Programmatic Changes in the Islamic Politics - Assignment Example

ISLAMIC POLITICS A. At this critical period in the Islamic history what issues should be explored or followed by the Muslim societies to bring programmatic changes At this period of ideological conflicts, the Muslim societies should follow and explore certain issues with the aim of achieving peace within and beyond its borders. The government of the Islamic countries has to sensitize the people of the West and change the wrong impression and idea they have about their regions. The people of the Islamic countries must be adequately educated on the subject of world peace and move towards achieving that peace. Lastly, the people of these countries must be actively and politically involved. The points that must be followed towards achieving these programmatic changes are highlighted and explained below. Better Information about Islam in West Countries  People of the west have been misinformed about Islam as some of their journalists have disseminated wrong information about Islam and created a bad impression about the religion. Though, some of these aspersions are relatively true as some minor members of the Islamic community are guilty of what they have been accused of, but this is not to say that the whole Islamic community should be regarded as being demonic. In view of these accusations, the government of the Islamic countries should create a medium that would seek to portray the good image of Islam and the people that practice the religion to the Western countries and this would go a long way in correcting the wrong impression that has already been created about the religion. The Muslim societies have been known to practice a religion that does not permit freedom in their societies. The negativity in this impression should also be corrected as the religion does not tolerate sin and frowns against performing activities that could cause a person to commit sin. The Islamic community is in fact a free society as the individuals in these societies have the freedom to choose and do what they liked as long as it does not impede on their religion and take their hearts away from their God. The only thing that could be said not be free in Islam is that they do not have the freedom to sin and the act of doing this attracts severe penalties in the religion. The Western civilization, which is known for its principle on freedom and the protection of the fundamental human rights of its citizen claim that Islam does not guarantee freedom to all. They are of the opinion that the laws of Islam do not permit freedom to the bulk of its citizen, which includes women and the youths. The Westerners claim that Islam does not give freedom to youths and women, this impression is not correct as Islam sees the vulnerability in women and youths and seeks to protect them against the ills of the modern society and it is during the cause of trying to protect them that Westerners term as not giving them enough freedom. The Muslim society must make the Western countries know that they are not terrorists as they are perceived to be. Western countries should be made to know that the people that engage in the evil act of terrorism are people that have mixed politics with religion and hide under the pretence of protecting the image of their religion. These set of people go to the extreme of hurting their fellow humans and this is not what Islam preached as it advocates for peace and not violence. Education  It is a known fact that Education brings sustainable growth and development to a society whose people are properly educated. Muslim societies must embrace the ideals of Education as they strive towards making their communities improve in all ramifications. Education must be made available to all as leaving some members of the community uneducated would not do the Islamic community any good. The family system in the Muslim societies are known to give privileges to men over women when it comes to education, this is not good enough as the women should also be seen as being equal to the man and the society should avail them the opportunity of being thoroughly educated as giving half education to any group of people in the Islamic community would do the society no good. Governments of Islamic countries must invest more in education as this would go a long way in effecting programmatic changes in the community. A country is as good as the number of educated minds that reside in it. The main problem that has threatened the sovereignty of Islamic nations is terrorism and it has really dented the image of Islam in the Western hemisphere. This problem could be reduced and consequently eradicated by educating the people of Islamic communities of the dangers of terrorism and that the act of killing a man for the purpose of politics is not in any way a holy war and it is simply murder and people that do these things would face eternal damnation and not go to paradise as they were made to believe by people that send them on this evil mission. The recent spate of development that has followed most Islamic countries has been linked to education and this underlines the importance of education to a country and justifies the deep involvement of Islamic governments and the private sector on education as they all strive towards the sole purpose of developing their societies. The Muslim societies should also learn to inculcate the positive and developmental values of the Western societies as this would further aid them in the development of their communities. People Participation (Political Participation) It is the people that make a country and not infrastructures and for there to be programmatic change in Muslim societies, the people of these communities have to be adequately involved in programs that aim at achieving a sustainable economic growth. Non Government organizations (NGOs) must also be involved in the developmental process as they play a key role in the development of a nation.The people must also be involved in the peace achieving process as it is only through this that the problem of violence can be solved. When a country is marred by violence, there cannot be any reasonable development in the country which makes it important that people participate in the peace-making process. The people of the Islamic world should try to embrace the ideologies of the western world and should know that the fact that some people practice other forms of religion that is different from theirs does not affect their own practice of the religion or the institutionalization of their own religion among the hearts of new converts. The people of the Islamic world should not see the people of the western part of the world as being superior to them but rather as co-contributors in the development of the world and the belief that both the Islamic and Western people are one would help to maintain and ensure development among the people of these regions. The people of the Islamic world should try as much as possible not to mix religion with politics as this has been the main cause of the region’s incessant problem. (B) Explain in your own perspective of whether the Islamic world is at the surge of clashes with the West or otherwise. Recent happenings in the world have suggested that the Islamic world is at the surge of clashes with the West. The Islamic world has been at loggerheads with the West in recent years and the clash between these regions is perceived as a conflict between two religions, which is the clash between Islam and Christianity, considering the fact that countries of the West are mainly Christians. Since the September 11 terrorist attack of the United States of America, the battle line seem to be drawn between the West and the Islamic world as the West had blamed the fundamentalist of the Islamic world for these attacks and have since launched several verbal and non-verbal attacks at these regions. The West, especially the United States of America is seen as the protector of Israel, a country that the Islamic world considers as an eternal enemy. Consequently, some group of Islamic extremists launch several attacks on the countries of the West and this would definitely grow from being a war of the Islamic extremists with the Western countries to a war of the entire Islamic country with the Western countries. The surge of clashes between the Islamic world and the Western countries could emanate into a global war as the two regions obviously do not have anything in common. The Islamic world does not share any belief with countries of the West as their beliefs are in contrast with the doctrinal values of the people of the West. In earnest, the surge of clashes between the Islamic world and the people of the West is without doubt and it remains to be seen if a likely conflict between these two regions could be avoided in the future. The Islamic world are of the opinion that the westerners are hindrances to their continuous existence as a sovereign body and would do anything to get these threat away from them and in doing this they are involved in a series of clash with the western countries. The Western countries also see the Islamic world as a threat to world peace and would do anything within their power to curb their supposed excesses and this would generate a sort of clash between the two parties. The recent clash between the Islamic world and the people of the Western countries, which are generally of the Judeo-Christian religion is highly regrettable as it is happening at a period when the world has just recovered from several wars and the conflict that could develop as a result of this clash of ideologies could be fatal and disastrous to the world at large. The clash of Ideologies between the Islamic world and the Western countries must be brought to an end in the best possible time as this clash is unnecessary. The development of the surge of clashes could actually be prevented from developing into a full blown war by ensuring that the two parties dialogue and address the key problems that have caused their clashes. The United States of America should not interfere too much on matters in the Islamic world and even if they interfere they should not base their judgments on sentiments as this would go a long way in reducing the clash between the Islamic world and the west to a minimum. The surges of clashes between the Islamic world and the West might not end in a conflict and this could be achieved if the two regions use the diversity in their ideologies to their benefits and develop a common ground as they seek to redress the problems that the difference in their civilizations and probably religions have caused. Read More