Perceptions of Islam in the Middle Ages and the Modern Times - Research Proposal Example

Perceptions of Islam in the middle Ages and the Modern Times: as Imagined, Represented, and Perceived by the Westerners Introduction Islam has becomea major topic in international relations in recent years, triggered by the 9/11 disaster, sustained warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan, the spread of terrorism in the guise of Islamic jihad, and increasing global tensions. Interesting amidst these rather complicated state are certain commonalities that guide the politics of fear and hostility, generally against Islam in the West. These commonalities largely pertain to a general lack of knowledge about Islam including its history, beliefs, practices and politics and a precipitously negative attitude of policy makers, religious leaders and the general public in the west towards Islam. The postmodern media revolution could only aggravate the situation further with, especially since 9/11 disaster, misrepresentations and distorted images of Islam and Muslims gaining unprecedented and higher visibilities in the Western public spheres. However, despite the seeming ruptures this process of representation and misrepresentation has a definite historical and political backdrop embedded within huge cultural politics spanned across the centuries, ever since negotiations of different sorts had commenced between the Christian and Muslim cultures. This project attempts to study about western perceptions of Islam especially since the middle ages to the contemporary times and the surrounding cultural politics, both international and domestic. The specific objectives of the study are: 1. To deconstruct the meaning and understanding of Islam and Muslim culture at large as they are predominantly represented within the western culture – since the medieval to modern times. 2. To throw light upon the historical and political backdrop and the cultural elements invariably involved in the production of knowledge about Islam and its culture in the west. 3. To survey through the nuances and subtleties through which an imagined hostility and a cleavage constructed on the basement of fear is constantly reproduced in the West in this context. However this is not to homogenize the western perception of Islam as a unified entity in itself; nor does this attempt to accredit such a perception with undue heterogeneity. The attempt is precisely oriented towards exposing the hidden cultural politics behind stereotyping a whole culture and on what basis such stereotypes get reception and get reproduced over different periods of time. Contextualising the project and review of literature As I mentioned earlier the proposed project shall focus on the image of Islam in the West from the medieval ages to the present. The study is immensely significant since the “West must deal with Islam as a growing social, political and religious reality” (Quinn, 2008: 17). A significant development in the recent global politics, especially in the aftermath of the 9/11 incidents and the recent war on Iraq and the related events, is the emergence of a fungible notion of Islam and terrorism. Issues pertaining to Islam are already finding their place in the cutting edge of political, military and economic interests of the West. The terrain is much complicated, and still adds onto it, with the fact that a great deal of ignorance about Islam and its culture in general is further manipulated by those in the political forefronts in the West to build upon a historically and culturally constructed notion of hostility and incongruity between Islam and Christian cultures. The images, representations, and perceptions of Islam are “abound in the academic and popular press” throughout the twentieth-century world (Mirza, 2007: 2). Perhaps with the intellectual and technological changes, together with the recent historical events in the contemporary Muslim world, greater attention to certain institution or faith such as Islam has become widely possible (Esposito, 1999: ix). Bassiri (2010) has traced this synonymous usage between Islam and terrorism back to the age of Reagan administration when the famous or infamous phrase “war on terror: was invented. Later the Bush administration has successfully deployed its own military and cultural campaign against the Al-Qaeda movement in particular and the Islamic “extremists” in general in the 21st century under the same phrase. According to Bassiri (2010) Reagan’s “Islamic terrorism” was a term in the 1980s in which it was not “properly defined in American discourses.” Bassiri suggests that the American people, via their governmental agency and media, perceived Muslims as either terrorists or “freedom fighters” depending on the Anglo-American strategic policies (Bassiri, 2010: 308). It continues to be a blatant fact that Islam in recent times has been