Essay on Mine: Hinduism and Religious Group

Submitted By djmmjd01
Words: 2922
Pages: 12

University of Phoenix Material

Appendix D

Part I

Define the following terms:

|Term |Definition |
|Ethnic group |A group of people who identify with each other by way of language, heritage, culture, and religion |
|Anti-Semitism |Suspicion of, hatred toward, or discriminating against the Jewish community. |
|Islamophobia |Describes prejudice against, hatred or irrational fear of Islam or Muslims. |
|Xenophobia |An unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange. |
|Persecution |The systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another group. |
|Religious group |A subgroup within a religion that operates under a common name, tradition, and identity. |

Part II

Select at least 1 religious and 1 ethnic/racial group not your own from the list below.

• Religious groups (based on http://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/affiliations-all-traditions.pdf)

• Christianity

• Evangelical Protestant • Mainline Protestant • Historically Black Churches • Roman Catholic • Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) • Jehovah’s Witnesses • Orthodox (Greek, Eastern)

• Judaism (Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform) • Buddhism (Theravada or Mahayana) • Islam (Sunni, Shia, Sufism) • Hinduism

• Racial/Ethnic groups (based on divisions in U.S. Census Bureau documents)

• Asian (Asian descent) • Black (African descent) • Hispanic and Latino (South or Central American descent) • Pacific Islander (Polynesian descent) • White (European descent)

Part III

Answer the following questions in 150 to 250 words each about the religious group you selected:

• How does your selected religious group differ from other religious groups (such as in their beliefs, worship practices, or values)?

Hinduism is a very complex type of religion it consists of Srauta, Vaishnavism and Shaivism among many other tradition all combined into one. This religion also includes some historical groups such as Kapalikas. Their beliefs and practices consist of philosophies, wide spectrum of laws and prescriptions of daily morality. This is all based on the notion of karma, dharma and societal norms. What makes Hinduism is different from most religions because, rather than have a rigid common set of beliefs they have conglomeration of distinct intellectual or philosophical points of view. This is a very old religion dating back to the late Neolithic in the early harappan period (5500-2600). There practices include seeking the awareness of god and blessings from devas. Often they will create a shrine consisting of their chosen form(s) of god. They practice at home mostly and visiting temples is not obligatory. The Hinduism has many festivals throughout the year the Hindu calendar usually prescribe there dates.

• What has been the experience of your selected religious group with others that do not share its beliefs or practices?
There is not much to go on for the American view of the Hindu religion so after farther research I found that during the Islamic rule of the Indian sub-continent the Muslims caused widespread carnage and terror because, Muslims regarded the Hindus as infidels and therefore slaughtered them and converted millions of Hindus into Muslims. There is no official total of the deaths from this Muslim led rampage. Another big rampage was during the era of Nizam state of Hyderabad. During this era Hindus where severely repressed under the autocratic dictatorial rule of Nizam. Hindus where called gaddaar by the Muslims this meaning traitor. Despite the majority of the population consisting of Hindu’s they were still treated as