Traditions of Islam Faith Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Traditions of Islam Faith - Essay Example In this way, a wider perspective can be achieved on what makes Islam a successful religion globally. Islam possesses a rich historical background. With this, one article presented various views on the origins of Islam: â€Å"secular perspective, according to Muslim community itself, and based from previous scripts† (â€Å"Origin of Islam - Quranic,† n.d.). In accordance with secular history, it disclosed that Islam started along the 7th century. It was created in Saudi Arabia by Muhammad in 610 A.D.--when he supposedly experienced a heavenly vision. On the other hand, the Muslims’ version asserts that Islam already existed prior to Muhammad’s angelic visitation and that even though this particular â€Å"prophet† dictates the Quran (their version of Holy Scripture); the said book was created first. Based on the scriptures, â€Å"Quran was given by God through the angel Gabriel to the prophet Muhammad.† Hence, the prophet more or less served as an instrument in the realization of Islam as a holy faith. On scriptural perspectives, several quot es from the Bible confirmed Islam’s origins. On the Catholic’s Holy Bible, it stated that God promised Sarah a child, but because of the delay, Sarah offered Hagar (servant) the chance to lay with her husband—an act in hope of the servant conceiving. Ishmael was later born. In later part of the story, Sarah gave birth to the â€Å"promise child†--Isaac. Isaac was the ascendant of Jesus Christ while Ishmael was Muhammad’s forefathers† (â€Å"Origin of Islam - Quranic,† n.d.). In this sense, there is a valid affirmation of the religion as based on man’s written scripts. Part of Islam’s creation, then, is attributed to Muhammad. He â€Å"lived from 570 to 632 CE† (Robinson, 2007). Islam was first established in Mecca, while Muhammad was â€Å"meditating alone inside a cave in the hills above Mecca† (â€Å"Origin of Islam,† n.d.). After that incident, it was set

The detective genre Essay Example for Free

The detective genre Essay During the era of Queen Victoria, when flickering gas lamps lit the squalid streets casting an eerie shadow, a soon to be well known compilation of stories belonging to Detective genre were being published. They were the first of their kind, and were created by Arthur Conan Doyle. His stories became so well known, that soon after writing his stories, Arthur Conan Doyle was knighted by Queen Victoria herself. Doyles stories called The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, became legendary, as Doyle had created an original fictional pipe-smoking character, called Sherlock Holmes, whose job, it was to solve crimes. This was ironic at the time, due to the simple fact, an infamous murderer, Jack the Ripper, was loose on the streets of London, attacking women. He knifed and ruthlessly murdered many prostitutes. Unfortunately, the police could not catch him and their methods were seen as inefficient. Conversely, when Sherlock Holmes, surfaced in 1887 many of the Victorians fell for the fictional character, as he became the perfect detective, by cracking every case bought to him. Many believe that Sherlock Holmes was the answer to their problems as many Victorians held a deep resentment towards the police, as they did not appear to be protecting the public. The time in which Doyle published his creations was very important to his great success, as the nation was developing and many more people were soon become wealthier. Furthermore, the introduction of compulsory schooling in the 1870 meant that many people soon became literate which meant even more Victorians had a great chance to read Doyles work. Also, as for the developing middle class, they had much more leisure time and more time to read, at free libraries as they were being established in many towns and cities in Britain. This offered more reading material to entertain the Victorians. These factors help Doyles success, and so did the use of forensic science. As forensic science was only just developing, Sherlock Holmes was the first fictional detective to use methods of finger printing. This he uses on many occasions, but in The Beryl Coronet one of Doyles most famous stories, he visits the crime scene and collects a set of fingerprints off the window seal. This is ironic because the police officers, which have already investigated the crime, do not collect a set of fingerprints. Due to their lack of expertise, the police arrests Arthur Holder, ironically, their judgement is flow, and with the help of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Holder is found to be innocent. Sherlock Holmes reassures the readers those crimes, can be solved and justice will be done. In effect this builds up the publics confidence in him. The Sherlock Holmes compilations are engaging to their audience as most of the stories include the main features necessary for detective fiction, which are: victims, suspects, villains, clues, red herrings and a detective. The detective has the most important role in the whole story, as it is him, who has to engage the readers to stay focused in the story line. In order for this to work the writer has to add mystery, confidence and intelligence to his character. Doyle in his creation of Sherlock Holmes uses his own medical knowledge and background to create such an extraordinary character like Holmes.

