Islam and the West essays

Islam and the West essays One of the most significant ways the world has changed since the terrible crime of September 11 has been a new rise of an ugly strain of Islamophobia throughout the Western world. Amid the terrible agony of the recent terror attack in Bali, it is easy to be tempted, once again, by angry thoughts. The pattern is there: from the horror of 9/11, to the suicide/homicide bombings in Israel, to the flaming frontiers of Albania, Bosnia, Chechnya or Kashmir, all the way down to the recent brutal hostage-taking and killings in a Moscow theater, it is in the name of Islam that innocent people have fallen victim to hideous terrorism and unthinkable cruelty. It is, therefore, well within reason to raise questions as to the very nature of Islam, and almost plausible to see everything in terms of an inevitable clash between "our" world and "theirs." It is plausible, but ultimately wrong. According to Karen Armstrong , the Western world has always had a very unbalanced and negative view of Islam, dating back as early as the twelfth century. At that time Europeans knew very little about Muslims, and began to cultivate a highly distorted portrait of Islam. The reality was very different, in fact Islam began with a very positive message, where respect and freedom were some of the fundamental principles. It was only many years later that the religion was hijacked by old patriarchal attitudes, but the Koran still condemns violence and aggressive warfare, and Muslims are commanded by God to respect everyone, since we all share the same beliefs and the same God. To understand the terrorist attacks we have witnessed recently in many places, we have to bear in mind that what we see is not so much "Islam" mobilized to fight against "the West," but a civilization in severe internal crisis. There are rising movements in Islam, the so-called "fundamentalists, but they do not represent Islam, or even the majority of Muslims. Isl ...