Religion and International Relation - West and Islam - Research Paper Example

?Running Head: Religion and International Relation – West and Islam Religion and International Relation – West and Islam [Institute’sName] EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Islam and the West see each other as rivals; however, this has not been like that forever. There was a time when the Muslim world gave a high regard to the West. Nevertheless, their concept about the West changed because of the Europeanizing mission of the West and because of their imperialistic approach. This approach made the Muslim world hate the West to an extent that they disregarded all the successful ways of government of the West also and refused to modernize as they saw modernization as copying the West. This hatred became strong because of the continuous attack of the West for their interests. Be it Iran, Iraq, Palestine or Afghanistan; the decisions of the West were always seen as undemocratic and hostile. West always chose to meet their personal interests and not considering the interest of the people of the country it attacked. This selfish approach of the West made the Muslim world hate the West and these anti-West sentiments developed into religious extremism and made the non-state actors in these Muslim countries to spoil the image of Islam in the global world. The West should understand that it is largely responsible for this treatment of the people in the Muslim world; therefore, it should try to sincerely make efforts to help the Muslim countries develop and regain their past glory. TABLE OF CONTENTS ISLAM AND THE WEST – AN INTRODUCTION 3 ISLAM AND WEST- AN IDEOLOGICAL CLASH 5 INCIDENTS THAT EXACERBATED THE CONFLICT 5 The 9/11 attacks 5 The Arab spring 7 Post Arab Spring, West and the US 8 Palestine-Israel Issue 8 RELIGION AND POLITICS – A BACKGROUND 10 MARX AND FREUD ON RELIGION 11 ISLAM AND CHRISTINIATY – SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES 13 ROOT OF THE CLASH 14 HOW TO RESOLVE THIS CLASH? 17 FORMING A MODERN SOCIETY – A CONCLUSION 18 ISLAM AND THE WEST – AN INTRODUCTION Islam and the West are different entities in many ways, but because of the globalization in the world; we see that there is an increasing interaction between these two entities, which becomes a reason for conflict in many situations. Islam, being one of the oldest religions in the world, and being the second most followed religion in the world after Christianity is seen as a threat to the West. There are many things similar between Christianity and Islam including monotheism; however, there is a clear ideological clash between the two due to their very believes and ideas. Islam believes in oneness of God, finality of the prophet-hood and the Qur’an. Muslims can be categorized as very religious and not very religious and they belong to every part of the world, and belong to varying ethnic backgrounds and social classes. They believe in traditions and family and try to keep themselves as aloof from the worldly pleasures as possible. They are proud of their rich culture and their glorious past and want that past to come back. On the other hand, West means the Europe, North America and Australia which is predominantly Christian. The term is more of a geographical classification based on their concept of valuing modernization and technology. They highly regard material pleasures and are secular in their attitudes and beliefs. There is a clear difference in the belief system of the two entities; however, it will be wrong to say that they are completely two different entities. These days, the Muslim minority of the West is increasing which is making the West to make effort to integrate this minority. These Muslims living in the West are Muslims belonging to different parts of the world, sharing different backgrounds but united because of the concept of monotheism, prophet hood and the holy Qur’an. These Muslims are increasingly taking part in every field of life in the West and are playing an important role in the economic development of the West. Similarly, there are many people living in the Muslim countries that belong to the West and are playing an active role in all fields in those countries. However, these people do not take part and share in with the religious beliefs of the Muslims. Therefore, we cannot clearly separate the West and Islam, as we are seeing an increasing interaction between the two. ISLAM AND WEST- AN IDEOLOGICAL CLASH This increasing interaction between the West and Islam has become a reason for conflict between the two. Islam with its very traditionalistic approach sees the West as a threat to their civilization, culture and long lived tradition. On the other hand, West sees this traditionalism of the Islam as a threat to democracy, modernization, and progress. America’s invasion of Iraq, Palestine – Israel conflict, Western imperialism and the like are seen as threat to the Muslims. On the other hand, Islamic fundamentalism and terrorist attacks are seen as a threat to the West from the Muslims. Therefore, both the entities are in a clear conflict with each other and it would not be wrong to say that a new cold war has sprung between the West and Islam. Islam wants the same glory of the past; therefore, they keep on destroying the Western agenda, and the West tries to harm the Islamic ideology, now and then, in order to mitigate their agenda against the West. However, it is seen that the strategy followed by the West and the Muslim world is further exacerbating the issue instead of solving it. Therefore, there is need of understanding between the West and the Islamic world, so that both the entities can look at things of common interest. INCIDENTS THAT EXACERBATED THE CONFLICT The 9/11 attacks Attacks on September 11 on the world trade centre and the pentagon changed history. Osama bin