Hernandez 1 Edwin Hernandez John Kubler English 114A 10 September 2013 Religion and Cultural Diversity My fellow citizen,

today, I write to you, not to argue, but to talk about our views and perspectives through the lens of life. I write to you to talk about religious and ethnic diversities in our society. Our world is the same but it seems that its different because of the way people view others beliefs and their background. I respect your views and opinions and as I respect them, I hope you respect my opinions and my side of the coin. Diversity and Religion is what makes todays world interesting. Our society contains different types of religions and diversities. Being diverse allows us to learn about each others history and explore places that make us unique such as the pyramids of Egypt, the Great wall in China, the Mayan ruins and many other places. Every day we see people of different races and religions and we have the opportunity to communicate with each other. Some countries dont have this chance and there people may all have to follow the same religion. There are people of different religions such as Catholics, Christians, Muslims and many more but we can all learn something from each other. We can all teach each other from our backgrounds to achieve a multicultural diverse community. In discussing about religion and cultural diversity you, John W. Jones, make a telling statement. All these examples, and there are many, many more, indicate that religiously motivated terrorists experience their violent commitments as a form of spiritual striving (Jones). The examples such as the one of the bombers are said to be done from terrorists who are influenced or motivated from a practicing religion that are striving to reach something spiritually. I

Hernandez 1 believe statements like this are the ones that make people think that something in this case someone elses religion is a bad thing. Someone may misinterpret this and see a person in a different perspective. Maybe thats why people make racist stereotypical remarks, for example Ive heard individuals call people of Middle Eastern decent terrorist. Those people should not suffer for what someone from their area has done. I believe that you argue that religion influences or motivates the terrible actions of some people. However, I argue that Religion can be misinterpreted as I believe the bombers were mislead by what they saw and heard. I think that these individuals that did this terrible action got to into their religion and probably thought they were understanding things but in reality they were misinterpreting things. The people from that religion that are in sanity and that didnt do anything may be directed towards in a negative way. Then with things are mis understood conflicts will tend to arise and maybe even wars. In discussing about religion and cultural diversities Madlin Albright makes a statement. Religion is a powerful force, but its impact depends entirely on what it inspires people to do (35). Religion is a powerful force that can change the minds of people and if used in a negative way it can turn into something bad. Nations can have different perspectives on Religion, maybe because of the actions of their followers (such as the bombers), and it can spark wars. In the case of the bombers they may have took a positive and turned it into a negative. In the end we both have our separate opinions and perspectives. You may argue that religion influences some peoples actions most likely the terrible one. I believe the people may just misinterpret a religion and others take the blame for it as well. Just as how there are different religions, people have different opinions and although they are not the same we have to learn to respect them. I hope you can respect my opinion as I respect your opinion and perspective.