widely considered as an “evil religion” further popularized, in the west, with the help of different sorts of depictions of both the Prophet as well Muslims and their ideas and philosophies that are morally offensive (Quinn, 2008: 17-21). Quinn articulates these misrepresentations in the contemporary era, especially in the West and the United States, as having a great deal to do with the historical and cultural trajectories of the intercourses between these two cultural terrains. The air of hostility that describes the relation between the two religions as well as the cultures they represent is deeply embedded within this complex historical backdrop. Blanks and Frassetto’s (1999) identify the changing notions of Islam and its culture by the European counterparts especially in the eleventh century as coinciding with the consolidation of a “western identity” and the gradual identification of the East as the “other”. That “the European view of the “other,” like the European view of the “self,” has since classical times revolved around an ever-changing set of historical circumstances” (1999: 2-3). The conflicting and the mutually incompatible and incongruent religious ideologies and practices made this relationship a much more complicated one. This should be read against the fact that historical explorations have already proved that in the early period of the High Middle Ages, the Islamic communities had immensely contributed to the intellectual growth of the European people. Goddard argues that the medieval Muslim scholars (e.g., Averroes) had translated into Arabic language the scientific ideas and philosophies of the Greeks such as Aristotle (Goddard, 2000: 97). He further notes that it was in the eleventh century that the Europeans were able to obtain, translate, and read the works of the Greek scientists and philosophers via their Arabic version. According to him there were two specific European locations wherein the readings and translations of the Arabic texts of the Greek intellectuals were made: Spain and Sicily. By and large, Muslims were viewed by the medieval Christians, based from Goddard’s analysis, as transmitters of scientific knowledge and intellectual tradition (Goddard, 2000: 98). In addition to this Glick (2005) suggests that the Islamic communities had greatly shaped the notion and praxis of urbanization for the pre-11th century European people. Prior to A.D. 1000, the administration of justice practiced by the Christian nation-state of Iberian descent was “dispersed among a multiplicity” of institutions or courts throughout the land (Glick, 2005: 113). In contrast, the administration of justice prominent in Islamic communities was remarkably concentrated in the al-Andalus towns. With respect to urban practices, the influence of Muslims to the medieval Iberian Christians took place when the former created the al-Andalus region as an international market in the 8th-century period. At this historical juncture European Christians perceived Muslims as civilized people with highly organized activities pertaining to urban function. Glick’s reading of medieval Spanish urbanization significantly viewed Islam as the promoter of civilization as we know it today: concentrated at the center. However this seemingly harmonious relationship didn’t last long and, despite Islam’s contributions to the preservation and institution of knowledge and urbanization, by the early medieval times the European elite had attempted to demonize, and eventually succeeded in demonizing, the expanding Muslim communities. Tolan describes how a whole interpretative process, of the religious texts of Islam especially Qur’an, was initiated by Peter the Venerable, a Christian abbot of Cluny; he travelled to Spain in order to meet and convince its king for a sinister plot of attacking Islam (Tolan: 1996: xv). Hence rather than physically attacking and invading its territories Peter planned for an invasion on the basic ethics, ideas and teachings that characterized Islam faith. With the aid of the king of Castile and Leon, Peter created a team of translators with the main task of translating the Qur’an and other Islamic texts from Arabic to Latin language (Tolan, 1996). Thence, Christian scholars attacked the philosophy and ideas prominent in the Islamic texts. In the process, they began to perceive Muslims as akin to pagans or heretics (Lumbard, 2009: 156). However it must be noted, in the Early Middle Ages, Islam was not considered by the medieval Christians as a religion in itself. Wolf notes that the Early Middle Age Christians from the Iberian continent generally viewed the Muslim communities as a military and political power (Wolf, 1999: .xv). Shown in their written chronicles about the invading Muslim armies, Latin Christians in this particular epoch greatly viewed the Islamic people as political entity. Wolf divides the perceptions of the medieval