laden was a non-state actor who acted with the help of an international network committed to destroy the West and its ideology. This attack caused much harm to the people of US economically and emotionally. Moreover, these attacks made the world realize US’s vulnerability to such attacks and threatened its position as a secure superpower that has been established since the collapse of the Soviet Union (Saikal, p. 6). This attack is important not only because of how widespread it was; but it is also important because of the way it changed the course of the West towards Islam. This attack was planted by non-state actors, but it made US and other Western countries to put forward their guards more strongly and to cause harm to the Muslims in general. After these attacks, widespread discrimination was seen and continues to be seen in the West between a Muslim and a non-Muslim and their attitudes and behaviors and thus being shaped accordingly. Women are not allowed to wear 'hijabs' in public places and a lot many places have banned Muslim women from wearing of 'hijab' and Muslims are made a victim of extended searches and insults at the airports and are detained without any trial and are treated brutally. West thinks that insulting and mistreating the Muslims will solve the issue, however, this is worsening the issue. This is because this bad treatment and discrimination against Muslims is further arising Muslim sentiments and is creating hatred in their hearts and minds among the West. This, in turn, is leading these victims of the revenge of the West to get involved with the terrorist groups in order to take revenge of their insult on the hands of the West. It is not right to blame the whole religion as teaching terrorism just because of the few people doing it in the name of religion. The West should have analyzed the consequences of this before discriminating the Muslims on this massive scale and bringing upon their insult on a global level (Saikal, p. 9). Therefore, an act of non-state actors caused hardships for all the Muslims in general as fundamentalists and terrorists. This, in turn, has fired up the clash between the two entities i.e. the West and Islam. Moreover, these attacks made US set aside its agenda for containment and communism and made it put all its focus and attention on Islamic fundamentalism. Besides, 9/11 attacks gave a new shape to the increasing globalization. US, which itself is a supporter of progress, free trade and industrialization put strict controls on the movement of people, transfer of weapons and technological items and its use by foreigners and the like (Saikal, p. 11). Before 9/11, it was assumed that poverty and the lack of education are two main reasons for terrorism and unlawful deeds. However, 9/11 attacks proved that religious extremism, strong financial muscle and hatred for a certain government or ideology can also lead to terrorist activities. Therefore, it made the West to make their guards against these non-state actors in particular and Muslims in general stronger than ever (Saikal, p. 13). The Arab spring A revolution that emerged in the Arab word including Libya, Tunisia and Egypt in the beginning of 2011 shocked the world. All these countries were a victim of corrupt governments and years long dictatorial regimes. The spring started from Tunisia, that was ruled by the president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. Under his government, Tunisia developed the world’s best education system, a strong middle class and a strong labor movement; however his government did not allow for freedom of speech and freedom of political parties to flourish and he was corrupt with all the elite class belonging to his family. Hence, some form of dictatorship was seen in the country (Anderson, p. 3). The case in Egypt was no different. The citizens were disappointed from Hosni Mubarak’s regime because he failed to provide even the basic necessities to his people, with that unemployment was at it heights (Anderson, p. 4). Similarly, Libya’s Muammar al-Qaddafi ruled Libya for four decades in a dictatorial fashion and with that he created false scarcity of resources and gathered millions in corruption (Anderson, p. 6). What is peculiar about Arab spring is not the nature of the government, but the way this revolution was brought about. Social networking websites including Facebook and twitter played their role and successfully moved public sentiments and gathered people for one cause. Islamic extremists see Arab spring as a way to overthrow Muslim dominance and ideals in Islamic countries. However, this is not really the case. The citizens in these countries fought for their basic right, for freedom of speech and for democracy and Islam teaches of no difference (Anderson, p. 7). Post Arab Spring, West and the US In a time when the West is struggling with economic depression, it sees Islam as the best way to divert everyone’s attention from economic tensions to another issue which they have shown as more pressing and dangerous. Arab spring came about because of the ideals of the West including democracy, modernization, liberty and the like. However, the revolution is still taking place and this Arab spring has politicized Islam (Guehenno, 2012). This is because we now see that after the old regimes have been overthrown in these Arab countries, there is a pressing need of a new stable government that would be able to satisfy the people of these countries (Milne). This way, new parties have emerged and elections are taking place in these Arab countries and thus inter party rivalry would be seen and this would work to the interest of the West (Ahmed, 2012). Palestine-Israel Issue Palestine-Israel Issue is a continuing conflict that is making the lives of the people living in Palestine miserable. Jews and Arabs both were inhabitants of Jerusalem