Hi all,

I finished watching the movie, “Obsession”. I have to admit I did not watch the last ten minutes. The people in this film did not even have an accurate definition of the word jihad (which means struggle, not holy war). There were a number of sensationalist claims and the overall message was that terrorists are infiltrating our minds and we should hide our children.

The reason why I am sharing this is because I am having a difficult time reading some sources, which might hurt my research. We are all conveying certain messages with our research. Obviously, we all have an agenda. Our interest and desire to do research stems from a certain passion that we all have, whether only academic, personal or both. Mine goes beyond the academic scope. Having viewed Islam in a certain way and studying it has poisoned my mind into viewing it as all-positive entity. I cringe when I read something that goes against my view of it.

I spoke to my advisor regarding this yesterday and he made an insighful remark (using an example from Christian doctrine — Religious Studies geeky stuff) about how the I could never accurately understand a topic without truly viewing (or at least, attempting to) both sides of an argument. I think it would be a mistake to not look over the “enemy” sources. A lot could be learned from them. Therefore, I will make it a priority to review them and try to include them in my annotated bibliography. I think all of you should do the same.

With all of this said, I still think that the film left a lot to be desired. *sigh*

Have a great week off.

P. S. Roy: There was a scene regarding anti-Semitic propaganda (from a popular soap opera, I believe) where two Jews kidnapped a little boy and were going to drink his blood or cook him. Also, there was some Arabic rap which called George Bush and Israel’s leaders “Shaytan”. You would find it interesting. If Lee doesn’t mind, I could give you the DVD.

~Milushka