Reflection

I absolutely loved "Koran by Heart." I was so surprised by the fact that most of the competitors are not even fluent in Arabic, but think it is a true testament to their faith and devotion. It's sort of hard for me to refer to what these performances are "recitations" because for me the implication of that word is reading, but what the Qur'anic reciters perform is music. The melodies and passion in their voices are absolutely beautiful. Music is an integral part of religion because when a person uses his/her voice to connect to whatever God they are worshiping, it makes the experience much more in depth. In Arabic the vowels define what the word means and so in recitation how long sounds are dragged out for are crucial to the meaning of the sura. Sells describes how the combinations of words and vowels "create a textual harmonics of sound figures that emotional, semantic, and gendered implications."

I think another important part of the movie was when the official from the competition was expressing his views on how the fundamentalist Islamic groups outshine the moderats and make the entire religion look bad. I feel like in America it is almost taboo to even express the slightest sympathy towards Islaman. Do you all think that over time this stigmatism will intensify or become less of an issue?