Diplomatic history/ international relations - Essay Example

The theological explanation of the enmity against the West is plausible as religion normally have concepts about enemies of God as familiar in preclassical and classical antiquity, and in both the Old and New Testaments, as well in the Koran. Relevant idea of these enemies of God is the Zoroastrian devil, that has independent power, a supreme force of evil engaged in a cosmic struggle against God which influenced Christian, Muslim and Jewish sects through Manichaeism which holds the religion that there is a basic conflict between the forces of pure good and pure evil which may have been a basis of Muslim’s revulsion of the West seeing them as forces of evil.

Or it could be a result of the resurging movement to go back to the classical view which many Muslims are beginning to return that the world and mankind are divided into the House of Islam and House of Unbelief. In the House of Islam, the Muslim law and faith prevail and the others belong to the House of War which it is the duty of Muslims to bring to Islam. And since the world at large, particularly the West is outside the House of Islam, they are therefore enemies of Islam. Lewis explanation about this disconnect between Islam and the West especially the United States are several but are only partially correct and does not fully explain this disconnect that culminated in the 9/11 attack that still continue to this day.

The first explanation was German and Nazi theory explanation that America is a civilization without culture and soul and that it was mechanically assembled which served as the basis for philosophy for anti-Americanism which was used by the Nazi and therefore also became a basis for the anti-western Islamic view. I find this explanation shallow and superficial because the grievance of the Muslims against the west is different from those of the Nazis. There was also the Marxist explanation where the Third World including Islam is