Reflection On "International Politics of the Middle East" Course

     

   I thoroughly enjoyed this course because of the ways that it challenged me to see connections between my life in the U.S, and a region that I knew absolutely nothing about prior to this course. As the semester went on I began to see similarities amongst certain themes discussed in this course especially when discussing the different ideologies and different forms of pride that people have, ethnically, culturally nationally etc.As I reflected on this course I thought about the fact that throughout my entire educational career prior to undergraduate school Ive never been taught even a section of history about the middle east. In history courses in grade school it was a requirement to learn the countries of each continent, however I vividly remember that the farthest country that we had to memorize on the map of Asia was India.Also, when learning about Africa it was never mentioned that northern states are included as a part of the middle east.As bad as it may sound, when thinking about  the middle east before taking this course I could have only named a few countries in this region and the first that would have come to mind immediately were always Iran and Iraq. This made me consider how Ive been taught to think of this region with such a closed mindset, with the majority of my knowledge of this area revolving around 911.
       My biggest take away from this course is the importance of taking responsibility to educate yourself on place and people that are different from yourself.Ive also developed a better appreciation for other cultures.I think the different ideologies of identity make this region very unique. Personally, I don't consider my national identity, political identity, religious identity. If a person asks how I identity, I automatically would state that I am Black/African American. It would be interesting to consider the idea that my most important identity could be other aspects of my personal identity such as catholic, American or Democratic. I think that having these different identities but stressing importance on which one is most valued by different people allows for a strong sense of appreciation that gives people a different sense of respect and love for the bond shared amongst people with the same identification. Although this may cause conflict at times I think there is beauty in belief, whether that is Arab, sunni muslim or Shi'ite muslim,  I have much appreciation for the dedication and value that individuals in the Middle East tend to have for their identities.

Image 1 Citation:Atrantham Follow. (2015) “Nationalism and National Identity.” LinkedIn SlideShare, www.slideshare.net/atrantham/nationalism-and-national-identity.