Islam and Terrorism - Assignment Example

Islam as a religion promotes peace while Islamic extremism promotes the use of violence in the name of defending Islam (Streusand, 2003). Krauthammer (2002) says that we cannot refute the argument by Professor Samuel Huntington that Islam has bloody borders. The real agitation of the Muslims is that their religion is being overtaken by the West culture. Traditionally, Islam was a dominant religion and they used Jihads to impose their culture, values, and beliefs on other people. This is not the case today as most people are now adapting to the western culture. The Muslims have responded to this by putting a border between the western culture and the Islamic culture. This has even been done through violence.

In Nigeria when an author published an offensive image in the newspaper, the Muslims reacted by killing Christians, burning the newspaper offices, and issuing a death warrant for the author of the article. The Muslims in this case lay the blame on Christians for the loss of Islamic values. There has also been a prolonged war between the Palestinians who are Muslims and the Israelites who are Jews. Another example is the September 11th attack on the U.S.A; this was seen as the greatest milestone in the world of Islamic extremists because they believe the United States is a key advocate of “satanic activities”. In countries where Christianity and Islam are practiced on almost equal levels, there have been great religious conflicts. This has been witnessed in Sudan where the Arab Muslims have carried out genocide campaigns against the African Christians. In these countries, there have been clear borders between Christians and Muslims. If one religion resides in the west the other resides east or if one resides in the north the other resides in the south and conflicts are common between the two. This is not just limited to Christianity; there were Pakistan-Kashmir terrorist attacks against the Indian Hindus.

The above clearly shows that Islamic extremists are much determined to protect their religion. They will respond with violence or any action that goes against the values of Islam. However, some have used religion to protect their oppressive regimes. They carry out terrorist activities against other states claiming they are non-believers. They would want to rally the Islamic world on their side to stay in power. Such regimes attack nations that advocate for human rights or oppose their oppressive regimes. This group is not sincere and should be resisted at all costs. Those that need to be listened to are the ones sincerely fighting to protect Islam. The important question here is, how can this be addressed?

Despite the great difference in culture and values between the West and the Muslims, the west needs to consider what the Muslims think. It is important to respect their religion, culture, and beliefs. Muslims put more faith in Mohamed as their prophet. The west should not ridicule Mohamed in any way.

The necessary policy changes include political, social, and economic policies. The Islamic world does not hate the west as such but there are certain policies by certain states that have led to hatred of those particular countries. Notable examples include the USA and Britain. These countries have suffered several terrorist attacks because of their foreign policies. Take for instance United States' relationship with Israel which has caused resentment among Muslim nations because they believe Israel has been terrorizing Palestine (Funk & Said, 2004). The common belief is that the United States is siding with Israel. In this case, the United States should take a neutral stand. The west should not also try to introduce democracies in Islamic countries because some of them are well-run without democracy. The policies should also be fair, for example, America’s attack on Pakistan for possessing nuclear weapons and not doing so on Israel and India is seen as being biased among the Muslims. The west should also not provide aid to tyrannical regimes to be seen to be fair. Individuals should be held responsible for terrorist attacks and it should not be blamed on religion.

In conclusion, it is the fear of loss of culture and the western policy that has led to conflicts between the west and Islam. These conflicts are among a few Muslims but need to be addressed because they have been the cause of terrorist activities. I believe just as Butler (2004) that the west and the Muslims can coexist peacefully, it is just a few differences that are there between them.