Essay writing

So far, you have been learning about Islam and Muslims by reading articles, viewing multimedia clips, and virtually attending/listening to class lectures. They were mostly selected to you by your professor. It is now time for you to dig deeper and have a first hand encounter with members of the Muslim community around YOU. Due to COVID-19 and the potential difficulty to meet a Muslim, you may choose an alternative assignment where YOU explore / discover a Muslim country of YOUR choice.

There are several deliverables (stages) for this assignment. 

Stage 1 (10 points): DUE by Saturday October 17:

Select Your Option (Choose ONLY ONE option): Please know that both options are the same length and require the same amount of work.

OPTION A: Interview a Muslim (see instructions section below for more details)  

OPTION B: Explore job opportunities and touristic landmarks in the Muslim world (see instructions section below for more details) 

For option A, do the following:

a-Please identify the person you will be interviewing: i.e., what is his/her/their name? (1 sentence)

b-Please state how you contacted him/her/them (friend of yours, an acquaintance, referral, a neighbor, at work, etc.) (1-3 sentences)

c-Please write the date upon which the interview with that person will take place and how you plan to conduct the interview (meeting physically or by video chatting)? (1-2 sentence)

For option B, do the following:

a-Please identify the country you would like to explore - It has to be a country where the population is 50% or more Muslims (1 sentence)

b-State why you chose this country among so many other choices. (2-3 sentences)

Stage 2 (30 points): Due by Saturday October 31

For Option A or Option B:

Please have most of the interview completed or country exploration done but not necessarily completed Upload notes/draft, even if they were handwritten or a screen shot of a video (not the entire video). This is not your final version. Just a draft.

Stage 3 (60 points): Due by Saturday November 21

(10 extra credit points given if stage 3 is turned in by on or before Saturday November 14)

Turn in your final version in Stage 3. 

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS

Formatting: There is no particular format for your assignment. Use any style you want. Just make it simple and clear.

Usually, you would stay: Option A, Q1 ...., A, Answer 1, then, Q2 ... Answer 2 ....

Mechanics of Submission: Once you post your First Stage on Blackboard, click "submit". DON'T click "Save as Draft" because I cannot grade it/ view it when it is a draft. Your second, and third stages will need to be added on the same journal. You can resubmit. Don't add them as a comment. Just resubmit. Please don't submit your work as attachment. Post them directly as journal entries. 

If you finish a stage ahead of its deadline, you may post it earlier. Please identify each stage at the top of your journal entry/comment. For example, if you complete all three stages by the deadline of the first stage, post all three stages in one shot with one title: Stages 1, 2, and 3. That way, you will get an automatic 100 points instead of three separate 10 + 30 + 60.

Missing a deadline: Missing a deadline makes you miss the points for that particular stage permanently. Please pay particular attention to the due dates of each of the four assignment stages.

Type or Attach: Please type or copy/paste your work directly online. Don't attach a Word of PDF file.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR OPTION A: MEET A MUSLIM

There are many Muslims (native to the U.S., children of immigrants, and foreign born studying here) who attend our campus. There are also many more Muslims who live in our community. You can locate them in many places. Those who live here own a variety of businesses, they work in the health care, tourism, educational, banking, service, agricultural and other fields.

(Attention: If you are Muslim, you have to meet and interview someone from a different belief system: a Christian, a Jewish, a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Sikh, etc. and even Atheist or Agnostic, but if you are NOT a Muslim, you have to interview a Muslim.)

As you meet the person you are interviewing, answer the following questions:

1-What is his/her/their background (name, age, profession, origins)? Is he/she/they a recent immigrant, the son/daughter of an immigrant, are his/her/their parents natives to the U.S., or is he/she/they a convert to Islam? (100-150 words )

2-How does he/she/they go about practicing his/her/their religion in the U.S.? Is it easy? challenging? unique in any particular way?  (150--200 words)

3-What are his/her/their aspirations? In YOUR opinion, are they any different from those who are Americans of different faiths or those who don't affiliate themselves with any particular faith?  (150-200 words)

4-What are his/her/their greatest fears? Does he/she/they worry about the political climate in the U.S.?  (100-200 words)

5-Has that person faced any religious or ethnic based discrimination or bullying? If so, how did he/she/they deal with them?  If not him/her/they, does he/she/they know any of his/her/their Muslim friends who experienced discrimination or bullying? What was the nature of the bullying/discrimination? (100-200 words)

6-If he/she/they or one of his/her/their family/friends had faced religious discrimination, has he/she/they ever reported it to a-his/her/their family, b-to his/her/their administrators (at school or work place) and/or c-official authority (police, FBI, civil rights group, etc.) If yes, how did he/she/they go about it. If not, why didn't he/she/they report the incident? (100-150 words)

7-What did you learn from this interview? Did it affect you in any way? Is there any reflection you would like to share? (300 words)

Occasionally, you may find that you couldn't answer a particular question in more than 50-100 words. If this happens, it is not a problem, just expand your answer in another question, however, your TOTAL interview assignment should be around 1,200 words. Please write the total number of words at the top of your paper in stage 3. If you choose to include the questions in your paper, please don't add them to the total word count.

Occasionally, you may end up interviewing someone who is not 18 years old yet. If that is the case, please make sure to receive his/her/their parents'/guardian's consent to the interview first.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR OPTION B: EXPLORE A MUSLIM COUNTRY

Your very dear friend just got a job in ..... (A MUSLIM COUNTRY OF YOUR CHOICE). He/She wants you to come visit and potentially seek a job in the region because there are many job opportunities for Americans companies conducting business there. You are unsure about the idea but since you have a break at Cal State or graduating soon and have some time off, you decided to go visit for two weeks. Prior to visiting, you did some research and found some short tourism / news / business clips about YOUR COUNTRY OF CHOICE in addition to some job opportunities:

Write a short (approximately 1,200 words) exploration AND reflection answering the following: 

EXPLORATION (600 words)

1-Identify three job opportunities in that region (such as United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Morocco, etc.) RELATED to your major (briefly describe each one with salaries, benefits, and responsibilities) - The job must be current listing or within the past 12 months) (200-300 words)

2-Identify three touristic sites you would like to visit in the country above and why you chose them ahead of other sites (300-400 words)

(Please add the links from the websites you found, however, don't count linked addresses as part of your word expectation) 

REFLECTION (600 words)

1-Write three considerations that make you want to accept a job there (300 words) 

2-Write three considerations that make you want to turn down a job there (300 words)

If you are a student in class from that country, then, choose three jobs and touristic sites from another country.