France Final Blog Post

What We Covered

We throughout our blog posts have researched what ISIS is as a terrorist organization, why they have remained hostile towards France specifically, and why we should care learning about this information. We explored why France has been the target for many of these terrorist attacks and looked into the long strained relations between French government and their Muslim communities. The government in France has long clashed with Muslim citizens because of religious and political ideologies that do not necessarily work together. Because of this Muslims have been discriminated against for generations before ISIS. We also looked on how the violent acts in France have had an effect on the country. Anti-Muslim legislation has been passed to oppress religious freedom, Muslim civilians have been experiencing discrimination much more often after the attacks, and finally, there has been harsher restrictions regarding immigration where French political candidates have built large anti-immigration platform.

How I Researched

Specifically with the posts I did a simple internet search and looked through many news sources that I found to be credible. I found much of my information from CNN, LA Times, and other popular journalistic websites. It was relatively easy to find certain information, like details about specific terrorist attacks because it is a common focus of interest for many people. Many news sources have a specific bias and that is fairly obvious in websites like CNN. They tend to look at both sides of the incident and sympathize with the Muslim community. What was more difficult was finding an easy to understand version of the history between Muslims and France. This issue is very complex and the information behind it was sometimes hard to understand because of the many layers to the story regarding colonialism. Working as a group has made me become more accountable for my actions because I realized I am responsible for not only my grade but the group aspect of the project that needed my participation to work. It was helpful to get other’s insight and background information for this project and I liked working together on certain parts that seemed to just came together to flow into one specific blog post.

Reflection

With this project, I have become more aware of reasons behind ISIS’s emergence and their acts of terror. This has allowed me to look at both sides of each incident and analyze why radical groups like ISIS attack. Between France and their Muslim communities the tension has been coming to a breaking point for many years. This has helped me understand more of the context of what is happening in France and the effects it has on French people. I have learned a lot about group work from this project and specifically I have learned about being responsible for my part of research/writing/posting. When one person does not do their work it can decrease the whole group's productivity and I have tried to remain consistent and responsible for my share of the blog posts. I have learned how important communication is between group members. Good and open communication can make working together as a group easier and more efficient. From this project, I have discovered aspects about how to work together with others and how to take initiative in certain situations. I wish I had been more consistent in starting my research ahead of time and making sure each blog post was easy to understand and flowed together as one. Overall, I am happy with the work I put into this project and hope to do similar research in the future.