Continuing Male Dominance in Relationships :: Feminism Feminist Women Criticism

The issue of the supposed dominance of men over women in society has generated cemented opinions and heated controversy. Proponents of sexual equality point to the leveling of educational and vocational opportunities between the sexes as proof that women have become equals to men, such as the recent fad of working moms and stay-at-home dads. Moreover, they highlight the power and status of women in professional fields and government, such as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In addition, fans of female progress celebrate the successful establishment of women's sports leagues, such as the hyped WNBA, or Women's National Basketball Association, and the implementation of women's weightlifting in the Olympic Games on par with men. While advocates of women's power in society assert that the opportunity, status, and athletic parity available to women prove complete sexual equality, these arguments, while valid in some aspects, fail to analyze or take into account the balance of power in cross-sexual relationships. Although women may deserve and share equal roles with men in society, their accomplishments remain insubstantial because they have a right to the opportunities they take advantage of and the roles they occupy. Granted, as human beings women should possess the same rights that men do as a matter of fairness and justice. As a result, in society women deserve sexual equality. Nevertheless, justice or fairness of opportunity cannot govern the balance of power in relationships between men and women because these relationships are private and out of the reach of government, law, and probing society (except for celebrity unions decimated by The Inquirer). Therefore, progressive sexual equality has left these relationships untouched and undisturbed from their natural origins like technology has left the New Zealand aborigines unchanged. Thus, the presence of sexual equality represents a figurehead or inevitable truth given by men to women as part of a larger compromise that allows men to ret ain their superiority in relationships. Although society has reached an equilibrium concerning sexual differences, the scales of relationships between men and women tip themselves increasingly in the favor of men as they age. Starting from the days of childhood and adolescence, males begin to establish the upper hand in relationships with women. When a young group of neighborhood playmates converge, they never vote a girl as "captain" or "commander." In the movie The Little Rascals, for example, the young gang accepts the tough Spanky as their leader, not any of the girls.

