Could you help me for my English exam please?

Imène · Post by **Imène** » 07 Dec 2005 17:46

Hello !

I am still here. Now is to ask you some help for my English exam.

As I mentioned before, I have to read to and present an essay, which the title is "The crisis of Islam" by Bernard Lewis. I meet varied difficulties, first because of a lack of motivation, second because I have not the required English register to reach to an easy understanding of it, third because I seriously miss practise in this language. I have two and a half months to prepare it, and I have not finished the book yet.

I have few ideas on the manner I will proceed to analyse the book, and in which ways you could help me for that (I will not ask you to read it of course, but if you have any advices to give, I am opened to suggestions

). As you surely noticed, I have no precise claim.

What I can do for the moment is to summarly describe the book: Is a short essay about hundred and forty-six pages, divided in nine chapters and an introduction, where the author try to retail by constant references to History, the various causes of the current conflicts and inner contradictions of the muslim world.

Just to quickly skim over the chapters I read:

If I remember well (I read it a month ago and I did not find the courage to read it again because of my lack of motivation

), in the introduction he describes the surprising use -for an American- made by many fundamentalists of far historical references to support their revendications.

In the first chapter ("Defining Islam"), he tries to define the muslim religion, to make the comparison between Crhistianism and Islam, and to establish the main particularities of it.

In the second chapter ("House of war"), he tackles to the concept of Jihad, and to the way the non-muslims populations have been perceived by the Muslims in their conceptions (In this chapter, there are some points that trouble me, but I currently cannot discuss them

).

The third chapter ("From crusaders to imperialists") is about the near history of Middle-East, with the rising of uncomprehension and frustrations among the Eastern populations, and the recent parallel done by extremists between modern imperialism and old crusades.

In the fourth chapter ("Discovering America"), the author gives a little historic about the evolution of the perception of America in the Muslim world, and the grievances formulated against it.

The fifth chapter is called "Satan and the Soviets" (I really dislike this title

), and I have not finised it yet. I just can say that the author has observed that the tensions between the Middle-East and the West have done that some Muslim countries have joined for a while the Soviet cause, and he has also observed that their perception of the Soviet impertialism does not equal in indignation that one of the Western imperialism.

Of course he gives many other informations, but it is just a first approach of the book. Well, I took all my afternoon to compound this message, now, I think it is time for me to leave the computer for a while. So, I would be really grateful to you if you could give me some discussion themes, or some advices to work around this essay. Thank you very much.

Imène.

michka _ invité · Post by **michka _ invité** » 07 Dec 2005 19:51

Hello Imène.

Thanks for sharing this reading. The relationship between West and Islam is such a delicate issue. It would be neverthelles interesting to discuss about it.

There is a couple of themes in your summary, which I would like to go into detail about, especially the jihad-concept (which is very complex) and the relationship between Islam and communism. Yet, I would like to review my information, before telling something here. I will write something about it in the coming days.

I hope some native English speakers will be soon involved in this topic. Because of the language, of course. Furthermore there might be arguments in Lewis' thesis, they may be able to understand and explain better than us.

ANTHOS · Post by **ANTHOS** » 07 Dec 2005 20:28

Salut Imène

Je peux t'aider de temps en temps niveau anglais (je ne connais pas le sujet, qui est un grand sujet à aborder). Je te souhaite bon courage.

Andréas

Ton anglais est très charmant - t'as un très bon niveau mais il y a aussi les erreurs classiques (frenchisms)

michka · Post by **michka** » 09 Dec 2005 22:04

Hello Imène.

I will probably post a message next week. It is really difficult to select material and information about this subject. Because of the implication of current events, there are so many people talking over it. Unluckily their lack of preparation is often obvious and their approach unscientific. It is also easy (and dangerous) to exploit, with ulterior politic motives.

Google provides about 332.000 results for djihad, 11.400.000 for jihad and 215.000 for dschihad. I cannot believe this is nothing but wisdom. I've picked up a few works from the public library of Oldenburg and will try to get away with them.

In the meanwhile I would recommend a great book by Fernand Braudel: A History of Civilizations (Grammaire des civilisations). The hundred pages about Islam could be an interesting counterpart to Lewis' essay.

@ Anthos: hello! I am writing a few lines here because of my studies, too. I am aware that my English is most likely to be improved. If you could have a look at my messages from time to time, I would be most grateful to receive your advices.

ANTHOS · Post by **ANTHOS** » 10 Dec 2005 01:22

Hello Michka, Well since you asked, here are some corrections.

Do not forget your non-count nouns, eg advice, information. You say some advice, or some information (never use plural).

talking about it

unfortunately rather than unluckily

‘is very likely to be improvable’
but I would say instead
‘can be improved’

Andreas

michka · Post by **michka** » 12 Dec 2005 20:53

Thank you very much for your help, Andreas!

I'd like to start a little discussion about this quotation:

A war is always fought with a political aim. This cannot be reduced to the simple fact of killing others. Muslims' military actions were aimed to triumph. On the other hand the cruisaders were used to massacre and wipe out the defeated. In 1099 they set the fire to the main synagogue in Jerusalem and killed the Jews who had taken refuge there. That has already been perceived as an anticipation of Auschwitz. Furthermore in 1204 they engraved the Orthodox Church's memory with those frightening episodes, which were reactivated by the Serbs during the air raids of 1999, as well as the islamic fundamentalists reactivated the memory of the cruisades, after Bagdad was bombed in 1991.
History is a source of mass memories for the inventing of traditions.

Bassam Tibi is a German and Muslim historian. This is an excerpt of one of his works : "Jihahd and Cruisades".
I would like to know Imène's opinion about the sentence written in bold types. The quotation provides some examples, which could be discussed. The introduction of Lewis' book, as well as chapters 1 and 3, are about similar themes. Does Lewis provide the reader with other examples? Do only fundamentalists make use of far historical references to support their revendications?

Imène · Post by **Imène** » 13 Dec 2005 14:23

These are good questions for me Michka, and they deserves a trimly approach. I will take the time to think about them and will probably post my attempt tomorrow in the day.

Imène · Post by **Imène** » 13 Dec 2005 14:31

ANTHOS wrote:Salut Imène

Je peux t'aider de temps en temps niveau anglais (je ne connais pas le sujet, qui est un grand sujet à aborder). Je te souhaite bon courage.

Andréas

Ton anglais est très charmant - t'as un très bon niveau mais il y a aussi les erreurs classiques (frenchisms)

Hello Andréas,

I am rather pleased to discover that I have a charming English (Tell me more !).

Of course I am aware that I have some work to do to improve it, so I would be really grateful to you if you could notify me the common mistakes and frenchisms I do in my messages, and give me the right English expression at the time. Thank you very much Anthos.