initially. However, Roman Empire threw all the Jews out and they went out to settle in different parts of the world, mainly Europe. Arabs inhabited and ruled Palestine for some 200 years until British took it during world war I. Europeans grew sympathetic towards Jews and made efforts to enable them to resettle in Palestine. Jews kept returning to Palestine and increased in number and kept on capturing more and more of Palestine by force. West Bank and Gaza strip is still under the Israeli occupation. Two state solution is the most viable solution that has been proposed to date but Palestinians are not satisfied with this solution because Arabs and Christians make 96% of the population of Palestine, but are getting only 45% of the land, which they purely see are cruel and unjust (Gelvin, p. 20). Moreover, Palestinians have been living in Israel for so many years so it is their right to reside in this area. Similarly, since Israelis were living out of their land for such a long time, so they should have left the prospect of returning to Palestine because Arabs had been dwelling in this area in the mean time. However, US funded Israel to fight against the Palestinians and it has been supporting the Arabs as well because of its stakes in the oil that the Arab countries hold (Finkelstein, p. 55). Israel-Palestine issue deteriorated the image of the US in the eyes of the Arabs because Israelis treat Palestinians in their occupied area in the worst way possible. On one hand, when US talks about human rights and justice, on the other hand, it is funding the Israelis and allowing them to make the lives of the Palestinians miserable by doing the worst form of inhumane treatment possible. The US is favoring the Israelis because Zionist lobby is very influential in US. This issue needs to be solved as soon as possible in order to rebuild the image of the West in front of the Muslims. RELIGION AND POLITICS – A BACKGROUND It is not a new phenomenon that religion is used as a means to accomplish political ends and motives; therefore, it would be wrong to say that religion has never been part of politics. Moreover, people find it safe if the government uses the name of the religion in order to promote its activities and they support the government more this way. However, the bad point here is this that when the governments with non-democratic or dictatorial motives rule a country for many years on the name of the religion, then the name of the religion so taken, often becomes associated with the bad governance itself. This is because no religion preaches its followers to be unjust, do corruption, and favor nepotism, spread cruelty, and fear among the followers. This is exactly the case that was seen in the Arab spring. However, the youth in particular and citizens in general realized this tactic of the government soon enough and thus launched a revolution against them. A merger of the two has been seen in the history repeatedly. Hitler’s ideals were based on glorifying his country and his religion and he mobilized the masses based on that construct. Millions of Jews were murdered because Hitler regarded that race as inferior and wanted his race to rule the world. Similarly, India and Pakistan were divided on the basis of religion and a clash of ideology based mainly on the premise of religion. The Indian National congress favored Hindus and made policies and rules favoring them. As a result, the Muslim league was made to safeguard the rights of the Muslims living in the united India and also to save them from the cruelly and discrimination of the congress. Similarly, the Bible is the basis of the Western culture and is a basis of their political thought. Same is the case with Muslim countries. Their governments are more or less based on their religion. This is because it is not possible to separate religion from the state and vice versa. Religions form culture, and culture has to become an inseparable part of the policies and rules in any government. For example, women in Saudi Arabia have to wear headscarves as it is a part of their culture and religion. Similarly, their policies about marriage, divorce and other legal proceedings are also derived from their religion (Aronoff, p. 6). Hence, it is safe to say that one cannot separate religion from state. Separation of church and state is just rhetoric. In practice, state rules are made and practiced on the basis of the teachings of the church therefore it influences the affairs in the state to a great extent, and thus this intervention cannot be ignored (Aronoff, p. 7). MARX AND FREUD ON RELIGION Karl Marx, the founder and supporter of communism saw religion as a barrier to success. According to him, religion is for economically failed people, people who are despair and want a way out of their difficulties. Religion, therefore, helps a person to forget all his difficulties but it does not help him to solve the problem. According to him, religion works like how drug works on the addict i.e. it does not lessen the suffering in real but it changes the state of the mind so that the addict does not feel the pain. Similarly, according to him religion is a means to fulfill the ends of the rich people and that rich people exploit resources in the name of the religion so that they can meet their economic and other ends. Therefore, religion exists because there is suffering, and because there are social classes and castes. This is what led him to propose communism so that everyone becomes equal and the labor class cannot be exploited at the hand of the rich business class and the bourgeois class or middle class that works with the elite class. Therefore, if there would be no social divide in the society so people would not need religion because they would be happy and thus, they would make progress. Therefore, in short Marx supports the idea that religion in a