The Political Views of Muslim Americans

The Political Views of Muslim Americans The political views of Muslim Americans compare to the rest of the American religious public The largest number of Americans believe that Muslims pose a threat to the American society. Many Americans remain skeptical of the Islamic anti-democratic tendencies a factor that has triggered fear among them (Ghazal 40). The Muslim religion has a bad reputation for its violent characteristic with regard to the widespread understanding of their belief in jihad, the holy war.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Political Views of Muslim Americans specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Research on Muslim Americans suggests that these assumptions are not the reality. Muslim Americans just like the American society are diverse. Not all Muslims are Arabs neither do they all come from one country. Many Muslims come from Asia although some also come from the African-Muslim countries like Libya and Egypt. These make the Islam community a very diverse religion with varying cultural practices. Just like the American people, the Muslim Americans are the most ethnically diverse population in the world today. Many Americans assume that Muslims are all Arabs but research contradicts that notion considering that one-fifth of the Muslim population in America is American born. The Muslims are not entirely uniformly religious neither do they share the same political views as many Americans assume. Muslims are outsiders Not all Muslims are devout. Some of them are serious and strict devotees of their religion while some are moderately devoted and others are non-practicing and secular. This is synonymous to the Christian religion which not all who profess Christianity are really practicing Christians. Muslim Americans are politically integrated and highly diverse and are equally engaged in today’s political issues like the rest of the Americans. For instance, the Islamic communities are highly opposed to gay marriages an d favor an increase in government spending to support the needy (Ghazal 41). However, they are a bit more conservative compared to the rest of the American population with regard to the issue of abortion (Ghazal 41). On foreign policies, the Muslim Americans do not agree or share the same sentiments as the rest of the public. While the public appreciates the war in Iraq and the anti-terrorist actions against the Middle East, the Islamic community bares some reservations on this issue. The Islamic community although they share most of the social and political views with all other religions in America, they are still largely considered Non-Americans. This is due to past activities that the Americans have held against the Muslim community the 9/11 bomb attack (Ghazal 43).Advertising Looking for essay on ethnicity studies? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Other groups considered as outsiders However, just like other group s that the Americans thought of them as a threat to their harmonious religious existence, the Muslims will have to endure the rebellion factor. Maybe in time the mainstream Americans will be able to accept the American Muslims as fellow compatriots as they did with the Jews and the Italians. Another religion seen as an outsider is the Hindu community. Although they have been mostly involved in the business sector, the Hindu community does not enjoy the benefits of being an American as the natives do and other foreigners like Japanese and Chinese people. The Hindus are not very much involved when it comes to political and national matters. Integration and interaction especially with the Muslim community which research show is highly educated and well informed could be fruitful in achieving some of the development goals. The solution is only by bringing the Muslim American to the national dialogue and involve them in national matters. Ghazal, Jen’nan 2007, Muslims in America. Anti-Muslim graffiti defaces a Shi’ite mosque at the Islamic Center of America. PDF file. 11 Nov. 2012. https://contexts.org/articles/files/2008/10/contexts-fall08-muslims-in-america.pdf

Mary Ann Bickerdyke, Calico Colonel of the Civil War

Mary Ann Bickerdyke, Calico Colonel of the Civil War Mary Ann Bickerdyke was known for her nursing service during Civil War, including setting up hospitals, winning confidence of generals. She lived from  July 19, 1817 to November 8, 1901. She was known as Mother Bickerdyke or the Calico Colonel, and her full name was  Mary Ann Ball Bickerdyke. Mary Ann Bickerdyke Biography Mary Ann Ball was born in 1817 in Ohio.   Her father, Hiram Ball, and mother, Anne Rodgers Ball, were farmers.   Anne Balls mother had been married before and brought children to her marriage to Hiram Ball. Anne died when Mary Ann Ball was only a year old,. Mary Ann was sent with her sister and her mother’s older two children to live with their maternal grandparents, also in Ohio, while her father remarried.   When the grandparents died, an uncle, Henry Rodgers, cared for the children for a time. We don’t know much about Mary Ann’s early years.   Some sources claim she attended Oberlin College and was part of the Underground Railroad, but there’s no historical evidence for those events. Marriage Mary Ann Ball married Robert Bickerdyke in April 1847. The couple lived in Cincinnati, where Mary Ann may have helped with nursing during the 1849 cholera epidemic.   They had two sons.   Robert struggled with ill health as they moved to Iowa and then to Galesburg, Illinois. He died in 1859.   Now widowed, Mary Ann Bickerdyke then had to work to support herself and her children. She worked in domestic service and did some work as a nurse. She was part of the Congregational Church in Galesburg where the minister was Edward Beecher, son of the famous minister Lyman Beecher, and a brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Catherine Beecher, half-brother of Isabella Beecher Hooker.   Civil War Service When the Civil War began in 1861, the Rev. Beecher called attention to the sad state of soldiers who were stationed in Cairo, Illinois.   Mary Ann Bickerdyke decided to take action, probably based on her experience in nursing.  Ã‚   She put her sons under the care of others, then went to Cairo with medical supplies that had been donated.   On arrival in Cairo, she took charge of sanitary conditions and nursing at the encampment, though women were not supposed to be there without prior permission.   When a hospital building was finally constructed, she was appointed matron. After her success in Cairo, though still without any formal permission to do her work, she went with Mary Safford, who had also been at Cairo, to follow the army as it moved south.   She nursed the wounded and sick among the soldiers at the battle of Shiloh. Elizabeth Porter, representing the Sanitary Commission, was impressed by Bickerdyke’s work, and arranged for an appointment as a â€Å"Sanitary field agent.† This position also brought in a monthly fee. General Ulysses S Grant developed a trust for Bickerdyke, and saw to it that she had a pass to be in the camps.   She followed Grant’s army to Corinth, Memphis, then to Vicksburg, nursing at each battle. Accompanying Sherman At Vicksburg, Bickerdyke decided to join the army of William Tecumsah Sherman as it began a march south, first to Chattanooga, then on Sherman’s infamous march through Georgia.   Sherman allowed Elizabeth Porter and Mary Ann Bickerdyke to accompany the army, but when the army reached Atlanta, Sherman sent Bickerdyke back to the north. Sherman recalled Bickerdyke, who had gone to New York, when his army moved towards Savannah.   He arranged for her passage back to the front.   On her way back to Sherman’s army, Bickerdyke stopped for a while to help with Union prisoners who’d been recently released from the Confederate prisoner of war camp at Andersonville.   She finally connected back with Sherman and his men in North Carolina. Bickerdyke remained in her volunteer post – though with some recognition from the Sanitary Commission – until the very end of the war, in 1866, staying as long as there were soldiers still stationed. After the Civil War Mary Ann Bickerdyke tried several jobs after leaving army service. She ran a hotel with her sons, but when she got sick, they sent her to San Francisco.   There she helped advocate for pensions for the veterans.   She was hired at the mint in San Francisco.   She also attended reunions of the Grand Army of the Republic, where her service was recognized and celebrated. Bickerdyke died in Kansas in 1901.   In 1906, the town of Galesburg, from which she’d left to go to the war, honored her with a stature. While some of the nurses in the Civil War were organized by religious orders or under Dorothea Dix’ command, Mary Ann Bickerdyke represents another kind of nurse: a volunteer who was not responsible to any supervisor, and who often interjected themselves into camps where women were forbidden to go.