Christians toward the Islamic communities into two broad categories: Asturian and Andalusian. In the era of Muslim conquest in the European geopolitics, on the one hand, Asturian chroniclers wrote the historical narrative of the Iberian people in “providential terms” (Wolf, 1999: xvi). On the other hand, Andalusian chroniclers interpreted the Muslim invasion of the Western world in a matter-of-fact fashion. In general, Latin Christians perceived the Islamic communities as foreign invaders to their land and people. Wolf suggested that the difference between these two chroniclers was mainly geopolitical in characteristic. It becomes apparent then that, in the middle Ages, Muslims were far advance in contrast to the European Christians. In fact, the Islamic communities were far more sophisticated compared to their Christian rivals concerning philosophy, science, law, and other vital cultural and politico-military facets. It is interesting to note what Blanks and Frassetto’s (1999) conclusions pertaining to the perceptions of the Christians from the West toward the Muslims from the East: “It was therefore from a position of military and, perhaps more importantly, cultural weakness that Christian Europe developed negative images [toward the Islamic faith].” (Blanks and Frassetto, 1999: 3). That is to say, Muslims had become the strong rival of Christians in terms of the advancement of science, commerce, military power, and even civilization in general. Blanks and Frassetto argues that the Western sense of cultural inferiority permitted the continuation of this rival civilization up to the present era. In the Anglo-American context, however, negative perceptions toward the Muslims were deeply rooted in the “very beginnings of the American republic” (Brodeur, 2001: 75). Renard (2011) observes that American and European intellectuals had inevitably understood Islam as an ideology with an ultimate aim of destroying the “Christian” civilization. These Western pundits considered Islam as a threat to the global civilization as we know it today. It is peculiar, however, that Renard puts a double quote in writing the term Christian -- referring to a special type of civilization. Perhaps Renard’s “civilization” is pointed to the modern civil society prevalent in the West who are largely composed of Christian believers. That is to say, Muslim communities are a threat to the Christian societies in the West, particularly American society. Given the current world order as dominated or controlled by American politics, civilization is a term that refers to the structure or status quo marked in a superpower nation-state. With the recent world events, Renard suggests, Muslims were (and are) perceived as enemies of civilization; often times, civilization and democracy are interchangeable -- in any case, both implies American politics (Renard, 2011: ix). Esposito (2003) strongly argues that the West, through productions of knowledge/power relations, tended to view Islam as incompatible to the modern way of life, especially that which pertains to the present-day civil society. In this sort of perspective notable to Western pundits, particularly to Anglo-Americans, Muslim politics were (and are) considered as a dimension that largely focused on “the acts of extremists” (Esposito, 2003: 69). Esposito lamented on this crisis-oriented approach used widely by the modern-day European pundits. These thinkers heavily utilized the lens associated to hostages in the Middle East, attacks in New York City, and other acts performed by Muslim extremists. Esposito seemed to argue that Western intellectuals merely choose particular events or scenarios that were Muslim-directed and, from there, they attribute these acts of violence -- or acts of terrorism if you will -- to the religion of Islam as a whole. Thence, the Anglo-American intellectual elite perceived Islam as incompatible with modernity -- that is, Muslims had (or have) no sense of social/civil order. Pratt (2005) gives two broad perceptions toward Islam in the West: first is a closed view and the second is an open view. In the closed view Muslims are perceived as enemies who need to be combated. The premises of perceiving Islam as an enemy are rooted on the ground that such ideological machine is essentially “monolithic and static” (Pratt, 2005: 175). It implies that the Muslim faith is narrow, irrational, and incapable of modification in the changing world. Like a monolithic wall, Islam as a religion is utterly flat and singular in dimension. There appears to be a sheer absence of dynamism within the orthodoxy and/or orthopraxy characterized in its teachings and belief system. In the open view, on the other hand, Islam is seen as a “complex phenomenon” (Pratt, 2005: 175). Unlike the closed view, the open view perceives Muslims as a community of people who possess the potential of modifications or alterations