11/30/11

An article on the Huffington Post about Facebook and Twitter and how they might effect Islam. The article talks about how Facebook could be a problem because of the freedom of speech is much greater on Facebook then really allowed in Muslim countries. The article also brings up the fact that people waste lots of time on the internet. To me this reminds me of social networking and the Arab Spring. Because of the internet and access to it, people were able to get their word out more and tell people outside of the country what was going on. In this case it was good for the people in that country to let the world what was going on. It got them outside help and awareness. I'm not sure if that is what Islam needs, but I can see Facebook and Twitter as a way to help in a way. So they can share their ideas and let the world know that not all of them are terrorist. Let people know what Islam is all about. It could be  a good thing, you never know. But it could also lead to bad things for the Muslim community. With the internet developing so fast, who knows what can happen, good or bad. We just will have to wait and see.

11/29/11

An article in the Islam Tribune tells readers about Iran and their plan to seal off eastern borders to Afghanistan and Pakistan by 2015. The reason for sealing the boarder is drug trafficking. No one will be allowed to cross these borders, not even pedestrians. The majority of the border, about 90%, is already sealed. The plan is to finish the last 10% in three years. "In early 1990, Iran began to build a "wall" to seal its approximately 1,800 kilometre-long (1,100 mile) border with its neighbours to control drug trafficking and infiltration of armed rebel groups or bandits." There has been a long battle with drug traffickers and many of Iran's security forces have been killed in the process. Hopefully this wall will help improve the drug situation. I think it is crazy for countries to be building tall walls to keep people from going in our out. There must be a better way. Walls are probably not aesthetically pleasing and just make the area around the wall ugly. I think this is an extreme way to handle things. But many people around the world are doing this to their borders.

11/28/11

An article in the Huffington Post, What do Muslim Women do for Fun? This title really caught my eye. Yes, I do really wonder what Muslim women do for fun. The little caption underneath says espically women who wear a veil. When a women is wearing a veil it is hard to really know ones identity underneath that veil. usually these veils are plain and black. It really takes away ones identity and personal likes, dislikes and anything else you  can tell from what a person wears, says or does. Some of the things the Muslim women asked said was cooking, hanging out with friends and family, going to the park, read, etc. Yes, these are normal women, but it is just so hard to imagine that with a veil covering up so much of ones self. Some quotes fro the women: "Sahar (32, NY): I love to get pedicures, go on sushi dates with my best friend and love to bake cakes!!" "Hebatallah (28, Wash.): Spending family time in the park, reading novels; volunteering to help the environment as much as possible; and enjoying a good laugh :)"

11/16/11

I found an article in the Huffington Post about a Tennessee State Representative that said that Allah was not the real God.
CLIFTON: "Sorry, you said Allah is a false God?"
WOMICH: "Yep, absolutely. Absolutely he’s a false God. There’s only one God: Jehovah. And the son, Christ Jesus who died on the Cross. Now because I believe that, I have a Fatwa on my head. I will never convert to Islam. Allah is not a real God." Is what he responded.
I think it is okay to not believe in Allah or certain God's but to say it our loud in a crowd of people especially if you are a public figure is not the place to state your opinions. He needs to put his opinions aside in the public view about Muslims. They probably don't relate to him and his job politically to say that he Allah is a false God.

11/15/11

In the ABC special we watched yesterday in class it talked about the Hajj. I learned a lot of things about the Hajj. Only Muslims are allowed to go there and if you are not a Muslim you are not allowed there. In the special we saw it showed us video footage of all the steps that you have to take for the Hajj. First they had to wash themselves and wear special clothes. Then I saw an image of the Mosque. It was beautiful and extremely big. I had never seen it before and I have never seen something so extravagant. It was amazing. There were so many people there it was unbelievable. I love how so many people gather in one place to do the same thing, pray to God. After they did all their rituals at the Mosque they moved on to walk. They walked very far, and the reporter said it was 90 degrees out. That is insane. Then they came back to Mecca and walked more around the Kablah in the Mosque. I thought this was a great video to see. It really captured my attention and gave me a better understanding to what the Hajj really entails. It gave me a perspective I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. This seems like an amazing and crazy experience.

