Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Feb 12 and 13 Revised...read carefully--Homework and due dates

Trip to ROM on Wednesday March 4th with grade 3/4. Test 1 will be rescheduled after the Spring break.

I hope you read the handout, Islam and the Crusades. I will have a few questions for you when we begin to discuss the Crusades.

Today, I want to quickly focus on what's coming up. Don't ask questions now, but read this carefully and ask me next Wednesday.

Timeline: Diocletian; Constantine; Augustine; Barbarians at the Gates; Franks and Goths; Justinian; Rise of Islam—if necessary, redo and submit by next Saturday Feb. 22nd at the latest. Save on onedrive and email me the link:  ktopalian@innovaacademy.ca

Some have completed all 17 units. You may need to add a few details or you may be fine. You might want to change the format of your timeline to make it more clear—up to you. If you haven’t already, you may want to work ahead during March break because I will expect that the topics from 9 to 17 are complete and submitted by Saturday, March 28th. 

Today:
  • Obsession—the dangerous radicals, referred to as ‘islamists’
  • Islam vs islamists—Toronto—a moderate (peaceful) Muslim versus an islamist
  • 1st part of Islam lecture—today, take notes on what seems important

               I’m going to post the transcript of the whole lecture. It might help you to read it tonight before we listen to the second part.

I’m going to try something different for at least a couple of lectures:

·        First, we will listen and you will take general notes about whatever seems important in your notebook.
·        Next, I’ll give you a fill in the blanks outline for homework—after the lecture tomorrow.
·        Third, I will post the whole lecture transcript and you will use that to complete your outline.
·        Fourth, you will hand in the completed outline to me the following class.

You will each get up to 10 marks if complete. I won’t mark each and every answer, but I’ll do a quick check to see how well each of you is doing. Then, I’ll photocopy your papers and hand them back to you. This way I’ll have a record of what each is doing.

Tomorrow’s class:
               Kahoot
               2nd part Islam lecture

Homework due Wednesday night, the 19th:

               Respond on blog—10 sentences or more  
Question: What did you learn in the past few classes that seems new and/or important to you? You may refer to either or both of the documentary segments and/or the lecture. You may comment on only one, or two, or all three of the above...your choice.

Post your response here Wednesday evening, Feb 19th, in comments: 

Make sure your name is included in the post.

8 comments:

Anna said...

This lecture was interesting because it relates to what is happening today in the world, and it is important that we know where these extremists have come from and their background. I never knew that they believed that Abraham was the first Muslim. I also never knew that Mohammed was not considered a divine person, because I know people always look up to Mohammed. I also learned that Jihad means holy war, and that they must feel like war against those who hate Islam or oppose it. This is ridiculous, this is literally the opposite to Christianity because Christianity says that we should evangelise with those who don’t believe whereas those of the Muslim belief will go to war with these people. Also, it is interesting that that is what every child is taught in those countries and they have no shame in saying it. All children are taught to fight from when they can walk, and it is actually very scary because they want to take over the world. Also, it is interesting that Jihad is a “dead letter” and can be revived whenever the Muslim leader thinks it should be brought to life. It is kind of saying that when I want it to be a truth it can be and when I don’t, it isn’t. Honestly, Jihad is very scary because every member of these countries knows how to fight and is taught to fight for their religion whatever the cost. We are reminded of this when we think of 911.

- Anna Cunningham

Kaelyn said...

I think that the lecture was very interesting because it really opens your eyes to what is going on in the world today. So many people, me included, do not know what is going on in the Middle East and it is very scary. The Muslims are killing people without remorse and they often chant “Death to America.” It is even scarier to know that it is worse now. Some other things that I thought were important is that the verse in the Quran about killing all Muslims is often taken out of context and they are not supposed to do this all the time. It was very interesting to find out that the Muslims actually allowed Jews and Christians to live in Muslim towns as long as they paid a special tax called a Jizya, and sometimes they forbid Christians and Jews to covert because they wanted them to keep paying that tax. When Muhammad first got his revelation, he believed that it was the conclusion to Judaism and Christianity, so that is very interesting. Jihad means ‘holy war,’ and it is very important to the Muslims. I thought it was strange that Jihad could die out, but the Muslims could bring it back anytime that they wanted to. Jihad is something that non-peaceful Muslims base their lives around, but it only appears in the Quran four times! In conclusion, this topic was very interesting, and I would be interested in learning more about it.

Judah said...

I learned a lot of new things during these discussions about Islam. I had already known some things about the conflicts between Christians and Muslims. We had read a book about it (The Song of Roland), so I already knew many false things about Muslims, like how Christians used to think that Muslims worshipped Mohammad, Allah, and Apollo when they only worship Allah. Even though I had known a bit about the Christian's view on Muslims, these videos and lectures opened my eyes to a lot of interesting stuff. One thing that I found especially interesting was how Islam is very similar to Judaism and Christianity. The relationship between Christianity and Islamic beliefs is always a conflicting one, so to think that the Islamic belief is nearly the same as Judaism and Christianity was a real eye-opener. When my eyes were opened it was like a flowing river of information. Muslims taking after Judaism and Christianity would make sense because, firstly, Muslims believe that God (or Allah) was correct up until the choice of Isaac over Ishmael, so they believe nearly exactly what Christians do except backward per se. It was also revealed that Muslims tend to gravitate to Judaism more than Christianity. The reason for this is because Muslims did a lot of sacrificing and stuff that is sacred in Judaism, and they did not follow the most important part of Christianity, that Jesus was divine.