based from rational or grounded principle. Here, Muslims are dynamic and multifaceted; they are far from being static or narrow-minded fanatics. Esposito contends that the Islamic communities, in their historical development, had experienced a kind of tremendous change or alteration. He says that the Islamization of state and society in its early period of emergence and establishment includes the “process of borrowing and assimilation” (Esposito, 1984: 314). These are two broad perceptions of Islam largely perceived by Western intellectuals and laypersons: close and open views. Of the writers or intellectuals who have stated and expounded the close view in perceiving Muslims are Tolan, Lumbard, Wolf, Blanks and Frassetto, Bassiri, Renard, and Esposito. And of the intellectuals who have argued and supported concerning the open view of looking at the Islamic communities are Goddard, Glick, Esposito, and Zaman. Of Mirza, Pratt, and other writers, however, they have explored the background and foreground on the emergence and/or categories of perceptions toward Islam. It is noteworthy that Pratt fails to elucidate the two views of imagining, representing, and perceiving the Muslim communities. Apparently, the gaps among intellectuals -- with respect to the discourse on the perceptions of Islam perceived by Western non-Muslim individual, or group of individual persons -- are greatly attributed to their distinctive focus in exploring and examining the said discourse. By and large, their limitations center on the two key aspects: time-frame and theme. Thence, the heart of my contribution pertaining to perceptions of Islam will be the exploration and examination, in an in-depth fashion, of the two types of views: close and open views. Methodology As already suggested the project will study about the representation of Islam in the West both in the historical periods as well as in the contemporary period. As a result it mainly deploys discourse analysis in order to carry on its investigation. Rather than providing a coherent definition of discourse analysis I shall attempt to seek to understand its depth and range in terms of its possibilities in social research. It is a common knowledge now in academia that discourse analysis enables the researcher to challenge the basic assumptions that drive the most innate and commonsensical formulations in any social and cultural context. It enables the researcher to have access to the ontological and epistemological assumptions behind the various modes of representations (Fairclough, 1989; 1995; Wodak, 2002). The project shall analyse the various discursive paradigms that have directed and rerouted the representational possibilities of Islam and the representations as such that are inherently embedded within the larger cultural politics of the definite periods. During their discussion on the predominant motifs that drive studies of politics and studies of discourse Chilton and Schaffner defines politics in terms of power and the struggle around it both to assert and to resist the hegemonic assertions; it could also be defined in terms of cooperation and the institutional and practical networks established to resolve conflicts (2002, p.5). Since discourse is at the centre of politics (Chilton and Schaeffner, 2002; Shapiro, 1988; Gorsevski, 2004; Chilton and Lakoff, 1999; Lakoff, 2004; , 1989; Haidar and Rodriguez, 1999; Musolff, 1999) the power of language regulates the possibilities of meanings assigned to groups of people and practices and thus invariably touches upon the question of representation. In other words the politics of representation and the predominant discourses that visibly and invisibly chart the map of such representations are not only not separable but they are intricately related with each other (Fairclough, 1989). The larger implication of this perspective regarding language, social life and representation is that the meanings are rather construed and constructed then actually rooted in reality (van Dijk, 2002; Wenden and Schaffner, 1999; Wodak, 2002). The constructed nature of meanings opens the possibilities of deconstructing the same in the light of available theories and methodologies and thus to excavate the hidden politics specific to the different periods and which reproduce itself albeit in different forms and different fashions. Inevitable components of the discourse analysis that I intend to undertake during this project are historiography and textual analysis. The changing interpretations of Islam and its representation in the West opens the possibilities of a historiographic reading – as opposed to doing a history the way which is done is apparently the subject matter of historiography (Furay and Salevouris, 1988: 223) – as also the limits and specificities of such representations in the text. Both these methods shall enable to understand the definite ideologies and