Patriotism in the American Education System Essay

The debate regarding the education of our children has been going on since the institutionalization of education and will continue as long as we are a liberal democracy full of free thinking citizens. People will always have an opinion and we will, most likely, never be able to please every single person. William Galston and Robert Fullinwider are in full support of teaching a version of history that promotes patriotism and inspires those learning of it to feel a sense of pride and a duty to, in a sense, carry on the mission of the American heroes that have come before us and done great things in terms of the progress for our country. Harry Brighouse is quite different than Galston and Fullinwider in that he believes that by keeping the full truth, gruesome or not, from those that are being educated that we are doing a great disservice to them. I tend to side with Galston and Fullinwider with the feeling that our history needs to be taught in an inspiring sort of way. What benefit do we truly gain by teaching young Americans that yes, in fact, Martin Luther King, Jr. was a great American whose work during the Civil Rights Movement was essential to where we have progressed to as a society today, but he was also an adulterer and plagiarist? By revealing the holes in an American hero’s character we are diminishing his greatness and his impact on the people that have learned of his story years and years after he made such a monumental impact on our country and the progress to end segregation. The gain from sharing that knowledge is extremely minimal compared to the damage it does to the credibility of his work that he is truly known and greatly respected for. It is much simpler and much more productive to producing patriotic citizens if we leave certain, inconsequential parts of the story out. This doesn’t mean we lie to anyone, we simply tell the part of the story that generates the desired feelings of national pride and/or patriotism while instilling the necessary knowledge to generations that will move forward to produce similar greatness, or as Fullinwider puts it, â€Å"historical knowledge contributes to citizenship, and thus â€Å"nation-building,†Ã¢â‚¬  (Fullinwider, 1996, pg. 204). Harry Brighouse is of the belief that by shielding any tiny bit of the truth from children as we educate them we are doing a lot more harm than good to them. He argues that children should be exposed to the entire truth regardless of the negative light that may be revealed of anyone involved, â€Å"American hero† or otherwise. Brighouse feels that it is the responsibility of an educational system to expose kids to as much factual information as we can and allow them the freedom to choose what they will believe and what will inspire them both in the present and the future. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. sides with Brighouse and establishes that argument that â€Å"writing or teaching history as a means of ‘defining national identity’ turns history ‘into a weapon’,† (Schlesinger, 1999, pg 37). Both Schlesinger and Brighouse would argue that history should never change, all the facts should be laid out on the table and nothing should be held back, because, if we make the decision to hold something out of curriculum, who makes that decision and what qualifies as unnecessary? Schlesinger and Brighouse’s argument centers on the main idea that educators do not have the right to manipulate history. Schlesinger goes in depth in his writings in The Disuniting of America that certain false views of history are wrong, but even dangerous for citizens to be exposed to. He claims that, â€Å"the proper account of our past strengthens the â€Å"common purpose† that holds us together. It reinvigorates the American Creed,† (Schlesinger, 1990, pg. 37). Galston and Fullinwider are on the other side of the argument, they believe that educators should teach history in such a way that instills national pride and creates informed, proud American citizens. Fullinwider calls this type of history â€Å"patriotic history.† He believes that this sort of education will inform, of course, but more importantly will establish a system of values that, in the end, will create citizens. Both Galston and Fullinwider argue for a type of history that they refer to as a â€Å"usable past.† A usable past is one that informs citizens and institutes a willingness to â€Å"make the sacrifices necessary to support and improve the nation’s political institutions,† (Fullinwider, 1996, pg. 207). Truth of the matter, like in the case of the exclusion of facts regarding Martin Luther King, Jr. unfavorable personal lifestyle during the telling of his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, is that not all men who do great things are great men of high character. In some cases, inclusion of all the facts does nothing to diminish any greatness and may, in fact, create a greater sense of the ability for one single person to make a great impact regardless of any shortcomings they may have. On the other, if all the details are not necessary then why include them? Why would we make a hero less of a hero by revealing the unnecessary truth? Facts that bind the entire story together should never be omitted. Galston and Fullinwider believe in, and support, an education that promotes national pride. They are all for a patriot history, because we will then instill the idea and sense of responsibility in young Americans that they should carry the torch, so to speak, and continue to build upon the greatness that is America. Fullinwider concludes that the purpose of teaching a patriotic history â€Å"is to help students â€Å"develop a keen sense of ethics and citizenship,† so that they might â€Å"care deeply about the quality of life in their co mmunity, their nation, and their world,† (Fullinwider, 1996, pg. 222). In Patriotic History, Fullinwider argues against Schlesinger’s point for the â€Å"nothing left out† type of historical education, by saying the Schlesinger is intending to make history seem very precise and when that becomes the case we’re leaving it up to what truth the educator believes in. Fullinwider goes even further in his argument against Schlesinger’s writing by claiming that Schlesinger’s book The Disuniting of America is, in fact itself, purely history told for effect without the intention to simply inform, but rather to draw out and strengthen commitments to national unity (pg. 210). The presentation of history is storytelling and storytelling must come from a particular point of view. Historical education may never be 100% accurate because we’ll never truly know the intentions or finer details from all the angles or perspectives of each event. Somebody has to tell the story to present the history, but it will always come from a l imited point of view. It is the duty of the educational systems to determine which point of view the story should come from and this is where I agree more with Galston and Fullinwider; before we, as an educational system, decide what we want taught to our citizens, we need to decide what we hope listeners or those being educated should get out of the experience. Like Galston and Fullinwider, I think it is in the best interest for our country to try and promote patriotism and pride in being an American. The responsibility of shaping and molding upstanding, progressive citizens falls on the shoulders of our educational systems as well as public institutions and they both must come together to determine what is best for the development of our nation. Within that responsibility lays the decision of what aspects of history we will teach our young students. For me, it comes down to favoring civic education over philosophic education. I’d rather the goal of our educational programs be to pass along the knowledge necessary to create individuals that feel a loyalty and responsibility to do something great for their country, whether that be along the lines of being a great American hero like Martin Luther King, Jr. or simply by being a consistent, educated, responsible American citizen capable of supporting and functioning within our democracy. I disagree with the argument that by teaching a certain version of history we are limiting a child’s autonomy. We are not enforcing any beliefs or completely eliminating any bit of history, we are simply fostering an environment that will produce good and loyal citizens. Agreeing to tell a story (teaching history) a certain way does not mean we are telling people how to think; quite the opposite. We are inspiring greatness and allowing people to be free thinking and promoting the idea that anyone, common, uncommon and anywhere in between, can make a great impact that will last forever. The argument that exists between the Galston/Fullinwider side of teaching a patriotic history and the Brighouse/Schlesinger side of giving the whole â€Å"truth† regardless of degrading details just muddies the argument that we should really be having: What do we hope to get out of those that are being taught this history? When we look at that question we will be able to work together to find a solution. We could go on forever, just like this argument already has, debating what story to tell and from which perspective, but that, ultimately, gets us nowhere. Lets agree to teach from a perspective of â€Å"nation building† that Galston and Fullinwider promote and continue to develop as a country. Bibliography Fullinwider, R. (1996). Patriotic History. Cambridge University Press, pages 203-225. Galston, W. (1991). Civic Education in the Liberal State. Cambridge University Press, pages 470-478. Schlesinger, Jr., A. (1999). The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society. W. W. Norton & Company, pages 12-37.