way is a barrier to progress a success and that religion cannot solve a person’s problems therefore societies need to look ahead and leave their religion to a side (Shagor, p. 12). Similarly, Freud regarded religion as a psychological disease that should be treated like any other disease and he also regarded it as a means to police people around and to keep them in an illusion. He said that it is necessary for the people of any society to come out of this illusion in order to cal for economic recovery and progress (Rusinek, p. 6). One might not agree with the points made by Marx and Freud completely. This is because Marx said that religion is made by the people, which is not true. Religions like Islam and Christianity are divine and they are not made by people. Moreover, both Freud and Marx said that religion is an impediment to economic recovery. This thought is true to a certain extent. Religion becomes an impediment to success and progress if it is held too tightly and when one leaves no flexibility. However, no religion teaches its believers to not make progress. Therefore, it is important to separate religion and politics as much as possible so that politics only derives core principles from the religion but flourishes on the principles of democracy, liberalism and modernity. This is one lesson that the Muslim world needs to learn. West is not to be hated unnecessarily. There are great things to be learned from the West, just as they learned from the great Muslim scholars and philosophers when the glorious Muslim civilizations were at its peak in ancient Middle East, Greece and Persia. The Arab world and the non-Arab Muslim world can make progress only if they take the ideals of the West in a positive way and try to implement them completely. This way, they can bring about economic recovery and prosperity in the country, which will take away all the hatred against the West and would drive away all the fanaticism. This way the West would be saved from the security threat from the Islamic radicalism and the Arab world will be saved by the democracy, modernization and the systems of the West. However, the West needs to make serious steps in order to make this possible. ISLAM AND CHRISTINIATY – SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES Islam and Christianity are both divine religions and are both monotheistic in nature. Both accept the existence of God, and their prayers remind almost the same time. However, Muslims revere God and Christians believe that God transcends among the humans in order to be with his creatures. Similarly, there are such other differences between the Muslims and the Christians. The main difference between the two has arisen because of the lost of lands of the Muslim world by the West. West thirst of imperialism and Europeanizing, or Westernizing the rest of the world is the main bone of contention between the followers of the two religions. Therefore, in reality it is the conflict of civilization and the lost civilization. Muslims miss their lost glory and civilization and blame the West for taking it from them. Muslims should remember that World War II started because of the same premise of Hitler. He wanted to give back Germany its past glory and respect in front of the world, and for that he wanted to create more living space for Germans and thus he conquered the surrounding German speaking areas and created hatred among the leaders of those countries. This, in turn, led to a world war and cause widespread destruction and sufferings. No religious encourage suffering and bloodshed, and Islam is no different. Therefore, the Muslim countries should learn lesson from their successful past civilization. Those civilizations became successful because of the use of intellect. Great scientists, poets, philosophers, physicians, and scholars can be traced back from that time. That time can come back if the Muslim world braces itself and tries to work on secular education and prosper economically. Modernization is a key to come in level with the other nations of the world; therefore, they should understand that success would not come without modernizing our thoughts and ways of living. This does not mean acquiring Western culture, music, language; but it modernization requires learning modern ways of doing things, progressing in secular education, bringing new technology, supporting globalization, democracy and liberalism. In other words, it is time that non-state actors and Islamic fanatics understand that bombing and destroying tall buildings of the West is just going to spread more terror, and would never solve this issue. is . countries. r Germans and thus he conqueerd ROOT OF THE CLASH It is seen that America is the country in the West that is disliked by the Muslim countries because of its very notion of colonization, modernization, liberalism and globalization. However, this rage against America is not as much in the biggest American country Indonesia. Besides, this rage is also not seen to that extent in Pakistan and Bangladesh which is a half-failed mixture of Islam and modernity. Moreover, same is the case with the sixth biggest Muslim country Turkey which is the ally of the West through its membership in NATO, and is also a democracy; however potentially flawed (Zakaria, p. 1). Then, the question is that when the biggest and relatively influential Muslim countries are close allies with the West then where is the main problem. Main cause of the clash between the West and the Muslim world is seen in the Middle East. One needs to go back only 30 years from now in order to find out the cause of this clash and hatred. Before that, people in Middle East viewed America as progressive and modernized and used to admire it (Zakaria, p. 8). Arabs wanted to be like the West and America in particular and they even tried to apply most of the ideals of