11/14/11

Professor Valeta showed us a video clip a while back about a Muslim reality show. I'm not really quite sure what to think of it. It could be a good thing that people are seeing what is happening in Muslim houses and kind of turns away from the bigger picture Americans usually get of Muslims, such as terrorist and being afraid and not understanding their culture. This show could get out what really happens in Muslim life other then what we see on news, which is mainly bad stuff. This show could show good stuff. But on the other hand it is a reality show, which usually aren't that good or promote positive views about who is on them. Most reality TV shows that are on air right now show the people on them in a negative light. So this show could also be bad for Muslims. I haven't seen the show so I'm not sure how or what direction it will go. I think it has potential to be good, it just depends on how the TV channel wants to show these people. I hope it goes in a positive direction.

11/9/11

There is conflict in Syria about their opposition leaders who came to meet the Arab League secretary-general. A bunch of demonstrators were there and threw eggs at them. People in Syria are angry at the government they want change and military action. The opposition members are not asking for this so people are angry. I'm not really up to date with what is happening in Syria but from this article people are upset. This goes along with the Arab Spring, and goes along with what is happening in Liyba and Egypt and other countries in the Middle East. Although a quote in the article talks about how Syria's situation is not the same as Libya's. '"The Syrian case is not similar to that of Libya," Salem said, explaining that the Arab League has not been seen as exerting the same amount of pressure as it did during the case of Libya.' Details about what is happening isn't really clear in this article, but I hope leaders of Syria start to listen to their people. I'm not sure how strict of a county Syria is compared to others in the Middle East but they seem to be in a similar situation of anger at the government.

11/8/11

I will probably be getting all my Islamic news from the Aljazeera English website because I find that the most reliable news source for anything happening in the Middle East. I found a news article about a bus in Egypt crashing. Tourists from Hungary were killed and injured. The bus driver lost control of the bus because it was going at a very high speed. "The accident happened on the first day of Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, or Feast of the Sacrifice, when many Egyptians and tourists head to Red Sea resorts for vacation." I'm not sure what race/ethnicity the bus driver was but I'm sure it was an accident. I looked more into the holiday Eid al-Adah. The prophet Abraham was asked by God to give him his son. They sacrifice a cow or a ram and the meat is given away to others. "One-third is eaten by immediate family and relatives, one-third is given away to friends, and one-third is donated to the poor." my article about Eid al-Adha states. It is a happy time for Muslims. For many families it is one of the few times they get to have meat.

11/7/11

An article in the Huffington Post talks about Muslims in Libya starting their Hajj near Mecca. They wear white robes to symbolize purity and equality under God. "started at dawn to ascend the Mountain of Mercy at Arafat, 12 miles (19 kilometers) outside Mecca, where Islam's Prophet Muhammad is said to have delivered his farewell sermon." they walk very far and start at a very important place. People who go pray for peace and to atton for their sins. Many people cannot go on their Hajj because of the uprising in some of the Middle Eastern countries. People celebrated at a Libyan tent camp because of the downfall of Gadhafi. Hajj seems like a very interesting and liberated experience and important to Muslims.

11/2/11

An article in the Huffington Post talks about Islamic Art Galleries Reopening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Navina Haidar the artist is very excited an nervous as people enter her galleries. I just wanted to post some of the art she has done because it is very beautiful. 

11/1/11

An article in the Christian Post about girl scouts being pro-life. The article is called Girl Scouts Convention Has Pro-Abortion, Ultra-Feminist Agenda, Say Ex-Members. The article then goes on to talk about this girl scout convention that has pro-life views and how parents are upset that these girls are hearing about these things. Girls scouts is suppose to be neutral on these issues such as abortion and gay marriage. 'They claim to be somewhat neutral on these issues, but the facts reveal a totally different story,” she said. “They promote things that we as Christians do not teach.”' I think girl scouts should be neutral on these topics and need to work harder to achieve those goals. If it is only in the convention that they are hearing these things then whoever is leading the convention needs to work on cleaning up their programing and what they are teaching to these girl scouts. If it is in a problem with the whole girl scouts of America program then someone needs to take over and fix it. All these girls shouldn't be forced to see something a certain way. They should have time to learn about the issues and choose for themselves.