Josh Zwicker said...

To begin, I thought the documentary was very interesting. I also enjoyed learning about the foundation of Islam. In the lecture, I learned that Mohammed was dictated the Quran and that he thought he received special revelation of the faith. Islam sort of reunited the Arabian tribes together to create a nation under Islam. I also thought it was interesting how Muslims at first respected Christians and Jews because they believed their faith stemmed off and completed theirs. Now, i just seems that all extremists just want to kill these religions off. In the documentary that you showed us, we saw how committed some of these Islamists are. They chant death to America, and burn flags of different countries. They think that they should rule all the world, at whatever costs. I was also intrigued by the fact that 10-15% of Muslims are extremists. That was 10 million or a 100 million or some big number. Either way, that is a lot of dangerous people that want to take over the world.

Jed said...

learned many new things that cleared up my confusions about Islam and helped me understand their reasons to fight better. I always thought that Muslims hated all Christians when in fact they hate the pagans, and Americans more. they don't target Christians specifically, but all unbelievers. in the documentary we saw they said that they were fine with co-existing with Christians and Jews.i also learned that they were mislead to believe that their spiritual war called jihad was the only way to please God and would guarantee a pass to heaven.In the documentary we also saw how children were thought that they should grow up to be fighters for jihad and even saw kids chanting and crying while in class. I learned about how strong the speakers were in influencing millions of people to become fighter for jihad and have them lay down their lives in false hope that they would go to heaven. what they don't realize is that the verses in the Quran about jihad are not major verses. The verses only appear a a few times and are sometimes taken in the wrong context. they believe that the most honorable way to die is by jihad. and its really sad to see how many people have died just because of a misunderstanding.

Daniel said...

I found the documentary very interesting and very informative about what Islam extremists are really like. Firstly, I was astonished that these people are so open about trying to destroy the USA. Secondly, I cannot believe that these people are telling their little children that it is an honour to die for Allah as a suicide bomber! Thirdly, the documentary also showed how passionate these muslims are, and how they truly believe what they are preaching. After all, I don't think that they would go around shouting on television, swinging swords, and promoting these terrorists if they really didn't believe that this kind of life was the ultimate honour. I found the lecture very interesting because it gave incredible detail on how quickly Islam spread after Mohammed died. This is because within 100 years after Islam was created, the Muslims had practically conquered all of the known world which is remarkable. Another odd fact in the lecture is that the word Jihad barely appears in the Quran, but now all Muslims use it meaning an extremist. Lastly, I liked how the lecture highlighted how the Muslims quickly became a unified fighting force trying to conquer the entire world for Allah. Unfortunately, some Muslims are still trying to do this today which is very concerning. Thanks for sharing that documentary with us Mr. Topalian!

Noah Gazmin said...


In history, we have been recently learning about Mohammed and how he started the Islamic faith, and that has been very interesting and important to learn about. We learned that Mohammed started Islam in about 622 A.D. and traveled around uniting Arab tribes and teaching them about this new religion which somewhat bridged the gap between Christianity and Judaism. Mohammed died in 633 A.D., but shortly after his death, the popularity of Islam began to skyrocket. Arab tribes united and were rapidly expanding their territories fighting Jihads or holy wars. These holy wars were used to unite the whole world under one Islamic state for their god, Allah. Because of the Arab’s religious zeal and willingness to give their lives for their god they expanded their empire greatly in a very short amount of time. Eventually, Jihad started to burn itself out, but it is ready to be revived at any moment. Even today in our present world, many radical Muslims are waging ‘holy wars’ to try and unite the world to one state again. This is important because we need to realize and be aware of the radical Muslims and the fact that they are sending bombers and implanting bombs even today. In conclusion, it is important to know how and why Radical Muslims are waging their ‘holy wars’ because of their religious zeal. As Christians, we should have this same religious zeal, but not use it in such a bad way.

Alana said...

I found the lecture very informative as it introduced me to things I had no idea about. It’s crazy to think about how many people do not know what is going on in the Middle East. The Muslims are broadcasting tv shows for kids that demonstrate how to kill their enemies on sight. Kids in school are reciting poems on how they want to die for the “jihad” which means holy war or a struggle. Muslim mothers are proud that their sons are martyrs and die for Allah. It’s insane to think how these Muslims are so devoted to their faith even though the whole thing is a lie. It’s interesting how Muhammed taught his new religion as the ultimate fulfillment. Then the Arabs went around uniting tribes and teaching them about the Islamic religion that was kind of a mix of Christianity and Judaism. It’s crazy how this religion, even though it’s all false, can spread much quicker and unite tribes much more efficiently than Christianity ever did. If only Christianity could be the one world religion. Thanks for opening my eyes to this topic and for the great lectures and videos, Mr. Topalian!