America like socialism, but all such ideals failed and received a bad end. For example, socialism gave rise to nepotism, corruption and bureaucracy. Arab countries have been trying to improve and adopt Western systems of government, but every sense of the word modernization has failed for them. Their economy is doing miserable and population is high with raising unemployment and bad living conditions. Moreover, there is economic inequality at the top of the Arab world (Zakaria, p. 7). This clash started in 1948 with the formation of Israel. Middle Eastern countries were primarily against the idea of formation of Israel, and America is the country that funded Israel. As a result of America’s funding, Israel became able to attack on Palestine in the first place and rules Gaza and West Bank unlawfully. On top of all this cruelty, Israel still maintains to be a democracy that is doing better than Palestine (Zakaria, p. 6). Furthermore, the general perception among the masses in the Middle East about America is negative because of its supporting the dictators and sheikhs because of America’s interest in oil. Masses in these countries do not like these filthy rich Arabs because they constitute a very small portion of the population and are against democracy, liberalism and modernization. Moreover, they are working as a puppet of the West doing no good for their own people. This core of the conflict is also because of the religion and it is more of a clash of civilizations. Arabs see Americans as someone who snatched their powers and past glory of wonderful culture and civilization. They regard modernization or progressing as copying the West and more frequently regard it as Americanization. Modernization in the Middle East is of a different nature. One would find all the imports of the West in terms of fast food chains and products but the none of the ideals of the West i.e. modernization, liberalism and globalization are appreciated. Therefore, these Middle Eastern countries have stayed backwards even after having so many riches produced because of the oil. This kind of environment in the Middle East has disappointed the majority of the population that is below 25 years of age. These young people see a big difference in the working conditions and the environment when they come to work in the cities from the villages. This is because they practice a different kind of Islam in the villages where women are not allowed to go out and are supposed to observe a strict pardah and the like. However, in the cities they see women working hand in hand with them and moving out openly. Islamic fanatics then attack these confused and disappointed minds and these minds, thus, become a victim of extremist Islamic education that is targeted against West. These radical fanatics brainwash the confused youth by sympathizing them and by telling them about the harms that the West have done to them and about the backwardness of their region. America is in some way or the other responsible in developing the radical Islamic activists. This is because America has been acting very careless in its attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq. It left Afghanistan in a state of chaos and confusion. It was this state of chaos and confusion from which extremist governments like Taliban and fanatics like Osama bin Laden emerged. If America would have made a proper plan of action and had restored government in Afghanistan before abandoning it, then Taliban and bin laden would have never gotten a chance to come up. These forces came up and grew because there was a vacuum in Afghanistan after the US left it. This is the difference between the European imperialism and American colonization. Britain has been a successful imperialist not only because of their very policies, but also because of their approach to stabilize a country before they leave it or grant self determination to its people. Same was seen in the case of Pakistan-India divide. The British government left a clear plan of action to be followed after they left the country so that there stays as much stability as possible. However, this element is clearly missing in American colonization. Therefore, when these extremist forces were let to come up from the vacuum then America should not be shocked to see the degree of threat from these forces (Zakaria, p. 11). HOW TO RESOLVE THIS CLASH? It is very important that this clash between the West and the Muslim world be resolved in order to restore the security of the world, and of the West in specific. This clash can be solved and should be solved militarily, politically and culturally. There is a dire need to locate all Islamic fundamentalist forces and crush them. This task is not as difficult as it is seen. This is because these forces pose a threat to security to not only America, but also to the rest of the world. Serious measures should be taken to deal with this militancy with the help of all the major countries of the world. Similarly, next thing should be done on political line by making an alliance with the governments of the countries that have a threat from terrorism to devise a strategy to track them down. Therefore, if leaders of all such states combine then they can easily crush such forces. There should be something done on a scale as large as the alliances that were made during the cold war in order to combat communism. Moreover, for this anti-American rage to end; it is important that the Israel-Palestine problem be solved. Israel is operating in the name of democracy and is still in the occupation of West bank and Gaza against the wish of the people. America should do a way in order to allow self determination for the people of Gaza and West Bank, or should make Israel leave these places. American cannot fulfill Arab world’s demand of finishing the state of Israel as it is impossible now; however