The
Ka'aba and the Haram in Mecca.
Center for Middle
Eastern Studies - University of California - Berkeley
Dr.
Laurence Michalak
Slide
Exercise:
Three
Monotheistic Religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam
Objectives:
This exercise is intended in part to communicate information about the three major monotheistic religions of the Middle East--Judaism, Christianity and Islam--about beliefs, events, symbols, institutions and practices important to the three religions. The main purpose, however, is to impress upon the students the many things that these three religions have in common, as well as their differences, which should lead to greater understanding and respect for other beliefs. Teachers may go straight to the slide show with identifications as a basis for discussion or they can follow the suggested activity below.
For some brief background on monotheism see also the PBS Global Connections page "Three Religions; One God" at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/globalconnections/mideast/themes/religion/index.html
Procedure:
Students number a page from one to twenty.
The Slide Show: The teacher show twenty slides and asks the student to associate each slide with one or more of the three major religion of the Middle East--Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, abbreviated J,C, and I for brevity. The teacher can show the first slide as an example, noting that the students should write I for "Islam", because the slide shows the Ka'aba at Mecca. For this first run through the slide show students will be looking for visual clues and guessing.
Slide Identifications: Afterwards, the teacher goes over the slides again with the students, asking what associations they had with each slide and why, and providing the information that goes with the slides.(text only version)
Many of the students will be familiar with their own religions but will not realize the things they share with other religions: for example, the Christian students may be surprised to find that the Last Supper was a Passover Seder. The teacher should emphasize these things that the three religions have in common and that it should not be surprising that they have a lot in common since, after all, they arose in the same part of the world at different times, and each religion incorporates things that antedate it.
Pictures
from the Slide Show:
click on the
pictures to enlarge them
The
Ka'aba and the Haram in Mecca.
Bar
Mitzvah, ceremony at age 13 which marks the attaining of religious majority.
An
Icon for Orthodox or Eastern Christians.
The
name of the Prophet, Mohammed, in Kufic syle Arabic script.
God
hovers above Creation, 15th Century Italian painting by Giovanni di Paolo.
1965 photograph of Jerusalem.
Eastern Islamic manuscript showing Adam and Eve.
Ark made in India around 1900.
The
interior of the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia, Central Africa.
A
Muslim circumcision in an Arab refugee settlement near Bethany, Jordan.
An
Eastern Islamic representation of the sacrifice of Abraham.
A
festival of an Islamic holy man, or wail, in rural Tunisia, North Africa.
A
Torah scroll inside an Ark at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.
A
piece of silver jewelry from Tunisia, North Africa, worn by Muslim women
to hold their dress up.
The
Garden Tomb, outside the present walls of Jerusalem.
A
scene in an Israeli synagogue for Sephardic (non-European) Jews, who have
come to Israel from many lands.
Mid-19th century engraving showing the interior of Santa Sophia.
A
painting of the Last Supper by an Italian painter, Tintoretto from Venice,
done around 1593.
A
Passover Seder meal.
A Maronite First Communion in Batroun, in Central coastal Lebanon.
