Zeitoun Ch I Discussion Questions

Overall Unit Themes and Questions:

• Identity (racial, religious, gender) and how it can cause conflict within a society.
  
• How to create social change around perceptions of identity.
  
  • The power of protest: violence vs. nonviolence/peaceful protest - which is more effective?
    
• To what extent does “invisibility” empower individuals?
  
• Should we hide history we’re ashamed of? Are we doomed to repeat history we hide?
  
• How do individuals maintain dignity while being oppressed or discriminated against? How do individuals maintain dignity while fighting for a just cause?
  
• Are there different “levels” or “types” of prejudice? Are some more socially “acceptable” than others?
  
• When, why, and how do we lose our humanity? Can we win it back? How?
  

Chapter I

1. Can you oppress one group but not another oppressed group? Or can you discriminate against one minority but not another?
   
2. How does one’s past influence their future?
   
3. Reflect on the idea Zeitoun was brought up with that “what God hates as much as anything is waste” (48).
   
4. What does Kathy’s family’s words or actions say about them and their thoughts/feelings of Kathy’s conversion to Islam? Or her relationship with Zeitoun?
   
5. How did Kathy’s presumptions (thoughts/ideas before she knew) of Islam affect her eventual conversion? Who and/or what events lead her to her decision to convert?
   
6. How does Kathy and Zeitoun’s religious beliefs affect or influence their business?
   
7. What does Zeitoun’s decision to leave say about him as a person? What does Kathy’s decision to leave say about her as a person? What do you think about their relationship?