serious actions should be taken in order to make Israel to vacate Gaza and West Bank. The third line of the solution to mitigate this anti-American rage is cultural. Arabs are having a problem with modernizing their countries and modernization is important in order to cope with the rest of the world and to do well economically. Therefore, America should sincerely try to help the Arab world to modernize. For this, America needs to spread awareness about the positives of modernization and the benefits it will bring to the Arab world. This should not be a difficult thing to do for America as it has done it earlier during the cold war when America made communism look unattractive by promoting good things about democracy and by giving aid through marshal aid plan and Truman doctrine to help Europe modernize and combat communism so that they do not find the idea of communism attractive and pleasant. Americans can provide fresh education to the youth of the moderate Arab countries that are willing to cooperate with America. In addition, American can extend its sincere aid to the Muslim countries in order to crush the fanatics in their countries. With that, America needs to incentivize these countries in some way so that they sincerely make efforts to find the terrorist groups and crush them. There is a pressing need to make the Arab countries understand that Islam and modernity can go hand and hand, and that Islam truly supports progressive thinking. This is one way which will also help to curb the fundamentalist forces. This is because these forces are administered by rich people, but poor people who are disappointed by the situations in their countries become a prey to their ideas and join these forces. Therefore, once these Arab countries progress economically, then the fundamentalist forces will take a side themselves. FORMING A MODERN SOCIETY – A CONCLUSION There exists a clash of civilization and culture between the Muslim world and the West. Both parts of the world have their own history and ideologies. The West encourages modernism, liberalism, technology and globalization; whereas, the Muslim world is more inclined to the old ways of doing things that includes accepting the kingship of a certain dynasty for ages and living under its dictatorship. However, the Arab Spring has shown that today’s Middle East is ready to change and is fed up of doing things the old way. This is because the old system of governments has given these countries nothing but suffering, and has taken millions in corruption and in the form of lost jobs due to nepotism. Besides, the lack of freedom of speech aggravates the issue. However, the youth in the Arab world has shown that if the outside world cannot help them, then no problem, because they are capable enough to help themselves with new and creative ways because they have the derive and passion to bring the change and topple the centuries old cruel regimes. Similarly, Muslims wants a justified solution in the Israel-Palestine Issue and in Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan, also. It seems that the Muslims all over the world have become prey to the imperialism and oppression of the West in some way or the other. Therefore, the anti-West sentiments among the Muslims are fair and justified. However, religious fanaticism is not a way to solve this problem. The Muslim world needs to understand that they can solve their problems only by acquiring the modern ways of doing government and by secularizing their countries. Religious sentiments should not be part of the politics to the extent that they become a reason for backward thinking. It is true that no religion wants its followers to go backward, but it is seen that too much relying on the religion makes it impossible to look beyond and think about progress. This is why Freud and Marx regarded religion as an impediment to success and growth. Today’s man needs to look at the modern ways of co-existing and prospering together. This co-existence is possible only if the Muslims embrace the ideas of the new world of globalization, democracy and liberalism and implement them completely. West should try to help the Muslim world and should make efforts to liberalize, democratize and globalize successfully. This is important because it is seen in the past that attempts to bring democracy and socialism in the Arab world have failed so badly that it has made the people of the Arab world to denounce these ideas altogether. The West should try to promote the positives of democracy and the benefits it would bring to these Arab countries. Moreover, the West should sincerely try to take the governments of these countries in confidence and should try to locate the Islamic fanatic groups and crush them (Thompson, p. 86). This is the only way to co-exist peacefully in today’s world. The West should try to respect the traditions and civilizations and should try not to take undue advantage of its power, like it did in the past in the case of Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and Palestine. Muslim sentiments can grow in favor of the West only if they see that the West is moving away from the usual hypocrisy and is sincerely trying to solve the problems of the Arab world. Then only, the Arabs would be able to embrace the ideals established by the West and would be able to curb the raising fanaticism in their countries. If the West wants to secure itself from the attacks of the Islamic extremist then it should try to solve their problem by helping them in locating these fanatic groups and dealing with them. With that, the West needs to incentivize the Muslim world to adopt democracy and liberalism so that they see the benefits of these systems themselves. WORKS CITED Ahmed, Hisham H. The Arab Spring, the West and Political Islam, 2012. 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