University of Phoenix Material

Appendix D

|Term |Definition |
|Ethnic group | An ethnic group is a group of people who all share the same characteristics, religion, or race. |
|Anti-Semitism | Anti-Semitism is discrimination against or hatred of Jews. |
|Islamophobia | Islamophobia is the fear of, prejudice against, or hatred of Islam or Muslims. |
|Xenophobia | Xenophobia is the fear or hatred of anyone who is from a strange place, race, or anything foreign.|
|Persecution | Persecution is the act of harassment, punishment, or to drive away people based on their religion,|
| |race, or beliefs. |
|Religious group | Religious groups are a group or set of people with the same religious beliefs, practices, and |
| |rituals. |

Religious and ethnic/racial group

o Buddhism (Theravada or Mahayana)

o Pacific Islander (Polynesian descent)

Buddhism is different from the other religions in a lot of different ways. Buddhism is based on the life and teachings of Gautama Buddha; Gautama Buddha is the founder of Buddhism whereas most others are about the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. They don’t believe in a creator, they believe in enlightened ones. Some experiences that Buddhist could have encountered with other religious groups that didn’t share the same beliefs or practices would have been arguments about the creation of us or a creator at all, arguments about worshiping an idol, rather than God, and breaking Gods rules. Buddhism has contributed to American culture in many ways, just the same as other religions have. Some people are curious about it and learn to get a different perspective and products have been given names with words form Buddhism to attract people. There has been discrimination during the history of Buddhism, either from non-believers or even from other Buddhist. They have been beating, jailed, tortured, and executed, and all because of hatred. I think that the main reason for discrimination or prejudice is because people do not understand this religion. I think that this is not right; it is not hardtop pick up a book and learn about it. I know that a lot of it has to do with the fact that they do not believe in Jesus or god and that is wrong some people believe. I have learned that although they do worship idols and believe in more than one god that they are a peaceful loving people that they are naturalist, and they believe in harmony and the things around them.

Pacific Islanders or also known as ocean people are considered people from thousands of islands scattered across the Pacific Ocean. Polynesians are descended as early as 2,000 B.C. And they are from southwest Asia. They have about 0 different languages, and the most known ones are, Samoan, Maori, Tahitian, Tongan, and most do know English as will. Their society is very family oriented, and they are very gracious to visitors or guest in their homes. They teach children at a very early age to respect authority, and the elder children are the main care takers of the smaller children. American Samoan was part of a war between Germany, America, and Britain. And although Samoan is part of the U.S. they are not allowed to vote. They easily have had no interactions with other groups really until President Kennedy. He open the gate way to them for Americans to vacation and trade more with them, I could not find anything about them contributing o our culture really, unless you do visit them and see how they live and treat themselves, families, and friends. But we have there with religion and politics. And I do not believe they have never really been discriminated against except maybe for their religion, when missionaries went there to “conform” them. Even when they eat a reverend there at a celebration, after the reverend successfully converted most of them to Christianity, the missionaries continued their work. I have learned that their religion is very similar to Christianity, that they believed in one god Nafanua, and the way they think creation began is similar to the book of genesis. I think the similarity is they believe in respect, goodness, honesty, treating people with respect and fairly, and the differences are one believes in many gods the other only in one. I guess I could see why discrimination is although it is wrong. I have been taught that although I may not believe in a certain religion that most all of them have the same things in common, which is love, respect, kindness, forgiveness, and treating everyone equal and right.