the discursive paradigms that set, regulate and transform popular knowledge and beliefs in this regard. Conclusion The subtle ways through which cultural hegemonies are constantly reproduced are definitely rooted in the historical and cultural specificities. The current academia has already enunciated the constructed cleavage and hostility between the East, especially Islam, and the West in clear terms. Nevertheless it still remains a matter to be seen what is this genre of western centric representations of Islam and how have they consistently proceeded in the pre-conceived trajectories and what enables such constant reproduction. Thus the proposed project is neither a traditional political history nor does it attempt to investigate about the history of these cultural relationships. Rather, as I have already mentioned in the objectives part, it shall focus on the image of Islam prevalent in the West since the medieval period and how has it changed over periods of time and with what consequences. It also invariably touches upon the aspect of knowledge production that eventually leads to hegemonic assertions of different sorts in different periods. This historical and political framework shall guide the project during the course of its investigation. References Bassiri, K.G., 2010. A history of Islamic America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Blanks, D.R. & Frassetto, M., 1999. Western views of Islam in medieval and early modern Europe: perception of other. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Brodeur, P., 2001. The changing nature of Islamic studies and American religious history. The Muslim World, 91 (1/2), pp.71+. Chilton, Paul and Christina Schaffner. 2002. Introduction: Themes and Principles in the Analysis of Political Discourse. In Paul Chilton and Christina Schaffner, eds., Politics as Text and Talk: Analytic Approaches to Political Discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Chilton, Paul and George Lakoff. 1999. “Foreign Policy by Metaphor.” In Christina Schaffner and Anita Wenden, eds., Language and Peace. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Press. Esposito, J.L. ed., 1999. The Oxford history of Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Esposito, J.L. ed., 2003. Modernising Islam: religion in the public sphere. New York: Hurst & Co. Esposito, J.L., 1984. Islam and politics. 4th ed. New York: Syracuse University Press. Fairclough, Norman. 1995. Media Discourse. London: Arnold. Furay and Salevouris, 1988. The Methods and Skills of History: A Practical Guide, 1988. Glick, T.F., 2005. Islamic and Christian Spain in the early middle ages. The Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers. Goddard, H., 2000. A history of Christian-Muslim relations. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Gorsevski, Ellen. 2004. Peaceful Persuasion: The Geopolitics of Nonviolent Rhetoric. Albany: State University of New York Press. Haidar , Julieta and Lidia Rodriguez. 1999. “Power and Ideology in Different Discursive Practices.” In Christina Schaffner and Anita Wenden, eds. Lakoff, George. 2004. Don’t Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate: The Essential Guide for Progressives. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing. Lumbard, J.E.B. ed., 2009. Islam, fundamentalism, and the betrayal of tradition. Bloomington: World Wisdom. Mirza, M.H., 2007. Introduction. The Muslim World, 97 (1), pp.1+. Musolff, Andreas. 1999. “Promising to End a War = Language of Peace? The Rhetoric of Allied News Management during the Gulf War.” In Christina Schaffner and Anita Wenden, eds. Pratt, D., 2005. The challenge of Islam: encounters in interfaith dialogue. Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing. Quinn, Frederick. 2008. The sum of all Heresies. Oxford, London: Oxford University Press. Renard, J., 2011. Islam and Christianity: theological themes in comparative perspective. Los Angeles: University of California Press. Shapiro, Michael. 1988. The Politics of Representation. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. Tolan, J.V. ed., 1996. Medieval Christian perceptions of Islam. New York: Routledge. van Dijk, Teun. 2002. “Political Discourse and Political Cognition.” In Paul Chilton and Christina Schaffner, eds., Politics as Text and Talk: Analytic Approaches to Political Discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Wenden, Anita and Christina Schaffner. 1999. “Introduction.” In Christina Schaffner and Anita Wenden, eds. Wodak, Ruth. 2002. “Fragmented Identities: Redefining and Recontextualizing National Identity.” In Paul Chilton and Christina Schaffner, eds. Wolf, K.B., 1999. Conquerors and chronicles of early medieval Spain. 2nd ed. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. Zaman, M.Q., 2002. The Ulama in contemporary Islam. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Read More