10/31/11

Today is Halloween, so again I am going to bring up the topic of Christians and their conflict with Halloween. In an article in the Huffington Post, Jesus Likes Halloween a Little Bit, Doesn't He? This article goes on to talk about how Halloween is like the Devil's birthday according to some Christians. The article also talks about how there are many Christians who are big fans of shows like the Walking Dead or Zombie like books. To me this all seems a little rediculous if Christian parents don't like or let their kids participate in Halloween, or maybe they just disagree with it but let their kids participate anyways. But not letting you kid participate in a national American holiday to dress up, have fun and get candy is mean. But they may have a point or a reasonable point to not liking Halloween, I just haven't seen it yet.

10/26/11

An article on the website Christian Telegraph called Study: Gas can Change Sexual Orientation, was talking about a study they did with 61 people and over seven years 23% of them reported that they changed sexual orientation. "The longitudinal study followed 61 subjects for between six and seven years and found that 23 percent of them reported successful conversion to heterosexual orientation and function and another 30 percent reported stable behavioral chastity with a significant dis-identification with gay orientation. Twenty percent of the subjects had given up and embraced a gay identity." This quote talks about in details the results of the study. I find this absolute ridiculous that this is news and people did studies on this. Maybe the people were faking just to give the researches what they wanted, but that this is proven and consider a real study is unbelievable. This is a shocking news article and yes it was found in a Christian website. So it seems they are trying to plant ideas in peoples mind that isn't true or proven in any other sort of way. It is interesting the things and news items you find on Christian websites.

10/25/11

I found an article about sex ed in New York City's public schools. Although this isn't specifically about Christians, it can relate. This article, Mandatory Sex Ed Details May Be Too Racy for Parents, talked about the sex ed that was going to be taught in the middle school. Parents were concerned because they thought it was too much. Parents were told about the program, 'When given details of the new programs, one Manhattan mom -- who has a child in middle-school -- was surprised."I didn't know how much detail they would get," she said.' I think it is good that they have lots of detail in sex ed. I know a belief in some Christians is that teaching about abstinence is the best way for teens to not have sex, but it is shown that abstinence is actually very ineffective and often there are more teens having unsafe sex and ending up in bad situations such as pregnant or with an STI. At my high school we had a free health center that had free pretty much anything you can think of related to sex or physical or mental health.  Free condoms, free birth control, free morning after pills, free HIV testing. My school is 3,400 and in my four years I have only seen 2 pregnancy people at our school. I think it is a much better idea to teach everything you can about sex so teen are more prepared and understand what is going on. It is proven to work.

10/24/11

I found an article that talked about occupy Wall Street and they talked about it in a new way I haven't thought of or seen before. They brought Jesus into occupy Wall Street. The title of the article was Would Jesus Side with the Wall Street Protesters? That is a good question for Christians to ask. The article talked about how Jesus would side with the Wall Street protesters because it was helping the poor. I think that what is happening on Wall Street should have happened along time ago and I'm glad people are finally realizing what our government and big corporations are doing to us. I cannot see Jesus siding with them because they are doing corrupt and wrong things. They are stealing money and hurting a lot of people. Although I am not Christian I think that Jesus would be siding with the Wall Street protesters because Christians help people who are in trouble or need of help. "Now, Rev. Wallis has spoken out about the Occupy Wall Street protesters, saying that they are siding with Jesus on behalf of the poor." Is a quote from the article talking about Jesus wanting to help the poor.

10/19/11

Today in class we watched the movie Jesus Camp. I thought it was interesting and also a bit disturbing. They seemed really intense and a bit too much for me. I think it is okay to be religious but it is a bit extreme when it is like how the movie portrayed it. I was sitting next to my friend in class and after class she said she was really angry about how they portrayed Christians. She was saying that all Christians aren't like that and that this movie portrayed them badly. Like they were pushing and crazy. Seeing this movie was shocking to me because it is so crazy in my mind that people are so strongly against evolution and won't let their kids read stuff like Harry Potter because wizards are the devils work. I know it is religion and people strongly believe in it, but it is just so crazy to me. It seems unreal that these people are pushing these idea's on their children and the children seem to be the strongest believers. To me this was all very sad, but that is how some other people are.

10/18/11

There is dispute about a huge cross in San Diego that was put up in 1954 to honor veterans of the Korean War. Some people want the cross removed because it is unconstitutional, while others want it to stay because it is part of the community and has been there already for so long. It is a religious symbol and it is on public land. I agree that it shouldn't really be there. We are the United States and have separation of church and state. I think that it is important to keep that. I think that some church or some religious group could buy it and put it up somewhere else that isn't public land. This article was in the news of CBN. There was also a new report and people were interviewed. They showed people on the side of wanting to keep it there, but they didn't represent the other side. I think that is upsetting, I would like to hear what both sides have to say about this issue.

