of Religion. So, I'm thinking that Islam would be a good choice due to the current rise in tensions in the Middle East (and in North America in the form of the September 11th attacks). I truly believe that Islam isn't to blame for this, but no one on this side of the pond seems to agree with me. Islam is portrayed as a backwards religion that hates modernity and demoralizes women. I don't buy it. Islam is a Semitic religion just like Judaism and Christianity and we in the West don't have a problem with those. I argue that if there is any modernity-hating and women-demoralizing going on that it's cultural, not religious in nature. And so, studying Islam is one way that I can help correct that misconception. As it is, I don't know enough about it to defend it adequately, so hopefully I will learn.

As for the other religious tradition, I was thinking Eastern religions. I know that Buddhism gets a lot of attention at Concordia, but I think that Taoism - the one I'd most like to study - may be grouped in together with other Far-Eastern religions that may or may not include Buddhism.

Barring that, however, I also wouldn't mind studying the occult. I think there's a lot of misunderstanding there, as well. Oh, and look! There's a class in the Winter that fits my schedule called "Witchcraft, Magic, and Religion"! Yay!