Islam - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... to a religious and cultural challenge since the two parts were constantly challenging each other giving rise to a conflict laden relationship between the two religious groups. There were different courses that were taken by each group and with the European taking a different approach they considered the Muslims as “others” who were not to be regarded in the same light as the Europeans did. It is therefore important to understand the patterns that came out in the middle-ages and the different discourses that had been established in order to understand the different beliefs and assertions by the European Christians towards Islam. This paper looks at the anti-Islam discourse of Medieval Europe that fueled the crusades to 19th century Orientalism that generated European colonialism.
In 1798 the French led by Napoleon Bonaparte took over Egypt a fete that had not been managed before in the medieval age since they had taken one of the Islam controlled regions that drew a lot of power from the Islamic religion and beliefs. The French troops that took the city believed that they were liberating the people from the rule and taking and helping them gain enlightenment. The Europeans were in the era of enlightenment and although some of the philosophers took the beliefs of Islam and conceptualized their meanings in accordance to what is true others used the religion beliefs to prove their distaste with Christianity and the European beliefs (Harlow Barbara and Mia 58). There was also the paradigm of the superiority of European Civilization that became dominant among the academicians and Europeans. The rise of Europe seemed inevitable and Europe became the most dominant model due to its changes and rise of academic superiority over the other models thereby labeling Islam as “others”. The Muslims that were in this case being labeled as the Orient were associated with stagnation and immobility meaning that the Europeans considered Christianity and the European culture to ...Download file to see next pagesRead More