10/17/11

I read an article in the Hufffington Post about Christians and Halloween. It brought up the fact that some parents didn't like the idea of their children dressing up as the devil and such. "It's a question that comes up every year for Christians who get 'spooked' by the idea of their children dressing up as devils, downing candy and visiting haunted houses with witches, axe-murderers and spirits flying through the sky." I never really have thought of this before, Christians not liking the idea of Halloween. I feel that it shouldn't really be a big deal, it is a day for children to have fun. There shouldn't really be question of deeper meaning behind it. I hope not too many of children's parents are making a big deal of it and are just letting the kids enjoy the holiday.

10/12/11

I found an article online, Small Church Asks Supreme Court a Bit Question: Can Churches Worship in Public Schools? And my initial reaction to just reading the headline is no way. The United States is built off separation of church and state. What would make you think that you could worship in public schools. Where have you been since America adopted this law. And why now all of a sudden want to try to worship in public schools. Then I started reading the article and it talks about worship services being held in public schools not so much with the students. They give the schools a small sum of money to have these services there. The issue here was that New York's rent is so high it is hard for churches to gather the money to get a house of worship. "Schools should be open to any religion," Hall told CP. "If you're going to rent out a school, don't single out a religion," is a quote from the article. If that is the case where any and everyone was renting out schools for services that would be okay in my mind. As long as they didn't keep things of their religion permanently in the school, they were just there for the cermemoy. As long as it wasn't during school hours and people who didn't want to be there from the school didn't have to be. As long as this was totally separate from the actual school and they were just using the school as a building, I think it would be okay. As long as it wasn't biased to any religion.

10/11/11

In Egypt there was protesting. There ended up being deaths. I'm not quite sure why they were protesting in Egypt but it was Christian protesters. The article talks about Islamic groups throwing rocks and beating protesters. I guess there seems to be conflict between Islamic groups and Christian groups in Egypt right now. It is so sad to see religious groups fighting. I feel like in each of these religions peace and doing good for others is a big thing. But when it comes to others beliefs they hate on the other and it turns into a battle. Religions should just not be concerned with other religions. People in one religious group should just stick to their beliefs and not worry about other people. In this world people have many different beliefs and thoughts. Not everyone is going to think in the same way as you and you can't expect them to. Respect others for their beliefs and if you don't agree with them then leave them alone. Don't fight over it.

10/10/11

Professor Valeta showed us this article in the beginning of class so I decided to write in my blog about it. It is interesting how the article talks about women actually being important and being needed in roles in the church. But there are so many places in the Bible where women are considered unimportant and are looked down upon. I think that there are more bad roles for women then good. We live in a Patriarchal society and of course men are always looked upon as more important, better or smarter then women will ever be. This article didn't really give too many really good examples. The article states, "Yet while Luke and Acts call attention to these significant women, they do not fulfill roles of authorized leadership in the movement" I agree with that. They talk about the women but they are not doing much of anything significant.

10/5/11

I found an article in the Christian Post about the National Cathedral. There was an earthquake and the cathedral was damaged and closed. To repair the National Cathedral it cost around $25 million dollars. From the picture of the cathedral in the article, it is beautiful, I think the cost of repair is ridiculous. It is a shame how money is used around here. $25 million dollars are going to repair a cathedral, and yes it is the National Cathedral, still all that money could be going to some helping cause. The earthquake sounded scary. "Three of the four spires of the gothic cathedral’s central tower were damaged in the quake’s wrath. In addition to the spires, there were major cracks in the building’s structure and the intricate stonework was shaken loose. Small pieces of mortar fell from the 100-foot high ceiling, as a result of the earthquake." This quote tells us the damages done. I hope no one was in the cathedral when this happened. It took a many decades to finish this cathedral in the first place and I hope they finish it with as little cost as they can.

