Making Real World Connections - Jihad, 09.11 and The West Wing

The anniversary of 09.11.01 was an opportunity to discuss the meaning of Jihad and extremism. Some of the students were familiar with the common definition of Jihad, "holy war". We discussed the various types of Jihad that are part of the Islamic religion; personal Jihad, verbal Jihad and physical Jihad. We also talked about what the Qu'ran says about Jihad. Then we viewed and discussed two clips from The West Wing on extremism and terrorism. The clips were effective in communicating the concepts to the students and they were very engaged in the conversation and questions after the viewing.