Dakota Office Products Case Essay

1 Dakota current allocates warehousing, distribution and order entry cost equally to each customer. DOP’s pricing system is generally independent of the specific level of service provided for customers. They just chose a single cost drive. However, it’s not believable and proper to use this simple method to analyze costs when costs are more complex. So we need to use activity-based cost system to chose different cost drives and allocate costs based on the activity. 2 We identify four different activities for all costs, order handling cost, ship carton cost or normal commercial shipment cost, desktop delivery cost, and order processing cost. As we noticed, the distribution center team reported 90% of their workers proceed carton in and out of facility. So, the total cost for order handling is $4,160,000, which is the sum of 90% of warehouse personnel expense and warehouse expenses (excluding personnel). This cost only depends on the number of cartons moved in and out of storage. So the total handling cost need to be allocated by the number of cartons processed in year 2000, which is 80,000 cartons. Then we get the overhead rate for handling cost that is $52.00 per carton. We only have the freight cost that is associated with normal shipment. We divide total cost $450,000 by the number of carton shipped only through normal shipment, which is 750,000 cartons. Then, we get the overhead rate for ship carton, which is $6.00 per carton. We also have desktop deliver option for customer. The total cost for 2000 delivers during 2012 is the sum of 10% of warehouse personnel expense and delivery truck expenses, which is $440,000. The overhead rate for desktop deliver is $220 per deliver. As order processing cost, we use weight average method, based on the hour used to divide this cost into three part, manual order limitation, line times manual order and EDI checks. We calculate total cost for manual order limitation $160,000 and it had 16,000 orders. So the overhead rate for manual order limitation is $10 per order. Total cost for line items is $600,000 and it had total 150,000 lines. The overhead rate for line item is $4 per line item. Total cost for EDI checks is 400,000 and it had 8,000 checks. The overhead rate for EDI check is $ 50 per order. 3 According to the Exhibit 3, we find the number of each activity provided to customers A and B during year 2000. We use these number multiplies each overhead rate to get overhead costs for each activity. For customer A, we have gross margin $18,000 and other costs including, order handing cost $10,400, ship carton cost $1,200, manual order cost $60, line items $240, and EDI orders cost $300. Customer A also has interest expense based on his average accounts receivable within 30 days, which is $9,000 and annual interest rate is 10%. Therefore, the interest expense for customer A is $75. We use gross margin $18,000 subtracts total other cost including interest expense $12,275 to get profit for customer A, which is $5,725. We use the same method to get gross margin for customer B is $19,000 and total other cost including interest expense is $19,020. So customer B loses $20. 4 Customer A use normal shipment and most of orders are EDI orders. These two could save more spend and is more profitable for the company. However, customer B have 25 desktop deliveries. This cost is about 6.47% of cost of items purchased. Also, customer B uses traditional manual order and manual line items order that cost more. Additionally, interest expense for customer B is also very higher because of his payments always after 90 days with a higher payment amount. Total other cost for customer B is 1.55 times of customer A. Therefore, customer A is more profitable and customer B loses $20. 5 and 6 The only limitation for customer A is manual order and line items. We suggest customer A use EDI orders instead of these two. It could save cost and make more profit. For customer B, the cost for desktop deliveries is very high and customer B use traditional manual order entry without EDI. It costs a lot for customer B. We recommend customer B decrease the desktop deliveries or increase the price for desktop deliveries to cover the cost. We also suggest customer B switch traditional manual order entry and line items to EDI orders. This technology would help save cost and be more profitable for custer A and B. 7 Under activity-based costing, we allocate all costs into different  activity. So, we could easily see the cost for each activity related to our cost of items purchased. We can figure out which activity is more costing and take control this cost to increase our profit. 8 If a major customer switches from placing all its orders manually to placing all its orders over the internet site, we will spend more workers’ hour on EDI checks. We use weight-average method to allocate order entry expenses into three activities, manual order, line items, and EDI checks. So, the expenses for manual order and line items could be decrease and expenses for EDI checks increases. We need to recalculate the overhead rate for both three activities. Additionally, the cost for EDI checks is more cheaper than the other two. So, if a major customer places all order over internet site, it would save cost and make more profit for company.