10/4/11

For the homework we had to read a bunch of sections from the New Testament. I feel like a lot of the New Testament is very contradicting and when I was reading it things seemed weird. A lot of things in the Bible seem so unreal. It was one of my first times reading the New Testament so I was confused by it. I can't wait to learn more about Christianity and all that the religion includes. Christianity is a branch of Judaism, but why do people who are Christian have so much hate and anger against Judaism and other religions? In the readings we did the Bible refers to the very first Christan's as Jews because that is what they were at first. Do Christan's deny that or how do they respond to the fact? Christianity is all very new to me.

10/3/11

Today was the test. It felt pretty good, but you never know. When you feel like you did great, sometimes you bomb it. But I really enjoyed the essay questions. I felt like I knew them well and had a lot to say about them. I especially like the topic about the political situation in Israel. Because I just went to Israel in the spring, I had a lot to say about the topic and hopefully explained myself well. This is a huge topic and the conflict has been going on for so long. Now the Judaism unit is over I will not be lucky enough to have first hand knowledge about the religion. I think that these three religions have such a big background and I wish we covered the over lap of them more. I know that Jerusalem is a huge place of conflict. When in Israel I found it very interesting that Jerusalem was an important place to all three religions. One religion said this event happened in a certain location in Jerusalem while another said a different event happened in that same location.  I think it the overlap is all very fascinating and I wish we went into that more in class.

9/28/11

Today is Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. Although at home I go to temple on this day, I am not today. I don't go to temple all the time at home but always for the Jewish Holidays. When I was in middle school my friends and I didn't really sit around in service and such. We would get too antsy. We would end up going to the child daycare and hang out with our camp counselors and friends. Now a days we can sit though services for longer, but we still end up going down to day care sometimes or sitting outside. Our rabbi is interesting and tells good stories always so we make sure to be in the service for his stories. We also try to stay in service for the Torah readings because it is disrespectful if you leave during them. I'm sure I could find services here but it isn't the same with out my friends. Judaism for me is a huge social aspect and sometimes the religious stuff can be interesting I go for the community I have there.

9/27/11

In the BCC news it said that Israel approves, 1,100 settler homes in Gilo, Jerusalem. This caught my attention because settlements are a huge deal in Israel. The reason the government has settlements is so Israelis can live in certain areas in Israel and block off Palestinians from being able to come into the city and get around Israel easily. Israelis are given settlement houses for very cheap because the government really wants people to live there. When I was in Israel I was shown a map of the settlements. It cuts of Palestinians from all the majors parts of Israel and the water and land space. Air, land and water are a huge issue in Israel. That is mostly what they are fighting for. They want the most land, air and water space so they can have control. I do not think what Israel is doing is right. They need to find a way to share the resources because these are resources people need to survive. The conflict is much more complicated then this and there so many layers and problems within the conflict I cannot go over them all.

9/26/11

I decided to go back to the article Professor Valeta showed in class today because it caught my interest. At first thought, it is weird to be religious and not believe in God. That is not usually the case, but when I think about the idea more it makes sense. People can be religious and not believe in God. I believe there are many ways to be religious and not have to believe in a God. This article was also cool to me because it was based in Berkeley, California, my home town and also the guy Maxim Schrogin is from my temple. It is shocking that a smallish town and even my temple out of many in Berkeley was mentioned. I think there is a huge aspect of community that has to do with religion, you shouldn't have to be forced to believe in God. There are many other ways to approach religion.

9/20/11

I read an article in J-Weekly that talks about a museum in Oakland canceling an exhibit that had drawings from children in the Gaza Strip. Huge controversy rose about about this because people thought that these pictures were not suitable for children to see. There was also concern about the pictures not even being drawn by children, because things were written in English and there were pictures of Jewish soldiers with Jewish stars on them. I don't find the star thing odd but English writing from children in Gaza is weird. I think that this exhibit should have been shown anyways. It is really important for people to know what is happening in Gaza. It is the most densely populated place in the world right now and crazy and bad things are happening there.

9/19/11

I found an article in the J Weekly. The J Weekly is a Jewish newspaper that is based in San Francisco and the Bay Area. This newspaper has a lot of good articles about things happening in the Jewish communities in S.F and the Bay Area. It also has news about Israel. It is a really great newspaper that is local for me and I know some people who write for it. I found an article about Midrasha, a program I did from 8th grade to 12th grade. There are many articles on J website about Midrasha but the one I found was a bit old. It was from 1998. I read the article and found that most all of it still rang true for today. It talks about Midrasha being the "cool" thing to do. It goes on to talk about having a Jewish community there that most students don't get in their secular high school. I'm so glad to see that all these years have passes and Midrasha is still going on strong. I thought it was a great place where my friends and I could talk about Jewish things that we couldn't really talk about at school. The teachers were amazing and so informative as well as good friends and it was always a fun place to hang out.

