Religious Conflict

Question 1

Which term describes the Islamic legal system derived from religious precepts found in its sacred writings?

Answer 1

Sharīʿah

Question 2

The Druze, Ismāʿīli, and Twelvers are all sects of which larger branch of Islam?

Answer 2

Shīʿa

Question 3

Which Islamic school of thought functions as the state-sponsored form of religion in Saudi Arabia and inspires the ideology of ISIS?

Answer 3

Wahhabi

Question 4

Which terrorist group, known as “the foundation,” was founded by Osama bin Laden and has its origins in the Arab fights against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s?

Answer 4

Al-Qaeda

Question 5

What is the Miḥrāb?

Answer 5

The semicircular niche in the wall of a mosque that points the direction toward Mecca

Question 6

Who is considered the first father or first Patriarch of Judaism?

Answer 6

Abram

Question 7

Which of the following summarizes the events of the Exodus in the Hebrew Bible?

Answer 7

The Twelve Tribes of Israel are led out of slavery in Egypt, receive divine commands, and are led to the Promised Land of Cana’an by Moses.

Question 8

Following the a revolt, the unified Israelite tribes split into two kingdoms. What are their names?

Answer 8

Israel and Judah

Question 9

Which historical sect of Judaism became the basis for the Rabbinic tradition?

Answer 9

Pharisees

Question 10

Which Jewish festival marks the beginning of the new year by the Hebrew calendar?

Answer 10

Rosh Hashanah

Question 11

Israeli Jews and Palestinian Muslims both make a claim to Israel/Palestine based on the belief that God made a promise to ________.

Answer 11

Abraham

Question 12

Which of the following was an early two-state Palestine partition solution approved by U.N. on August 1947, which would have created a Jewish State in Galilee, the Upper Jordan Valley, and the Coastal Plain; an Arab State in the Central Hills, West Bank, and the Negev; and designated Jerusalem as an international city?

Answer 12

Peel Plan

Question 13

Which empire occupied Palestine after the fall of the Ottoman Empire?

Answer 13

British

Question 14

The Gaza Strip is roughly the size of which geographic feature?

Answer 14

Coralville and Iowa City

Question 15

Which of the following was a secret agreement that divided former Ottoman territories into French and British areas of control and influence?

Answer 15

Sykes-Picot Agreement

Question 16

What does Michael Shermer call the tendency to believe that natural phenomena occurring in patterns have some sort of higher meaning or that they were deliberately caused by unseen beings?

Answer 16

Agenticity

Question 17

Why do creatures that make Type 2 cognitive errors die out more quickly than those that make Type 1 errors?

Answer 17

Ignoring possible predators is a costlier mistake.

Question 18

The Social Theory of the origin of religion (The Divine Babysitter) helps to answer what problem in early societies?

Answer 18

Freeriders

Question 19

Which of the following best describes the way Dr. Cargill defined reality?

Answer 19

We each experience a reality, our brains process symbols to reproduce a model of our experienced reality, and we compare our reality with others to determine what we ultimately accept to be real.

Question 20

Which of the following is an example of a Type 1 (False Positive) cognitive error?

Answer 20

I think there is a lion in the grass, but it was really just the wind.