9/19/11

I found an article online that brought up Judaism being a religion or a culture. I have always found this a difficult thing to explain. Although yes Judaism has a lot of religious aspects there are also many cultural aspects of it too. People can feel and be Jewish and not practice the religion. In the article "Is Judaism a Religion or a Culture?" by Leora Batnitzky she talks about many Jews in America consider them self as secular Jews and how it has doubled. It can be often hard to explain to people who aren't Jewish how you can be Jewish without the religion. There is this huge cultural aspect for some people and a big community of Jews who feel the same. Where culture is all they are really needing to get out of Judaism. I think this will always be a conflicting feeling with Jews, whether Judaism is a religion or a culture. To some it may be both and to others just one.

9/14/11

Today in class we watched a movie about a women who was an anthropologist. She was going to study about Judaism and then she was told she had lung cancer. From there she decided to study the Orthodox Jews. They kindly invited her into their community and wanted to help her with her sickness. Even though this movie was a bit old, it was interesting to see how the Orthodox Jews live their life. I did not know that Orthodox women had to cover their hair, as well as a couple other things some of the ladies mentioned. I found it really interesting that people came back and chose to live the Orthodox life style. I have never had a feeling of something really calling to me, and it was amazing that these ladies were so called to Orthodoxy. It seems so extreme but they seemed to really enjoy their lifestyle. It is very impressive that they can do it, but also then again if you fall into a routine in life, things will come easy. These Orthodox Jews seemed so happy with their lifestyle and it must be really fulling, just for us outsiders it is hard to understand why people go to such extreme measures to live their life.

9/13/11

I found an article online called "The Status of Women in the Bible." In this article they talk about the status of women in the bible and the how some people view it. Some think that the bible was very progressive for its time, while others say it was written by man and therefor perpetuated a patriarchal society. They also quote the line, "God created the human in His image. He created it in the image of God; He created them male and female" (Genesis 1:27). Like we talked about in recitation, this passage says that men and women were create equally under the image of God. I don't think that there are many other examples of women being considered equal to men, but I don't know the bible well at all. But from what it seems like women are pushed down and treated as lower figures. 

 

9/12/11

It was nice that the lady from the temple Harhashem came to speak with us today. She talked about Reform Judaism and I thought she did a pretty good job explaining it. I grew up going to a reform temple and everything she said mostly rang true to me. I really believe in the reform movement because like the lady said, they are very accepting of everyone. I think this is a good way to practice your religion. No one should be excluded or hated because of how they are. I wish that the professor would bring in other speakers, ones from more aspects of the religion. It would be nice if he brought in a Orthodox person and a conservative person, so we could compare and talk about all the aspects of Judaism.

9/8/11

Today we talked in class about interpretations and how text has different interpretations. It makes total sense. That is why there are so many different views and ideas people can get out of the bible. And because there are so many ways to see the text people can get confused or think that they are correct over someone else. Also, these texts were written so long ago and in many different times the interpretations are varried. This all can cause conflict or make people feel like their interpretations is wrong or they are not included in the commuinty. Maybe the bible doesn't say anything or mean anything about homosexuality being wrong or some constraversal topic and people are just interprating the text in that way.

9/7/11

Today in class we talked about the Hebrew Bible. It was interesting how certain stories are said to be more important and some less important. With the many different writers and versions of the Hebrew Bible you see the conflicts or the differences between them. Somethings at the time may have been more important then others or some stories may have not even been told to the scribes of that version of the Hebrew Bible. It is hard to say what is real and what is not or what version is true, because there is no way to really tell and these events happened so long ago.

9/6/11

In the article "Christian Group Criticized for Ousting Gay Member" (http://www.crosswalk.com/news/christian-group-criticized-for-ousting-gay-member.html) a Christian choir group kicked out a member for being gay. It is good to see people standing up for this guy and make a big deal of it. The universities policies to me were a bit odd and contradicting. I hope they figure something out and that member can be in the group if he wants. But he may not want to now because people are discriminating against him.